2 years later
Kamilah glanced at the clock on her tablet – 11.47pm. She turned her head needlessly towards the kitchen's doorway, then checked her phone to find no messages. Frowning briefly to herself, she took another sip of lukewarm tea, and breathed her frustration out in a sigh. Kamilah drummed her fingers on the countertop, then quashed her growing impatience, turning her attention back to some mindless entertainment instead.
But she grew bored of re-watching her favourite old sci-fi show – the one with the sad ending that she sulked at Ana for not warning her about – and scrolled through the news feed instead. There was nothing that she hadn't already read for the day, except for an article about the lunar colony, which included an interview with a scientist addressing the ethical concerns of genetically modifying gorillas for their experiments. Kamilah read the article with interest, wondering if they would meet any success in this lifetime, and reminded of an old daydream where she could be an explorer in space…
She dwelt on it wistfully, then scrolled farther down the feed. Swiping through other news providers at random, Kamilah stopped suddenly when she saw what looked like a blur of her own face. She swiped back to the previous tab and there it was, a hi-res photo of Strike Captain Amari and her wife, attending a publicised UN event a year ago. The journalists must be scraping the bottom of the barrel to use such an old picture. Kamilah huffed, then clicked on the article despite her better judgment. 'The Families Behind Our Heroes', the article declared, and Kamilah squinted her eyes at the caption beneath her photo with Ana, which labeled her simply as 'the wife' again.
Oh, the indignity.
Kamilah read on, glad to find that her name finally appeared in the article, which addressed Ana Amari's family first. Unsurprising, considering that Ana's family was the most well-known among the Strike Team, alongside Torbjorn's. Since the rest weren't married, only the Amari and Lindholms had gotten any public exposure at all, while the others remained a mystery that these…tabloid journalists still hoped to uncover.
Honestly, this article lacked any substance at all. How could it, when the entire team had taken measures to protect their families from the public eye? After her first appearance with Ana, Kamilah had received too many phone calls and requests for interviews, and was even accosted on the street twice. When Ana found out, she quickly clamped down on the journalists who'd been on the Amari's heels, and pulled her family's information behind countless security measures, courtesy of an Overwatch team. And when the rest of the team had done the same, the press had little to go on, other than pointless conjecture.
Although…they might be onto something now. Kamilah took a screenshot of the passage guessing at Jack and Gabriel's relationship, and sent it along to Ana so action could be taken, if they wished. Then she skimmed through the rest of the article and closed the tab, regretting the tiny waste of her life.
Kamilah drained her cup of the remaining tea, then reached for her phone to make a call. But she paused when the click of the front door's lock could be heard, and the anxious knot in her gut promptly loosened in relief. Kamilah waited, listening to the shuffles and bumps from the entryway, until Fareeha finally popped her head through the kitchen door.
"Uh, I'm back."
"You didn't tell me you were going to be this late."
Fareeha shrugged nonchalantly – or at least, she tried. Kamilah thought she detected a hint of tension in the girl's movements. "We just decided to stay out a little longer, that's all."
"Send me a text next time. I was worried."
"Yeah, yeah." Fareeha retrieved a pitcher of water from the fridge, then brought the near-empty pot of tea to her mother when Kamilah motioned for it. "By the way, my friends and I are planning to sign up at this gym near the mall. The one in school is always so full…"
"Alright," Kamilah said, then went still when she took the pot from Fareeha. She sniffed quietly at the air as Fareeha moved away, and her brows drew together in a frown. "Were you drinking?"
Fareeha turned around, looking innocent, but Kamilah caught that slight hesitation as her daughter lowered her glass of water. "What? No… My friends were."
"I can smell it on your breath," Kamilah said – regretting it as she did so. Now that she'd revealed how she knew, Fareeha would learn to cover it up next time.
The sixteen-year-old had an obvious bout of mental debate, before glancing at her mother and admitting, "Fine, but it was only one can…or two. It wasn't that much!"
"Fareeha, you know the police won't care how much you took," Kamilah reminded her. "And you were out this late, drinking? It's not safe for you to do that–"
"I was at my friend's house, okay?" Fareeha argued. "It was 'safe' there, and I came back alright. You're making a big deal out of nothing!"
