As it turned out, Jesse would prefer rattling in his seat and the threat of falling thousands of miles out of the sky over the absolute agony that was Switzerland's HQ.

The building itself was nestled out of the way of the main populace, but not so far detached as to be too intimidating. They'd perfectly balanced just the right amount of "we value your privacy" and "but don't get any ideas." It encompassed enough land to make itself its own monument, really. The towering statue bearing the classic emblem of the self-assigned "heroes" they'd passed on the way in only added to the frankly surreal sense that Jesse would be walking into a museum instead of a high-security government facility.

It wasn't so much that it would be a difficult environment to grow accustomed to over time. He'd certainly done worse for himself in terms of relocating. The place seemed cushy enough, if not a little too much so for his blood, all high ceilings and sweeping hallways with so many more doors than any building rightly should have. From the little he'd see within his first few minutes on base, dazzling light poured in from what certainly felt like every angle across spit-shined floors and tastefully minimalistic walls throughout the main foyer and onwards. Jesse had had the feeling of being watched the instant he'd left the transport as the blaze of stark fluorescent lighting swallowed him whole. Glass stretched the lengths of the walls every direction you looked, even in places where glass should really never be. To see out one room simply to look into another seemed pointless to him, and yet someone somewhere had deemed it stylishly tongue-in-cheek enough to suit the needs of the build-a-battalion.

Yes, Overwatch had expertly planned every inch of detail for their headquarters to come across as a transparently beneficial, yet somewhat neutral force in humanity's day to day lives. A sort of sit back and let us deal with the shitshow so you can live your life.

It was disgusting.

The transport had swept in over a spectacular mountain range on their descent, all green and rippling with life as flowers Jesse didn't care enough to know the names of were gently fluttering in the wind beside a lake that could very well have been a mirror for all its stillness. He'd known next to nothing about Switzerland prior to setting foot on the plane, and even now his knowledge amounted to "it snows, there's chocolate, and we're buying you a watch." As he'd stared out the window at the far too cheery scenery that may as well have been from a damn picture book, something bitter settled hard and heavy in his chest.

He'd begrudgingly made a mental deal with himself to learn nothing more than that.

They'd disembarked with a speed and synchronization that seemed outright unnatural to Jesse, so he'd made it a point to sit back with his hands clasped behind his head for as long as he could as people bustled around him, grabbing this and stacking that and shouting across to one another as if he simply did not exist. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't preferred it to their glaring.

Gabriel, of course, had been the one to burst the happy little bubble of pettiness. He'd leapt up and made for the cockpit at their descent, but he'd returned several minutes after they'd begun unloading and given Jesse a pointed look from the front of the plane. Taking the hint, Jesse had relinquished his seat with an exaggerated sigh and gone to join the man as they left the cabin.

From there, it had been a lot of trailing Gabriel around resentfully as he spoke to Several Important Men and Women whose names flew over Jesse's head so fast he almost felt the breeze of them going by. He'd bypassed introducing himself, as Gabriel didn't leave an inch of opportunity to do so. All the better, none of them had seemed too interested in what he'd have to say anyways. He'd caught several non-discrete glances reminiscent of Captain Amari's at his hat, however, and his face had long since settled into a scowl by the time they'd finally gotten around to touring the facilities.

For the most part, Jesse blanked out everything Gabriel said as he was marched through the hallways. He took in plenty, sure, but he'd get his own reads on the place in time. He didn't need a tour guide for something he'd figure out eventually anyways. Gabriel picked up on the pointed disinterest relatively quickly, as he'd grunted and veered off course, cutting the tour short to show Jesse the way to his quarters.

Jesse had been somewhat surprised at the fact that Reyes was personally escorting him throughout the premises this time, but he supposed things ran a bit different at HQ than they had at Grand Mesa. Here, the looks he was given in the hallway were by no means subtle, and the open-faced apprehension found in most of them were quickly covered with a sort of grudging respect for Gabriel as his imposing form cleared their way time and time again. The glances coupled with the look on Reyes' face were more than enough explanation for the personal treatment. Jesse'd stared at Gabriel's shoulders with a lopsided frown the rest of the way, the realization of what was happening finally sinking in.

