"Winston? Lena? What is going on, is that..."
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Amélie recognised that voice. It belonged to none other than Overwatch's resident doctor, Mercy, aka Angela Ziegler. Her body jostled as the ape pushed through a set of doors, taking the assassin and laying her out flat on what she assumed was a hospital bed.
"It's a long story, you can help her though yeah?" Tracer's voice, trying so hard to sound brave but the emotion in her words clear to anyone that knew her.
"What happened?" the sound of clattering medical equipment followed Mercy's question, and she felt hands probing at her skull but she was too weak to push her away.
A shuffling of feet, a sting in her arm. She felt herself grimacing but it only lasted so long.
"She needed our 'elp, I mighta' followed her.."
Soft cursing followed by more rattling and the thudding of Winston's feet.
"Lena! I cannot believe you! Do you have any idea what she is capable of? Or Talon for that matter?"
An awkward moment of silence, Amélie felt herself drifting again into a white haze, but came back around perhaps sometime after more conversation. The pain in her head was slowly subsiding, whether that was from painkillers or not she couldn't say, but she still wasn't coherent to the point of speaking.
There was a high pitched buzzing sound passing over her body, most likely a scanner. She felt it focus particularly over her head and heard several clicks of disapproval from Mercy's mouth. As much as she didn't want to admit it, in that moment Amélie was positively terrified of what was going to happen to her. It was like being on a table spread out before Talon all over again, being scanned and scrutinised, drugged and cut open.
Bile rose in her throat and she swallowed to keep it down, her left hand fumbling about on the bedsheets.
"L-Lena..." the words barely managed to croak out of her throat, but they were heard nonetheless. Warm fingers encircled her own.
"I'm 'ere luv."
"Oh no you don't, out! The both of you!" Mercy was ushering the two out of the room, warm fingers suddenly vacant from Amélie's hand once again. "If she has any chance at survival I need to take her into surgery right away."
Amélie's mind slipped away once again, she wasn't aware that she was being wheeled into an operating room until the sting of disinfectant hit her olfactory nerve and the muttering of nurses around her danced through her ears as though she was in some kind of dream state.
The fear slowly started to creep back, her fingers clenching at the sheets and her body desperately trying to haul herself out of that bed until a firm press against her chest held her down.
"Amélie listen to me, I want to help you but you need to cooperate with me."
Mercy's voice was stern but kind; it wasn't long before Amélie's body began to betray her as she sank back into the mattress. Something cold and wet dribbled over her scalp.
"Okay Amélie, I'm going to put you to sleep now, just relax."
There was a sensation of pressure at the bend of her elbow and a dizziness that overtook her body, a moment where she almost felt as though she were swimming, floating free without a care in the world, before reality slipped into nothingness.
"Mama!"
The voice of a girl, perhaps no older than six or seven, drifted on the wind, swirling around Amélie like a delicate mist, enveloping her in its fronds. She looked around but couldn't find the source of the sound.
"Mama!" It came again, and she spun on her heels just in time for the image to come into focus.
It was a beautiful autumn day, the leaves fell from the trees as they swayed restlessly in the breeze. The grass at the park was a deeper hue of green from the recent rains, soft enough that the girl's footsteps were muffled as they hurried towards her.
Shoulder length brown hair flew around her face like a mane, a gigantic grin on that child's face almost splitting her head in two; Amélie couldn't help herself but to smile as the girl ran right up to her and threw her arms around her legs.
"Salut, mon cherie ! Did you have fun on the playground?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically, looking up at Amélie and continuing to smile.
"Oui maman !"
Laughing softly, Amélie knelt down before her daughter, pulling the jacket from where it was tucked under her arm and assisting the girl in putting her arms through it. Once it was on, she made sure each button was done up securely.
"Mama Lee arrives home from her mission today, would you like to go surprise her at the train station?"
Bright hazel eyes with flecks of amber and jade looked at her as if she just might be the most amazing person on the planet, sparkling so brightly it was almost a bit blinding. The girl bounced up and down, her excitement unable to be contained.
"Can we?"
"Of course, little one," Amélie replied, running her fingers through that unruly hair in an attempt to tame it into some semblance of tidiness, only giving up in the end and pressing a kiss to the girl's forehead. She stood and took her hand, walking along with the little bundle of energy even as her arm was almost pulled out of its socket several times.
