Star was being rushed to the medical wing as soon as the shuttle landed. Angela and a team of doctors on duty took him into the operating room Lena tried following them until Angela stopped her.
"I don't want to leave him Angela." She looked worried to death for him, more concerned about him than her own well being."
"Please let us do our job Lena." Angela tried to calm her down. "Have your shoulder checked out, I can't waste any time with him." Angela turned her around and pushed her back as she pulled her operating mask over her mouth and entered the operating room.
Lena sat down at one of the patient beds, her mind was filled with nothing but concerning thoughts about Starkiller. They way he collapsed seemingly out of nowhere appearing to be in great pain was a sight she couldn't erase from her mind. Though she really only knew him on a personal level for only so long, she felt connected to him on so many levels, relating to him as well. Though the fact that she was the first person she had been intimate with in such a long time was a huge factor as well.
"This may sting a bit so try not to move too much." The doctor said to her. She didn't acknowledge him as she continued to stare off into space. Though the pain in her shoulder was starting to take over as the adrenaline from the battle was starting to subside. She was wincing slightly as the doctor started to peel back the bandages and cleaned out the wound. "Well it appears to be a through and through, so we just need to clean this up." He said as he started wiping away the blood. "Once we get this fixed up you'll have limited mobility from your shoulder." Still nothing. The doctor continued his cleaning before starting to stitch up the wound.
McCree entered looking around before seeing Lena, catching her attention. McCree turned a chair around sitting next to Lena's bed. "Any updates?" He asked. Lena just shook her head. McCree grunted at her response rocking back and fourth in his chair a little. "How you holding up? Looks like a nasty scratch there." Lena shrugged her shoulders just as a reaction but regretted instantly grunting in pain grasping at her shoulder.
"I told you don't move." The doctor said finishing up as he clipped the end of the stitches and got a sling for her arm. "This should help immobilize your arm." Lena nodded her head slightly examining her sling.
"This the first time you've been shot without doing your little rewind thing?" McCree asked. He knew Lena's mind was occupied on Star, but getting her to talk might alleviate some of the concerning thoughts for a bit. Lena nodded her head. Her stare signaled she was a million miles away in her mind. "Why couldn't you do your uh, redo thing?" He asked.
"Was reckless," She said in a short tone. "Only have so much juice in this thing." She said tapping on her accelerator. "I thought I could get him. I did get him." She started to sound like she was replaying the events of the mission out loud. "How was he still alive?" She asked. McCree wasn't sure if she was actually asking him or just thinking out loud. "Jesse I stuck a bomb to him. I watched it detonate in his face. Just how." She was shaking her head. McCree got up and sat next to her on the edge of the bed.
"Look, you haven't really dealt with anything like this before. Moira's work speaks for itself. Reyes and whoever that other guy was, they aren't human, not anymore at least. Same thing goes for him in there."
"I was reckless though, he had to come back for me. If I had been more aware we could have gotten out sooner and maybe he wouldn't be on the brink of death."
"Ah you can't beat yourself over what ifs. Ain't healthy for the mind." He rustled her hair a little. Lena smirked a little bit from the gesture. "Hate to say it, but his time might be close approaching anyway. He ain't exactly built to last from what it seems."
"He survived for a reason!" Lena shot back at him. "He can pull through, he's got to. I'm not going anywhere until I know Star is ok." McCree tilted his hat up cracking a smile across his face getting up from the bed.
"Geez Lena you're awfully clingy to that boy."
"Is there something wrong with making sure someone is ok?" She barked at him sounding defensive.
"Course not, but as concerned as you are one might think y'all are gettin it on or somethin." Lena knew he was joking but she couldn't help but take it a little personal.
"Relax, I was just foolin."
Lena started shaking her head. "Sorry, I'm just a little shaken up right now is all." Lena finally relaxed a bit laying back in the bed she was sitting in. "He didn't deserve this."
