It had been a long, exhausting day. Not for you, but for Jesse. While you'd stayed in your quarters, hidden away from the rest of the base, he'd been out on an op, somewhere in France. Champlitte, you thought. It was nothing too bad, just a clean up, tying up loose ends and what have you, not that you really knew, you'd never been on one before. After your last op went farther south than the geese in the winter, you suspected they were a little hesitant to send you out again.

You could tell it had been hard for him from the soft sigh he let out when he walked in the door, by the way it took him a second to gather himself before he greeted you, by the way his smile seemed a bit droopy. He tried to hide these things from you, but you knew him well enough to see them anyways.

"Hey there, sugarpie," he said, cocking his head at you, his eyes soft. "Sorry to leave you alone so long." He grinned at you when you came up to greet him, stepping back before you could give him a hug, his hands tucked behind his back. "Oh, don't look so glum, sweetheart, you will get your hug, but first, I have something for you."

Your eyes widened as he produced a small vase of blue calla lilies from behind his back. "Jesse, I-"

"You said no roses, so I got you the next best thing," he said, handing them to you and pressing a kiss to the top of your head as he gently wrapped an arm around you. "I was thinking they'd replace that awful centerpiece from the other day. Hanzo's on his way with the food."

You smiled a bit and took a moment to sniff the lilies. "Thank you Jesse, they're beautiful!" You pulled away to set the flowers down on the coffee table, returning to pull him into a real hug, burying your face in his chest. He held you a bit tighter than normal, something that didn't go unnoticed, and you let him hold you there for just a few seconds more before you looked up at him, frowning. Without saying a word, you took him by the hands and dragged him over to the couch, forcing him to sit down.

He laughed, obliging you, and happily pulled you against him when you sat down to join him, laying you both down. "What's goin' on, darlin'?" he asked, gently running his fingers through your hair.

You tapped his forehead, breaking his smile a bit. "You're upset," you said simply, taking his hat off of him and placing it on your head instead. "You wanna talk about it?"

He hesitated, his gaze darting between you and his hat before he sighed, deciding to let you get away with it. "Not really, not now. It's too raw… Saw a lot of things I shouldn't have seen today. Just happy to be home, sugar," he murmured, tugging you closer so he could bury his face in the crook of your shoulder.

You nodded because you understood that, being too raw and not wanting to talk about it. Sure, you hadn't seen nearly as many horrors as he had, but you still knew what it felt like to be traumatised. Humming softly, you played with his hair a bit, twisting it gently between your fingers as you let him detox. "Pidds caught a mouse today," you said, just making small conversation to keep his mind off whatever he was focusing down on. You felt his smile against your neck.

"Really? And where did he get one of those?" Jesse asked, not looking up at you, just holding you there, tucked up against his chest. "Ain't seen a mouse here in forever."

You chuckled, smoothing out the tiny tangles in his hair. "No idea. Scared the shit out of me. Hanzo had to come running to see what was up. Damn bastard left me to clean it up," you huffed, frowning.

A chuckle rumbled through Jesse's chest, making you smile a bit. "Well, that wasn't very gentlemanly of him!"

"No, it wasn't!" you said, happy to hear him cheering up a bit. You knew it was only a distraction, that he would have to eventually talk about what he'd seen today, but right now what he needed was to not focus so hard on it. "I think you need to teach your boyfriend better manners, Jesse."

He laughed, shaking his head, his beard rubbing up against your skin and making you shiver. "I suppose I do, don't I? Though, I'm sure you could do that just as well as I can, pumpkin."

"Nah, he listens to you more," you said, reaching up to run your fingers through his hair. You liked Jesse's hair, it was nice and thick, always soft, no matter where he'd been or what he'd just been doing, and it was fun to play with.

Jesse shifted and you yelped, not expecting the cold metal that pressed up against your side as the material of your shirt bunched up. He pulled away quickly, his eyes searching your gaze to figure out what just happened. "Darlin'?"

