There was pain, but it was so far off it didn't matter. Everything was pleasantly numb. It didn't feel like the chill of the ice that had protected but haunted her through most of her life. Instead she felt warm, almost cozy. Maybe they had put blankets on her, or maybe Jamie was holding her again. He was always nice and warm.

She drifted in and out of consciousness for a while, though she couldn't tell how long. Whenever she felt like she was just starting to swim back to the proverbial surface, when the buzz of overheard conversations and blurry shapes through her eyelashes just started to make sense, there would be a pressure in her arm and she'd be lost again. She knew she'd been dreaming, or hallucinating, likely a combination of both, but couldn't really remember any of them. Yet it didn't worry her, and she found her sleep to be soothing, and she might as well have been dreaming of nothing. Now that she was back safely with her friends and with Dr. Ziegler tending her broken body, she could rest easy.

At some point the sedation lessened, and when she began the slow ascent back to reality, there was nothing to stop her. At first she thought it would be nice to finally be back, she could greet all her friends and get started on her very long to-do work list. But as consciousness returned, so did the awareness of how much pain she was really in. That cozy warmth had turned into a burning sensation, and she moaned a little as she tried to open her eyes. Her limbs felt like lead and her nerves tingled unpleasantly, and her skin felt hot and uncomfortable, like she was trapped inside it.

"Doo-doop! Wee-wee-wee!"

There was a chiming mechanical noise like her phone's alarm going off and she instinctively reached out to find it and turn it off, but when she finally managed to peel her eyelids apart, she found that she was blearily poking Bastion in the front light that served as its eye. But the omnic unit didn't seem to mind, still chirping and buzzing excitedly as it tilted its boxy head. Ganymede, strangely well-behaved as ever, hopped from shoulder to shoulder, fluttering his wings and tilting his head curiously at the strange scene.

She quickly lowered her hand back to her side. Of all the people she expected to find by her side upon awakening, this one hadn't occured to her. "Bastion?"

"Wee-woop, doo hoo hoo, dweet!" The bot replied happily, pointing towards itself, then at her, and then gesturing around them. "Dah-dah doo."

She struggled to sit, and the omnic beeped quickly and began moving pillows around to help prop her up. She was in one of the beds in Mercy's clinic, surrounded by drawn hospital curtains. But where everything should have been cold and clinical and white, she saw blurs of color all around her, and she was wearing a set of clean but unfamiliar pajamas. Bastion helpfully held up her glasses from the side dresser nearby, and when she put them on she saw that she was surrounded by vases of flowers from most of Overwatch, along with a slew of Get Well cards and a large adorable stuffed seal was in bed next to her. Bastion was already searching amongst the clutter on the table before holding out a simple folded paper to her.

She took it and opened it up. There, in large font, was printed a series of numbers.

U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665 U+2665

She blinked and gave the bot a questioning look, but before she could ask what the numbers were, a familiar booming voice spoke from the other side of her bed.

"I had to look up what it meant too. It's the Unicode sequence for the heart symbol in an old font called 'wingdings'," Winston said, offering a toothy smile. He lumbered awkwardly into the little space between the bed and curtains, lowering his back haunches into a sit. "Bastion was very disappointed that it couldn't be more involved in the search and rescue, and I'm not sure it understood the…Australian political climate or the reasons why. But it's been waiting to give you those hearts since it heard you got back and was happy to see you…We're…We're all happy to see you again."

"Winston!" She managed a smile, opening both arms. She felt a tug, noticing the IV drip tubes inserted into her arm, but went in for the hug anyway. His arms were absolutely massive as they wrapped around her, large enough to nearly envelop her entire upper body and then some as he gave her a fond little squeeze. And she couldn't even begin to describe how relieved she was to be hugging him again. "I'm happy to see you again too."

"Doot?"

"And you too, Bastion! It's so good to be back." She gave her gorilla friend a little kiss to his furry cheek, then withdrew suddenly when she was aware that the hug was beginning to hurt, her skin painful to the touch. "Owch…Ow, even if it's a little unpleasant still. How long has it been since we got back?"