A swirling grey mist enveloped her once more, shifting into something more dark, more sinister.
Tendrils of smoke like vicious vipers coiled around her arms and torso, squeezing her until the breath was pushed from her lungs; as she felt the life beginning to slip from her, the tendrils formed into the shape of men clad in Talon uniforms, their faces all obscured with masks of death.
Amélie felt pools of warm liquid around her legs where she was being held at her knees, restrained by these men with vice like grips. Her vision from her left eye was obscured by red as it flowed freely down her face, and her chest heaved as she struggled to inhale each breath.
Across the room from her, Reaper held Lena in a deathly grip, the woman's face covered in grazes and blood, her chronal accelerator flickering as sparks flew from the damaged apparatus.
Laboured sobbing from her right, she wished she could reach out to console their daughter who was also being held hostage by the Talon agents, the little girl's face streaming with tears as she begged for them to let her mummy go.
Clicking his tongue, Reaper tugged on the collar of Tracer's shirt, only making the little girl cry more desperately.
"Ah Widowmaker, did you really think you could hide from Talon after what you did to their base in Luxembourg?"
"You and your masters are monsters! You are nothing but a mere puppet to their sick wants and desires!"
A throaty chuckle from his throat was like sandpaper against her eardrums, turning her stomach. Cocking his gun, he pressed it into Lena's temple, eliciting a soft grunt from the smaller woman as she tried to shy away from the contact.
"I'll give my masters your regards," he tilted his head as though watching to see just how she would respond.
In kind, she struggled against the men holding her, throwing herself against them with such force she could have rightfully ripped their arms from their sockets. There was a heavy 'crack!' against her skull, a dizziness overtaking her for a moment so that they could readjust their grip on her.
"Mama no! Please no don't hurt my mummy!"
Lena put on the bravest face Amélie had ever seen, looking their daughter right in the eyes and pressing a soft smile onto her cracked lips.
"Raina, sweetie close yer eyes for mummy, okay? Can you do that for me now?"
The girl continued sobbing, but did as she was told, her cheeks streaked with tears and her skin puffy and red. Amélie was breaking, her own eyes burning and the warm liquid spilling down her face and dribbling into her mouth as she began to sob openly.
Lena looked over at her, battered and bruised, nothing but love however shimmering in her eyes.
"Amélie, babe, I love you, ever since I first laid eyes on ya'," her smile faded, sparks flickering from her chest and illuminating the tears as they escaped her.
"How touching."
Reaper's gun went off once, twice. There was screaming, ear piercing sounds that filled her ears and she didn't know if it was her own or their daughter's or both.
Darkness again, sweeping her away to a distant time. Her hands were worked to the point where callouses on her fingertips shut out any pain she might have felt as she accidentally slipped with an exacto knife and took a slice out of the end of her index finger. Bringing the digit up to her lips, she stuck it in her mouth and sucked on it while continuing to work on the device before her.
Thudding footsteps approached her from behind and she felt a firm hand clamp down on her shoulder. Reacting instinctively to the touch like fire, her entire body tensed and she turned her head just enough to shoot a warning glare to the ape peering at her with concern and weariness behind his glasses.
"Amélie, you don't have to do this."
Turning away from him, she returned to her work, slicing through several more wires before tossing the knife aside and reaching for her soldering iron.
"Leave me to be, Winston. I will not be talked down from this."
A heavy sigh, his fingers digging more firmly into her collarbone.
"I can't say I know exactly how you feel, but Talon took something from me that day too," he paused, his voice sounding far away even though he was right behind her. "She was like a sister to me..."
"Salaud ! They took everything from me that day!" her fingers clenched painfully around the soldering iron, turning in her chair to face Winston so that he could see the burning rage smouldering in her eyes. He was taken aback at first, his expression soon waning to one of pity.
"They took my family from me, I have nothing left!"
Winston looked away, unable to find words to comfort Amélie. Shaking her head, she turned back to her work.
"All I'm asking is for you to think about what you're doing. Is this really what Lena would have wanted?"
Pausing in her work for a moment, she let a single tear fall from her right eye, but not allowing herself to feel any shred of remorse for what would become of Talon that night.