"No, no he didn't. But can't change the past, time marches on." McCree tapped her leg. "I'll check up on you later, keep me posted." Lena gave him a little smile and sat up looking at the emergency doors, hoping Angela would come through the doors with something good, anything good. She was getting anxious beyond all control. She tried keeping herself occupied but found any sort of noise she heard on the other side of those emergency door drawing her attention back to them.
Hours had passed without her even realizing it before the doors swung open. Winston had walked in almost startled that Lena was there.
"Oh, hi Lena. I wasn't expecting you here. Didn't you get fixed up a while ago?"
She nodded turning her eyes back to the emergency doors."Been waiting on any kind of update. Why are you here?"
"Angela requested my assistance. I think she may almost be done in there, though I'm unsure why she would need me." As soon Angela and the other surgeons pushed through the emergency doors wheeling Stars bed to its place next to Angela's computer. She motioned for Winston to come over to the monitor as she plugged in what appeared to be the drive that all of Moira's research.
Lena got out of her bed and walked over to Star's bed to get a better view. He was still unconscious and was hooked up to a bunch of I.V.'s. He had a breathing tube coming out of his mouth, and Lena thought the worst. She covered her mouth in shock, she couldn't believe his condition had escalated this much. She wasn't really paying much attention to what Angela and Winston were talking about. She pulled up a chair sitting next to his bed taking a hold of his hand hoping so desperately he would squeeze her hand back.
"I see." Winston said looking at the monitor.
"It's really a pretty ingenious system she has created." Winston looked at Angela after she made what sounded like a compliment to Moira's work. "Medically speaking of course."
"So we just need to correct the balance in his system and he should be fine. Correct?" Winston asked.
"In theory yes, however we can allow no margin of error. Any could mean permanent damage to organs, his nervous system, anything really."
Lena looked over to the other two as their discussion continued. "What's wrong with him? Whats going on?"
Winston walked over examining the paper Angela had given him. "The biotic amplifiers Moira attached inside him pumps toxins through his body, which grants him his abilities. These toxins are extremely deadly, eroding his body as it travels through his system, to counteract this Moira implemented Angela's nanobot technology to repair and heal his body at the same time." He adjusted his glasses putting the paper down. "When he pushed himself and used his abilities to the extent he did, the toxins were spreading faster than the bots could contain. His body started breaking down thus causing his collapse."
"So is he going to be ok?" She asked?
"He crashed a couple of times during the operation. We had to put him on a ventilator to keep oxygen flowing through his body and his brain." Angela answered.
"That didn't answer my question."
Angela put her clipboard with her chart down. "It's too early to tell. We purged his system of the toxins and started advanced nano treatment, but we can only do it in minuscule amounts. Too much nano treatment and the bots will start to attack the amplifiers, likely killing him." Angela jotted a few more notes before returning to her chair. "It's a fine line we are walking right now, but if I'm completely honest, it's not looking too promising." The silence that fell upon the room was tense. Lena looked back at Star and slumped back in her chair, only hearing the sound of the ventilator pumping air into him.
"He'll make it through." Lena said to herself looking at him. "He'll make it."
Morrison was in his office sipping on some coffee when he heard a knock at the door. "It's open." The door opened as McCree closed the door behind him taking his hat off and setting it down on the corner of the chair he sat in. He placed two glasses on the table and placed a bottle of whiskey between them taking a seat. Morrison looked at him and raised an eyebrow as he observed Jesse pouring some out in each glass. "Something on your mind?"
"What can't enjoy a drink with an old bud? You never come out of this office so figure I bring the bar to you." Jesse chuckled. He raised his glass as he clinked his glass with Morrison's and they both slammed down the first drink. McCree started pouring another round for them.
"Heard it was a rough go out there." Morrison said staring at his glass. McCree nodded his head.
"Ran into Reyes out there." Jesse swirled his glass around. Morrison realized why Jesse was here then.
"You guys always drank after a mission together didn't you?" Jesse elected to stay silent nodding his head. Morrison knew the two were close as Reyes was the only reason why Jesse wasn't locked up in prison. "I wish things had turned out differently, but I had no other choice."
"I know you meant well chief, he fell over the deep end. Just a shame to see a friend fall." Jesse took another drink.