"Not quite a week. I'm sure Angela can give you the details once she gets back from, ah, checking on the junkers. But she said you were due to wake up soon, so we've been helping keep an eye on you for a bit. How do you feel?"

"Honestly? I don't feel very well at all." She leaned back into her bed with a little slump, Bastion dutifully fluffing her pillows for her. "And Jamie? And Roadhog? Are they all right? Where are they?"

Winston shook his shaggy head. "The junkers are recovering elsewhere in the facility. All three of you had radioactive poisoning that was almost off the charts of survivability, your sunburns have been peeling rather unpleasantly, your organs were starting to fail in several different ways, multiple bullet and shrapnel wounds and…Well, the bruise where Agent 76 clocked you is mostly faded, at least?" He uttered a little rumbling chuckle that didn't really sound cheerful at all, then buried his face in his giant hands, fingers curling slightly into the pits of his eyesockets. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never should have let you go."

She looked down quietly as Bastion soothingly patted Winston's back. Their last conversation together, they had fought and she had used vicious, uncharacteristic language at him when he'd nearly accused her of being mentally unsound. The initial relief she felt was starting to break, scattering back into shards of anger, resentment, sorrow, happiness…everything was a tangle and nothing was clear, and for a few long moments she could do nothing but stare blankly at the stuffed seal's happy face staring back up at her.

"Winston," she finally said. "I wanted to go. I wanted to help. I even demanded it, remember? And I think I did help. Even if everything went wrong, I think we helped. But…" She took a deep breath, even if it hurt a little. "I'm not sure I'm happy about it? I know that's a strange thing to say. I should be happy, and maybe soon I will be? But…A lot happened and…everything broke. Everything broke, and I broke, and you broke. And it's not anyone's fault. Winston, it's not your fault."

"I should have denied your request. Never should have-" he started to say, voice still full of despair.

"No. I wanted this. Not…all this. But please, I want you to know that no matter how mad I was, and even though I yelled at you, I never blamed you for any of it. Not really. And…I'm sorry for yelling at you. I was not myself, and even if I was mad I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. Even if I'm still a little mad. I'm sorry for that. And a lot of things."

Winston looked at her, his glasses sliding down his nose slightly. For once, her voice wasn't quavering and there weren't any frustrated tears. Mostly she just sounded tired. And she looked tired, too, so small and frail amongst all the pillows, and seemed nothing like the old Mei that had left for Australia so many months ago. He hadn't seen her like this since…well, since the Antarctica incident. Her gaze was hollow and far off, her mind still lingering and wandering back in the desert that had almost killed her.

"We did try to find you-" he started again, but Mei shook her head.

"I know you did. Everyone did what they could. Including us. I guess that's something I really learned while I was there with the junkers. Everyone just does what they can, just to try and stay alive a little longer." She sighed and reached out to take the flower that Bastion was offering her, rolling the stem between her fingers. "It's not anyone's fault. So…please don't blame yourself, because I don't. I mean it."

"Doo-wee," Bastion chirped hopefully, pointing to the paper with the Unicode hearts again.

She offered the bot a little half-smile. "I'm just glad that we got out alive and can see everybody again. I was afraid that…we might not get to?"

Winston shifted uncomfortably at the thought. "I knew you'd be fighting like hell to get out of there, if you were still out there, that you'd leave us a signal or a sign. I kept thinking if we just sent out more teams, more drones, we'd run into you eventually. But then time kept passing and complications kept happening, and there was no sign of you or the others or your equipment, not even a trail to follow. Some of the others were trying to suggest that we stop looking for you, and start looking for your body. But I refused. And I started thinking that maybe you'd been taken and hidden, that those men had turned on you, for some ransom or other or…" He trailed off, unable to meet the look she was giving him now. "I don't know what I thought. And then, on a random Tuesday, you popped up on the screen and there you were again, and I still didn't know what to think."

"That wasn't what happened at all. It was an emergency, we were forced t-"

"I know that now. I know the reason now. But back then, I didn't know anything. I was still looking for answers and finding nothing. And then all of a sudden you were back, and the first thing I did was-" he put his face in his hands again, voice slightly muffled. "I decided my own answers, put the blame on your associates and managed to insult you. And I'm sorry for that part too."

