IV / Jack

I am terribly sorry for the delay. I haven't had much time writing lately, but I really hope I can continue faster after this again. Enjoy :)

As Mercy woke up, she felt a weird stinging and burning pain rushing through her right arm. She had lost all memory of the past few hours, so she was certainly surprised she was lying on something comfortable, on something soft. As she tried to move, another pulse of burning pain rushed through her hand which made her freeze instantly, just to find herself unable to clench her hand to a fist. She struggled to open her eyes, but then slowly she managed to take a glimpse of her hand that felt unnaturally heavy. It wasn't her hand she was staring at, but a professionally bandaged version of it. A thick and clean bandage covered her hand and echoed her own pulse back into her body. She tried to think of why she had her hand covered and when she bandaged it herself, but she couldn't remember any slight bit. As she moved her body from her right side to face up, she realized something else that was definitely odd. She stared down at her body that was covered up by a worn white t-shirt and nothing else. The too big and long t-shirt had a familiar smell that she picked up, and as she did her body abruptly turned over. She found herself staring at a bare chested man lying next to her, watching her. As she raised her eyes, her gaze stopped as she met two oceans staring back at her. Blue skies, deep oceans. A blue that made her heart sink and her breath freeze. She got lost in those eyes too many times that she could count. And she knew those better than she knew herself. As nobody moved for a while, the memory of what had happened the days before started to slowly come back to Mercy's mind. She remembered why the intoxicating blue did not feel the way as it used to. Something happened. As realization struck her, she turned away quickly.

"I thought I made it clear I don't want to see you." A hoarse and silent voice left her lips, from all the crying her throat felt like a desert.

She could only hear what sounded like a faint chuckle. "I know." Nothing else followed, just silence. It was like Jack didn't know what was the right thing to say or to do, so he just waited. But Mercy didn't say anything else, either. She was staring at the bandaged hand that had started to send a throbbing pain through her arm, but she tried to ignore it as best as she could. She didn't feel like moving at all.

"It's not broken." The voice behind her spoke up, and she felt a movement. He seemed to sit up slowly, but didn't approach her.

"Thank you." Mercy whispered, almost too silent for herself to hear, but she could feel her own muscles loosen as she got it from her lips. She knew she couldn't go on being mad for an eternity, and who knows what would have happened if nobody heard her the night before.

There was no answer, only a slight touch of a hand on her shoulder. It made her shiver, and suddenly sent a feeling through her body that she thought had gone forever. It grew stronger to an urge that seemed to drift her whole body into a direction, and even though she tried to fight it, her emotional condition was making her weak and forced her to give in. With one abrupt movement, she twisted her whole body around and threw her arms around the soldier who seemed startled by the sudden hug. She buried her face in his neck and the feeling of tears filled her eyes, but she didn't want to cry in his arms again. Instead, she just wanted to made believe that this wasn't a dream. That she wouldn't wake up in a few minutes in the same bed, but alone. She lifted her head up, and before her mind could even follow, her lips crushed onto his. She kissed him passionately like they had never kissed before. And it seemed to ease her mind, like a dying flower being watered after years, she felt her whole body being rushed with a warmth and a sensation of electricity that made her feel alive. After a few moments, Jack seemed to pull away to breathe. "Angel, I -" He started, but was interrupted by a finger on his lips.

"Maybe I did die. And this is heaven." Mercy breathed against his face, her hands intertwined behind the man's back. "Please, don't let go, I don't want to wake up." She pleaded, her face only a few inches from his.

She saw a faint smile on his face. "You are not dead. Also not dreaming." A hand cupped her face and like a purring cat she pressed her cheek against it. The warmth and the caress is something she thought had died with him years ago. An ignition of old and thought dead feelings. She shook her head. This had to be a dream. This was too perfect to be real.

After a few moments, his other hand held her face, too. "Angel, I'm asking you to listen to me for this." She had her eyes closed the whole time, but as he spoke, she looked up. His voice was hoarse, darker, than she had remembered it from the past. The metallic sound from 76 was gone, so she realized she heard Jack talk clearly. His voice had significantly changed.

"I know your, and everyone else's, reaction was totally justified. Hell, I hate myself and I know you hate me just as much. I am not asking you for forgiveness, I am just asking you for one thing." She started at him as he had his eyes locked on hers. His hands held her face in a steady but gentle grip in front of him. "I'm asking you to believe me that I will never leave you again. Even if you hate me, I won't let anything happen to you."

She looked away and sighed, a frown filled with pain grew across her face. Belief, trust. Something that had totally broken as she saw who had lied to her this whole time.

"When you said to me you trusted me with your life," he continued, carefully trying to turn her face back toward his, "I realized how I should have showed you that I trust you the same way. I should have come to you. I should have at least told you. I -" Before he could continue Mercy struggled free from his grip.

"Jack..." She sighed. Sitting up, she slowly turned her body away from him. "I just don't know what I am supposed to do. I am so mad, but I can't be."