"There was another one of them too."
Morrison looked up at him. "Another one?"
Jesse slammed down another drink gritting his teeth feeling the burn of the whiskey go down. "Star. There was another one."
Morrison nursed his drink a little bit. "Fuckin Moira. Never should of enabled her in Blackwatch."
"Something's been mulling around my mind for a bit now chief." Morrison finished his second drink motioning for Mccree to ask away. "Couple weeks ago when we were questioning Sombra, she said you had a hand in how Moira got her hands on the stolen data." Morrison tapped his glass on the table at the question.
"Yea. What about it." He seemed annoyed but not annoyed enough to keep quiet.
"Care to share that story?" McCree poured out another glass for them.
"When Moira was in Blackwatch I turned a blind eye to a lot of the experiments she ran. She was an 'ends justify the means' kind of scientist. In her field of work that's a slippery slope." He took a swig of his drink. "She came to me about a theory she had about improving our agents performances in the field. Of course in theory in sounded good. Self healing, faster reaction times, perfection in the field." McCree was leaning back in his chair taking small sips of his drink.
"She hadn't failed in anything yet. Though she said the base of her research involved the Enhanced Soldier program and needed the data to work off of, giving her a solid starting point. I knew where she was going with it and I told her I couldn't help her." He tapped the table again shaking his head. "You know the most frustrating thing is not dealing with arrogant people, but the arrogant ones that know their worth. Know they're worth the trouble they may bring." He took another sip of his drink. "She threatened to leave if I didn't support her. One of my visits to the U.S. I copied the data and gave it to her to keep her from leaving Blackwatch." McCree poured another glass out for the two of them.
"Yea, gotta admit she was nuts, but she was good at what she did." McCree got up and started pacing around the room with his drink. "Now I know we don't exactly know how much we should be trusting this kid we got here."
"Who Starkiller?" Morrison asked. "He is Talon, but he hasn't let us down so far."
"Was." McCree said.
"Regardless we have to be careful with him."
"Yea but something ain't adding up chief."
"What's that?"
"Now I'm the last person to put these pieces together, one can't help but think somethings off if Talon is killing their own."
"Antonio probably crossed them and paid for it."
McCree started shaking his head. "If he was a grunt, sure that be peachy. But a high roller like him? And if what the kid said is right, he was a big player." He finished his drink placing the glass on the table. "I don't know chief, something don't feel right about how it went down out there."
Morrison started to think himself. "Not much we can do about it now." McCree picked up his hat and started walking out of the office. "Hey how is the kid doing?" McCree looked back at him and shrugged his shoulders.
"Heard it's getting pretty dicey for him. Maybe you oughta go check yourself. I know you and and a lot of people don't think too highly of him, but he got dealt a pretty shit hand. Boy's been helpin out a lot whether you want to admit or not." Morrison looked at the bottle and tapped his glass on the table again.
"Thanks for the drinks Jesse." McCree tipped his hat before closing the door behind him.
Morrison let out a sigh in annoyance. He had tried to be more accepting of Star, though the more he talked about Moira with Jesse, he couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible for what had become of Star. "God dammit Jesse." He muttered to himself as he put his coat on leaving his office. He walked outside going towards the medical building. As soon as he entered he saw the trio around Star.
"Commander. I wasn't expecting to see you here." Angela said.
"Yea well, heard the mission was pretty hairy." He looked over at Star who was barely clinging to life at this point. "Just came to check in." He saw Lena sitting on the other side of the bed still in her clothing from the mission, dried blood around her shoulder with her arm in a sling. "Oxton."
"Commander."
Morrison knew she never was a woman of few words. So something was really eating at her when she was. "I don't recall having you on this mission."
"I wasn't."
There was a pause between them. Morrison on one side of the bed and Lena on the other. Winston and Angela had taken their work elsewhere, feeling how tense the room was, though Angela still staying relatively close by to monitor her patient.
Lena knew she was in the wrong and wasn't even going to attempt to justify her actions. Though to her surprise, Morrison wasn't there to scold or reprimand her. "What happened out there?" He asked tapping his shoulder.