He'd displayed enough wares to know when he was being paraded around like a damn show pony.

His assigned room was slightly larger than the one at Grand Mesa, but only just. He'd raised his eyebrow at the keypad in place of a lock on the door on the way in, and Gabriel had briskly run through the security measures as Jesse had stood in the center of the room, hands on his hips and eyes lazily scanning the walls as if they had personally offended him.

"Whole place is monitored, so do us both a favor and don't try anything stupid. Because believe me, I'll know," he'd addressed the keypad as he punched a long series of numbers on the touchscreen. Jesse had watched the sequence dubiously, something in his expression apparently speaking much more than words could have as Gabriel had caught sight of his face and continued. "You'll be with me while we're on base for the most part, but I'm giving you some leash here to make sure you don't plan on choking me with it. Don't abuse that. You step out of line, you lose that privilege and don't get to so much as use the bathroom without an escort." He'd moved right on along before Jesse could react, attention back to the panel on the door. "Security codes change every Thursday. Sometimes sooner, you'll get a memo when it's set. Athena'll update you once you're completely in the system, which gives you…" He'd glanced at the clock mounted to the wall, prompting Jesse to do the same with a quirked brow and pursed lips. "…less than day to get situated and not break anything while I get the pleasure of passing you off as being worth the space you'll be taking up here to the board."

He'd ignored Jesse's deadpan "again with 'Athena'?" and steamrolled on ahead as if he hadn't heard him at all, his foot already outside of the room. "Uniform is in the closet, let someone know if it doesn't fit. Doesn't matter who, they'll point you in the right direction. New batch of recruits coming in under Overwatch's supervision this week that need uniforms anyways, they'll have someone on hand somewhere that can adjust it. You'll figure it out."

He'd made to leave without another word then, and had only stopped in the middle of the hallway at Jesse's torso leaning slowly out the door with a dry clearing of his throat. He'd glanced over his shoulder, and Jesse had begun speaking before he could ask.

"That it?"

Gabriel had actually appeared confused at that. Well, as confused as he could ever look. A tiny extra wrinkle added itself to his forehead as he'd frowned. Jesse had stepped out of the room in full then, shoulders rising and falling in a loose shrug of disbelief as he shook his head slightly, maintaining eye contact.

"That really all you're giving me to go off of here?"

"Got a problem?"

"Uh, hm. You sure you want to open that door, there's an awful lot I've got a problem wi-"

"What, you need me to hold your hand to walk you through this? Just keep yourself occupied for half a damn day and keep your head down while I check in with the golden boys here, alright?"

It had been a long shot and he'd known it, but Jesse had pressed onwards all the same. "Can I at least get my gun back? I could get outta bein' underfoot and bum 'round that range y'blazed right on past or somethi-"

"Do you honestly think anyone around here would say "yes" to that, McCree."

It had been a statement, not a question. Jesse hadn't expected a positive response, but it had been worth the effort anyways. Reyes had looked him up and down somewhat suspiciously then, but his time had appeared too precious to look too close as he'd spoken.

"You've been walking around unarmed this whole time and haven't seemed to have a problem."

Jesse'd shifted the shiv he'd made out of the pen from his room in Grand Mesa a little further up his sleeve.

"None at all."

Gabriel had done little more than regard him with his chin tilted meaningfully to his chest before he'd walked away without letting Jesse continue, his patience having clearly worn thin.

The unspoken stay in your room and that's an order was followed for a whopping total of twenty minutes before Jesse muttered a to hell with it and swiped a finger across the touchpad on the door, unlocking it with a pleasant beep and stepping out to see just what on earth he'd gotten himself into.