Her gaze softened and her smile turned a little more genuine. "Xièxiè, Winston. I'm sorry too. I guess it's like Dr. Ziegler was saying. Maybe it was just that so much had happened and we were just overwhelmed."

"I think so too. And, I had a lot of time to think a little more logically even while I was regretting everything, over the last few months. I promised myself that if you came back safely, I'd ensure a new stipend and supplies and perhaps some staff volunteers, to try and get more things coming your way in the science division. Your first volunteer will be me, actually."

"Really? You mean that? I'd be very grateful! I mean, I'd hate to impose on you while you're trying to run operations at Overwatch. But of course I would love to have you along. We could really get a lot done, really help do what we need to do to help the world."

"Doot?"

"And we'd love to have you too, Bastion. You'd make the perfect research assistant." Mei nodded as the omnic patted his metal chest with a little clank.

"Wee!"

Winston coughed slightly into one fist. " And I- er, heard what you said about the MRE rations, during our impromptu meeting. Well, that and Agent Junkrat started telling me about all the things he would rather have been eating than those meals I sent with you, and even those sounded disgusting."

"They…were really bad," she agreed. "Putrid."

"I guess that's the reason they seemed like such a bargain. Well, maybe the new funding can help with that part too. Although I wouldn't start planning any expeditions quite yet. Angela's going to have my head if she thinks I'm distracting you from your rest. I'll give her a call right now, actually, she'll probably want to see-" He halted as he started to get up, when a small hand landed on his arm.

"Wait. I promise I'll get back to resting right after, but I want to see my friends. I want to know they're both okay."

The gorilla shifted uncomfortably. "Er…I'm not sure if that's really a wise decision at this juncture."

"Winston! I already explained what happened. Nobody did anything wrong, I thought we both agreed now."

"We do!" he said quickly. "It's not really that so much as, er, the junkers have very different ideas about necessary medical procedures. Mostly Agent Junkrat. He refused treatment, blew up a monitoring device and tried to escape in a grenade-propelled wheelchair, and I believe he's been sedated and moved to a more secure facility, but then Roadhog demanded to go with him…"

Mei groaned a little and sat back in her bed, massaging her temples. It had already started. Well, she'd made a promise to him, and if he could drag her across the Australian wasteland with no hesitation, she could stand a little chaos to make sure he was all right too. "Let me go talk with them, please? I think I might be able to help. Could we bring along some of these flowers too?"

"Bweet-twee-weet!"

Winston did not look entirely convinced that this was a good idea. "Er…I suppose so? Maybe just for a moment or two. Just a quick visit? Then it's right back to the recovery ward for you."

She was already starting to painstakingly shuffle her way out from under the covers, awkwardly tying her piggy headscarf back in place as the omnic started dutifully stacking bouquets into one arm, his cardinal companion pecking curiously at the blooms. Winston still looked unsure, but pushed back the curtains and lumbered off to fetch a wheelchair, starting to transfer her IV bags, blankets, monitors, her seal, and apparently anything else he was worried she might need. It took far longer than she would have liked, but she wasn't about to jeopardize her visit to the junkers, and soon he was satisfied enough that she was in a state to move. With one last moment of hesitation from Winston and a happy chirping tune from Bastion and Ganymede, they began to wheel her off.

When Winston had said the junkers had been moved to a more secure medical facility, she had assumed he had meant another room in the main hospital area. But when he wheeled her out, he took her out the hospital altogether, through the main entry, down across the docking area, across the base yard, and finally to one of the very far-off and lesser-used clinics that had mostly been used for storage. In front of it, there was an overturned wheelchair with one wheel hanging askew and broken, along with scattered frag casings, and a long scorch mark leading all the way down from the top of the hill, where Junkrat's ill-fated escape attempt had no doubt immediately gone awry and slammed him directly into the wall.

Somehow, she wasn't surprised.