"What she would have wanted does not matter, she is no longer here," listening as Winston retreated from the room, she steadied her hands. "But soon I shall see them again."
Amélie's eyes snapped open, her vision hazy and so she blinked several times over. When that didn't help entirely clear her vision, she attempted to lift her arm to rub at her eyes, but found it held down firmly.
Blinking a few more times, her vision slowly sharpened until she was able to peer down and saw a mess of tangled brunette hair laying on her arm, a slender forearm attached to that body draped unceremoniously around her waist.
Amélie could have sworn there were memories swimming around her mind of a dream just had, a dream that had warned her of a possibly terrible future should she give in to this tiny British woman slumbering peacefully upon her; for the life of her however, she just couldn't recall it.
A smile made its way to the corners of her lips, and she closed her eyes, laying back against the pillow. She felt a calmness she had not felt in so long; no clawing at her skull, no unseen force instructing her every movement. She was... content.
That was, until the door to her room opened and Mercy entered it, her eyes bright and her face pleased to see that Amélie was no longer asleep.
"Ah good, you're awake," she made her way over to the side of the hospital bed, her coat rustling about her body as she poked and prodded at Amélie's head to inspect the gauze that was wrapped around it.
This disturbance also woke Tracer up, who shot up with a loud snort and pulled back from the bed as though bitten by a bug. It took a few moments for it to dawn on her where she was as well, but once she saw Amélie staring back at her with a cocked eyebrow she couldn't contain her enthusiasm.
"Luv, you're awake!" Amélie didn't bat an eyelash as the brunette stood, taking her hand in both of her own and squeezing it. It was soft, and warm; she quite enjoyed the feeling. Angela noticed the contact, but thankfully did not mention it out loud.
"How are you feeling?" Angela inquired, tapping a few buttons on Amélie's monitor and taking down some readings.
Amélie grunted softly, trying to sit up but finding herself too weak, instead laying back down against the pillow, defeated.
"Like I was tackled by Reinhardt."
Lena snickered, Angela shot her a glare.
"What... what happened?" Amélie hissed as Angela bent down over her and delicately began to unravel the gauze from her head.
"You took a bullet to the side of your head," layers of white fabric fell from above her eyes, stained with tiny splotches of red and brown. "You are incredibly lucky that it only grazed you."
Angela moved to a set of cupboards behind her, pulling open a door and retrieving a roll of gauze and some disinfectant. Preparing the items to clean up her patient, she tilted Amélie's head to the side to allow her access to the wound.
"While we were there, we were able to remove all of the neural implants from your brain. It is fortunate we did so, the malfunctioning equipment was killing you, if it had been left much longer... well..."
The connotations were there, Overwatch had essentially saved her life.
"They took 'em all outta' yer head," Tracer frowned, her forehead crinkling with anger at the thought of what had been done to Amélie. "Those bloody bastards!"
Baring a pointed look at Lena, Angela resumed her work, cleaning over Amélie's wound and re-wrapping it with fresh gauze.
"Your implants were slowing your circulatory system, you are lucky that it doesn't seem to have caused any permanent damage," lifting Amélie's head, she wrapped the gauze around it carefully. "Your hearth rhythm seems to be returning to normal function, skin colour is coming back as your cardiovascular system is flushed through with plenty of blood."
Amélie grunted as Angela taped the gauze down, the material tight against her skin but not entirely unbearable. She lifted a hand into her vision slowly, turning it over and inspecting the pale flesh that even now was still losing its oxygen deprived blue tinge.
Her body felt a little warmer than she was used to, her cheeks pooling with a light flush.
"You look just as good in pink as ya' do in blue."
Angela scoffed in disbelief, albeit her lips twitched with what Amélie assumed was a suppressed smile. Lena- as usual- looked ever so pleased with herself.
"Lena, I appreciate your high spirits, but please refrain from stressing out my patient."
An exaggerated eye roll, followed by Lena flopping backwards into her chair was enough to make the good Doctor shake her head, giving up on the girl and instead turning her attention back to Amélie. She rested a hand against her shoulder, her expression stern but a softness behind her eyes.
"I cannot stress enough that you need to rest," pulling her hand away, she straightened her coat and flashed a smile. "I will have a nurse bring you dinner shortly," her eyes shifting to Lena, "and Lena, please, try to be on your best behaviour."