And so he now found himself wandering the halls of the base, slinking along the less populated areas as he did his best to avoid dealing with people in general. The vibes he got from the clean cut, starched-shirt-and-pant clad men and women bustling about left nothing but a bad taste in his mouth, and he'd found himself pulling at the additions of his new uniform uncomfortably as he roamed. There had been a slightly too-large dark shirt and pants clearly meant for subtlety in the closet when he'd opened it, but he'd opted to put the fraying shirt and battered handkerchief he'd had on during the sting back on beneath the thick regulation harness. It brought a snug sense of familiarity to him, and he relished in the small and practical only feeling of ownership he had left.

If Gabriel Big-Man-On-Campus Reyes got to wear a frickin' hoodie beneath his gear, then he'd be damned if he didn't get to be comfortable too.

Nevertheless, the weight of the body armor and reinforced boots were odd to him. On the one hand, he'd been used to his feather-light attire and its usefulness in quickly getting out of scrapes relatively unharmed. But on the other, the extra layer of protection was almost intoxicating in its power. He'd spent a good few minutes smacking the bullet-proof chest plate against the chair in his room to see which of the two would cave first.

That reminded him, he'd have to put in a request for a new chair. Something was inexplicably wrong with his.

A grand total of maybe an hour had passed without incident as Jesse snooped the building, alcoves and air vents and convenient windows ticking off on a list that had been engrained so deep in his mind by Deadlock that he doubted he'd ever be able to enter a room again without looking for easy exits. He supposed that was one thing all that stupid glass was useful for; he'd had his fair share of messy exits through closed windows to know how to shatter them pretty damn effectively.

He'd found a quiet corner about forty five minutes in to his wandering that was far enough away from the main hub and was positively covered in the panes. The discovery had him making a mental note to revisit later to test how well they would shatter when he had another moment to himself and less of a vibe that Big Brother was watching from around every corner. The likelihood of them being bulletproof hadn't escaped him, however, and he really, really doubted there'd be anything diamond-tipped just lying around a place like this. Not much of a chance of busting them up with a shard of porcelain like he'd been used to falling back on, either. He'd eyed them begrudgingly, the dull reminder of just how incredibly out of his element he was without his usual access to resources spurring him to exhale harshly.

If just the windows in this place were making him feel institutionalized then he was really not looking forward to what the people inside of it had in store for him.

Boredom was a fickle mistress to Jesse, and he'd soon found himself back at the range just beyond the inner atrium that Gabriel had so graciously ignored on his whirlwind tour. It was empty, same as it had been that morning, and a few discrete glances down the hallway outside of the main entrance showed only a few meandering agents. They appeared far too preoccupied to spare him a second glance, so without further hesitation, he slipped inside and shut the main door behind him with a near-silent sntch.

There were probably hundreds of things he could be doing instead of nosing around empty corridors and visiting places he knew he couldn't utilize. Settling in would have been a good thing to start with, not that he had any belongings to unpack. Sizing up the people he'd be surrounded by for lord knew how long. Figuring out who the hell Athena was. Finding food, even, it had been a few hours. But all the same, Jesse crammed his hands in his pockets, gaze wandering across the empty range moodily as he planted his feet.

He wasn't a child, by any means, but he wasn't beneath letting straight up emotion rule his actions now and again.

He'd been trying to pinpoint the feeling from the moment they'd flown over the mountain range after he'd been well over the initial glamour (and slight horror) of flying, that bitter weight in his chest slowly descending as the day went on to settle somewhere in his stomach. He hadn't had the time to address it, as Gabriel in all his rapid-fire glory had swept him along. But now, after having nothing but his footfalls and the occasional stream of chatter passing by in the hallway to accompany him, he could fully recognize the weight for what it was.

He was angry.

He was very angry.

As he stared down the metal targets on the far end of the dimly lit range, he furrowed his brow and spat, the bitter taste in his mouth too much to handle momentarily. He'd known what he was signing up for, sure. Or at least, he'd thought he'd known. And yet, here he still was, silently fuming to himself in some backwards pity-party at his situation.

He didn't fully understand it, but by his accounts, he didn't need to. All he needed to know was that the longer he stayed here, the less he'd want to.