"Got careless out there, took a round."
"How bad is he?"
Lena took a deep breathe. "Not good, commander. Not good at all."
Morrison was examining Star trying to see if he could pinpoint any wounds or anything of the sorts. "It's the amplifiers, sir. Killing him from the inside. He pushed himself too hard to come back for me."
"Semper fi." Morrison nodded.
"Beg your pardon?" She asked.
"Semper fi, always faithful. No man left behind, however you want to put it. Soldiers talk about it a lot, but a lot fewer would actually do it even if it meant their own demise." He walked around the other side and stood behind Lena. "He's really something isn't he." Lena didn't have anything to say back to that. "Despite his predicament, he did everything he could to make sure everyone came home safe." Lena caught a whiff of his breath after he spoke.
"Sir have you been drinking?"
"Jesse stopped by my office." Lena rolled her eyes.
"That explains it."
"He also told me there was another one like Starkiller here out there." He pulled up a chair and sat down next to her leaning forward. Lena nodded her head.
"He outclassed us all, and I don't think he was even trying." Her muscles tensed up thinking about him. "It was like he was toying with us."
"I'm happy you're all safe." Morrison said to her. He got up and was going back to his office to finish paper work before turning back to Lena. "You've seen quite a bit of action lately, might be time for you to get some R and R."
"Sir?" Lena questioned.
"Go home Lena, recoup. Take some time off, you've earned it." He looked over to Angela trying her best not to listen in on the conversation. "Keep me posted on his condition Angela."
"Will do Jack."
Angela went back to Star's bed to take one more look at his vitals seeing if they had changed at all noticing Lena was struggling to stay awake. She was always was a motherly figure to most of the younger agents, though her dynamic with Lena was something more. They had spent enough time together that Angela knew when to try and get Lena to budge, and when it was a lost cause. This was the ladder. She had a pot of coffee brewing, knowing she had to monitor Star due to his unique workings. She brought a cup over to her placing it on the table next to Lena.
"I know you normally drink tea, but this was all I had laying around."
Lena looked at the mug and smiled at Angela. "Thanks." She took the cup in her good hand taking a small sip cringing a little at the taste.
"I knew you wouldn't be leaving anytime soon." She said taking a sip from her own mug.
"I don't want to leave him." She kept hoping any minute he would just spring up out of bed and wake up. Every minute seeing him there was making her feel even more guilty. "I mean he's out of the worst right?"
"It's tough to say. Like I said we are walking a fine line with him due to all the extra hardware inside of him." Lena sighed a little before Winston called Angela over to her computer.
"Angela, his brain activity is increasing." Angela placed her mug down to examine the screen. Lena leaned over the bed hoping he would wake up. She saw his eyelids squint slightly but stayed shut.
"Come on love pull through, I know you can." She mumbled to herself. His eyes slowly opened his surroundings slowly coming into focus seeing all the tubes he was hooked up to. He panicked thinking he was back at Talon under the knife in Moira's hands.
"Hey relax it's me, you're safe here." Lena called out to him holding his hand. His hand gripped back in desperation before he met Lena's eyes. His eyes fluttered as the relief could be seen easing into him. Angela walked over to him taking her notepad out getting right down to business.
"Can you feel all your extremities?"
"Geez Angela take it easy. He just woke up."
"That's just it Lena, we don't know how long he will be awake for. His body is still unstable. Can you feel your extremities?" Star nodded his head slowly, incapable of talking from the breathing tube in him.
"Do you know where you are?" He looked around seeing the Overwatch logo on practically every piece of equipment. Again he slowly nodded his head. "Do you remember what happened?" He looked at Lena and held his fingers up in succession. "two, two, two." Angela said as he put his fingers up. "Do you know what that means?"
Lena who was trying so hard to hold back her smile at that looked down. "Still keeping score huh?" She smiled big. Star looked like he was trying to smile as he nodded his head. "He remembers."
