Lena sleeps the next day away.

She can't seem to help herself. There had been times when she had drifted on the edges of the land of the waking, but then the scent of her old mattres, with it's little oil stains from flopping straight into bed without changing after a long day working on the planes, had pulled her back to sleep.

In the end it's a nightmare that forces her up at 7:30 PM.

It hasn't even been a proper nightmare. Not like the vivid horrors of the slipstream. It had been a blurry dream, the slightest tinge of London chill and a memory of a memory of the creaky old secondhand couch she'd spent so many nights on. Not even a proper nightmare, but it had been enough to send her lurching out of her bed, and face first onto the floor.

She is confused for a moment, as she looks around at her room. Her old room.

Not a thing had changed. It was small, just her bed, the desk next to it, and a bookshelf on the wall across, little souvenirs and couple of old plane manuals stacked on the middle shelves, covered in a thick layer of dust because she hadn't had the heart to move them when the UN had forced her to pack her bags.

Lena pushes herself up to a sitting position, knees up to her chest, and stares silently as the dust motes float past, until her holopad lights up from her side table and Athena informs her withwith that calm voice of hers that her blood sugar is terribly low and recommends that she go to the kitchen and get some food.

A flicker of a smile twitches on her lips at the sound of the AI's voice and she pushes herself to stand.

"Sure thing luv." Her voice is quiet, just a tad raspy from the years spent using it so rarely (Christ it really had been years hadn't It?)

Lena leaves her room, not even bothering to change out of the ratty grey Pjs she'd brought with her from the apartment. Lena dimly recalls the furniture she'd left at the otherwise now-bare apartment and decides she'd like to pretend the horrible place didn't even exist.

(She can still feel the musty air and grey skies clinging to the edges of her mind)

As she makes her way down the hall she traces her fingertips along the walls, feeling every scratch and nick and is surprised to find that she still remembers where most of them came from.

There is a comforting murmer of idle chatter coming from the kitchen that fills her chest with warmth.

The moment she steps into the doorway however, the room goes silent. Lena takes the opportunity to see how many of the old gang had arrived while she slept.

Jesse, Jack, Hana, Fareeha, Angela, and Torbjorn, oddly enough.

Winston is there as well and joins in the other's staring, concern thick in their gazes. Lena cocks her head to the side.

"Do I...have somethin on my face?"

Lena winces at raspy her voice sounds and hopes that the others blame it on sleep. Angela's eye flicker though, and Lena wonders if she can tell how bad the last five years have been just by looking at her. The way her eyes linger on the faint scar just below her neck seem to promote her theory.

Winston saves her from the awkwardness after a moment though by shaking his head and handing her a plate loaded with so much green (and other various health foods) That she suspected Angela had prepared it.

(Or maybe it had to do with the way she resembled a skeleton)

Lena ate it anyways and grinned between every bite as the lull of conversation enveloped her.

Sometime during all this everyone positions at the cluttered old table with it's array of mismatched chairs had changed and where Lena had started out sitting on one end of the table alone she was now tucked firmly between Angela and Fareeha, with the blonde medic fussing gently over her messy locks and somehow managing to chide Jesse over his horrible eating habits at the same time while Jack and Torbjorn played a quiet game of cards and Winston talked with Hana about potential upgrades for her MECHA.

Despite the fact that she had already slept nearly 24 hours already, after a few hours the weary pilot found herself drifting off against Fareeha's side, not quite sleeping, but gone enough to let the conversation around her to slip through the air without holding any meaning in her ears.

"-so quiet-"

"...Checked the Scans Athena took of her yet Angela?..."

"...Too thin!"

"...said she was the first to arrive?"

"She was here less than 12 hours after my call, yes."

"...forgot how pale she used to be...when she first joined...freckles are faded!"

"She'll need a check up."

"getting late...need to move her?...are you sure?"

The sound of the door slamming snapped her out of her doze, though she remained still, the heavy limb of comfort to powerful to even think of shaking. No need to even open her eyes she decided. Not when staying tucked right here in Fareeha's warm side, inhaling the Egyptian's spicy scent was so much more appealing.

Yeah...

"FRIENDS, I HAVE ARRIVED TO-"

"SSHH!!!"

"Be quiet zarya!"

"Yeah Lena's sleeping!"

Zarya?

An image of pink hair touched her memory along with a recollection of bone crushing hugs. Lena was glad to have decided to remain motionless. Getting her ribs crushed wasn't on her list of things to do right now.

"The little rabbit is resting? This is most surprising!"

There was a sigh. "She's been sleeping all day." That was Winston. He sounded stressed.

"I've been overlooking the vital scans Athena took of her when she arrived. It's a mess! What did she do?! Live off of take out?!"