You laughed a bit at yourself, cupping his cheek and shaking your head. "Nothing, it's just your arm. I just wasn't expecting the cold. No harm done."

He smiled apologetically, turning to kiss your palm before he gestured for you to roll over, which you did. You snuggled back, smiling as he wrapped his arms around you and held you up against his chest, your head tucked under his chin. You liked being cocooned like this, it made you feel safer.

"Sorry, darlin'. Wasn't thinking," he murmured, letting out a soft sigh. "Still forget I ain't entirely human sometimes… But I promise, shocking as it might seem, that's the only enhancement I got."

You gasped and reached back to playfully swat at him as he laughed. "Jesse McCree, how uncouth! You have a boyfriend, mister!"

He wrapped his arms tighter around you, chuckling into the top of your head. "That I do, and he's about the same."

Your cheeks flushed red and you covered your face, shaking your head. "Jesse!"

"I'm just sayin', darlin'," he said, grinning as he reached up to pull your hands away from your face, pressing a kiss into your hair. "Don't have to hide from the truth."

You rolled your eyes, now unable to hide the little smile you had. You turned your attention to his arm, running your fingers over the metal, grinning when you felt him shudder behind you. "You never did tell me how you got this," you murmured, running your fingers over the metal again, tapping your nails against his palm.

"Oh, this old thing?" he asked, his voice just a bit raspy behind you, and he let out a sigh, his breath tickling the back of your neck. "Well, I lost it during an ambush. We were investigating London, you remember- ah, sorry. Back before Petras decided the world didn't need us anymore, Reyes had me investigating London before the omnics really went full force. I got ambushed while I was in a call with the Commanders, buildin' got destroyed and collapsed on me, crushed my arm." His voice was soft, almost sad as he thought back, and he flexed his hand a bit before he reached up, brushing his fingers over your cheek. "But don't worry, darl, it's not nearly as cool as your scars."

You caught yourself running your fingers over your scars again, staring into the blank abyss that was the wall of your cell. This time however, instead of reflecting on Gibson and his sacrifice, you found yourself thinking of Jesse, and how he used to brush his fingers over them, reminding you that you were still beautiful, even with the marks that now marred your body. You missed him terribly, and your heart ached every time you thought back on him, but you had other things you needed to be focusing on right now, the most important of which was that the ex-Blackwatch commander was now standing in front of your plasma barrier.

"Took you long enough," you muttered, refusing to look over at him. He cut an imposing figure standing in the edges of your peripherals, but you didn't care. If he was going to disrespect you by making you wait a week to see him, no notes, no contact, nothing, he didn't deserve to be perceived by you.

"I'm sorry, hermosa, there was a lot I had to deal with," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Moira said you're littered with new scars. What did they do to you, amor? Where did all these scars come from?"

"How bold of you to only now care about my health. I've been rotting in a cell for a week, alone, confused, and the only person who has deigned to treat me like a real person has been Bird, where you, my supposed fiance, haven't said a word to me ever since I woke up." You shot him a quick dirty look before turning away, going back to playing with the fringe of your torn jacket. Gabriel had had many things sent to your cell, new clothes, books, puzzles, but you refused everything but the food.

"They've been down here? They were given express orders not to bother you, that little," he faded off into a string of Spanish, from what you guessed was mostly curses, and your anger burned.

Up on your feet in a second, you flew across the room, fist slamming hard against the barrier. You were going to have bruises, but they'd be worth it after seeing him flinch like that. "Don't you dare punish them for that! They've done nothing but keep me company after you abandoned me, again, Gabriel! You don't get to act high and mighty when the pot is blacker than the kettle, you hear me?" you snarled, taking in the sight of his face. He wasn't wearing his mask, so your cell must have been in a very secure and private area, restricted to him.

