She will make it hung heavy in the air as a too familiar weight settled in the pit of Gabriel's stomach. He ran through the streets, cursing every time he checked a building and she wasn't there.
She hadn't given them much information. Not where she was, not how she was, gunshots cut her off before he could get it out of her. When she had contacted them not even 10 minutes ago, she had sounded bad. Really really bad. If she had survived the gunshots whether or not she survived just sitting and waiting still hung in the balance.
"I've got visual on Sombra" Widowmaker called over the coms, "take your next right she's in the warehouse, second floor."
"Thank you." Gabriel doubles his speed. There was an ominous silence as he approached the building. No gunshots. No talking. Dread built in his stomach as he took the stairs 3 at a time.
He was not losing another comrade, or friend, today.
And most definitely not Sombra, who somehow managed to carve herself out a place in his life. Through half hearted teasing, nicknames, and a deep understanding of suffering.
He couldn't place when he went from just tolerating her to being, if more then a little bit, attached to her. It wasn't the first time it had happened- one such Jesse McCree was enough proof of that.
As he rounded the corner after the stairs he heard it. A low, weak cough. "I thought I said not to come looking."
She looked worse then she sounded, somehow. Her right ankle was most definitely broken, twisted in a weird angle, and sitting uselessly. Her body was covered in bullet holes, and blood. There was so much blood.
"I wasn't going to just leave you to die here."
"My hero." She smiled weakly. "I don't know if I'll make it back to base."
"Like hell you wont. You're not giving up on this yet, kid." He walked over and kneeled next to her.
Her smile grew a bit more fondly, and through half lidded eyes he could see a flicker of hope. She reached her arms around his hooded neck and he lifted her off the ground into his arms. For all the upgrades and implants she was surprisingly light.
Gabriel whisked her off back to base, talking to her the entire time to keep her awake. Her head nestled against his chest as she got weaker, her arms dropped to cling to his shirt. But she kept replying. Small nods, or snorts. All the way back to base where Amelie waited. Moira was ready as soon as they arrived and she was in capable hands. She would survive this.
It wasn't 2 nights later that she was able to leave the "care" of Moira, and walk around again. Her ankle was still a bit weak but she was as swift as ever walking to the wing of the building where everyone's rooms were.
For a moment she considered just going to her own room but then she caught Gabriel's door out of the corner of her eye and changed her course.
She knocked three times on the door and he opened it swiftly.
"Sombra, I didn't realize you'd be up and walking yet."
She smiled, ducked under his arm and let herself into his room. "Guess I'm tougher than I look."
He sighed and closed the door. "Do you need something?"
"No," she looked around his room, if he wasn't genuinely standing in the room she couldn't tell anyone even lived here.
"What are you doing here then?"
"Thank you."
"Huh?"
"For not leaving me to die. I didn't want you to come after me, didn't want you or Amelie getting hurt or killed to save me. Yet you came after me anyways. I should be dead."
"I couldn't leave you to die like that."
"Why though?" She turned to him. "I don't really understand- I mean you're the big tough I don't need anyone guy. Since- well since overwatch you haven't tried getting close to anyone."
He just nodded. "I never tried. That doesn't mean it happened without my involvement."
She cocked her head to the side a bit, narrowing her eyes and trying to decipher his words in her head.
"You grew on me. I don't know when, but at some point when someone hurt you I got angry, I worry, when you came over coms saying you had failed, telling us to leave you behind. I was worried. Really worried, kid."
Sombra sat in a stunned silence. It wasn't often someone silenced Sombra. Her eyes locked on him, looking for any hint that he was playing her, lying to gain her loyalty. Yet there he stood. A man, not a terrorist, in that moment he was like a normal man.
"I-" she started, her voice sounding too fragile. "Gabe I-" tears poured over her cheeks before she realizes she even felt like crying. She had backed up a bit into the counter before for stability and now found herself braced against it.
"I know you've had it rough out there Sombra, I can see it all over your face. Everyday, the world can be an unfair place. I'm sorry you have to experience the worst parts of it. But you have a home here now, me and Amelie will both be here when you need us. I want to help you okay? You're not out in the world all on your own anymore, kid, I'll be sure of it."
Whatever had sprung the moment of sincere honesty from him, Sombra didn't know, but she thanked whatever it was with all of her heart. She let her tears fall freely after that, letting Gabriel approached a few steps before launching herself into him in a hug.
There was no jokes.
No sarcasm or sass.
Just a girl who's seen too much, in the arms of a man who promises to take her pain away.
The seething feeling she got everytime someone mentioned family that she had gotten used to was evaporating. The memory of the wicked woman that raised her being written over.
There was someone better here and she was going to cling to him with all she had until the day she died if it meant she could feel this way again.
"Target is located, I can't get a clean shot."
"Hold your position, if you can get the shot take it with no hesitation."
"Understood."
"Sombra what's your status?"
"All is going accordingly, abuelo."
Gabriel rolled his eyes a bit, and he could practically see the shit eating grin on Sombra's face. This 'nickname' stuck better then 'Gabe' had before.