Present

True to Angela's word, Fareeha was in the firing range, blowing up training bots with a damn rocket launcher. Well, if there was any way to let off some steam, it would be with some heavy ordinance.

I grabbed some throwaway ear protection and stepped into the range. A training bot took off, and Fareeha blew it away.

"Damn nice shot," I said.

She flinched, but only a little. It wasn't even a flinch; it was her almost swinging that damn rocket launcher around and blowing me away. They were good, strong reactions; a true soldier's reactions.

"Jack," she said, cracking the launcher open to reload it. "Are you here to tell me that having my mother back is a miracle?"

"It is, but I'm not here about that."

"Then you're here to tell me I should be glad that she's alive?"

"You should be, but that's still not it."

She set the launcher down and turned to me.

"Then you want me to talk to her?"

"She's your mother, Fareeha. Back from the damn dead."

"So I'm just supposed to forgive her?" She demanded. "She pretended to be dead. She left me when I was still a girl, and I'm supposed to forgive her?"

"I don't remember saying that," I said. "Shit, you can't just up and 'forgive' that, but you still need to talk to her. She still loves you, Fareeha. You need to know that."

"I know that she abandoned me. The question is for what."

"For your safety."

Fareeha snorted.

"Yea, it's a lame line, I know," I mumbled.

"For my damn 'safety,'" she spat. "I'm an Overwatch baby. I was practically born on base. I was perfectly safe with them."

"And that didn't do a lick of good for Amélie now, did it?" That got Fareeha to pause. "You remember Amélie, don't you? Her name ring a bell? Or would you know her as Widowmaker?"

"I know who she is," Fareeha said. "How could I forget something like that?"

"Then you know why Ana was scared for you. If Talon didn't get to her then, they might have gotten her later by using you, just like how they did it with Amélie. Doesn't mean what she did was right; far from it. But you got to know that she still loved and cared for you."

Fareeha set down the extra rockets. She must have thoughts blowing through her mind at a hundred miles an hour.

"You're pissed; you got every right to be. But you have to know when it's okay to let things out."

I expected her to do or say a couple dozen things. Didn't expect her to chuckle.

"I remember you telling me that," she laughed.

"Oh?"

"Yes, when I was still a girl. I remember that, because it's what got me to talk to Angela."

"You could talk to her any time you wanted."

"No, to talk to her," she said. "As more than a friend."

"Oh."

"God, I was nervous," she said with a smile. "I couldn't think straight. I wanted to just let it go, to keep watching her from a distance. But there you were, in the back of my mind, telling me when I had to let things out. So I talked to her, how beautiful she was, how I felt. And when she said she felt the same way…"

She shook her head, pushing the rockets away. I've seen her as an adult, physically, but now I actually saw her as a grown woman. She was better than me. She was finally better than me.

"I'm glad you found the guts to do that," I said. "That means you grew up to be better than me."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just an old man; an old coward who missed his mark too many years ago."

"You? A coward?" Fareeha laughed. Dammit, not this shit again. I knew what was coming, and it still drove me nuts. "Jack, please, you're one of the most heroic men I've ever met."

I promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn't get pissed when people praised me for doing what anyone else would've done. But I was good at breaking promises to myself.

"I didn't do anything special," I growled.

"You're one of the founders of Overwatch. That's plenty special."

"Anyone else would have done the same thing in the same situation. Why does everyone want to heap all this praise on me and paint me as some big damn hero?"

"Because you are a hero. How can you call yourself a coward?"

"I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times; there's no praise for doing what needed to be done." Dammit, all that shit is really driving me nuts.

"You helped beat back the Omnic threat!"

"Anyone else would have done it!"

"It was practically the world against Overwatch! They're still making movies about you!"

Damn this praise.

"If I was such a hero, I would've found the guts to tell your mother how I felt about her years ago," I snapped.

Holy shit. I never thought I'd…that caught me by surprise, more so than Fareeha. She stared at me, and I still couldn't believe I just fucking said that. Felt like I was burning up. I never thought I'd be telling this to Fareeha.

"You, you really mean…?"

