Lena had never been one for taking it slow. Not when time was such a tricky thing. There was never enough of it to risk wasting
So the very next day, Lena flung herself into work around the base with reckless abandon.
Angela, suffice to say, was more than a little frustrated.
After receiving a strict talking to from Ana, chastising them all for not looking after each other when Overwatch fell, the others promised both Ana and themselves that never again would they turn the other way at another's suffering, regardless of whatever laws stood in their way.
There were so few of them left now, their operations so greatly diminished that they couldn't afford to leave anyone in the dust.
So, when Lena got up the next morning, unnervingly bright eyed and bushy tailed, rearing to take on the world (or at the very least, Egypt.) Ana, the blessing of a woman that she was, had promptly stopped the young brit in her tracks and led her to the kitchens instead, making a small, but hearty meal (swimming tabasco sauce, to the horror of many witnesses) and watching sternly, but gently as she ate the entire plate, before passing her off to Angela who slathered her in sunscreen and tucked a protective shawl over her head, before giving her free reign to terrorize the base.
With the newfound energy and cheer of a small child, (to the relief of many who had missed seeing the joy on the face of their little pilot) Lena zipped around the compound, rediscovering every last nook and cranny and basking in the blistering heat of Egypt, a waterbottle at hand as per Angela's demands.
The base was busiest just before dawn and right after sunset, the blazing heat making motivation to work a difficult thing for most recruits. High on her newfound freedom and the warmth soaking into her bones, lena was all too happy to help pick up the slack.
For a few hours lena helped move supply crates, picked and tinkered away at a hoverbike with sand jammed in its filters, and even took to the training ring with a few rookies for a couple quick rounds of sparring.
That last one didn't go as well as Lena had hoped.
Approaching the youths had been easy enough. dressed in a lightweight white tunic and tan yoga pants to keep from becoming overheated Lena certainly didn't look much like the iconic Tracer everyone knew instinctively by the large glowing harness and telltale aviator getup. Take that and add the fact that her chronal core's glow was barely noticeable underneath her tunic due to the bright sun and her deathly pale complexion, to the rookies, Lena looked more like a fragile technician than the famous pilot who had served as the poster child for overwatch all those years ago.
But the rookies were restless and irritable from the heat and were happy enough comply when lena stubbornly pushed for a few rounds of sparring. What harm could it do, really?
But Lena, who despite her constant punishment to her body in late night training sessions she still had a long ways to go before she was anywhere near her old strength and stamina and thirty minutes later found Lena stumbling away from the ring feeling bruised all over and nursing her jaw delicately. The tall, wide eyed brunette Ana must have picked up from Australia judging by her accent was trailing a few feet behind with her companions, offering numerous apologies for landing the hit and offers to get Dr. Ziegler while her friends barrated her for not going easy on the "Shrimpy techy".
And if that didn't bruise the bloody fuck out Lena's pride then who knows what would.
Lena finally managed to shake the rookies with false promises that she could find the medbay just fine on her own, and reassurances that she held no ill will towards the surprisingly softhearted Aussie.
(Lena made a mental note to track down the kid later. Something told her that girl was gonna go places with that heart of hers)
Taking a sip from her water bottle, Lena walked at the edges of the base's barrier, eyeing possible exits thoughtfully.
There was a village a couple of miles away from the base, in the shadow of a trio of pyramids who's shadows eclipsed the town near sunset every night.
Lena had fond memories of the place, though it's name always escaped her. She toyed with the idea of visiting but knowing the others they'd most likely insist on making the treck with her, calling a great deal of attention to themselves that was very much unwanted and likely putting the base at risk.
(once upon a time the thrill of a risky situation would have made her absolutely giddy. Now Lena just felt tired at the reminder of how much every one was risking already.)
The Egypt base in question was a large one, built at the peak of overwatch's glory days, a base meant for blackwatch members, it was built halfway carved into the side of a cliff, practically surrounded by dunes, and shielded from both sight and assault by a hard light reflective shield that was reinforced by thick walls the stretched in a half moon around the exposed half of base where the hangars, training grounds, drill yards and docking platforms for incoming ships could be found.
The barrier around the whole exposed side of the base kept them safe, not only from the naked eye and surveillance, but from sandstorms, bullets, bombs and more.
As such, leaving the barrier, especially alone, was greatly discouraged.
Greatly. Discouraged.
Which is why Lena absolutely wasn't sneaking out the gate on her own to mess around in the dunes and soak up the sun before it sunk beneath the horizon and left the moon to freeze the desert over cold enough to frost.