Indignation fed into the lick of anger Kamilah felt, but she bit her tongue before launching into a reprimand for Fareeha's tone. She waited for her temper to subside, frowning at her daughter in thought. Fareeha's shoulders were squared, ready for an argument – something she'd been too willing to start in recent days, and Kamilah's quarrels with her never ended well. It wouldn't help if they kept falling into cold silences each time Fareeha showed that streak of rebelliousness, so Kamilah forced herself to calm down, and changed tack instead.
"I know you came back safe, and it's good you were in a…comfortable place. But it still doesn't change the fact that you had me worried, and that you could've gotten arrested for what you were doing."
Fareeha blinked at her response, surprised the conversation hadn't gotten heated. "Yeah," was all she surrendered.
"All I want you to do next time, is tell me where you are and what you are doing, if you come home late. Understand?"
"Yeah."
"And if you want to drink, I want you to do it safely. Don't go overboard, and don't do it in public. Alright?"
Fareeha shuffled on her feet, scratching at her nape. She looked more uncomfortable with each second that ticked by. "Yeah. Sorry," she mumbled. She turned away to refill her glass, before returning the pitcher to the fridge. "I'm gonna go wash up."
Kamilah watched her daughter trudge out of the kitchen without looking back, and she sighed to herself. Fareeha hadn't quite turned into the uncontrollable mess that Ana had described herself at this age, but Kamilah feared that the girl was starting to take after her ami. She butted heads with Kamilah more often, and was more inclined to stay out longer, as if to embrace her growing independence. It didn't sit well with Kamilah, but she'd decided to give Fareeha a modicum of responsibility, in hopes that the girl would learn to handle it properly.
And if Fareeha didn't, well. Kamilah would have to assert a little more control then.
For the following year, Kamilah wasn't given much cause to regret her decision. Fareeha never flew right off the rails, and remained close to the mother who watched over her. Even when they did fall into another argument over something trivial, she would mutter an apology and look ashamed for escalating their exchange in the first place. Still, Fareeha couldn't seem to stop herself before getting into trouble – she'd play loose with school rules and argue with the teachers, who in turn had called Kamilah multiple times, often citing the same problems as before.
Fareeha even argued with Ana over their vidcalls too – to Kamilah's surprise. She'd thought that Fareeha would respect Ana's opinions more than anyone else's, but the two seemed to clash most frequently. It might be due to Ana slowly shifting her stance on Fareeha's goals in life – the girl had been exercising regularly, and took up martial arts again, something she hadn't touched since Ana had stopped teaching her years ago. Fareeha had done all these so that she'd be ready for the army when she came of age, and it was only natural that she took offense when Ana suggested the army might not be the best option for her.
Well, natural for a teenager looking to prove her worth, anyway. Ever since Fareeha's first bad reaction, her mothers took to worrying about her in private, and agreed to watch and wait – perhaps even try steering the girl's interest away from the military. Kamilah had achieved some progress in this, so to speak; since Fareeha enjoyed helping her mother maintain the bike, she seemed quite partial towards mechanics, though she was still noncommittal when Kamilah suggested studying engineering in college. But since they still had a few years yet, Kamilah let the matter be, in hopes that Fareeha would come around in the future.
Kamilah was spending some free time in the shopping mall, looking for a gift for Fareeha's birthday. She was pondering over an expensive build-it-yourself remote control car kit, when her phone rang. Kamilah answered it distractedly, but her attention snapped into focus when the caller identified themselves – the police. Her heart plummeted, and she strode out of the shop, listening to the officer's request for her to report to the station.
It took every bit of control not to break the speed limit on the way, and her patience nearly broke when she alighted from her car, walking into the station with all haste. She was granted access to Fareeha in the holding cell – something she suspected was due to their status as Ana Amari's family, but didn't care to protest. Instead, she waited for an officer to shut the door behind her, as she stared at her daughter in silence.