"Y-yea, I do," I stammered. "Seeing her alive… it made me think of all the little promises I made to myself. All the ones I broke. When we buried her, I thought that was it, I blew every single damn chance I ever had. But seeing her alive…Oh, who am I kidding? I'm way too late to the game with this."

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"I told you, I'm a coward. Never got the nerve," I mumbled. "And I didn't want to ruin the memory of your father. It always felt like I was stepping on him in some way, that you or Ana had their own image of him that I couldn't measure up to."

"Jack."

"What?"

She motioned me to follow her. She walked to a locker, one that had an actual lock on it.

"You make yourself at home already?"

"Please, I'm an Overwatch baby. I grew up around here, remember?"

She opened the locker for me. Inside was a thin jacket, a small bag, and an assortment of knick-knacks. She really was at home already.

Then I saw the faded old picture she had hanging on the door. It was a kid's doodle, something a five year old might make. It had three people, a man, a woman, and a kid. The kid and the woman were drawn in brown crayon. Well, more scrawled out. It was a kid's drawing, after all.

Under them, scrawled out in broken, five-year-old handwriting were three names. I couldn't make heads or tails of it; my written Arabic was even worse than my spoken Arabic. Even if I was still up on it, I'm not sure I could read a five-year's-old writing.

But I didn't need to read the names. The man was drawn in something that looked like peach, and he had blonde hair. Son of a bitch, that was me.

"You always said I should remember my father," Fareeha said. I jumped as she hugged me. "I remember him just fine."

Son of a bitch.

"You…you still need to talk to your mom," I mumbled.

"I'm still angry at her," she said. Just hearing about her mom made her squeeze, like it was reflexive anger.

"You deserve to be. We all thought she was dead. Shit, you thought I was dead. You should be pissed at me, too."

"Please, I knew you were never dead," she laughed.

"I was in a massive fucking explosion."

"And they never found you. I never believed you were dead; I couldn't. I couldn't believe my dad would die, just like that." Dammit, stop calling me that. I'll break up if you keep calling me that. "And when news reports of a mysterious 'Solder: 76' started popping up, I just knew it was you."

"Jesus, you and Angela would make great detectives. So will you talk to your mother?"

"Only if you tell her what you told me."

"Damn, kid."

"Well?"

"Fine, but it's way too damn late for me."

"Mother always said it's never too late for anything."

"Maybe."

Fareeha let me go. I felt a little better knowing my eyes weren't the only ones not dry.

"I…I want Angela with me," she said. "I'm not sure I can do it alone."

"I don't think anyone could go through this alone."

"Thanks. I'll be in the second floor common room."

"I'll go get your mother." Come on, old man. Get it together. "Don't forget to dog those rockets. Can't leave live ordinance out in the open."

"Yes, dad."

Shit. Come on, old man, hold it together. I wiped my eyes, ditched the ear protection and left the range. When we first came back, I set Ana up in one of the armories. A double-timed it through the base, and sure enough, she was still in the armory, cleaning her rifle.

No, cleaning was the wrong word. She had the rifle disassembled like she was cleaning it, but she was playing with some of the parts. She was just waiting for something to happen, just killing time.

"Ana."

She placed the component down and looked up at me. God dammit, she was still beautiful.

"Has Fareeha sent you?"

"Y-yea, she wants to talk to you."

"That's good," she said. "I was worried I'd be out in the cold for a much longer time."

"You're not out of the woods yet. I had to talk with her, but she agreed to talk to you."

"You always had a way with her," she smiled, standing up. "She cares a lot for you."

"I know."

Come on, old man. Say something. You told Fareeha, you can tell her. Fucking coward.

"Yes?" Ana said. Dammit, she was so close to me. Come on, find your nerve.

"I…I need to come clean."

"Oh?"

"I've…"

Fucking coward.

"When you died, it killed me. I thought I'd never have the chance to tell you how much you mean to me."

Ana's remaining eye opened at that.

"I'm just an old coward who never grew the nerve to say anything."

Ana's laugh made me jump.

"What's so funny?" I snapped.