There was no answer. Maybe he was giving her space, not trying to force anything onto her. To not ruin the small amount of joy they both had felt.

As there were no words coming after a few minutes, Mercy let her body fall backwards. She closed her eyes and felt her head hit his legs. She squeezed her eyes together, trying to fight tears that were building up. But she just felt so comfortable where she was, so safe. A feeling so familiar that was gone for years and instead was replaced by a void. It made it hard for her to even keep pretending that she was strong and okay. She wasn't.

"I just...," she started, her voice shaking. "I am just so tired of everything." A hand was on her neck, the other one was digging below her body. He was pulling her closer.

"I tried to make it right for everyone. I tried to be the best I can be. I tried to forget everyone and move on. But I couldn't." She was just letting go of everything, and as she slowly opened her eyes, the blurry vision caused by her tears revealed strands of white hair above her. Then she felt a soft kiss on her forehead.

"I am so sorry." Breath was brushing against her forehead. For a small moment, her heart started fluttering. Like a butterfly's wings her heart lifted up.

"Jack." She said, her hand reaching out to cup his face. She now looked at him from below, his eyes staring back as he readjusted his position. She was mad at him, but at the same time, she was full of love and relief. The latter was stronger, overwhelming, pushing everything else into the background.

"Can you tell me what happened, exactly?" She whispered. And felt his muscles tensing, knowing exactly that he knew what she was asking about. As he didn't answer, she abruptly sat up and faced him. "That is the least you owe me. An explanation."

He knew she was right.

"I think this might be the better time you were talking about."

He sighed. "Gabriel and I had a fight. Worse than ever. He was mad, hell, he was obsessed with revenge and plans to make me pay for something I did not even decide. He wasn't the friend anymore that I used to know. As best as I could I tried to keep things up. I tried so hard to keep Overwatch going and keep all of you out of the crisis. Little did I know we had a rebellion in our own walls. It was too ridiculous to actually believe it when I found out. Gabe was so mad that I had gotten the commander position that he turned against us. His own people, his friends." He took a second to look up to Mercy, all this time he had looked down at his hands. She was looking at him, calmly. She kept listening without any expression on her face. "That day, he approached me in my office. He was loud and filled with rage, I thought he was drunk. But never would I have thought he would raise his gun against me. Just trying to defend myself, the gunfire started between the both of us. And then it goes black. That must have been the explosion."

Mercy's eyes dropped down on the white sheets. "And we thought it was an attack. When they couldn't find anything, we just accepted that it was an accident." Her hands clenched to fists. "Damn it, Jack. We knew you were in there and we looked for you for days! Do you even know we buried you? Had a funeral?" Her gaze went back up to him, and her voice got louder. When she realized she shouted at him, she sighed. "I found Gabe and I turned him into... into that monster..."

A hand quickly reached for her face. "Listen to me. What happened to him is not your fault. You tried everything you could."

"So you knew that was him?" She distanced herself a little.

"Yes. But I would have never thought he would do this."

"You just told me he shot at you. And blew up the headquarters doing so. You think with that it was done for?" She was now crawling to the end of the bed. "No. He got me killed too."

She stepped out of the bed and struggled out of the t-shirt. She threw it back at Jack. "Our friend." She grabbed a few clothes from her drawer and struggled to put them on. "I need to get some air."

She struggled with her shoes, so she just stomped off barefooted through the door, leaving Jack Morrison back in her bed. Everything that she just had been told was just too much, especially cause it all added up and made sense. For once, the past years seemed to make sense. Something that she couldn't have known and understood without all the missing story parts. It was no accident, it was two old friends having a personal war. It made her angry. And she didn't know who she was angry at the most. As she tried pushing down the handle of the kitchen door, she forgot that her hand was bandaged and hurt. It sent a stinging pain through her arm, and she let out a hiss. "Shit!"

Just as that happened, the door opened from the other side. Someone must have heard.

"Everything okay with you?" was staring at the blonde with a confused expression. Mercy's hair wasn't done and her make-up totally ruined. Something she totally didn't pay attention to. Then the small brunette's eyes fell on Mercy's hand. "Did someone hurt you?"

Mercy seemed startled. "What? No!" She gently pushed the girl to the side and passed into the kitchen. "I just need a coffee." But instead of actually making coffee, Mercy stood at the counter and held her hand. Something in the rush must have hurt the wounds. Probably after the revival, her body had to get used to a regulated healing process again. All that nano tech can't be good in overdose. Her thoughts swirled all around her. Adding up to the voices in her head, she heard most of the people talk from the room next door.

In that place and time she couldn't really tell what she really wanted. Why couldn't everything just go back to how it was? Why did envy and revenge have to be such powerful and mind-bending stuff? Something that tore friends that grew as a family apart. Left a tear in hearts and between people. And it all made sense now. That Overwatch couldn't have continued. Back then it broke her heart to leave it all behind. And then, it broke her heart to know the truth. One thing that still was not clear to her as it should be, was that Jack was alive and well. Probably sitting in her room. Something, in all this chaos and madness, that was like a light glowing up in her heart. She knew she was really mad and also afraid of what would come, but still she could not stay mad at the now ashen haired man. It was Jack Morrison after all.