Nope. Absolutely not.
...Not exactly.
That is to say she wasn't...sneaking. Just moving quietly...with the intent of not getting caught.
...yes...that.
And besides, it was fine. she was fine. Lena still had half a water bottle left at hand and didn't plan on going that far anyways.
(In the back of her mind Lena noted that if anything happened to her out here it would hardly be a tragedy. She was practically useless these days anyways.)
Once she slipped out the barrier she was off like a shot. The sand dunes were tall and fun to slide down and it burned hot against her skin but also light and almost powdery to the touch.
Lena raced to the top of a dune and braced her legs to keep from falling as she slid down, laughing all the while, wiping some sweat off of her brow and tugging off the white cotton head covering Angela had given her to protect from the sun's rays.
What use was it anyways, when she wanted nothing more than for the sun to scorch her brow in the first place? Sun burns stung, but in a way the pain was more than welcome. It was...grounding. Something she could wake up to tomorrow and feel instantly and be reminded just how far away she was from The Grey.
Actually, Lena took a sip from her nearly empty water bottle and squinted up at the blinding orb in the sky and noticed that it was actually starting to drift towards the horizon, preparing to dip down and let the moon have her go at lighting the sky.
It was still fairly hot outside though. Blazing, actually.
Lena had craved the heat but after five years without she was lacking the tan that had protected her from the harsher effects of the sun. Hell even her freckles were nearly faded!
Lena wiped the sweat off of her brow and pushed her damp brown locks out of her face.
Perhaps she should have put such a physically demanding excursion off a few weeks. For all that she loved the sun, five years in london had done a number on her tolerance to the heat.
Ugh, bloody hell, there it was again, fucking London. Even now, miles and miles away the damn place kept coming up. It trailed after her like a ghost and she was more than ready to leave the damn place and all its memories behind for good.
Lena scowled and trecked forcefully up the next dune. Something a little like nausea was clawing its way up her throat. She gulped down the last of her water in an attempt to quell the sensation.
Not to mention she could feel exhaustion beginning to creep up on her. God was she tired of feeling tired She was always falling alseep and she was just about done with it!
If her months spent caught in the slipstream taught her anything it was that time was far to valuable to be wasted on sleeping. Her bodies betrayal was all the more frustrating when combined with the anxiety all the wasted hours were giving her and she could feel a well of messy, black emotions knotting up in her chest at the thought.
The slide down the next dune didn't feel half as satisfying as any of the others.
A sudden onslaught of dizziness attacked her without warning.
Lena gasped and blinked blearily and stumbled back down the dune she'd been trying to climb. The nausea increased as she hit the sand.
Ooooh shit was she dehydrated. Angela was gonna be so mad at her!
"LENA ELIZABETH OXTON!!"
Lena blinked blearily at the figure on the horizon. Speak of the devil. Angela zeigler was marching towards her far better than anyone had the right to march in sand with a protective shawl wrapped around her head and a medbag strapped to her shoulder.
Also she looked angry.
veeeery angry.
Actually, lena squinted at the steadily approaching figure, maybe a better description would be downright piss-oh shit!
Lena scrambled away at the last second upon realizing that her currently very dangerous best friend was a LOT closer that she had anticipated only to stumble and fall face first in the sand. Again.
"Oh no you don't!" Angela let her medbag slide off her shoulder onto the sand and pulled lena back towards her by the waist.
"We've been looking for you for hours!" Angela sat down on her knees and manhandled Lena into laying down on her back with her torso in her lap. Lena only struggled for a few moments before going still and stiff, eyes squeezed shut, bracing herself for whatever punishment Angela chose to inflict for stressing her out.
Instead a gentle hand tugged her shawl off of her head and carded softly once through her sweaty locks befor coming to rest on her forhead.
Lena opened her eyes cautiously and found Angela leaning over her, staring intently with her brows furrowed.
Angela swallowed the lump in her throat at the sight of Lena's red, sunburnt face and the large bruise blooming on her jaw. She was no stranger to injuries, and Lena had always been one of her more frequent patients, but this thin, pale version of her best friend was far less hardy and resilient than the perky, hyperactive Tracer of days past was gone and Angela was reminded not for the first time since their return to overwatch that if anything (any one) happed to Lena in this state she could very well crumple like a dried up leaf.
Angela heaved a breath and rubbed gentle half moons over Lena's flushed cheeks with her thumbs.
"We looked for you on base for hours!" When she spoke her voice was low and dangerous as her frustration at the pilot's stubbornness returned to her.