"Good memory seems to be intact." She placed her notepad down feeling around his chest and shoulders. "Are you in any pain right now." He shook his head no. This response puzzled her. "Interesting." She said going back to her computer screen that was showing a live feed of the progress of the toxins in his body being cleared out by the nanobots. She noticed that most of his organs were only 40% functional, meaning the damage the toxins did were substantial, too substantial to take him off life support. She leaned on her hand trying to think of anything they could do.
"The only way he would have any hope to get him off life support is to inject a higher concentration of nanobots and hope he survives." Angela said shaking her head.
"What? Your leaving his life up to chance? Hoping it will work?" Lena was sounding furious.
"Lena it's a miracle he's lucid right now!" Angela closed her eyes and took a deep breath composing herself. "Without this he'll likely never get off life support, no one should live like this." She prepared an injection with the silver liquid from a vile. She walked over to to Star's bedside, he was visibly becoming uncomfortable. He recognized the liquid being the same from the ones that Moira always gave him after intense training sessions with Reaper. "This will be painful. You'll feel a burning sensation while the nanobots repair your organs. This is the only thing we can do for you." Star closed his eyes and nodded his head. She pricked his arm and injected the liquid inside. As soon as she did Star squinted his eyes shut contracting all of his muscles trying to bear the pain of the burn that was felt spreading throughout his body. Occasionally letting out a grunt every so often. His fists were clenched shut, Lena slipped her hand once again into his, he clung to her thinking the tighter he held her hand would somehow make the pain dissipate. For about twenty more minutes the burning sensation pulsated throughout him before it finally started to subside. His chest was heaving, which Angela took as a good sign that he was breathing on his own.
"Moment of truth." Angela said to herself anticipating the worst was going to happen. His vitals were still stable though to her surprise. Star pulled some of the I.V.s out of his arms and took the breathing tube out of his mouth sitting up shaking slightly from the ordeal that he just went through. Angela watched in amazement, a man on the brink of death minutes ago, was just about fine now. "Amazing." She muttered to herself.
"What is it?" Winston asked looking at the computer screen.
"His body, his organs, they're completely healed and fully functional." The two looked up from the screen over to the man hunched over sitting up on the side of the bed.
"What about the nanobots?" Winston asked. Angela replayed the scans from Star's body examining what happened.
"As expected, the nanobots repaired his organs and cells and proceeded to attack anything foreign inside the body, but when they came close to the amplifiers." She zoomed in seeing that the bots had perfectly circled around them and avoided them. "They just ignored it."
"Peculiar." Winston said rubbing his chin. "Perhaps they emit a tiny magnetic wave to repulse the nanobots?"
Angela walked over to Star placing a hand on his shoulder. "How are you feeling?"
"Been better." He answered, his voice a little raspy from the breathing tube. He got up out of bed his legs shaky still, struggling to support his weight at first. "This isn't the first time I've gone through this. Moira did this all the time whenever Reaper pushed me to my limit. Guess I just overdid it this time." Angela was perplexed.
"Hm, I'll have to study her research more then. In the mean time you should get some rest, and avoid using your powers until I can develop a counter measure for this." Lena helped Star as much as she could with her good arm. The two were outside walking back to Lena's room, when Lena slugged Star in the shoulder as hard as she could.
"You son of a bitch!" She continued to wale on his arm with all her strength out of frustration. "Don't you dare scare me like that again! I thought you were gone, I thought it was all my fault!" Lena's punches were starting to diminish as Star gingerly grabbed her arm and held it down embracing her as she buried her face into his shoulder. "I thought I lost you." She whimpered out. Star just held her close letting her cut loose.
Star wrapped his arm around her as the two continued to walk through the halls and towards her room. It wasn't until they were inside her room that Star finally noticed her attire. "You stayed the whole time?"
"Well I wanted to make sure you were ok." She said sitting down on her couch. Star took her arm out of the sling and helped her out of her armor looking at the stitched up patch on her shoulder.
"That looks like it stung a bit."
"Still does." Lena couldn't help but pick Star's brain about the mission. "Do you know who that was with Reaper?" Star shook his head.