"It's…it's just that…back then, being 'dead' and having gone to ground, it made me realize many things," Ana said, still laughing. "I missed Fareeha. I missed her like you would not believe. But as time wore on, I realized I was missing something else. I was missing my daughter, and you."

My heart caught in my throat.

"Seeing you with Fareeha, when she was growing up, it gave me hope for her. Hope that she would have a father again." She shook her head. "But I was too focused on raising her, on building Overwatch; our team and our friends. I was too focused on all the people we were sworn to protect…I was so focused on what I had, what needed to be protected, that I missed what I could have had."

"You mean…?"

"I've felt the same way about you, Jack," she smiled. "I wanted to tell you, when you had time to…adjust to me being alive. It's not something that can be dropped on anyone all at once, not after a person comes back from the dead. But when you told me that Fareeha was here…what was that saying of yours? It 'threw a wrench in everything.' What I wanted, what I was planning for, it all changed."

"You feel the same way about me?" I couldn't believe it.

"Yes," she smiled. God dammit, was that not the most beautiful thing ever. She walked over to me and grabbed my hands. "Can an old coward forgive a blind old lady for missing what she should have seen all those years ago?"

"I don't think I could blame you for anything."

It took me by surprise when she hugged me. I never planned, never imagined, getting to this point, to actually tell her how I feel. I held onto her like my life depended on it.

"I'm glad one of us finally came clean," she said.

"I wish one of us knew what to do," I said. "We're too damn late with this to make any difference."

"It's never too late. I tell Fareeha that all the time. And who cares about plans? We're too old for it. We'll just make it up as we go."

"Now that I'm good at."

I never wanted to let her go, but if she didn't get to Fareeha, she might never get her piece in, too.

"Come on, let's get to our daughter."

We walked through the base, hand in hand. It felt like I was on top of the fucking world; nothing could touch me. Bring it on, Talon. I'll break you in half without even trying.

Sure enough, Fareeha was waiting in the second floor common area. Angela was with her, to make sure she said her bit. With people still pouring into Overwatch, we had the place to ourselves.

"Mother," Fareeha said, getting up.

"Fareeha," Ana smiled. "Angela? It is great to see you. I'd love to talk, but there are a few things that I want to talk to my daughter about in private. Can we talk later?"

"I'm here with Fareeha," she said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Mother, there's something you should know about us," Fareeha said, taking Angela's hand. It made Ana pause for a second.

"You…you are…together?"

"We are," Fareeha said.

"You've know her since she was a girl," Ana said, staring daggers at Angela.

"We were both girls then," she said. "We are only five years apart."

"Mother, please, she makes me happy."

Ana glared at the both of them, then turned on me.

"What?" I asked.

"You cannot approve of this. Fareeha was a child when she met Angela!"

Aw, crap.

"Well…they are happy together," I said lamely.

Ana went back to glaring at Angela. But she saw how they were holding hands, and her expression softened a little.

"If she makes you happy…then I am happy for you," she said to Fareeha. "But Angela? That. Is. My. Daughter. And after my daughter and I have words, I will have a few words with you. You better not cry for mercy, for you'll get none from me."

"That's okay," Angela said, flashing her radiant smile. "Your daughter cries for Mercy every night."

Oh damn.

I didn't know who was more red: Fareeha from blushing, or Ana from cursing. I held her back as she went into a full Arabic tilt. She was talking faster than I could make out. No, wait, she said 'cradle' and 'thief;' I know exactly what she's going on about.

"Ana, please," I said. "At least they had the courage to be honest with each other. They didn't have to wait a few decades like we did."

That got her to stop. But she was still glaring death at Angela with her one remaining eye.

"We will have a lot to talk about," she said tensely.

"I bet we will," Angela replied, all smiles.

"But first, I want to talk to my daughter. About why I left her. Why I abandoned her."

"Y-yes," Fareeha said, still blushing like she would burn up.

Ana squeezed my hand. It would be hard, but she had me. I'd keep her strong. I squeezed back as she started talking.


Author's note: Credit for the "Your daughter cries for Mercy" line goes to Yeh (leominimus . tumblr). Too good to not steal.