Lena flinched and breathed a harsh breath through her nose.
"M'sorry, Ange." Her throat burned. She hadn't been out on her own for long but she had only taken one water bottle with her and she was seriously dehydrated.
Angela only huffed and twisted around to reach her medbag. She dragged it over to her side and pulled out a water bottle. Tugging Lena up into a sitting position she uncapped the bottle for her and handed it over.
"Small sips." The doctor warned when Lena immediately began to guzzle it down. It was Lena's turn to huff but she complied nonetheless.
"We'll get you some aloe vera once we're back at base but for now water is the most important thing. Do you have any other injuries?"
"What?" Lena stared dumbly at Angela until she stared pointedly at the large bruise on her jaw, which throbbed at the attention.
"Oh, um, No. I'm fine luv."
Angela gave her a look that said she didn't believe a word that came out of the pilot's mouth and that she would be on the receiving end of a very thorough check up once they got back to base.
With a long suffering sigh, Angela picked herself up off of the sand and pulled Lena up with her, keeping her hold on the younger pilot firm, but gentle as she threatened to stumble and fall back down.
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Ana and Zarya were waiting at the barrier when they finally reached base and by then Lena felt as though every muscle in her body was aching. white hot iron bands constricted around her limbs and burned her lungs with each step she took and each breath tasted like copper at the bacl of her throat.
The first ten minutes of the treck had seen Lena doing her best to through the dunes on her own at Angela's side, however by the time they reached the gates she was leaning heavily on the field medic's side, taking breaks every now and then to take slow but generous sips of water to keep the dizziness at bay.
Christ had she really wandered so far from the base?!
(stupid, stupid Lena. of course she did. Wasn't being back here, in the sun with family enough? why did she always want more than what she had?)
Zarya plucked Lena from Angela's arms without a word and a quick glance at the other's faces told her that the last thing she needed to worry about was being manhandled by tall russians.
Ana didn't even look mad. She just had a sad look in her eye that said she knew far more about what was going on in her head than Lena was sure she wanted anyone to know.
Zarya didn't look too upset, thank god. Though she said nothing, a tiny, sad smile quirked up on her face.
Lena knew she was worrying people. She really did. But she needed to get better! She was sick of being so weak!
Right now, she only a little more physically fit than the average person and she wasn't gaining strength fast enough. It was driving her insane and she knew these things took time, that her muscles were slowly being torn and knitting back together into something stronger, but it was taking too much time, time Lena didn't even know if she had, and she needed to back to her old self yesterday.
(needed to run faster punch harder dodge quicker needed to be faster faster faster so she could finally outrun the wrongness lingering in the back of her mind and in the twitch of her hands and the edges on her sight)
Lena slept on the way to the medbay and yhis time there were no hushed voices.
Lena had run off, gotten herself into trouble again, and had to be picked up.
After all this time, what was there to say?
So there was silence.
And though Lena slept, she didn't rest.
Ssssssssssssssssssssss
Lena Oxton, ex RAF pilot, loyal overwatch soldier and mechanic, was certain now, that if there was any god to be spoken of, they had most certainly abandoned this timeline.
Every limb ached. Her skin was burnt and blistered and feverish despite the mountain of ice packes she had stuffed into and on the couch where she lay draped in a corner of the war room.
"Hold still."
Lena hissed as angela slathered another layer of aloe vera onto her back. Small noises of muffled laughter and ( occasional) sympathy could be heard from hana, who watched the whole scene with a hint of amusement. cheeky brat that she was didn't even step so much as a toe outside the compound and thus was feeling right as rain and more than eager to snigger in the face of Lena's latest stunt.
Angela pursed her lips and furrowed her brow at the the sight of the physical marks on Lena's body that told more than any of her internal scans had done.
Lena was tempted to crack a joke to diffuse the tension rolling off of her friend in waves, but the bright purple bruise that dominated her jaw made speaking quite the chore
A particularly hard press against one of Lena's sore spots made her let out another his and she resigned herself to this cruel and unusual punishment for the rest of the day.
There just wasn't any winning for her, was there?
Sssssssssssssssss
Oof guys so school literally just got out for Summer three hours ago. I went home, took the greatest nap of my life, and finally got around to finishing this chapter! I hope you all like it!
I know that my updating schedule is unreliable at best but I hope that the quality of my stories makes it worth it.
I'm doing all I can to improve my writing abilities as I go along and I hope that my improvement will show as I continue to make better and better quality stories.
Please please pleeeaase leave comments and tips and I WILL read them. I always check them every month or so.
-Blue