As they were pulling up to their usual parking spot, Junkrat gave Roadhog a playful punch in the shoulder. "Why don't you go get us dinner?"

Liz could feel the scowl he was making under his mask. "There's nothing around for miles."

"Then do whatever." Junkrat already had Liz by the hand, dragging her out of the truck. "Just make yourself scarce for a while, eh?"

He led her inside the dark shack, embracing her as soon as they were on the other side of the doorway, his hand casually sliding into her pocket.

"What are you -?"

Producing her lighter, he reached over and lit a candle with a giggle, and then tossed it back to her.

"Oh."

With his palms resting on her hips, he guided her backwards to the bed in the center of the one-room shack, pulling her coat off her so slowly, she almost didn't notice. When her legs caught the edge of the bed, he let his lips fall to hers, carefully pushing her horizontal and crawling over her. He was being gentle and attentive, a drastically different energy than what he had shown her in the back of the truck.

Having led her to the head of the bed, he sat up with a knee on either side of her, unstrapping his harness and tossing it over the edge of the mattress. He paused there, looking down on her contently.

"What?"

Letting his hands fall to her stomach, he rested them at the band of her shorts. "I want you, Cookie."

"Jamie…"

"I want to do horrible, nasty things to you, but… in a good way."

She sighed. "I knew what you meant, silly. You really didn't have to clarify that."

"But can I get specific anyway?" He began to lower himself to her. "Just for fun?"

"Okay…"

"First of all, I want to kiss you again," he said, just before crushing his lips to hers once more. Falling into the rhythm of it, Liz was just beginning to feel her inhibitions melt away when he lifted to continue speaking. "I want to put my mouth aaall over you…" He was kissing his way down her torso, just barely pushing back the bottom of her shirt to land his lips softly on her belly. He looked up at her with longing. "Work at you a bit with my tongue." His metal hand slid over the fabric between her legs, and she began pulsing madly for him.

"Oh geez…"

"Make you come so hard, Hog's gonna have to hook you up to some intravenous fluids after to keep you hydrated." Her let out a small laugh at his own joke. "I wanna see you panting, sweaty, and convulsing with pleasure." He withdrew his hand and sank onto her body again. "And just when you think you can't take anymore…"

She gasped as the bulge in his pants pressed into her.

"I'll make you come again!"

"Jamie…"

"Please, don't ever stop saying my name like that," he purred.

She frowned. "You talk a big game. An enticing one at that, but… you're moving kinda fast."

His face slacked with a pitiful groan as he adjusted himself. "Maybe." He rolled to her side, propping his head up in his hand. "But you really seem to be cracking on to me. I thought you wanted to…"

"It's not like I don't."

"Then what's stopping ya?"

Her brow crumpled, and she reached for his arm, throwing it over her. "Just shut up and hold me."

He relented with a smile, squeezing her tightly. "This is good, too."

She cuddled up to him, much too anxious to appreciate how comfortable it was. His chest rose and fell with a happy sigh. "I'm so glad I found you, Cookie. You make me feel… like I matter."

"Do you normally feel like you don't?"

"I try not to let it get to me, but there's a lot of people back home that would go out their way to make me feel like shit."

"You do matter, Jamie. Fuck anyone who tells you otherwise."

"Bugger them! I'd rather talk about us! Remember when I did the bit in the diner where I jumped on the table and threatened ya, and you immediately started laughing?"

"That was a bit?"

"Sure! I still think about it. If I had been in your shoe –"

"Shoe, singular. I get it."

"– I probably would have done the same thing. But not many people could say that. I knew right then that you were –"

She paused him with a finger across his lips. "Don't say anything too damning."

He pressed a kiss to her fingertip and lowered her hand. "Ha ha, I was just gonna say I see a lot of meself in ya. You took to handling explosives like a pro. Really seem to appreciate them."

"Maybe not as much as you."

He laughed lightly. "Maybe not. But there's also your tendency to tell a porky." Before she could question his choice of words, he took her mech hand in his and ran his real hand lovingly through her singed-short hair. "You're even starting to look a bit like me, heh heh heh."

"Gee, thanks."

"Hey, that's a compliment!" He grinned wildly. "Just wait, they'll see! We're gonna do great things – me, you, and Roadhog. We'll find a way to make that God AI work on our own, take out those Omnics heaps better than Overwatch ever could, and everyone will practically worship us!"

"Is that what you want? To be worshipped?"

"Not specifically, but it's defo a perk. All those nations will have to drop our bounties, give us anything we want…"

"So what do you want?"

"To give you the world, Cookie! Anything your heart desires. And I'll take you back home to Junkertown and show you around to all those insufferable bludgers who said I'd never amount to anything. They'll all get to see that despite everything, I found a smart, pretty, dyed-in-the wool badass girl that does more than just tolerate me. And that bitch will have no choice but to recognize our greatness, maybe even relinquish her position."

"…Who?"

"The Queen! We'll overthrow her. Just imagine it, Cookie. Me, you, and Roadie, ruling Junkertown! All that treasure and all that desert aaand… I literally can't think of anything better!"

"You want me to go to Junkertown with you?"

"No worries, mate. Straya's got beaches, too. You're gonna love it there."

The minutes ticked by and the candle burned out. Sometime before that, his rambling had slowed to a stop, and his breathing had transitioned to snores.

I'm not really like Junkrat, am I?

She liked him. A lot. And somehow, she really had become attracted to him, making it all the more difficult to stall his physical advances earlier. But at the bottom of everything, there was Jesse, her one true love, and she was certain she couldn't live her life with someone else, wondering what if.

He thinks I'm going to live in Junkertown with him.

Filled with anxiety, she realized things weren't getting out of her control. She was past that. They already were.

