Fareeha stood at the door of the Splitstream, having been given its coordinates by Lena and given the okay to leave her objective by Angela after seeing Jesse making his way out of town with Michael in tow. She adjusted her battle suit, her improved Raptora even less bulky before with even stronger shielding, though with the modifications done by Jamison, it was still a strain on her as she continued wearing it in. She yanked at its collar with her head held up, catching the vision of three people coming over the dune, with Lena clearly leading the two others, though Fareeha's face sunk quickly at Lena's downtrodden face, a look she hadn't an idea the woman was even capable of.

Her attention quickly shifted to Jesse McCree, who was dragging her objective with great difficulty, forcing Fareeha to jog out to meet them, bending low to grab ahold of Michael's ankles and neck as she lifted him up onto her shoulders, leaving a great relief of a sigh from Jesse, who looked up toward her with only the slightest hint of surprise.

"Well I know you're an Amari," he smirked knowingly, nodding as he tipped his hat before gesturing in Lena's direction, "I guess you're with this one?"

"Y-Yeah," she replied nervously, "I wish we could've met under more hopeful circumstances, but-"

McCree shook his head, "Please, meeting an Amari at any time can only mean good fortunes. Unless of course, you're not quite the soldier your mother was."

He grinned to signal his teasing, leaving Fareeha to blush at being so closely compared to her mother, "Well, uh, I mean, I think I am."

"After today, I'll take it," he smiled warmly, "I'm McCree. Jesse McCree. I assume my reputation has preceded me? especially given my tardiness in answering the recall."

Fareeha bit her lip, "Eh, I guess it's come up once or twice."

"Enough to send this one, and an Amari out here," Jesse assured with a disbelieving shake of his head, "Never thought I ever gave everybody a reason to suspect I was such a traitorous dog of a man. Besides turnin' on my gang, anyway."

Hurriedly thinking of how to reply to such a self-deprecating comment, Fareeha rushed for an explanation, "N-Not at all! You're not the one they were ever worried about!"

Jesse's eyes turned sidelong toward her, a cold frown appearing as he stared at her as they continued walking, "That sick bastard actually did it, huh?"

Lena's ears perked at his words, quickly turning toward the two with a still distant face, "Guys, I don't think-"

"Reyes was always consumed with his legacy," Jesse groaned, "Genji 'n I always teased him that he couldn't ever keep his monument in his pocket."

He chuckled only until realizing he was in the company of two women, quickly clearing his throat and mind of further bawdiness before continuing, "Anyway, he was always obsessed with his legacy surpassing his existence. Once he became convinced that his time with Blackwatch wouldn't ever give him that, he gradually turned to more…extreme measures."

Jesse shook his head, "But that all's a bunch of stuff I don't care to recount here; I'm sure you've read the files, anyway."

Embarrassingly, Fareeha's lips turned in detective silence as Lena spoke up in explanation, "She's only been with us a few months, so she's been in the dark on a lot of it."

"Despite the fact that I've fought and died to him for a time, I've not been granted clearance to every single thing," Fareeha sighed.

Jesse eyed her once again as they came to the ramp that lead up to the Splitstream's door, "Well, they better give it to you soon. If this recall is goin' down, I assure you, Reyes won't exactly sit and watch the Watchers."

Lena lead them up the ramp, earning a concerned look from Fareeha as she crossed into the craft without shouting her catchphrase and smacking her palm into the fuselage above. Still, the soldier didn't point anything out, merely entering the ship and finding a spot for Michael to rest on their way home. Jesse stepped on in gingerly, taking in the interior of the craft with great interest.

"Been a while," he muttered, more to himself, as he examined further, "Still can't believe they trust you of all people to pilot this thin."

He turned to Lena, expecting a retaliation of teasing, though she merely continued walking into the cockpit, not bothering a reply, which caught Jesse off guard, "That was a joke, y'know."

"Oh, was it?" Lena asked quietly, "Sorry."

Jesse felt a biting tug at the back of his mind, though he didn't mull over it much, instead finding a seat just outside the cockpit where he could settle in for the ride back to Gibraltar, groaning with tire as he found the cushioned platform, sliding deep into it while his hands slid into his pockets. Lena only lazily poked around at the control panel, her heart sunk so far that her face remained unchanged from its emotionless state, simply waiting for the go-ahead from Fareeha.

