#please just give me angela&jesse brother-sister shenanigans. they would be the true menaces of overwatch

[snowsheba]

Sheeeeeeeeebaaaaa! if you're still taking prompts i'd love to see more of your take on Angela and Jesse's relationship c: I hope you're well!! I kinda... fell off the earth a little bit but I'm still keeping up with tdlh ^^

“Angela!”

“Back off, McCree,” Gabriel growls, and he’s too surprised to react right away when Jesse darts forward, shoves him aside, and kneels by Angela’s prone form, pressing a finger to the side of her neck to check for a pulse. He finds it, just as Gabriel had moments before, and it’s with a choked sigh of relief that he leans back and bends at the waist, taking Angela’s hand in his own.

“I’m fine,” Angela manages to croak, but then she coughs and that, that right there on her chin, is blood. Gabriel lifts his head to look for Jack but, as expected, their fearless Strike-Commander is elsewhere, keeping the rest of their group organized and fighting. When he looks back down, Angela’s blue eyes are fierce and clear. “Go, Commander Reyes. Jesse will take care of me.”

“I don’t think so,” Gabriel growls, slightly irritated that all of Overwatch’s youngest recruits seemed to have a martyr streak a kilometer wide. She’s pale and the gash on her leg is jagged and ugly, splattering the white of her valkyrie suit a harsh red. “McCree, grab another field medic. We need Ziegler’s back out there as soon as possible, no one else has her mobility.”

“Yessir,” McCree says. He squeezes Angela’s hand once and says, “Be back in a bit, Angel.”

Angela smiles, as much as she can smile through the pain. “Of that I have no doubt.” With that, Jesse hops to his feet and takes off, and Gabriel watches him go, just for a few seconds; his steps are purposeful and light and it’s probably the fastest he’s ever seen the teen move, and he can move fast. “Commander, I’ll be fine. Rejoin Commander Morrison. I will be back before you know it.”

“Nope. Sorry, Ziegler, you’re stuck with me.” He gives her a grin, to which she giggles, though it’s small and it’s interrupted by another cough. He carefully moves to settle his knees at her head, turning her chin until she’s staring at the wall instead of the ceiling. “I’m sure you’ll survive my company for a few minutes.”

“Truly, there is no worse fate,” Angela jokes, and that’s when Gabriel knows she’ll be fine. Jesse’s running back to them with Yvonne a few moments later, the medic panting and out of breath and slightly irritated if her expression was anything to go by, and Jesse takes Gabriel’s place as he stands up and moves to join Jack back on the front lines.

He pauses and gives the pair on last, lingering look before he goes. Angela is laughing at something Jesse had said, one of her hand in his, and it’s with a slight shake of his head that he begins to jog back to Jack’s position. He’s glad the two had found each other, however odd their relationship might seem.

“Jesse, I’m fine. It was a flesh wound.”

“Yeah? You seemed to be leanin’ a lot of weight on me while we were walkin’ back here.”

Angela smacks his shoulder and Jesse laughs, nudging her shoulder with his until she, too, peters off into giggles. Gabriel and Jack exchange glances, each wearing matching tired smiles; it was always good to finish a mission without anyone dying or getting maimed, even more so when their youngest top agents felt safe enough with each other and their surroundings to joke around as they do.

“I should be asking you to be more careful,” Angela says, poking at Jesse’s chest. “You’re lucky that bullet didn’t warrant surgery.”

“What can I say?” Jesse replies, giving her a shit-eating grin before he drawls, “I’ve got a guardian angel watchin’ over me.”

“Mein gott, how long were you waiting to say that one?”

“You’d punch me if I told you.”

“I might punch you anyway.”

“Oh, you are cruel, hermana.”

“Only selectively. Which is to say, only around you, bruder.”

Gabriel feels a push against his foot and glances over at Jack, who’s raising his eyebrows at him. He shrugs back; two years ago, when both of them had first joined up, he hadn’t realized that lonely, hot-tempered Jesse would bond so tightly to aloof, careful Angela. But now, fast-forward two years later and the two were near inseparable whenever they were on base together. Sometimes Gabriel looks at them and looks at Jack and realizes that he and Jack had been the same way back in the super-soldier program.

It’s not surprisingly in retrospect - the two are the same age, and probably stopped arguing once they realized how they faced similar pressures and had similar fears - but it’s heartwarming all the same, to know that some good comes out of the endless fighting and war Overwatch and Blackwatch do. He nudges Jack’s foot back, smiling slightly, and rests his hand atop Jack’s.

“Speakin’ of cruelty, you ever gonna give me back my cigs?”

“No. Smoking is an awful habit and I would hate to see you dead early, Jesse McCree.”

“Aww, you do care.”

“And I might care less if you try to break into my office and find where I put them.”

“You wound me, Angel, I would never.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“You love me anyway,” Jesse croons.

She huffs. “Unfortunately.”

This won’t last, Gabriel thinks, warmth diffusing in his chest and a soft, pulling tiredness sinking into his bones. Jack hums some slow song under his breath, a gentle smile on his face, and Angela and Jesse continue to bicker, both of them bandaged and bloody but full of life and hope.

This won’t last unless we protect it, he thinks, and watching the two of them smile and laugh past their exhaustion is inspiration enough for him.

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