Tick tock, tick tock. It had been long enough for her to have decided what she needed to do. She carefully lifted his arm off of her and did her best not to jar the bed as she got up.

With her coat on, she was reaching for the doorknob when she heard his voice behind her. "Where are you going?"

"Just to smoke," she replied calmly.

He sat up abruptly. "I'll come with you."

"That's not really necessary."

"There's no reason you can't smoke in here."

"I didn't want to disturb you."

"Too late. You already did." He let his foot and peg hit the floor and stood with apprehension written all over his face. "Where were you really going?"

She read him in the dim light and clammed up, fidgeting and scratching her arm.

"I've been where you are right now. I know what you're trying to do."

"Jamie..."

"Why now, though? Just when I finally started to believe you were one of us… That you actually liked me…"

The brokenhearted look on his face made Liz's chest tighten. "After everything you've done for me, I didn't want to have to go through this with you."

"You're really leaving?"

"And after all the times you tried to leave me, why couldn't you just let me go?" she whined, powerless.

He shook his head in disbelief. "What did I do, Cookie? Whatever it is, I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Don't make me beg."

"Then don't."

"Then don't go! Please, don't do this, Cookie…" His lower lip shook with a whimper. "I think I love you."

His words crushed her, and she turned her head away. "No, you don't. You hardly know me."

"I know you enough to know I like you. Your smile, your laugh. That stupid little smirk you do at just about everything. The cute little way you argue with me when I push your buttons, the way you look at me… Please, give me a chance."

"It's not you. It's… Jesse."

Her invocation of that name made him cringe. "Pfft! Really? I hate to break this to ya, but he doesn't care about you, mate."

"You don't understand."

"I understand plenty. Some good-lookin' bloke that you had a childhood crush on still pays attention to you every now and then, and it gets your panties moist. I'm sure seeing you turn to jelly around him boosts his ego and all, but if he cared about you, he would have snatched you up by now."

She just stared at him blankly, the truth behind his observation slowly sinking in.

He could tell tears were stinging her eyes, but he just couldn't leave it alone. It only seemed fair if she was going to hurt him. "How did I do? Was I bang on?"

"Mako was right. I never should have let things go this far between us."

"Tell me if I'm wrong!"

When he raised his voice, she burned, swallowing the lump in her throat and summoning the tried-and-true anger that got her through every other tough situation in her life. "You are wrong. He kissed me."

"Really? When?"

"A few days ago."

"Yeah sure, I'll buy that. He followed you all the way down here to Mexico so you could sneak around and pash when you weren't busy cracking onto me."

A disturbed laugh came out of her as she pushed down a cry. "Bingo! Right again!"

"How stupid do you think I am?"

"This is impossible, I'm not doing this with you!" She turned for the door once more, but he grabbed her wrist, pulling her back to him.

"Where are you going to go? There's nothing left out there for you, remember?"

The tears finally found their way out, trickling down her cheek. "Why would you say that?!"

"Because..." He eased his grip on her, his combative tone softening. "I want you to stay."

Despite his raw honesty, his earlier comments still had her defensive. "You want me to stay, even though I lied to you the entire time I was with you?" she goaded.

"You trying to tell me there's nothing between us? I know you couldn't lie straight in bed, Cookie."

"What?!"

"Ya tell porkies. You're a liar. I don't care about that."

She looked him dead in the eyes. "I'm trying to tell you Jesse really was here! He was in the bar, tonight."

Realizing she was serious, panic struck him. "What…?"

"He was even right here at this shack the first night we were here."

As the magnitude of what she was saying became clear to him, the corners of his mouth drew down and his eye began to twitch.

"The truth is he's a bounty hunter…" By now, Junkrat's fuse was burning short, ready to blow, but Liz, having already said too much, saw no point in stopping now. "And I was trying to steal your treasure… to stop him from taking you in." If nothing else, at least she would have a clear conscious on the matter.

Junkrat could practically taste blood, glaring at her through narrow little slits.

She met his burning eyes and was obliterated by momentous fear. "I-I'm sorry, Jamie. I never meant to –"

"Get out," he growled through jagged, clenched teeth. "Right now before I do something I'll regret."

Not wanting to test his wrath any further, she fled out the door. It slammed shut behind her, and when she looked back, she saw Roadhog sitting aside, quietly watching her.

Junkrat's frustrated screams mixed with crashing sounds were erupting behind the shack's closed door as Roadhog stood up. With his warning in mind, for a fleeting moment, she thought this was the end of her, but he just tossed her the truck keys. "Goodbye, Liz," he remarked with only mild scorn, content that she was leaving on her own.

She fumbled to catch them, storming away from him before he changed his mind about letting her off the hook. "He's all yours again," she hissed.

With a snort, he headed for the building. "And good riddance."

In his fit of rage, Jamison never heard the truck take off, but the door opening did catch his attention. He straightened up, afraid it was Cookie. What he would do if she came back, he wasn't sure, but it was probably a tossup between fuck her or kill, neither of which was ideal.

When he saw it was Mako, he unclenched his muscles in relief.

"She's gone," his bodyguard informed him.

Completely overwhelmed, Jamison's fury gave way to a sob, and he dove into Mako's chest. "I'm so sorry!" he bawled. "I should have listened to you!"

Mako sighed, putting an arm around him. "You don't have to apologize. I heard everything from outside."

"I really am an idiot!"

Feeling the tears against his bare chest, Mako scowled. "No, you're not."

"Dammit! ….Why did she have to do this to me?"

Mako put his other arm around Jamison, patting his back.

Soon, his sobbing calmed down to a sniffle, and he took a deep breath, pulling away from him. "Never again, mate. I'll never trust another Sheila as long as I live."

"She'll be right, Jamie. I promise." Roadhog lit a cigarette and placed it on Jamison's pouting lips. "I'm here for you."