001 - Beginnings
It was a recon mission in Seoul Korea, Morrison and Reyes were put in charge of two teams, with the orders to not hesitate to kill. Their targets were two government officials, suspected of a terror plot against the people of Seoul; specifically the omnic people of Seoul; intel was received by the agents of Overwatch regarding this matter weeks prior. The data was analyzed carefully to avoid false reports and that morning Morrison and Reyes received the okay to pursue their suspects.
The government building was very luxurious, sixty stories high, windows floor to ceiling; elegant furniture mixed with modern art. The entire building screamed money, it made the men sick knowing that buildings like these existed while the country was in one of the greatest depressions they had ever seen. There were two elevators, Morrison took one and Reyes the other, they exchanged wishes of good luck and turned their communicators to the same channels to keep communication at all times.
The moments before the objective made Morrison the most anxious. He tapped his foot impatiently on the marble tile of the elevator, it didn't help he couldn't understand the signage in the small metal box; everything was written in Korean. Morrison never bothered to take the Multilanguage training that his teammates did, it was rare that he was sent out of English speaking countries, especially after the end of the Omnic crisis. The metal doors hissed as they began to open, Morrison turned the safety off his rifle and gripped it nervously, the doors opened and he was presented with a long, dark, empty hallway.
"Reyes, come in Reyes." Morrison spoke into his communicator
Bzzt, bzzt, hiss; "What do you want Jack?" The cold, hoarse voice replied.
"Is everything alright over there?"
"Everything's fine, just a lot of empty hallways, nobody is he-" the communicator cut off, Morrison panicked and quickly looked around him, there seemed to be movement up ahead, Morrison lowered his tactical visor and sprinted down the hall, rifle in arm and sweat dripping down his forehead.
These were the moments he dreaded, being on edge while his partner was somewhere without communication. He prayed the line was cut on his end, and not Reyes, he had already lost too many team mates during the Omnic Crisis, he couldn't mentally afford to lose another one now. The more Morrison thought about the potential danger Reyes could be in, the more infuriated he became. His light sprint became a hard run, he didn't know if it was his footsteps slamming against the marble floor or his heart beating loudly in his ears.
He turned and entered the room where he senses movement. Pressed against the was a Korean man and woman, the woman seemed to be hiding something under her expensive fur coat, the man was on guard, holding a pistol low; ready to shoot Morrison.
Morrison aimed his rifle at the man and spoke loudly, but calmly; "Where is it?"
The man looked at Morrison; confused by the language barrier between them. Morrison grew increasingly angry and aimed his rifle higher, asserting his authority over the man. In a sudden flash of panic, the man open fired; bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang; six shots, all missing Morrison, but an obvious sign of aggression. Morrison remembered his orders and decided to shoot first and ask questions later, he open fired on the man and woman, the man threw himself on top of the woman, both of them screaming and crying as Morrison emptied his rifle into their backs.
The bodies slumped down, blood pooling from them. Morrison felt his stomach drop, realizing what he had just done, I can't take it back now, he thought to himself and approached the bodies. With his boot he kicked them onto their back; his objective was to find the information on Omnic terror, it had to be what the woman was hiding in her coat. He kicked open the coat and dropped his rifle in shock.
Reyes stepped into the room, wiping the blood from his face and flicking on the light switch by the door. In front of him he saw Morrison on his knees, covered in blood and shaking. Reyes panicked and ran over to him, dropping his guns on the way; he placed a hand on Morrison's shoulder and squeezed it, he breathed in heavily before looking down to see what kind of wound Morrison was sporting.
He expected to see Morrison's stomach on the floor, pools of blood and death. What he got was much worse than he expected, in Morrison's arms, lay a small, blood spattered baby girl. Her large brown eyes stared up at the two men, and she smiled and cooed. Reyes stepped back nervously, his stomach sinking.
"Morrison, what is that?" Reyes spoke quietly, his voice shaking.
Completely overcome with shock, Morrison didn't hear Reyes enter the room, or feel his hand on his shoulder. It wasn't until that raspy voice spoke that Morrison snapped back into reality. The reality was that he had an infant in his arms, covered in its parent's blood, and completely defenseless. Morrison had no experience with infants, and never planned to anyways. But in his arms was a warm, squirmy body; with little hands reaching up to him and making grabbing motions in the air.
He was at a complete loss at what to do with the infant, he had no paternal instincts. He turned to Reyes and choked out, "help me." He wasn't one to show his emotions in front of others, but in that moment he felt cold liquid leak down his face and burn his cheeks. He was glad Reyes couldn't see anything behind his mask, but was absolutely horrified with the situation. He looked at the corpses in front of him, the woman looked no younger than twenty years old, her big brown eyes were still open, her mouth closed, her arms still wrapped around her in the same way she was holding the child.
Reyes looked at Morrison and blatantly told him, "Jack, we came on this mission to obtain top secret documents, not a fucking child; dispose of the thing and lets get moving. The teams are probably waiting at the ship for us." Reyes reached for Morrison, but had his hand quickly slapped away.
He knew he would have to deal with the consequences later, but Morrison couldn't leave the child alone. He took the fur coat off of its mother and wrapped the baby tightly in it. He looked at Reyes and nodded; Reyes scoffed at him and walked off. The child cooed and squealed happily as the left the building, Morrison couldn't help but feel warm inside every time he heard the small thing gurgle at him.
