Thwack-thwack-thwack.
In the distance Reinhardt hears the chop of helicopter blades approaching. He leans across Brigitte to start the van and flip on the high-beams; the field opposite them is flooded with light.
The sound grows louder and louder, until out of the dark descents a black chopper. If he's not mistaken, it's one of the old strike helicopters. He pulls Brigitte into his arms and approaches, squinting his eyes against the rush of wind from the spinning blades. As they cycle down he sees a familiar figure hop out of the cockpit.
"Cheers big guy!" Lena shouts over the thrumming over the rotor as it spins down, "The cavalry's here!" He can see her expression falter as she catches sight of him and Brigitte. Concern, surprise, perhaps fear? He himself has never been more glad to see her; for a moment, the tightness in his chest eases.
The door to the helicopter's cabin slides open and someone he doesn't recognize slips out. It is a young man with thick dreadlocks tied back into a ponytail, wearing some kind of armor on his legs that glows yellow along it's joints. This must be Lúcio.
Lúcio flashes a wave at him as he approaches, his expression grim as he takes in Reinhardt's cargo. "Hey man, I'm Lúcio. Here to help any way I can." Somehow, his name sounds familiar. As he nears Reinhardt the knight can feel... something coming from him. Like a vibration. Lena and Lúcio crowd around him, offering their help to carry Brigitte but he refuses.
"C'mere, we got a bed set up inside." Lúcio waves him to the open cabin and Reinhardt ducks his head to avoid the spinning rotor blades. He lifts Brigitte onto the gurney as Lúcio climbs back inside.
"Do you need to take care of that?" Lena asks, pointing at the van which is still pouring light into the field. Reinhardt eyes it for a moment; he does , but there is no way he isn't leaving with them now. The best option is to leave it parked alongside the driveway.
"Give me a moment to move it out of the road!" He tells her, and she nods, climbing back into the cockpit.
He races back to the van and moves it back alongside the trees as closely as he can, then cuts the engine. As an afterthought he grabs their duffel bags and their holopads; it is probable that Brigitte will want a change of clothes when she wakes up. As he slams the door to the cabin closed he grabs one of the wireless headsets hanging from a peg and slides it over his ears. Next to him Lúcio slides his back on.
"Alright, loves! Hold on tight, we're taking off!" Lena's voice crackles in his ears as the thrum of the helicopter's engines turns into a roar, and they leave the ground. Reinhardt is thankful they have her for a pilot. With a surge of speed she plots their course towards the Rock of Gibraltar.
Lúcio is looking Brigitte over, pulling ineffectually at her armor.
"Uh, can you give me a hand here?" Lúcio's voice comes over the comm, even and somewhat amused. He motions to Reinhardt, tapping at her chest plate. "We need to get her out of this armor, and I have no idea how you guys get into it." Reinhardt obliges, unlocking the hidden fasteners and removing it piece by piece until Brigitte lays in only her underlayer. Lúcio peels back the t-shirt tied to her head, examining the wound.
"Ooh, that looks gnarly." He remarks, combing gently through her matted hair with his fingers. He clicks on a penlight and peers more closely at her scalp. His prodding causes Brigitte to stir for the first time in nearly half an hour.
She tries to sit up, face pulled into a grimace. Reinhardt crouches over her, holding her down gently. It hurts, to see her like this, but he is glad she is conscious. She tosses her head fitfully. He can't hear the words coming from her mouth but he can read her lips: "Head..feel sick."
"She says she feels sick!" He tells Lúcio, searching for something to cover her ears. Surely the loudness of the helicopter isn't making her head hurt less.
"I got something that might help." Lúcio says, fiddling with something on his strange armor. The yellow light on it glows brighter, and the vibration coming from the man overwhelms even the motion of the chopper. Now he feels something-a warm swell of sensation from that vibration. It seems to sink into his very bones, soothing the pains that have begun to set in and taking the raw edge off of his nerves. It feels a little like being hit with a Caucadeus beam.
"What is that?" He wonders aloud, wadding up some clothing and tucking it against her ears as protection. one of her hands tries to investigate what he is doing and he captures it in his own.
"Oh, this?" Lúcio gestures at his glowing armor. "This is my crossfade suit. Tech invented by my father, it projects a biotic field via sound waves. Pretty cool, huh?" He digs into a bag hung on the wall of the helicopter. "I don't think it can do much for a head wound like that, but every little bit helps, right?" The medic pulls out several plastic-packaged items, things that Reinhardt recognizes. He has seen them in Angela's medbay before.
He watches Lúcio hang a bag of fluids from a hook on the ceiling, fiddling with the tubing until liquid drips from the end of it. He pinches it off and tucks it at the head of the bed.
"So, I'm gonna try and start an IV on her." Lúcio extends Brigitte's free arm, pressing the ditch of her elbow. "I'm not, like, a nurse or anything, but I can at least do this much." He seems to find what he's looking for and loops a blue band tightly around her upper arm. She winces, squeezing Reinhardt's hand. "This much blood loss?" Lúcio continues, talking around a plastic-capped needle in his mouth as he swabs her arm with an alcohol pad, "I'm thinkin' she can use a little fluids." He uncaps the needle with his teeth, lines it up with a plump vein that Reinhardt can see bulging.