"Could just be another one of me, or Reaper rather." Star let out a little sigh. "A better version."
Lena was still trying to wrap her head around the battle they had.
"How could he have survived." she said to herself. Star smirked before getting up and going to her bathroom. Lena heard the shower water turning on and Star helped her up off the couch and helped her into the bathroom. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Getting you cleaned up. And helping you relax a bit. For once I think you're the one that needs to take it easy."
"How can you be so calm after what just happened to you? And to all of us? How?" She started demanding answers.
"Well, you're the reason why." Star said offering a little smile
"Me?" She questioned.
"You and I are not all that different in the fact that our time in this world is a little more fragile than others." He tapped her on her accelerator. "And you've shown me that it's not worth the fuss of thinking about what ifs or what could happen, but just enjoy the here and now and the ride we're on."
"But, your amplifiers, they're killing you."
"Am I dead though?" Lena sighed and shook her head. "Someone could clock that thing off of you and you'd be gone, but no one would ever think that about you, because you're so headstrong. I like that about you." She started to blush slightly at the compliment.
Lena was resisting slightly, surprised at his demeanor. "Star you almost just died. How can you be so calm, so I don't know, mellow."
He helped her take her accelerator and clothes off and got her into the shower feeling the embrace of the hot water cascading down her back. He got in behind her and started to massage her shoulders feeling how tense she was. "The only thing that matters to me is you are here with me now, so lets just enjoy the time we have together." Lena closed her eyes enjoying the sensations she was feeling between the water and his hands. His hands wrapped around her front and moved down to her breasts cupping and massaging them as well. Lena moaned a little trying to keep her sounds in check. She bit her lip trying to contain her excitement before one of his hands slid down from her chest, down along her abs, finding his way to her folds where he started to venture around with his fingers.
"Star..I don't..I don't think..this is the...best time." Speaking was becoming increasingly difficult for her as she was indulging into the lust a bit.
"Sorry for scaring you back there." He said in a low tone into her ear as he started to kiss and nibble at her neck. Small moans were escaping her mouth from the teasing she was enduring.
"Commander..wants me to..take some..some leave..ah..I..I think..maybe you should..you should come..with me." She started to grind her hips a little trying to help his fingers hit the right spot.
Star slid is finger inside her wet slit feeling it spasm around him. "You want me to come with you?" Lena let out a sharp gasp leaning back into him more, her legs unable to support herself from the small orgasms she was feeling.
"Bad shoulder you know..ah..would need..need some..help getting..around..and..oh god." She trailed off, grasping her own breast with her good arm completely giving in the ecstasy, bucking her hips jaw slacked open as she let the waves of her orgasm rock her body. She practically collapsed into Star's arms breathing heavily. She raised her arm and wrapped it around Star's neck relaxing against his body. She struggled to say anything still enjoying the euphoric feeling. Star turned her around and picked her up against the wall.
"You were so brave helping me out there, charging in head first to battle." Star was pressing his body against hers gazing into her eyes.
"Star I..ahhh." He cut her off shoving his rock hard member into her folds holding himself up against her feeling her muscles massage him. Her arm instinctively wrapped around his back trying to pull him in as much as she could. She kissed him as she felt him start to slowly thrust into her, her moans being muffled by the kiss. Star broke the embrace first as Lena's mouth still hung open feeling every inch of him moving inside of her. He started increasing his pace, Lena only able to cling on for dear life. She wrapped her legs around him moaning as the pleasure was erupting through her. Star's member started twitching inside of her, she knew he was close. She held him close making him unable to thrust anymore, before feeling him pulsate inside feeling the warmness spread inside of her. Star moaned as he unloaded twitching his hips slightly, Lena still holding on to him.
The two were heaving together, but before Star could pull away he felt Lena refusing to let him back away. "Can you just, hold me." She said in a pleading tone.
Star gave her a peck on the cheek and held her tighter feeling the warm water covering their bodies. "I'll always hold onto you as long as you hold onto me." Lena gave him a big kiss before letting her head rest on his shoulders wishing this moment would never end.