Sitting up stock straight in her chair, Lena snapped a hand to her forehead and cocked a cheeky grin.
"Aye aye, ma'am!"
Clucking her tongue and furrowing her brow, Angela tucked her clipboard under her arm and gave Lena one last unapproving glance before turning and making her exit from the room.
The space fell to silence; Amélie could feel eyes upon her, turning her head to find Lena staring at her with that look on her face that made her feel like she was under a microscope. Shifting in her bed, she gave a small scowl; she could not force herself to maintain the gaze.
"Why did you come for me?" shifting again under the sheets, the fabric scratched at her sensitive skin and felt like a straight jacket, strangling her. "You should have left Talon to finish me."
More silence, this one longer, and she felt a soft sound escape Tracer's lips although she wasn't entirely sure if she had intended to say something or not. Instead, she found small hands reaching over her and pulling the bed sheets down to around her hips, allowing her body to feel less restricted and the cooling breeze from the ducted air-conditioning overhead to brush against her.
Another short silence, she looked over begrudgingly. "Merci."
A small smile pressed into freckled cheeks.
"You're right balmy if ya' think I'd just let ya' go get yer head lopped off by yourself," shaking her head so that her messy brunette hair flicked about her face, Tracer cautiously reached out with a hand until she found Amélie's fingers.
Amélie peered down, upturning her palm and watching as a small hand wrapped around her own.
"I knew after our thing at the market that somethin' was up, you seemed... different."
Thin fingers began to trace patterns absent mindedly in her palm, covering every single scar and wrinkle.
"Mighta' snuck a trackin' device on ya' while we were snoggin'," Amélie's face snapped up to find a wicked grin and a winking Brit looking back at her. "Yeah, sorry bout that, but it was a good thing, innit?"
Letting out a short breath, Amélie wasn't even capable of pretending that she was surprised by what she was hearing, merely closing her eyes and shaking her head and muttering under her breath.
"You are absolutely impossible."
"You like it."
Amélie's cheeks warmed, but she refused to look in Lena's direction, settling with distracting her mind with the fingers now plotting a course along the joint of her wrist and over her forearm. It was still a bizarre, strange experience to feel another human touch her in such a way, but she wasn't completely adverse to it; at least, not when it was Lena that was doing it.
Unfortunately, her moment of peace was interrupted as Lena's communicator on her wrist blipped, it's little screen lighting up with blue words that Amélie could not read from her bed even when she tilted her head for a better angle. All she could make out was the way it basked Lena's face in a soft blue glow, somehow making her hazel eyes appear even more vibrant than they were usually.
The Brit pursed her lips, seeming disappointed as she read the message.
"Bugger," closing the message, she stood from her chair and twisted her body from side to side to work the kinks out. "Sorry luv, Winston wants me in the lab. Needs to make some more adjustments to my chronal accelerator, s'been on the blink for a bit now."
Amélie tried to sit up, this time managing to shuffle upwards against her pillow just enough that she didn't feel so weak and helpless.
"I'll see ya' a bit later on then, yeah?" a warm smile, gentle fingers finding their way to her cheek and cupping it. Amélie found herself leaning into the touch.
"Oui."
Her response must have been adequate, Tracer's face lighting up as though she'd just gotten the best news in ages. She had to admit, that woman's bubbly personality was getting to her in places she no longer thought existed.
"Right, well," Tracer pulled her hand away, cheeks turning red and only making her freckles stand out more. She ran a hand through her hair and tried to maintain herself as she began to make her way to the door. "Later, then!"
With that, the brunette was gone. Just like that, Amélie felt a sinking feeling of emptiness and loneliness that had nothing to do with being alone, so much as it had to do with her being without Lena.
Still, there was no use in feeling sorry for oneself. Though her body was still weak and the IV in her arm made moving it difficult, she sat up as best as she could and made a promise to herself that she would be out of this bed before anyone could tell her otherwise.
AN: As always, special shoutout to reviewers: Guest, Jimbostevenson, elizabeth397, Nemrut, and kyub3y14! Your encouragement has helped push me to get this chapter out before my gf and I move house (and is why it is a little bit longer as well).
Our move is in one week's time, so I probably won't be able to get another chapter out for maybe two'ish weeks or so. In the mean time, please read and enjoy! :)