His eyes widened, and he furrowed his brows. "You-"

"That's right, I remember. Not all of it, but I do remember you abandoning me after… after something. The details are fuzzy, but I remember searching for you, I remember you were supposed to have my back," you said, pulling away from the barrier. Your memories, very few memories, were starting to return, and you were having trouble processing them. With these memories came an unreasonable anger that you had to fight to keep down on a daily basis. To help compartmentalise and keep yourself sane, you started referring to the woman in the memories as "her", because she wasn't you, even though she was. Right now it was easy to distinguish between one of your memories and one of hers, but you suspected that was going to become difficult due to the sheer magnitude of memories you'd been missing.

"Morrigan, I-"

"I. Am. Not. Morrigan!" you shot back, anger burning into a fury that you tried to fight, but couldn't dull the blaze of. "How many times do I have to tell you that? The woman you knew is gone, Gabriel. Oh, she's in here, alright," you said, tapping the side of your head, glaring at him. "But she doesn't exist anymore. Instead, you've got me, and I'm not yours." You saw him flinch, and your anger started to dull, leaving behind fumes of frustration and, surprisingly, sadness. "I'm not yours, not anymore. No matter what these memories are telling me, no matter what you might think or how much you might want it, I'm not yours. I'm not Morrigan."

This hurt. This hurt so much, because you remembered how happy you'd been with him. How happy she'd been with him. That wasn't you, those weren't your memories.

You felt like an imposter, burdened with memories of a life that wasn't yours, a life that was filled with so much anger and bloodshed. And in every one of those memories, you saw your face, her face, heard your voice. She wasn't you, but, at the same time, she was, and it was killing you.

The barrier came down and you took a step back, fearing what was coming. Instead of the pain you were expecting, you felt cold surround you, felt the hand against the back of your head as he tried to embrace you.

Gritting your teeth against the cold, you pulled away with a soft hiss. The action confused you, after everything you'd just said, that was his reaction? You looked up into his face, searching his gaze, shocked by the sad smile that graced his lips.

"I'm sorry, I forgot how much you hate the cold," he said softly. His eyes were sad, almost pleading you to change your mind. But you wouldn't.

"It's-"

"A bee thing, I know."

'A bee thing?' "I'm sorry," you breathed, hugging yourself. "I should be mad at you, I should be furious that you hurt so many people just to find me, but she, these memories, won't let me. I know you miss her, trust me, I do, but Morrigan is gone. It's just me, and I won't take her place. So, please, let me go home, Gabriel."

Gabriel did not let you go home, of course. You were Overwatch, ex lover or no, and he couldn't just let you free. But, he did visit more often. He talked, you listened, not wanting to engage him. It felt like he was just waiting, watching to see when you finally gave up and came back to him. You wouldn't, of course. As much as she had loved him before, you had Jesse and Hanzo waiting for you back home. But he didn't know that.

Time passed in a strange way in that cell, without seeing the outside world, it felt as if time didn't actually exist. It felt like, one moment it'd be midday, and the next the lights would go off, signalling nighttime for all the cells. You'd stopped trying to count the days; you were sure there were no steady intervals between lights on and lights out, a sleep deprivation tactic to get people to talk. And, eventually, talk you did, just not about what they wanted.

When it wasn't Gabriel visiting, trying to get some information out of you in the sneakiest ways he could, it was Bird at your doorstep. Ever the welcome visitor, Bird always had fun little stories to tell you about some op they'd been sent on, or went on about how annoying Sombra was in her little affections. You thought it was cute.

The last time they ever visited your cell, you'd begun to put things together. You remembered having wings, sturdy, translucent wings that folded against your back so neatly you could hide them beneath your clothes if you ever needed to go undercover. You remembered some other things too, far more unsavory and nightmare inducing. You were going to have a lot of trauma to talk through with your therapist when you got back home.

"How do you feel about bees?" Bird asked suddenly, flicking their fingers against the plasma barrier to see it jump to life.

You cocked your head, unable to help the chuckle that escaped your lips. "What?"

You saw their eyes widen and knew they realised they'd just interrupted a ramble. "Sorry, I just… Just answer the question."

