Goodbyes
It takes hours for her to calm down, an agonizing eternity for Jesse as he tries to talk sense into her over his leaving. That he can't stay here and choose between a good man and the man who saved his life. Between duty and what is now his family. When she's finally calm enough she looks at him, pleading with eyes now puffy and red with clear signs of crying.
Hell if it ain't the worst Angie like this. He muses over the thought of consoling her, muttering sweet words and nothings that he'd simply been too hasty. That he would spend another night, another week thinking it over. He won't do that, she knows he won't do that. Jesse had always been a man that put action before thought, and if he was actually planning on getting a move on then there's nothing that even she could do to stop that.
But he's still here with her and his feet are planted firmly on the ground. Or rather they're kicked up with his legs currently supporting the rest of her as she leans against him there. It's his quarters, his bunk, and his hands currently running through locks of blonde hair. Slipping beneath silky strands of gold and watching as his tanned fingers are lost in its silky sea. Eventually the discontented quiet is too much to bear, he's the first to break the silence since he'd talked her down from his revelation.
"Come with me," he begins. He can feel her stiffen beneath his touch and at his words. He takes her lapse in speech as invitation to continue. "You an' me, get our things together now so we can take one of the transports before early light. Drop it off where they can find it, though not too close that they can stop us when they do." His words are enticing. Full of a rebellious youthfulness that she had not seen in him since his younger days. Since he had been a scrawny young man picked up from a canyon in the South-West United States.
It almost makes her smile at the absurdity of it all. Almost. "Jesse, you know as well as I do that I cannot do that. It would be irresponsible for me to leave everyone here for anything should the worst arise. Not even for you mein liebster." Her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes, as he looks at her. It's a brave front, one he's seen her put on when Ana died.
The cool, comforting texture of her palm against his cheek is certainly a nice touch to it though. Makes him breathe out something of a half laugh. One that sputters out and dies halfway through its conception.
"Of course, reckon I ought t've seen it comin'." There's a bitterness underlying his words. One she picks up on almost immediately.
"I am doing what's right by staying." She's quick to defend her ideals, sure she never did get along with the militaristic property of the organization but the true ideology and purpose of it was to make the world a better place, was it not?
"Right by who? You or Morrison." Jealousy festers beneath the previous forced laughs. Spiteful in their regard he loses himself to a slip of the tongue. She's silent after that. It's grown painfully quiet after he's said his words. He tries to coax a bit more from her, he can't let it end like this. "Angie, darlin'..."
She responds this time, slower than before and she had been thinking about it for some time. "This is goodbye isn't it?"
She isn't looking at him as she says those words. He'd long since stopped running fingers through her hair, she won't notice if he fakes it now will she? No, he needs to tell her it isn't. He needs to tell her he'll be back someday. He can't promise her that, hell he can't even promise if he'll be making it out of the base alive when he tries to leave.
When Angela finally looks up at him she finds his eyes closed. "Jesse?" She inquires but he doesn't respond, asleep as she thinks with his chest rising and falling evenly. The motion smooth and steady it isn't long before she seeks to join him, though it is only then that his eyes open. He waits for several minutes, for her to properly enter a deep sleep before gently coaxing her arm from where it had draped itself across his person. Slipping out from her grasp it takes everything he's got to not lie back with her, take that side in what he knows to be an upcoming civil war within Overwatch.
He'd fight to keep that peace she wants. He'd fight for her above all else. So why does he run? Why does he let himself run away into that dark night without a second thought? All he can do it promise himself that it isn't going to be a goodbye, not for good at least. He never was good at saying it after all.