Fareeha had glanced up when the door was first opened, but she promptly dropped her gaze when Kamilah walked in. She kept her eyes to the floor while her mother looked her over – her jeans were dirtied at the knees and calves, her dark grey shirt was torn in a few places. Bandages and bruises sat on her face, and her left arm was resting in a sling. According to what the officer had told Kamilah, there should be deep bruises on Fareeha's body as well, where she'd fractured three ribs.
Kamilah walked to where Fareeha sat slumped on the stiff cot, and held her by the shoulders, guiding her to sit upright. "Don't slouch like that. You'll hurt yourself even more."
Fareeha's face twitched, but she pressed her lips into a thin line, and sulked at the floor.
"What happened?" Kamilah asked, crouching before her. "I want to hear it from you."
No answer. No eye contact.
"I'm not going to scold you. You're already paying for what you did." Kamilah tapped at her sling gently. "I just want to know why you did it."
"They were harassing Maya, alright?" Fareeha bit at her, more aggressively than intended perhaps, because she glanced away, looking ashamed. "Just because they had a shitty gang of their own, thought they could have their way." Her face scrunched up in anger. "Maya was scared, so I told her to get away…"
"And leave you to fight, what? Five thugs on your own?" Kamilah patted her cheek. "What do you think you are? A superhero?"
Fareeha snorted, biting on her bottom lip as a watery smile broke across her face. She sniffed thickly, rubbing the back of a hand over her eyes. "She called the police, and we got arrested," Fareeha finished her story, looking up at Kamilah. "You're gonna get me out, right? I didn't do anything wrong. Please don't leave me here."
"Of course not," Kamilah assured her, rising to her feet to hug Fareeha's head to her chest. "You were brave, my dear. Not to mention silly and reckless, but you were brave."
A choked sob forced its way through her weak laugh, and Fareeha clutched at her mother, hugging her tighter. "I'm sorry."
"And you're grounded for a month."
"Okay."
They were kept waiting at the station for another hour, after which Kamilah was pulled into a long discussion with the officers, before they were persuaded to let Fareeha go without filing charges. She was acting in defense, had a clean history, and was the daughter of Ana Amari – the last which was a dubious proof of character, but Kamilah bit her tongue so she could take Fareeha away from the station as soon as possible.
The girl takes her grounding stoically, and remains unusually quiet for the rest of the day, barely looking at Kamilah in the eyes even when they were having dinner together. Fareeha only stayed in the kitchen long enough to wash the dishes, before heading up the stairs and locking herself in her room again. Then, it was time for Kamilah to do something she'd been putting off for the entire day.
She took her phone up from the table, and hesitated as she looked at Ana's name. She didn't want to bother Ana, who'd only gotten busier as time went on. And since Fareeha was let off without trouble… No. Ana had to know. She was Fareeha's mother too.
[Are you there?]
Kamilah tried to wait, but her impatience took hold, and she recounted what had happened. Things were quiet on Ana's end for a while, so Kamilah went about her own business, until her phone finally rang right before bed.
"Milah. Is Fareeha okay?"
"Yeah. She's upset, but she's fine."
Ana sighed. "I'm sorry I took so long to call, but–, my god. I can't believe she got into a fight."
"I know. But I can't even bring myself to scold her. She did try to do the right thing…"
"Yeah." A prolonged silence. "Look, I'm happy that she did it with good intent. But she can't keep trying to solve her problems with violence. Can you try to…"
"She's not a violent person, Ana," Kamilah said. "I believe she knows better. It's just that her temper has a shorter fuse nowadays." She paced slowly around the bedroom. "You know, she was worried that it might damage her chances of joining Overwatch."
"Yeah? Maybe it should."
"Ana."
"I know, I know. Anyway, she has you. So she'll be fine." There was a slight pause, as if Ana had lowered the phone, followed by typing on a keyboard. "Look, Milah. I'm afraid I have to go, I have a lot of things on my plate. I know Fareeha will be okay with you, but contact me if anything happens, alright?"
"Yup."
"Love you, dear. Good night."
"Night," Kamilah replied, and the call was ended.
She put her phone on silent mode and set it on the nightstand, before falling heavily back onto the bed. Taking in a deep breath, Kamilah exhaled slowly, dragging Ana's pillow over to cover her eyes. She was…exhausted.