"Okay, I like them, I guess. They've always liked me for some reason. I used to have a little garden of native plants on my balcony back in Walworth, and they loved that. They even made themselves at home in the little hive I bought for them," you said, leaning back against the wall. 'Wow, how long has it been since I've been there? It feels like it's been so long…' "It was nice sitting out on the balcony and listening to them buzz in the early mornings. Why?"

"Just connecting some mental dots. When I first got here about a month or two back, I did some, uhh, slight… not shoplifting, but… uniform snatching. Got this cool hat and these gloves. Saw some shit in a box I definitely wasn't supposed to touch, reminded me of bees… It was with the emo skeleton's old shit, so, yeah, connecting dots."

'Sounds like it could have been her old uniform…' "Well, I don't know what mental dots you're connecting. I'm not Black Wasp, and I never was. That was Morrigan, and that's not who I am," you said, trying to convince yourself of it. You didn't want to think about that, to think about how Angela had lied to you, about how you so obviously had been Black Wasp, or at least she had been, and now you were stuck with her memories.

"What the fuck is a Morrigan?" Bird asked, furrowing their brows. "And Black Wasp? I just wanted to know if I was obligated to give you these gloves and if it would piss tall, dark, and asshole off if I made bee puns."

You couldn't help but laugh, tilting your head to look over at them. "Damn, Gabriel really doesn't tell you anything, huh? Don't worry about it, it's too much to explain right now and I don't really want to talk about it anyways. You don't have to give me the gloves back, I don't want them. But, if memory serves me correctly, you can definitely piss off Gabriel by making copious amounts of bee puns."

You saw Bird's shoulders shake a bit as if they were holding in a laugh. "No, no one tells me shit. I'm just kind of… here until someone kills me or they let me leave. Or, if at all possible, I escape."

"We could do that together, you know," you said wistfully. "I may not look it, but I've some serious training under my belt. Most of it I don't even remember, but it's there. They'd have trouble fighting us both off."

"Hmm, how do I know you aren't going to turn me into Overwatch as soon as you're out?" they asked, raising a brow. "'Cause I definitely helped kidnap you, and have killed a lot of people."

"Because that would make us enemies, and I don't want to make anymore enemies here," you said, smiling softly. "If we work together, we'd be allies, and, in my opinion, alliances should always be honoured."

Bird thought for a moment, tugging at the green tips of their hair, their eyes watching you intently. Finally, they nodded. "Fine, but if your boyfriend comes after me when all this shit is through, I will be committing murder."

You chuckled, placing a hand on the plasma barrier. "I've no guarantees Gabriel won't go after you, but I'll make sure Jesse and Hanzo know the deal."

Bird raised their hand, placing it on the other side of the plasma barrier, lining up your fingertips. "I can take the old man, he jumped me in my truck and I'm still here. So, he really doesn't scare me."

You laughed, tossing your head back. "Well, at least that makes one person who isn't scared by him. Personally, he terrifies me, even if I've seen the other side to him."

Bird left when the lights went out, promising to bring you some conchinita pibli tacos when Sombra made them next. But they never came back to your cell after that visit, not even to say goodbye. Though, that wouldn't be the last time you saw your new friend.

Gabriel listened to the girls' laughter through the security monitors, a bitter jealousy building up in his chest as he listened to them talk about him. How come that stupid canary could get her to open up and he couldn't even get a single word out of her? Sighing, he reminded himself that she wasn't the same, and probably never would be. Good, part of him said, trying to solidify itself to block out those nasty feelings, that would make this so much easier.

"So?" Moira asked, gesturing to the monitor. "It's been almost a month, Gabriel. We can't keep her here if she's not going to give us anything. Your soft methods aren't working."

"We're not torturing her," he gruffed, glaring at the geneticist.

Moira was not impressed. Pursing her lips, she placed a hand on her hip, returning the look. "Then what are we doing with her? I've got so many ideas that I've laid out at your feet and you haven't even taken the time to think about them."

Gabriel huffed, looking back at the monitors. "You said she wanted to reactivate the changes Aderyn made?"