Shit, whenever Angela got like that, her weird mix of worried and pissed, Lena knew she was screwed and thanked God that her current state was preventing the unofficial team mom from shredding into her then and there.

"It's nearly midnight. I'm going to put her to bed. Lena felt herself be moved. For someone so strong, Fareeha was surprisingly gentle with her, cradling Lena to her chest with careful hands, walking slowly so as not too jostle her.

"You should go to bed too, Hana."

"WHAT?! WHY?!"

"Because I said so! We've got a big day ahead of us. Now scoot." Heh, typical Jack, always looking out for the younger members. Even if they didn't want to be looked after.

"Ugh, fine! I'm going!"

Fareeha placed Lena in bed and ruffled her heir gently. Then she crossed the room and for a moment it seemed like she would shut the door, but then her hand left the door handle and she walked back to the kitchen.

Laying there in bed, Lena wondered why the others had been so concerned. The last five years had been rough yeah, but it was okay, because she was home now. That made things better didn't It?

Everything was okay now.

wasn't It?

The next day Angela pulls her out of bed at 8:30 and drags her sorry ass to the medical wing, where she spends the next several hours doing various tests and getting the pilot up to date on all her shots, all the while ranting loudly over the mess that is apparently Lena's insides right now. Once she's cooled down enough and she's handed Lena a huge-as-balls bottle of special vitamins and orders her to take two every dayday Angela finally ushers her out, muttering about a certain cowboy being next on her list (Lena would have felt sorry for Mccree if she wasn't so smug that she wasn't to only who had to suffer today.)

after escaping the medbay of doom she heads down the kitchen.

(which is starting to get a little crowded now that almost everyone is here, with the exception of Ana holding down the fort at the Egyptian base and Reindhart in the German one)

The 'mess hall' is full of hug and tears and how-have-you-beens and Lena happily lets herself get sucked into the whirlpool of joyful reunions.

Somewhere along the way hellos turn into eager catch ups and Lena listens with just a tinge of envy as the others babble about this and that. The people they'd met, sights they'd seen from a refreshingly non battle ready point of view.

No one seemed to have struggled the way Lena. Maybe it was because they all had lives outside of Overwatch. For Lena, Overwatch was her life. She'd discarded Civilian life and connections for so long while everyone else had homes they stayed at over the holidays and friends they emailed and face timed after work.

Not that there was anything wrong with either lifestyle.

Sometime later Hana turned to Lena and asked her what she had been up to during those dreaded five years and the others turned to her eagerly. They all wanted to know what adventures, the energetic, mischievous Tracer had been up to.

Lena shrugged. "I worked as a Mechanic."

"And?" Hana asked impatiently.

Lena smirked "I ate a lot of takeout."

That got quite a few chuckles out of the group but Hana merely huffed.

"Come on Lena! You must have done something! Met some new people at least. Made some new friends!"

Lena shook her head and started to pick at her cuticles absently. "Not really no."

The laughter ceased. Tracer, bubbly, cheerfull Tracer who couldn't stand to go five minutes without talking to someone hadn't made any friends after Overwatch fell?

"No way!" Hana said firmly, "There's no way you didn't go out and make like, a zillion friends within minutes of hitting London!"

Lena frowned and tugged at a bit of skin at the corner of her thumb. " Not really no..." She tapped her chronal accelerator knowingly "Big ol clunky thing like this tends to scare people off actually."

Hana frowned deeper, but said nothing more to the ex RAF pilot. For this Lena was grateful, as the ghost chill that the memories of her time back at Kings Row brought had started to creep back.

Later that day Lena glimpsed out the window of one of the upper floors while cradling a cup of tea. It was grey and foggy outside. Of course it was, this was the England base after all, located just a few miles away from London, in a small town. It was only natural that it would be dark and foggy out.

That didn't stop Lena from dropping her mug.

That night the comfort of her old room wasn't enough, so she crept into the living room and curled up on the soft leather couch. Lena fell asleep watching trash TV and awoke with a crick in her neck and a bad taste her mouth that wasn't from the chalky vitamins Angela had given her.

Lena turned the TV off and sat motionless on the couch for several minutes before creeping back to her room, thanking her lucky stars that no one else was up yet.

No, things weren't okay.

"Goddammit Jesse I swear if you don't put that coffee down right Now!!!-"

Lena smiled softly.

But they would be.

Because she was home.

sssssssssssssssss

Yeah, okay, I know this only supposed to be a one shot but I had this idea and now, well...I guess this is just gonna be my dumping grounds for what ever angsty Lena-centric shit I come up with, because I'm a sick person. like that.Love ya-Blue