Moira O'Deorain was not in a good mood.
The mission wasn't supposed to be a hard one; the Blackwatch had been told that it would be a simple routine job. A mole had exposed a Talon agent, who they were supposed to abduct and use to get some information out of the terrorists. Nothing out of the ordinary. But the moment they arrived at the old warehouse that was supposed to be a meeting place for an anonymous businessman and the agent, their target, things got really messy really fast. When they arrived at the place, several Talon soldiers were waiting for them, ready to take them down. It was as if they were informed about Blackwatch's plan, even though Moira didn't know how that could possibly have happened. Moira's memories ended at the part where someone had hit the back of her head with something blunt and heavy, but she had been told that they barely made it out alive. Genji had had to carry her to safety on his shoulder – an embarrassing detail that Moira was glad not to remember.
Moira lifted her shaking hand, not liking how weak and heavy it felt, and carefully touched the contusion on her side. The pain made her flinch and pull her fingers away. It felt like a hammer fracturing her ribs. She didn't even think about trying to touch her head injury, it already hurt like hell even without her help. Dr. O'Deorain closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her palm. This was so frustrating, having to lie still on a hospital bed, waiting for someone to come take care of her. Usually Moira was the one to take care of the others – the team medic. Not this time. She let her head sink deeper on the hospital bed's pillow, letting out a deep sigh. Should the doctor be condescending or overly talkative or annoying in any way, she would pretend to be unconscious. That was her current plan.
Moira hadn't noticed falling asleep, but she clearly had slept, because she woke up to the sound of the door of her room opening. She kept her eyes closed. She was not in the mood for conversation, she just wanted to get this over and done with.
"Hello, Dr. O'Deorain. My name is Angela Ziegler, and I'm here to make sure your injuries will be taken care of."
Moira opened her eyes. Wait, did she just hear what she thought? Angela Ziegler – or Mercy, the famous angel of Overwatch? Moira had heard a lot about her – how she had dedicated her life to studying the medical field in order to help the innocent all over the world and improve medical technology. Dr. Ziegler was almost single-handedly responsible for the recent huge breakthrough in nanotechnology. She had even designed her famous Valkyrie suit herself, and the white-and-blue, skintight armor with functional wings attached to the back had quickly become her trademark. Moira had read a lot of Dr. Ziegler's work while developing her own theory about genetic modification. They weren't exactly in the same field of study, but their research did overlap a lot, and Moira was trying to figure out a way to make use of Ziegler's nanotechnology study on her own research. Considering all of this, Moira was beyond excited to get to meet Dr. Ziegler in person. Of course Moira had known it would be an Overwatch medic who would care of her injuries, but she hadn't been expecting the famous angel herself.
"That's very good to hear, because I feel like all my bones had been taken out, crushed into little pieces and then stuffed back inside me" Moira said with her usual, bored tone. She was not going to let Dr. Ziegler know how excited she actually was to meet her. She still had some of her pride left, even after being knocked unconscious and carried from the battlefield like a little girl who cannot defend herself.
Dr. Ziegler walked towards Moira's bed, pulled a chair from a desk and sat on it. "Can you show me where the injuries are? I need to examine them."
Moira nodded, which immediately sent a wave of sharp pain through her skull and made her crumple her face into a grimace. God, she hated head injuries. She undid the strips that held the front and back piece of her hospital gown in place, loosening them to show the doctor her side. Her skin was rust-colored from all the blood that had leaked out of the bullet wound, a little hole on her skin with jagged edges, covered with a bandage that could barely hold rest of her blood inside her body. It looked bad, but Moira had seen worse. She would live, she would probably be back on the mission routine in a couple of months. And in the meantime, she could focus on her research. Even though Overwatch had cut off her funding in a pathetic attempt to silence her, she was far from done. In fact, she believed she was getting closer and closer to her next big breakthrough. The one she could use to get back everything she had lost.