The room itself was spacious, certainly the most so that Jesse had come across in his drifting. Half of the lights were off in its disuse, and the shadows they threw across the anechoic chamber and circular targets downrange had an eeriness to them that crept into his bones as his eyes wandered. He stepped up to one of the mats lined meticulously up at the firing line, the small table between it and its neighbor empty of anything potentially interesting. He opted for gauging the distances to each target instead, his trained eye measuring the farthest at what appeared to be 90 meters or so. A rifle range, then.

Not that it would be much of a challenge with his revolver.

If he had it.

The thick material for sound-absorption coating the walls did its job a little too well, and Jesse soon found the hair on the back of his neck standing on end as he began to practically hear his own thoughts, his pulse rushing in his ear and unnerving him slightly. It was unlike that sterile hush of the watchpoint all those nights ago, and yet he breathed a little louder into it all the same, the noise far too isolated for the space it was in and instantly muffled.

Even the air here wanted nothing to do with him.

A glance at the sleek, holo clock on the wall behind the observation partition over his shoulder told him he still had several hours before "less than a day" would be considered to have passed by his own standards. Which meant he'd probably have a few more hours on top of that by Gabriel's. He gazed somewhat wistfully at the targets one last time, expression somewhat spiteful.

"Keep y'self occupied," the bitter mutter practically disappeared into the air around him, snatched away before he could claim it as his own. "Right."

Hands still jammed in his pockets, he pivoted on his heel, the small squeak of the mat below him drifting into that suffocating air as he made his way back towards the door. He gave one last, long look to the targets at the end of the stretch, but without anything to shoot with, they were little more than decoration. He removed one hand from his pockets all the same, fingers forming a gun and pointing down the range as he flicked his wrist up and back, his tongue making a sardonic gunshot noise before he shouldered open the door and stepped back out into the brilliant light of the hallway, mind already wandering to where he would be loafing around next.

Given the circumstances of his recruitment, he really should have known better than to turn a blind corner quite so fast.

If running into Gabriel in Santa Fe had been enough to knock the wind out of him, the positive wall of a person he smacked into left him absolutely wheezing. The contact threw him off balance, and he stumbled back, realizing an instant too late that his hand was still stuck in his pocket. With little more than one pinwheeling arm to work with as he struggled to free up the other, he was fighting a losing battle with gravity. He swore harshly, making it a point to turn his head so as not to bust his nose open again when he inevitably hit the ground.

Before he could dip past the point of no return, however, a positively massive hand shot out to grip his shoulders and tilt him back upright. Its owner was talking, his voice practically shaking the walls in its volume.

"Ah, apologies! I was not expecting-!"

There was a man from the R6's who'd bodily checked one of Deadlock's snipers into a table while trying to squeeze past him and the crowd around them once at a local bar. It had been an accident, sure, but the sniper had taken it personally. As a rebel, you got to decide what was an insult. Blood was spilt over many a stupid reason for that very rule, and that night had been no exception. He'd answered accordingly to the Deadlocks, and the bar had swarmed to nearly empty within minutes as the gunfire faded and no less than eight bodies were dragged away into the night, both gangs blaming the other and tearing the rift between them further in turn.

Jesse wasn't listening to the man as something roared in his ears, and he vigorously shook off the hand in one sharp shake as he spun out of arm's reach with a slight snarl, his fight-or-flight instincts kicking in almost immediately as the gunshots from the bar flashed in his minds' eye. His feet danced as far back from the behemoth of a man in front of him as they could, and his voice was barbed as he finally freed his hand from his pocket and brought his arms up, squaring off as his shiv slipped discreetly under his palm.

"Back off!"

The man's expression appeared somewhat hurt by that, but frankly, Jesse's racing pulse and spike of adrenaline didn't give a damn. Deep down, he knew the man probably didn't deserve it and Jesse himself was more likely to blame for the collision, but given the fact that the last time this had happened he'd ended up with a broken nose and the threat of prison or service, the last thing he wanted to do was make the same mistake twice.

