"Angela! Help me get up!"
Fareeha tried to stand again, but fell back onto the couch.
"Serves you right", sniffed Angela. "I told you not to accept Aleks's squat challenge. She used to be an Olympic weightlifter! What did you expect?"
"Angela, please! I'm so sore-y!"
Angela stared at Fareeha.
"Get it? Because I'm sore…" said Fareeha.
"I got it", interrupted Angela. "I just never heard you make a pun before."
"Really?" said Fareeha, smiling sheepishly. "I do it all the time when I speak in Arabic. My mum says she likes my puns."
"Fareeha, Ana will say she likes everything about you, even if you tell her you secretly like to dress up as a banana in your free time."
"I guess my puns aren't ap-peel-ing to you, then?"
Angela released the obligatory, almost sarcastic "heh" that was socially expected for all overused puns, but immediately regretted her decision upon seeing Fareeha's face light up.
"That was so bad", said Angela, trying to remedy the situation. But it was too late.
"You know, there are a lot of great things about Switzerland. The food, the people…" Fareeha winked. "And the flag is a big plus."
Angela slapped herself on the forehead.
"That's it, I'm going to lunch, and I'm leaving you here", said Angela, shrugging off her lab coat.
"No! Wait!" Fareeha rolled off the couch and used her arms to pull herself onto her shaky feet. As soon as she rose to her full height, she started to topple over in the wrong direction, away from the couch.
Angela rushed to catch Fareeha as she fell. Fareeha laughed and twisted her torso slightly to cling onto Angela's shoulders. And all of a sudden, Fareeha was too close.
Angela stiffened, feeling very light-headed. Very rarely did she have the height advantage she needed to be able to see over the top of Fareeha's head, and in her current position, she could easily bury her nose in that soft hair. Angela tried resisting doing just that, but the sweet and savoury smell that Fareeha emanated seemed to be amplified tenfold when Angela was that close to her. She tried breathing through her mouth instead, but it was a mistake. Now, she could taste the scent. It coated her tongue like honey before falling to rest heavily in her stomach.
There had been many moments in the last several months where Angela appreciated Fareeha's looks and scent. But never before had Angela felt the urge to appreciate Fareeha in a different way so strongly. It would have been so easy to release Fareeha and send her sprawling on the couch. Angela almost hummed as she pictured it. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore the way her skin heated up wherever she came in contact with Fareeha.
Angela desperately pulled on Fareeha, trying to get her into a position where she would be able to support her own weight.
It was then that Ana walked into the infirmary.
"Oh my", said Ana.
Angela felt her ears burn.
"Mama!" laughed Fareeha. "Help me get to the kitchen! I can barely stand!"
"What did you do, my newborn giraffe?"
"It's Aleks's fault! She loaded me with so many weights, and I tried to make sure I didn't push myself too hard, but she was Russian me."
Angela groaned but Ana didn't hold back her chortle.
"Come here, habibti", said Ana. She let Fareeha sling an arm around her neck, and supported her daughter's weight with a hand to her hip.
Fareeha stepped away, and Angela could breathe again.
During meals, it was customary for people to serve themselves. This time, Hanzo apologized profusely as he handed Angela a plate with food on it. Hanzo had grown up in an environment where he never had to cook for himself. After he joined Overwatch, he wasn't necessarily a bad cook; at least he was capable of following recipes. But in his inexperience, he underestimated the quantity of ingredients he needed to prepare, and after realizing his mistake, was forced to ration out what food he had made.
Angela stared hungrily at her meagre portions as she and the Amaris looked for open seats. Angela had been too distracted by a problem with her research the night before, and had skipped dinner trying to figure it out. And then in the morning, as she was pouring her coffee, she was struck by a possible solution, and had skipped breakfast as well.
As such, the handful of food disappeared off her plate before she could even taste it. Her stomach grumbled for more, and Angela slumped in her seat, wondering if there were any leftovers from the night before (there never were).
Fareeha and Ana were talking about something, but Angela barely registered what they were saying. Then, as Ana was speaking, Fareeha began to absentmindedly scoop half of her curry and rice onto Angela's plate.
Angela's cheeks burned. Had she been so obvious?
"Oh Fareeha, you don't have to", said Angela through the saliva that had already begun accumulating in her mouth. "You need to recover from your work-out."
"Huh?" said Fareeha, as if she had only just realized what she had done. "Oh, no, keep it. You only eat like a starved jackal when you've skipped breakfast. I'll just snack on something while I bake later. I'm thinking of making brownies. You like them, right?"
Angela nodded shyly, and mumbled a quick "thank you".
She dared to let her eyes slide to the side to where Ana sat. The old woman's elbows were propped up on the table, and she was resting her chin in her hands. She was staring, and a gigantic, toothy grin covered her face. Angela cast her eyes downwards, showing extreme interest in the piece of pork that dangled off her fork.
Angela tapped the folder on her computer screen, and opened the file that had she had temporarily named, "The Long-Term Effects of Nanotechnology on the Human Body: A Case Study". She sighed as she adjusted the axes of a couple of graphs she made.
Angela's personal supply of nanobots had finally run out. They were different than the nanobots that Overwatch used in the field. Although she had designed them, Rice Inc. had been the only company that she had a contract with to order the nanobots in bulk, as only the richest people in the world would have been able to afford the amount she used every day. In return for crediting them in her research, she was promised an endless supply, but naturally that ended when Rice Inc. was blown up. She had tried to make a deal with the other nanobot manufacturers, but none of them could afford to give her what she needed.