Dr. Ziegler gently pushed her fingers against the bandage, and Moira bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying out from pain. Shit. The wound was worse than she had thought. Her breathing was quick and shallow and she had squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
Suddenly, she felt a calming touch on her shoulder. Moira opened her eyes, seeing Dr. Ziegler's face above her. She was gently stroking Moira's shoulder, trying to calm her down. And as unlikely as Moira thought it would be, it worked. She felt her breathing get more stable, less shaky and shallow. She couldn't fully relax and the wound was still hurting like hell, but Dr. Ziegler's presence had a calming effect on her.
"Listen" Ziegler said, leaning closer to Moira. "I really should not be suggesting this, but it seems like you could use something to ease your pain a little bit. I have something – it's not officially out yet and we only have very little amounts of it, so technically I shouldn't be giving it to patients, but it will be a couple more hours until I can get you on proper pain medication instead of this basically-placebo stuff. Things work really slowly in here. So, in the meantime…" She pulled out a syringe from her pocket, full of clear, golden liquid.
"Oh, no thank you. I couldn't even think about taking what little amount you carry with you – that thing must be terribly expensive –" Moira's voice was cut off when the little shake she had done with her head sent another sharp spike of pain through her.
"Nonsense. You clearly need it, and I take great pride in my reputation as a doctor who always makes sure her patients are as comfortable as possible." Without further arguing, the doctor simply wrapped her long, slender fingers around Moira's upper arm and emptied the syringe into her vein. Moira noticed the effect immediately; it was like a veil of sweet, painless numbness that slowly settled on her body. The pain that only minutes ago was strong enough to make her gasp for air was now a small, distant ache. Mildly uncomfortable, but a hundred times better than the previous version.
"Thank you, Dr. Ziegler – that really did help it, a lot." Moira took a deep breath, barely even noticing Ziegler's fingers as she removed the bandage and started handling the wound. The doctor worked quickly and efficiently, cleaning and disinfecting the injury. Moira closed her eyes and let herself drift into relaxed half-sleep, listening to the distant noises of the hospital. Beeping machines, voices of doctors and nurses, faint sounds of singing birds from the slightly open window. It was the most peaceful moment she had had in weeks. Sometimes she felt like she was always on a mission with Blackwatch, and the little free time she had was spent in her laboratory doing experiments or research. She could not remember the last time she had full 8 hours of sleep. The drug in her system made her feel pleasantly relaxed, like floating in warm, silky water, and it did not take long for Moira to fall into deep, dreamless sleep.
When Moira woke up, she was in a different room than before. This one was not as clinical and sterile-looking as the emergency room; this room had scenery paintings hanging on mint green walls and a nightstand with plastic flowers in a vase. A heart monitor was keeping track of her heart with a steady beeping sound. It did not take long for a nurse to hurry into the room, as the machines declared that Moira had woken up. Moira listened negligently as the nurse explained in a monotone voice how the bullet had been removed from Moira's side and she should take it easy for a while before engaging in combat again.
"Oh, and just so you know, Commander Reyes has some questions for you." The nurse absent-mindedly flipped through his notebook, looking at the monitors and taking some notes. "You can expect him to visit you in a couple of minutes."
That caught Moira's attention. What questions could Reyes possibly have for her? Was it about the failed mission, or something else? Moira did not let her face show her curiosity, keeping her usual, indifferent expression. But as soon as the nurse closed the door behind him, her expression turned into a worried scowl. She didn't think she was in trouble, but she knew the people at Overwatch did not exactly like her. After her controversial study on altering DNA, she had had several of them outright refusing to keep funding her research, and it had eventually led to her entire research budget going down in flames. Fortunately Blackwatch was not as deprecatory towards her research as Overwatch was, but it still didn't sit right with her that they were oh so happy to get her into their little task force after publicly cutting her funding. So she was good enough for building weapons and putting her life in danger fighting Talon, but not good enough to get any kind of public recognition? It was frustrating. Obnoxious. Humiliating, even. But she would have to endure it, because if she left Blackwatch, she would no longer have any kind of budget and she would most likely not be able to continue her research. And she was so close to a breakthrough, she could feel it. She just had to dig a little bit deeper.