Two months after the incident, the family visited Ana at the HQ again. But Fareeha acted rather stiffly around her, as if expecting her ami to break into a long reprimand for her behaviour. When Ana merely smiled and pulled her in for a hug, Fareeha seemed surprised, and hugged her back gratefully.
With her daughter behaving more subdued than usual, Ana and Kamilah kept most of their conversations going, and occasionally prodded for a simple reply from Fareeha. She was afraid of Ana bringing up her misdemeanour, that much was obvious. And Ana eventually did so, though without the scolding that the girl had anticipated. Fareeha was surprised, glancing at Kamilah in her confusion, before she let out a sheepish smile and promised never to do it again.
Fareeha warmed up quickly after that, even though she's notably mellower than her usual teenage bravado. She didn't even bother starting lighthearted bickers with her mothers, nor did she run around with Jesse as she always did – mostly because Jesse was kept busier around base by Gabriel. She spent most of her time alone or with Kamilah, and was always there at the end of the day for dinner, be it within their own family or the Overwatch team.
Ana did notice something else in Fareeha, however. Her daughter's eyes would always be fixed on the uniformed cadets running about base, bearing a faraway look as if she was in thought. There was no doubt what had Fareeha preoccupied – she'd caught Fareeha walking back into their quarters one night, with a recruitment pamphlet she'd taken from the visitor's office. It took all Ana had to keep quiet, and when she glanced over at Kamilah, who shot her a knowing look, she knew she wasn't alone in her quiet trouble.
It was inevitable – to grow up around the generation's most vaunted heroes, and be inspired to become just like them. Fareeha was hardly the only one to have this dream, but she was Ana's only child. And to face the prospect of having her own daughter in her position, suffering bruises and broken bones when Fareeha could have an equally important job somewhere much safer? Ana could hardly sit back and watch, doing nothing.
The next morning, when Jesse arrived to take Fareeha and Kamilah into the city while Ana took care of business in base, she held him back in her office while waving for her family to go ahead. Jesse stood at ease as the door slid shut behind Kamilah, who'd shot an inquisitive glance back, and he waited patiently while Ana paced the floor in front of him.
"What have you been telling Fareeha about Overwatch?"
Jesse blinked in surprise. "Ma'am, I…haven't been telling her classified information, if that's what you're asking."
"No, I'm not." Ana stopped in her tracks with a frustrated huff, crossing her arms. "Have you been telling her about your missions? Stories, like Reinhardt?"
"Well, she does seem to enjoy them."
"And now, she wants to be part of them."
Jesse cocked his head. "I thought it's been her dream since…forever?" He watched as Ana tapped her foot on the ground, frowning at the wall in silence. "Is there something wrong, ma'am?"
"There's nothing wrong. Not exactly. But you." Ana fixed him with a steady look. "If I gave you a choice to start over – would you still choose to be a part of us?"
"Is…this a test, ma'am?" Jesse asked, half-joking.
"No."
"Alright. Let's see," Jesse mused, running a hand through his hair. "This job ain't the most cushy, or the safest. But it is what I know to do – what I do best. And I am doing it for the greater good. So if you're asking if I'd choose a different path in life, I'd say…no. Not after what I've seen." He straightened his shoulders, raising his chin. "I am committed, ma'am. I would follow you, Reyes, and Morrison right through the gates of hell."
"I said this isn't a test, Jesse McCree," Ana replied, a faint smile curving her lips despite how tired she felt. "But that's good to know."
"If I may ask, why the question, ma'am?"
Ana's lips parted, but she pursed them back together again. She walked over to sit on the edge of her desk, thinking how to phrase the question over. "If you had a child, Jesse. Maybe in the future. A child whom you love, and would protect from all the pain in the world. Would you want your child to do what you do?"
Understanding dawned on Jesse's face, and he lowered his gaze in thought. "No, I…think I wouldn't." He looked back at Ana. "I think I understand, ma'am."
She nodded slowly. "I want you to watch what you say around Fareeha from now on. You can still tell her about your missions, sure. But try not to…feed her dream any more than you have to. Can you do that?"