The man's hands were up palms-out in front of him and Jesus, now that Jesse could get a good look at him, he was practically filling the hallway with the sheer bulk of his torso alone. If he hadn't already been crouched and ready to sprint for it, Jesse didn't doubt for a second that he'd have weighed his odds against this man being somewhere in the negatives as he had to tilt his own head back to even look him in the eye. His lip was still curled, and he distantly felt the tension in his forehead as the man spoke again, his voice just as sure and loud as before while still being somewhat more apologetic, his accent unrecognizable to Jesse. If you can't recognize it, Deadeye, it's a threat, don't let it-

"There is no need for that, it was not my intention to startle-"

Something dawned in the towering man's eye as he in turn gave Jesse a once over, the massive scar covering a good portion of his face wrinkling slightly as his brows pinched. There was recognition there when they took in his Blackwatch issued boots and armor, but such palpable confusion at the bandana around his neck that Jesse could practically taste it.

It was that all too familiar, second-too-long lingering on the hat that did it for Jesse.

He turned tail and booked it down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him, ignoring the booming shout of "wait!" echoing after him.

All things considering, it really hadn't been the best course of action to take. There were other people milling about who would probably not take kindly to seeing him sprinting hell for leather, suspicious and untrustworthy as he already was to the likes of them. He didn't doubt the man could catch up to him if he'd so felt like it, but as he rounded one corner after the next, doing his best to avoid the noise that hinted at the presence of people down certain paths, he heard no sound of pursuit. For all that he knew, the man was just as he was when he'd left him, hands out and face morphed in surprise.

As Jesse finally reached a point he felt to be far enough away, he slowed to a stop, his breath barely past a steady rush as he shut his eyes and leaned against the wall, two women walking past him with somewhat alarmed glances before continuing on their way without a word. He swept off his hat as the adrenaline slowly drained and left a rush of weariness in its wake.

It took a long moment of staring blankly at the frame of the quite frankly hideous wall-mounted art piece across from him to finally feel like a complete moron.

He brushed his fingers through his hair and tilted his head back to connect with the wall, eyes closing for a moment as his jaw clenched painfully tight against the wave of resentment that rolled over him. It wasn't his fault, the guy had surprised him. He couldn't be expected to have known. He didn't know the atmosphere here, didn't know the dynamics. He had no choice. He…

He was doing a damn good job deluding himself is what he was doing.

There were certain things you couldn't simply drop, certain lifelong lessons that you couldn't just unlearn once you'd up and moved away from the very place that had taught you. He'd grown used to needing to high tail it out of situations that turned sour at the drop of a hat, and when his gut told him to do something, he wasn't about to ignore it. It had done a pretty decent job keeping him alive thus far, after all.

The feeling in hus gut twisted, and he sucked in a breath as he finally pieced the last bit of what had been bothering him together. Everything here just felt wrong. The rooms, the rules, the fancy keypads and stupid security codes, the empty ranges full of silence, the people bustling by off to do God knew what without going out of their way to heckle or rib him. The fact that he'd just bumped into someone the size of a tank and instead of mowing him down for the disrespect, he'd helped him up and apologized.

It was nauseating.

The instincts kicking in at the confrontation were all the concrete proof he needed, really. Well. He hadn't exactly needed any, but they were a confirmation all the same.

He opened his eyes, the breath he'd been holding leaving him in a steady sigh. His hat found its way back to his head, and he pushed away from the wall to brush himself off nonchalantly as he tamed his racing pulse and settled his mind as best he could. His eyes scanned his new surroundings as he righted himself.

There were four exits on the left, a fifth further down on the right.

At the end of the day, they could take him out of Deadlock. But he'd like to see them try to take Deadlock out of him.

A/N: This chapter was ungodly long originally but I've split it into two for the time being.

That being said, the next chapter deals with some veRY important stuff so heads up it might take me a little longer to tweak.

Once again, thank you to all who have favorited and followed! I don't have the time to reply to individual comments at the moment, but I will take a moment to express my utter joy at your interpretations of Jesse's reaction to the flight. Y'all are marvelous

Until next week!