He can't watch what happens next. He hates needles! Instead he rubs Brigitte's hand to distract her as the medic counts aloud: "Alright girl, little pinch in one, two, three-"
His squire handles it better than he would have. She only whimpers a little as the needle pierces her, and when Reinhardt looks next Lúcio has the tubing attached to a catheter running into her vein, sticking it down with some tape.
"Well, it's not pretty but it's runnin' good!" Lúcio remarks happily, wiping up a few drops of spilled blood. "She handled that like a champ!"
"Thank you, Lúcio." Reinhardt says, finally feeling at ease enough to take a seat.
The medic perches himself at the head of the bed, back to investigating Brigitte's head wound.
"Man, this thing is still bleeding!" He clucks disapprovingly. Into the bag he goes again, pulling out plastic packages of gauze. "I know head wounds are supposed to bleed a lot, but I had no idea it could be like this!" That is not particularly reassuring, and when he sees Reinhardt's expression he backpedals. "Oh, sorry-that sounded bad. What I mean is, I don't think there's much I can do for it here. She needs, like, actual stitches. I'm just gonna try to wrap it better." He sets to it.
When Lúcio is finished, out comes the penlight again. "You're not going to like this much either, but I gotta do it." He murmurs, peeling back Brigitte's eyelids with two fingers. He shines the beam into one eye, then another as she whines in discomfort. Reinhardt has to use both hands to stop her from pushing the medic away. "Okay, okay, I'm done. I'll leave you alone now."
He takes a seat at Reinhardt's side.
"Well, I'm not a doctor but I think her brain's okay." He starts conversationally, twirling the penlight. " I know her pupils are the same size and they reacted to the light, so that's good." He sighs. " Wish I could do more, but I don't really have much medical training."
Reinhardt nods at Lúcio, one of his hands still cradling Brigitte's. "You are doing fine, Lúcio. Danke." Certainly the man has done more than he himself could have. And with the healing aura that the man is emitting he is certain she will be safe until she's delivered into Angela's care.
"So, how did you come by your medical skills?" Reinhardt nods towards the hanging fluids. The flight may be some time yet, and learning about this new recruit will keep his mind from darker thoughts.
Lúcio leans forward in his chair, angling his body towards Reinhardt. "I grew up in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Don't know if you know much about them, but medical care isn't the greatest. Actually-" He scratches his head, laughing a little, "- nothing's that great in those neighborhoods, but they were my home. My people. We took care of each other. Sometimes that meant doing a little home medical care."
Rio de Janeiro. Lúcio Correia de Santos . Something is ringing a bell. "Hang on…" Reinhardt finally puts the pieces together. "You are the Renegade of Rio?"
"They still call me that?" Lúcio sounds delighted. "Yeah, I guess!"
Reinhardt can remember distinctly seeing something in the news about it; an uprising in Brazil. There had been several conflicting articles on the subject; some vilifying the man for preventing the renovation of the slums of Rio de Janeiro, others praising him as a revolutionary, a champion for the voiceless. Mostly he remembers Brigitte wondering excitedly if he would ever tour in Europe-he must be some kind of musician, then.
"And you are...a singer?" He guesses.
"Haaah-not all that great at singing, actually." Lúcio waves his hand dismissively at the notion. "I'm a DJ. Made the track that's playing right now, actually! Not that you can actually hear it in here." He points to his speaker-capped dreadlocks, where the vibrations are coming from. "I played on the streets growing up, nothin' too crazy. Wasn't until after we pushed Vishkar out that my stuff really took off!"
"I am impressed!" Reinhardt exclaims, because he genuinely is. He has never had much musical talent, and admires those that do. Geniuses like Hasselhoff .
"Aww, you're making me blush!" Lúcio rubs his neck, embarrassed. "I mean, I am so honored that you all invited me to be a part of Overwatch. This is like, the world stage! I never thought I'd get to stand with legends like you and Trace-I mean, Lena!"
Flatterer . Reinhardt nudges the medic in the shoulder, almost knocking him out of the seat. He likes Lúcio already. He and the medic sit in companionable silence for a few minutes, Reinhardt trying to see if he can decipher the sort of music Lúcio is playing through the vibrations that hum through his body, and absentmindedly stroking Brigitte's hand. Lúcio keeps himself occupied by checking Brigitte's blood pressure and taking her heart rate every so often, marking them down on his holopad. He may not be a trained medical professional, but he sure looks like he knows what he's doing.
"Alright loves, we're about 10 minutes out from the Watchpoint now and we'll begin our descent. Strap in if you haven't!" Tracer's voice crackles across the comm suddenly, breaking the easy mood.
Instantly Lúcio is out of his seat, securing straps that Reinhardt hadn't noticed before across Brigitte, ensuring she remains safely in the stretcher. He must let go of her hand to piece back together her armor and strap it into another seat. She will not want to have it more damaged than it already is, after all. He and Lúcio strap themselves in last and peek through the window to watch as they begin their final descent.
In the distance he can see a circle of flashing red lights and a spotlight illuminating what previously had been a rocket launchpad; now, it is a landing pad. The sight fills him with nostalgia. It feels like he is coming home.
He takes Brigitte's hand again as they come in for the landing; he doesn't want her to be scared by the bump. She has been resting comfortably ever since Lúcio placed the IV, but he is uncertain as to whether or not that is an effect of the healing music or just her lapsing into unconsciousness again.
She will be in the best of hands soon though. They have made it here, they are safe.