Jesse shifted on his feet, then took a breath. "Yes, ma'am. You can count on me."
"Good." Ana gave him a flat smile. "Now, bring my girls to the best place you can think of. I'll pick up the tab."
Jesse broke into a grin. "Happy to oblige."
Ana smiled gently when two arms hugged her about the neck, as a kiss was planted on the top of her head. She took Kamilah's hand and kissed her knuckles, before her wife joined her on the couch, where Ana had been waiting in the rooftop terrace of the officers' barracks.
"Well, well. You've spent a long day out with Jesse, hm?"
"Oh, you don't have to remind me. My back is breaking," Kamilah sighed, leaning into her. "I think he forgot there were only two children in the group, not three."
Ana laughed. "Well, you can't fault him. He's excited whenever Fareeha's around. And I think he's grown to like you a lot."
"He is a nice kid… Quite a gentleman now, even. Can you believe he tried to help me down the car? Like I'm some old woman hobbling around with a walking stick."
"You are getting old, my dear. I mean, I thought you were 90 when I saw you at the airport." Ana ran a hand through the broad streaks of grey in Kamilah's hair, then cackled when she received playful slaps on the arm.
"You're in no position to tease me about that, Captain," Kamilah replied, tapping at Ana's temples where her silver strands were. "And my grey hairs are due to stress, thank you very much."
"Then I know how I'll look like in a few years," Ana riposted, raising her brows at Kamilah pointedly. Her wife huffed in amusement, rolling her eyes before resting against Ana again. "But are you getting a lot of pressure at home? Work? Fareeha?"
"It's just a joke, Ana. I'm fine."
"You still look tired since you landed two days ago."
Kamilah sighed softly, turning her face into Ana's hair. "It's nothing. Just…had a bad week, that's all."
"Fareeha?"
"Fareeha's been good. No, it's just…me."
Worry rose to the surface, as she ran her fingers through Kamilah's curly tresses. "Are you alright? Have you been going to the therapist?"
"Not as much. Been busy at work. And yes, I know. It's good for my health to go," Kamilah added before Ana could nag. "I will, alright?"
"Good girl." Ana kissed her head. "But I'm serious – take care of yourself, alright? I know I've been scarce, but I still worry about you."
Kamilah snorted. "I could say the same to you. You worry me sick with how many missions you take on. Come to think, do Jack and Gabe still do a lot of fieldwork?"
"Not as much as we'd like to, but yes. Don't worry, we can handle it." Ana waited for Kamilah's usual nag at her to stop going on so many missions, but her wife didn't speak, only letting out a quiet huff. She must be feeling out of sorts… Ana mulled over their situation, then voiced an idea she'd been pondering for a while. "Milah? Why don't you retire?"
Kamilah lifted her head, giving her an incredulous look. "What, at this age? Still a little young, don't you think?"
"Yes, but you don't really have to work anymore. I make more than enough for the whole family. And since the academy can get pretty strenuous…you could just retire to get away from all that stress."
"And what, be a housewife?"
"If you're so inclined, why not?" Ana smiled. "You can relax…and only have to worry about our daughter. Or, you could always study, like you've always wanted."
"Oh, please. Learning Fareeha's primary school math was more than enough," Kamilah chuckled. "No, I don't think I could be a student again. Or even retire. I wouldn't know what to do with myself."
"Well, think about it." Ana threaded their fingers together. "Now that you can have a comfortable life, why not? If you don't want to be bored, you can take art classes, or…learn to sculpt. Or even pick up knitting so you can knit me a sweater. I need more of those." She snickered when Kamilah flicked her forehead.
"You really want to turn me into your old lady, hm?" Kamilah smiled, a playful glint in her eyes as she pressed her lips to Ana's. "You know, I've never really thought about it. But now that you've brought it up…it does sound nice. I don't think it'll happen for a few more years, but I do like the sound of it."
"Great." Ana mirrored her smile with a grin, then met her wife in a sound kiss. "As long as you're happy, I am too."
A/N: Age check: Ana, 46. Kamilah, 48. Fareeha, 18.