She held her bandaged hand all this time while thinking. Lost in thought, she totally didn't realize more people had entered the kitchen. To her surprise, nobody seemed worried about her, except for someone who suddenly gently grabbed her hand. "Want me to have a look at it?" Jesse leaned against the counter next to her, having a look all around her hand. Mercy shook her head.

"Knowing you I will end up without a hand. And I need it." She joked, but her voice wasn't light and funny as it was supposed to. She sounded tired, worn.

"What happened?"

Mercy shrugged. "I might have had some struggles yesterday evening. But it's fine, no worries. It will heal." She grabbed the coffee beans and started to prepare the morning drink.

"Oh, goodness, what did you do?" Another hand tried to reach for her bandage. But Mercy pulled back. Pharah's hand froze in place as she noticed the upset look on Mercy's face.

"Guys, you've had wounds a lot worse. I will live!" She said louder, then grabbed her coffee and went out the door. Her nerves were on the edge and weak. It was kind of everyone to care about her, but she couldn't rest.

She walked back up the stairs to her room, and when she opened the door, she expected someone to be there. But the bed was made and nobody was left in the room. She frowned. Was it all a dream, after all? Nobody downstairs seemed to have mentioned Jack at all. And, at least for her, it was a pretty big deal that he was alive and well. Why not for anyone else?

She finally found some time to get her hair done and her make-up fixed. Usually people would go after her, check up on her because she left so abruptly. But somehow she was thankful for the space they left her. They knew she needed her time, too.

She grabbed the coffee mug and walked out of the door again, now with shoes on, and as she walked down the hallway she took sips of the drink that she felt eased her nerves and the headache. She didn't know why, but her feet carried her along to the basement, but that was where she was right. She heard noises coming from a locker, and when she turned left, she saw a man without his uniform standing in front of a locker. It was Solider 76's. She approached him silently, and as she spoke, she saw him flinch.

"How did you survive?" That question came from her lips almost automatically. It was something that she wanted to know. She crossed her arms and leaned against the other lockers, lowering the cup in her hand and stared as the man slowly turned to face her. The lights threw an odd shadow across his face, revealing scars that looked scary but have barely been visible at daylight.

"I figured I don't need all this stuff anymore." Jack answered and kept going through all the things that he had to hide his identity. He explained to her what he was doing, and kept calmly tidying his locker.

"How did you survive?" Mercy repeated her question, not moving an inch. She kept staring. Then there was silence, and Jack froze in place.

"I don't know how. But I know I probably had an amount of nano-injections like nobody else ever had. I could drag myself out of the building and I could patch myself up. That was nothing new to me." He spoke into the other direction.

"And as you felt better you just thought 'Oh this is fine! I live and I can leave everyone thinking that I died!'"

"Angel..."

She rolled her eyes.

"I know you are upset. I know it's all difficult to understand. But give me a chance to make you understand my point of view."

"No, no. I get it. It makes sense. You know, all these holes in my memory about everything finally make sense. I want to understand you, Jack. If I wouldn't, I probably wouldn't have come here."

A faint smile was flashing across his face. "Thank you."

"You know, your hair was better blonde." Mercy joked and tried to lighten up the situation, then took a few steps toward Jack. She reached out and put a hand on the left side of his face.

"Unlike with you, this nano stuff kept me alive, but I feel like it added a few years to me. In appearance, not physically." He winked toward her as he said that.

Oh god. Mercy thought and if she wouldn't know it better, she probably blushed. It was him, the same dorky man. Her mind probably kept telling her to keep checking if it was real.

"You know, you promised me something. Instead, promise me you will tell the others? Everything?"

His eyes left her face. He felt a cold shudder at the thought of having to tell everyone what really happened.

"You were their commander, after all. They deserve to know."

He buried his face in his hands and sighed.

"Please?"

As he took the hands from his face and looked back up, Mercy's face was closer than he expected. The closer she got, the more mesmerizing he was. She just couldn't hold back. She placed a kiss on his cheek, and she felt his stubble tickle against her face. A sudden movement left her gasp for air. She was lifted off the floor, two hands were holding her waist while a pair of lips met hers. Their hearts raced up, just like they always used to when they kissed. Nothing had changed in that way.

She moved her head away when she needed some air. She was put back on the ground, but she didn't let go. She hugged him close and had her lips just a few inches from his ear. "No more, disguises, no more lies. Just you and I, and all those up there who missed you just as much as I did." She whispered lightly, then placed another quick kiss on his cheek. When she looked at his face, it was blushing, and he looked peaceful. A small moment of their own, without any thoughts about what had happened and what will possibly happen. No voices in their heads, no remorse.

"I promise." He whispered back and reached out to stroke back a few strands of her hair back behind her ear.