The door hissed open, and she expected to see a harried and wild eyed Mercy pressed up against the wall desperately wielding her Caduceus staff, or the junkers up and about and threatening bodily harm. Clearly she had underestimated the good doctor, for the scene was surprisingly peaceful as they entered. The medical machines had been shoved into a pile on one side of the room, to make way for two hospital beds (or technically three, as Roadhog's bed was two beds strapped together to try and fit him) along with their IV drips and monitors, along with a tv-attuned holodrone that was hovering off to one side, playing some soap opera or other that was being watched by nobody. Just like she'd been afraid of, she saw that the junkers hadn't received the same welcome home she had. There was a small hastily-made arrangement of daisies and a set of cards from and Lucio, but that was it. She was glad she'd thought to bring some of her own.

She saw Junkrat's lanky form buried under a mound of covers, facing away from the door, but he didn't stir even as they made their way in. This was easily explained by the presence of not Dr. Ziegler, but Ana Amari, who was sitting with her tranq-dart gun at ready on her belt as she and Roadhog sat…knitting?

"Remember. In, around, under, off. In, around, under, off. That's it, pull it a little tighter there…Oh, you're doing very well, I think you might be a natural." The warm creaking tone of Ana's voice was always so soothing, as was her slightly wrinkled smile when she looked up and offered them a little wave of greeting. "Miss Zhou! I had a feeling we might be seeing you soon. You're welcome to join us if you wish, I'm sure you can always use another warm hat?"

Mei nodded in a rather distracted manner, unable to keep her eyes from the fact that Roadhog was indeed knitting. The enormous junker's hands nearly enveloped the knitting needles like they were mere pins, holding them delicately between two fingers in each hand, but manipulating the yarn around them with ease, weaving red and yellow into some new homemade creation. True to Ana's words, he was wearing a warm-looking knitted toboggan hat atop his eerie pig mask, the pom-pom on top bobbling slightly as he gave her a nod. "Mei."

She shook her head quickly, then caught the slightest movement of Roadhog's chin. He was looking past her now, to where Bastion stood in the doorway, weighed down with flowers.

"Doo-wee-doo? Da-da-doot?"

"…Hmm," the elder junker rumbled, and Mei understood all the subtle meanings behind that one low grunt, saw the way his thumbs tightened around his knitting needles, the barely discernible forward movement of his massive shoulders.

She was just about to speak when Winston diplomatically stepped in, going to relieve the omnic of the bundles. "Thank you, Bastion. Why don't you head back to the main hospital area and see if you can find Angela for us? I thought she would be here," he said, watching until the friendly bot and his bird companion clanked out of sight, calling after it. "We will talk to you later about the environment initiative!"

"Bwee…"

Relieved that the situation was resolved before it had even begun, Mei awkwardly wheeled herself forward, maneuvering around Ana's chair as she went to place a vase full of peonies on Roadhog's bedside dresser. "How are you feeling?"

"Red zone radiation. Worse than usual," he said, and briefly lifted the pom-pom toboggan from his head. He was missing the white tuft of his usual ponytail and it seemed he had finally lost his hair too, and his head was mostly bald with scatterings of white peachfuzz. "Got the rest shaved. Ana."

"I think it looks pretty good this way," Ana responded cheerfully, her eyes still on her knitting. "It'll grow back sooner than later. Especially if you keep up with the meds and keep being the model patient that you are."

His brow furrowed slightly as he dropped a stitch, struggling to correct it. "Mm."

Mei nodded, her relief evident as she scooted past them towards Junkrat's bed. He still didn't stir, and she turned in her chair to give Ana a questioning look. "And is…Jamison okay? I mean, he's just sedated right now?"

"Right now, yes. Honestly, it was careless on our part not to dart him right off the ship. He went zooming off when we started to tell him of the medical procedures he was going to need. It took nearly an hour just to wrangle him into a bed, even with Roadhog's help. I've used enough dosage to put down an elephant several times over and he's still almost gotten out a few times. In fact, he's due to wake up rather soon here…Did she want to stay?" She tilted her head, noting Mei biting her lip and gazing at the unconscious junker in his bed.