Moira's thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and closed again. Gabriel Reyes looked serious and grim as ever, with his ominous-looking face full of battle scars. He nodded to Moira and sat on a chair next to her bed, without bothering to greet her.
"Commander Reyes" Moira said with a neutral expression. "To what do I owe this honor?" She rested her fingertips together, the tips of her long, purple nails quietly tapping together. She was trying her best to not look nervous – fortunately hiding her true feelings was something she had become very good at.
"I have a couple of questions about last night's mission" Reyes started. He did not sound contended, and the wrinkles on his forehead were even deeper than usual. "How much of it do you remember?"
"Hmm." Moira closed her eyes and replayed the events of the mission in her head. "We arrived at the warehouse. The Blackwatch was told it would be a meeting place for our target and some rich businessman, and that we could easily abduct the target and get some information out of him and maybe hold him as a hostage if needed. It was a trap, they were waiting for us. We spotted a sniper up on a loft, but McCree got him down before he could land a single shot. The troops were approaching. I remember shooting one or two, I don't know if they survived it or not, I wasn't paying attention to them. Then everything goes black." Moira opened her eyes and turned to look Reyes at the eye. "I was told they knocked me unconscious from behind and that we barely survived."
"Do you have any idea why they did that?" Commander's face was impossible to read, Moira had no idea what was going on inside his head.
"Did what? Attack us? I thought that was the obvious part –"
"That's not what I meant. Why did they not kill you? They could have. One of them got behind you. He could easily have shot you. Instead he knocked you unconscious. I can imagine that if they wanted hostages, as the commander I would have been a more obvious choice. So why would they want to leave you alive?"
That was something Moira had not been thinking about. It was true – all the other members of Blackwatch were attacked with lethal force. She was the only one they weren't trying to kill. Suddenly she realized what Reyes was implying. "Commander, surely you don't think I was the one who…?"
"Who told Talon about our mission? It's one possibility. I'm not accusing you, but you're not clear in my eyes either. Dr. O'Deorain – I want to be straightforward with you. You have been a valuable and loyal member of the Blackwatch, but we both know you are not the biggest fan of our mother organization. Overwatch cut your funding less than a year ago."
"Neither are you, Commander Reyes. Jack Morrison was assigned the position of being the Strike Commander of Overwatch, even thought you had more experience. You had to settle on leading Blackwatch, which will never give you glory or reputation of a hero in the eyes of the public"
Oh shit. Did she say that out loud? Moira wanted to hit herself to the back of her head. Maybe bringing that up wasn't the smartest move right now. Especially because Moira knew that Reyes and Morrison were good friends. Still, it had had to sting – being denied a position you know you are the best option to, because the council likes your best friend more. It was a public secret that the incident had damaged Morrison and Reyes' friendship, even though both men still publicly acted like nothing had changed.
Commander was quiet for a moment. Then he did something Moira had never seen him do before. Commander Reyes started smiling, then laughing, and Moira's shocked face seemed to only amuse him more. Finally, he got a hold of himself and took a deep breath.
"I like you, Dr. O'Deorain. You say what you think. Someday your sharp tongue is gonna get you into a whole lot of trouble." Commander smiled at Moira and shook his head. "It is true that I was jealous to Jack when he got elected, but I would never betray neither Blackwatch nor Overwatch. And to be honest, I trust that you are the same."
With that said, Gabriel Reyes stood up and left the room, leaving Moira wonder what the hell just happened. She was not sure if she had left a good or bad impression on Reyes, but it seemed like she was off the suspect list. Moira smiled to herself, sure that the image of commander Reyes laughing would not fade from her memory very soon.