It took a hour for them to arrive at the ship, it was already early morning, the two men could see the sun rising on the horizon. Due to them being so late, they were greeted at the entrance by the team doctor; Angela and their scientist Winston. Both of them seemed to be in a frenzy over the two of them arriving nearly eight hours after the scheduled time.
"Please tell me you at least recovered some sort of documents about the alleged terror attacks." Winston placed his hand on his face; this wasn't the first time he had to deal with Morrison and Reyes disobedience.
Reyes let out a deep chuckle before saying, "No documents, it was a false report, but Jack has a present for Angela."
Angela's face turned bright red. She knew Gabriel was aware of her feelings, but never thought he would dare to tease her in front of Jack. She glanced at the blood spattered Jack and gasped, seeing the tiny girl wrapped in the fur coat, Angela went into panic mode, she rushed over to Jack and grabbed the coat away from him.
"You poor thing," she sounded so sad, it made Jack's heart ache. "You have a lot of explaining to do Morrison, come with me now"
It wasn't often he heard Angela's angry voice, but when he did he knew his life was going to be hell. He sulked behind the frantic woman, into her clinic and sat down on the metal examination bench. He watched as the motherless Angela laid the infant on her back, and checked her tiny body for injury. It amazed him that somebody who had never had children could immediately develop a parental instinct; meanwhile he could hardly hold the thing without nearly dropping it.
He explained the situation to Angela, and felt himself choke back tears as he painfully retold the series of events that led up to the tiny girl in their arms. Angela often shook her head during the story, but showed no signs of discomfort or sadness. He figured that her being a war doctor had mean she saw everything and anything that could have been seen. Angela turned on her PC, and instructed Athena to search for local orphanages in Seoul, Jack stared at her in shock.
"What are you doing Angela?" he stood up and walked towards her.
Angela ignored his intimidation tactics and spoke calmly, "You know nothing about parenthood Morrison, you're a soldier. You seriously thought you could bring an infant on to a war ship?" she looked him in the eyes, her glasses falling to the tip of her nose, "We are leaving this child where she belongs, it was unfortunate that her parents mate the fate they did, but it is not our job to raise children while at war."
Jack slammed his fist on Angela's desk, knocking over a picture of the two of them in Illios five years prior, his face was flushed and his voice shaking; "I thought you of all people would understand Angela. What I did to this child's parents is irreversible, and she shouldn't have to suffer any more than she is already going to. I'm not just going to send her to some hole in the wall in God knows what kind of slum, because you people think it's best."
He walked over and picked the baby up, she immediately smiled and giggled at him. He gave her his finger and she wrapped her tiny hands around it, Jack couldn't help but smile. "I don't know the first thing about babies, my apartment is honestly nothing but booze and porn mags, but if it means this child will suffer a little less, I'm willing to try my best to learn how to parent. There's something about this child that makes me want to protect her, I don't think I've ever felt anything like this before." Jack removed his mask and looked at Angela, she could see the redness around his eyes, and the crusted tears on his cheeks. "Please understand Angela, I can't abandon her."
Angela understood, Jack somehow became a dad without trying, or even having a relationship. The guilt he carried must have been immense, and it wasn't her position to tell him what to do or force him to make a decision he wasn't comfortable with. She walked over to him and the child placed her finger on the girls cheek and couldn't help but to smile at her warmth.
"Okay Jack, I'll trust you this time. You were never a man to be messed with, but what are you going to name the little thing?"
Jack flushed, and softly said. "Hana, her name is Hana."
Hana squealed and bit Jack's finger, obviously pleased with the name he chose. Jack smiled down at her again, he had no idea how he was going to baby proof his apartment, and was a little upset with the fact he would have to get rid of his poolroom to make a nursery, but the sparkle in Hana's eyes reminded him it was worth it, he knew he could never atone for the sin he committed, but Hana would let him try with her innocence and for the first time in his life he was content.
Hana stayed in Angela's clinic for the first week, Angela wanted to make sure the small thing wasn't going to get sick, or need any special medical attention. She was pleased to announce to Jack that the baby ate properly, slept quietly and was incredibly healthy. She sat on Jack's couch with a beer in her hand, watching him struggle to put together a crib, he was surrounded by black garbage bags full of ungodly things, porn, alcohol, drugs, condoms, anything to help a bachelor have a good time was now in bags waiting to be taken to the dump.
She knew he wasn't happy about it, but he never said a word. He would occasionally curse under his breath when he hammered his finger, or forgot a screw. But he was dead serious about keeping the child, his apartment for the first time in ten years was clean, disinfected and bright.
She helped him buy new furniture, and painted the walls of the ex-poolroom cotton candy pink, there were stuffed animals from the floor to the ceiling, a changing table, shelves upon shelves of diapers, toys, books, and an entire wardrobe of clothes. She taught him how to make formula, and the right temperature to feed it to Hana, he complained about changing diapers, but had no problem doing it. Bath time was hard for him, he was afraid of hurting Hana, but never did.
It only took the man a week to become a father. Even though he had anxiety towards the seeming lack of paternal instincts, he bonded to Hana immediately. Within a week Jack Morrison became an entirely new man, he had a sense of awareness and maturity that went beyond the battle field. His blood stained hands were used to burp a baby instead of fire a gun, he couldn't stand to be away from the tiny thing, and showered her in endless love.
Angela was proud of the man Morrison had become, and was looking forward to seeing him grow with Hana over the next twenty years.