He still had tufts of his hair attached, though a little more scorched and bald than usual, and he looked even skinnier and bonier than normal, which she didn't know was possible. But then again, he had started off as a mess of radiation and impulsive urges to begin with, and he looked mostly as he always had, though a little more peaceful than usual as he was knocked out and steadily drooling a new ocean into the divot of his pillow. At a loss of anything else to do, she sat up in her chair and started arranging bouquets of flowers on the tables around him.

Winston cleared his throat a bit. "I should probably be returning her to the main medbay now?"

Ana leaned back in her chair, waving a hand. "Oh Winston, I think everything is clearly under control here, let the girl visit for a while. Angela's off getting test results, we can take her back when everything's ready. And it might do the boy good to see a face he actually wants to see, once he wakes up. I'll be here, just in case." Her lips turned up slightly on the edges, smirking knowingly at Mei, who sheepishly went back to her flower-arranging.

Winston sighed and lifted both hands, starting to lumber out in defeat. "All right, all right. Just for a little while longer, until the doctor is back. At least I can tell her I tried."

"Shukran, Winston, ya azizi." Ana blew the retreating ape a kiss before settling back once more, knitting needles clicking. "Make yourself comfortable, Mei. You're welcome to join our new club here until he wakes up, or just watch whatever's on."

She shook her head, idly turning to the soap opera on tv, giving little fleeting glances to the sleeping junker. "I'm sorry he caused you all so much trouble. I wish I'd been awake, maybe I could have helped."

Ana gave a little laugh. "Do you think this is my first time dealing with difficult men who charge head-first into trouble? I need to tell Reinhardt to step up his game. The rocket wheelchair thing was creative, at least, I'll give him that. Good story to tell for poker night. Oh, Roadhog, you're in for our next poker night, aren't you?"

"Mm."

"I don't understand why he'd make such a fuss about treatment at all. We fought so hard to get back here," Mei said, pursing her lips. "He fought so hard so we could get back."

Ana and Roadhog exchanged a little glance before focusing back on their needles, Ana speaking up. "He fought so hard so you could get back, I think. He seemed relieved once you were back in our care. The explosions only started after we wanted him for treatment as well."

"That makes no sense. We were all there, we all needed help. Did he think he could just drop me off and…and what? Wander away? After all we went through? He needs to get better too!"

"Don't try to make too much sense of men. Especially not that one."

Roadhog grunted an agreement.

Mei scowled, then started yet another struggle to rouse herself out from under the stack of blankets on her lap, her limbs still weak and wobbly and the tubes from the IV swaying to and fro from her arm. Roadhog idly offered one massive arm, reaching all the way across to her as she grabbed onto it and steadied herself, painstakingly clambering up from her wheelchair and up into Junkrat's hospital bed, crawling under the covers with him. He remained unresponsive, his back facing her as she sat up against a pillow and fiercely folded her arms. "Well, then we're going to have a talk about him causing trouble. When he wakes up. As soon as he wakes up, he's going to get it."

"That's the spirit, habibati," Ana chuckled. "Give him a piece of your mind. Nice to see you'll be sticking around."

"…More yarn, please," Roadhog said. "Do you have pink."

Mei sat and waited, watching the boring opera and slowly sinking down more and more into the thin mattress as she listened to the steady clicking of knitting needles and hushed conversation. If Jamison thought he would be getting off the hook just because all of them were half dead and suffering from massive radiation poisoning, well he was completely wrong. They would definitely be talking that one over. Just as soon as she was sure he was really all right. After she was sure she had confirmed for herself that he was okay, maybe then. And maybe…Maybe after she had a little nap herself. Just a little one.

Huddling down into the blankets and laying her head on her seal, she draped an arm over him and pulled herself closer before drifting off again, breathing going low and still to match his as the drone of the tv continued. The knitting, however, had paused for a moment, though she didn't know it.

"I think they'll be all right. Sometimes, things just work," Ana said. "Although with these ones, they will either get along surprisingly beautifully, or clash so hard that the universe will come apart in a deluge of ice and fire…Either one of those, really. I don't think you should worry."

"…Hmm."

"You know, you're not as hard to read as you think, Roadhog. If one takes the time to look. Of course, you know what that means? I've got you dead to rights for poker night. You and your tells are going down, my friend."

"Try me."