The main thing Angela would keep tabs on would be how up to standard her immune system was. She wondered when it would be a good time to infect herself with the latest strain of influenza, but there were too many missions coming up that would affect her data. The thing Angela knew that the world would be the most interested in was her chromosomes' telomere length. She briefly wondered about what the consequences would be if the wealthiest could buy eternal youth, but pushed the thoughts aside as she agonized over her data. She hadn't even managed to reach twenty years of experimenting on herself, and it was only a sample size of one.
Angela heard the giggling coming from behind her. As always, Fareeha was hanging out in Angela's office, and Ana was with her. As of late, Ana had a tendency to follow Fareeha around everywhere like some sort of 60-year-old puppy. Fareeha didn't seem to mind. In fact, she loved it.
Angela's eyes lingered on her computer screen as she absentmindedly turned around to reach for a brownie.
All it took was one unfocused glance at the women behind her, and Angela immediately pushed her rolling chair away from her desk.
"Ana! You promised me you'd delete that!"
Ana was scrolling through the collection of holograms and photos she had amassed over the years at Overwatch. Presently, the image of an opened-mouthed Angela asleep in her chair, with her head lolled backwards was projected over Fareeha's lap.
"I had two different versions, each with a different angle." said Ana. "I deleted the other one! Oh hold on, Fareeha, look at the next one. I got a good shot up her nose."
Fareeha gave Angela an apologetic smile, telling the doctor that she felt sorry for her, but had no intention of stopping her mother.
"Ach mein Gott!" yelped Angela as the next picture came into view.
Fareeha chuckled at the sight of Angela shoving fistfuls of chocolate cake into her mouth.
"Look at our perfect doctor, stuffing her face in the lab! That's a health hazard!" said Ana, clicking her tongue in disappointment.
"It was the middle of the night, there weren't any forks, and I was so hungry!" objected Angela.
"Have I ever told you that Angela has quite the sweet tooth?" Ana said to Fareeha. "She objected to helping design my biotic rifle at first, but all it took was a few treats and I had her in my evil clutches."
"Oh, I know", said Fareeha, grinning. "The best part is that she never admits to being bribed."
"I'm all for you two bonding, but do you have to use me to do it?" sighed Angela.
"There is nothing wrong with a mother using her daughter's favourite subject to get closer to her", said Ana.
Fareeha's smile dropped immediately.
"Ok, that's enough, Mama. You don't have to say anymore", said Fareeha.
"I guess you are right", said Ana, and faked a sigh. "Oh, and I am sorry for the embarrassing photos, Angela. Let me make it up to you."
Ana tapped a few buttons on her hologram projector, and a file popped up that was labelled simply with heart emoticons.
"What are you do-… Stop!" said Fareeha, fumbling for the holopad.
Ana laughed and pushed her daughter away.
"Look Angela, this was Fareeha's first bath in a real, grown-up tub."
The projector played a video of a toddler manhandling the copious amounts of bubbles that surrounded her. She gazed up towards the camera, and babbled a few words.
Angela's forehead crinkled as she gave Fareeha her best shit-eating grin. Fareeha groaned and covered her face with her hands.
"Look how long her hair was already!" said Ana. "I will have you know that this kid was born with a full head of hair. It freaked me out at first, but look how pretty it is now. Oh, this one is my favourite."
The video was replaced by a still image of a baby on her belly.
"Look at that cute, little baby bum!"
"Mama!" Fareeha put her full effort into trying to grab the projector. She struggled with her mother, but Ana fended her off using her feet.
Ana's laughter was infectious, and Angela got a stitch in her side from laughing with her. It attracted the attention of several Overwatch members who were on their way to the infirmary anyway to sample the snacks Ana and Fareeha had worked on together.
"Hanzo!" said Ana. "Come closer, young man, I have a present for you."
"Young man?" said Hanzo. Hanzo exchanged a curious glance with Jesse.
Ana searched through her files until she pulled up a video of a teenage Jesse chasing Fareeha, who had stolen his hat.
"I see you have always had that ridiculous hat", said Hanzo. "And that belt buckle. But I do like that clean-shaven look. Or maybe you could not grow facial hair yet?"
"Of course I could grow facial hair!" said Jesse. "It just happened to be the day we had to take pictures for the UN and I wanted to clean up…" Ana flicked to the next image. "Ana! When did you take that!" It was Jesse's turn to scramble for the projector.
"Do you have any pictures of Mei?" said an intrigued Aleksandra.
"Oh, please Ana, don't… ok that's not so bad", said MeiLing.
"This was during the first ping pong tournament we had. We never had any more tournaments after that because there was no contest for Mei", said Ana.
"Table tennis", corrected MeiLing.
"I used to think that ping pong was a sissy sport", said Jesse. "But I couldn't return anything Mei sent at me. It just hit my paddle and went flying away."
"I don't have the strength or speed to play at a high level", said MeiLing. "But spin is something I understand."
"Mei's almost the same age in the hologram as she is now", said Hana. "I want to see what Reinhardt looked like when he was young!"
"Do you have that picture when Winston joined Overwatch?" said Lena. "I wanna see that again!"
The team gathered around Ana, as she scrolled through her collection.
"Omigawd!" laughed Hana. "Torbjörn looks exactly the same! Were you just born old, Torby?"
None of the original members of Overwatch were spared. Laughter rang through the hallways of the watchpoint that day, and nobody complained about putting off dinner for a little longer. Only the wisest of the new members worried that they could be next to join Ana's collection.