"We were best friends growing up," Jesse suddenly spoke up from behind her, only causing her to lower her head deeper, "Josh and me, I mean. Back before our father died, from what I can remember, we were a perfect bunch, the four of us. I mean, it wasn't spectacular being in the desert, but we managed to make the most of it. Father telling us stories before bed, mother scrounging up enough change to make pancakes, which, whoa, that was big news in our household when it happened."

"They would go into town at night and hunt for loose change, doing whatever quick, odd jobs they could find while we slept. Doing whatever they could to make sure my brother and I were taken care of. I remember my brother and I, we got old enough to notice what was going on- Josh suddenly broke down and started bawlin' one night at dinner because he realized we were the only ones receiving meals. Mother and father only sat there and talked or watched us, going without for our sake."

His shoulder twitched restlessly as he worked his way deeper into the seat, seeking comfort, "Father died one day at his job. Mother never said what it was he did, but he came home black with soot, so I just figured he was a miner or somethin'. After that, our home life sorta got shaken down. Mother stayed out of the house more and more, leaving me in charge of Josh. We would always play around 'n wrestle 'n stuff, but she made me promise not to him anymore, to protect and look out for him when she was gone, so I did so. The playing stopped, which might have hurt my brother a bit more than my punching, now that I think about it."

"The more mother was away, the more we saw her cry. The more she cried, the more often we'd get pancakes in the mornings. but she never ate them herself. She would only sit and watch us, and then it was her turn to cry at the table sometimes. I assumed she'd been forced to turn to sellin' her body to provide for us. I know it hurt her like nothin' else; she would'a moved mountains for our father, and he'd 'a done the same for her. She would just cry more, and tell us more often that she was okay if we were okay."

"My brother figured it out at some point and never really respected her much afterward. He understood it well enough 'n cursed her out for being so weak and demeanin' herself to such a cheapened state- I'm paraphrasin'," he shrugged, "He was always so idealistic. I often admired him for it, but I couldn't ever forgive him for treatin' our mother the way he did after she'd gone 'n done so much for the two of us to survive. No matter how mad he got, how often he cursed her out, she pulled me aside, every night, telling me to look out for him."

Jesse reached up to grab ahold of the top of his cap, pulling it down to shield his face from the light, "That man took my wife and two children. He took my mother, and he took every ounce of loyalty I had to my family, my job, everything. It pains me even more to realize how much it hurts, still, knowing that I broke my promise and killed him. Without my word, my loyalty, I've got nothin' more than my hat, here. Unbound by anything in that shithole, I'm nothing but a vagrant with nowhere I belong. At least living under my brother's thumb, I had a home, no matter how painful it was."

Lena stared weakly at the screen in front of her, watching the fuel gauge quiver slightly with the passing atmosphere, her heart still somewhere in the pit of her stomach. Still, regardless of how stupid she'd been, she was still alive, and she still had a home to return to. Not even her flat in London; Jesse never found 'home' with any structure upon the earth. He sought it alongside his mother, his wife and children. As a bitter last resort, he found it beneath his brother's rule. Severing his bond with Joshua meant he no longer had a place.

"Hey Jess…" she asked somberly, turning her head over her shoulder only to be met with a gentle sort of snorting coming from McCree's snoring.

She initially frowned at the sight of her company being enough to induce sleep upon someone, though upon recalling how difficult sleep had been for him for years, she gave a sincerely small smile, relinquishing her attention from him as she returned to her seat, pulling her phone over and roaming through it, taking her time to admire the self-portrait of herself and Emily, as Reinhardt might call it. She scrolled through to her text messages, the mission officially over, as far as she was concerned anyway, and sent her thumb aflurry.

Comin' home, live!
love*

Frowning at her phone's deepening mistrust of her grasp on the English language, Lena sped over toward her contact information, tapping on Emily's name to find the picture of her from when they first met, a warm smile creeping across Lena's face as she also noticed the deepening beauty she'd found in her lover. She quickly went through and edited the information, popping to her contact name and tapping in alteration.

My Emily-Home(:

She smiled, quickly shutting her phone off as footsteps arose from behind her, shoving it back into the small storage indention made in the cockpit siding as Fareeha crept over into the co-pilot's seat, still looking over at McCree as she worked her seatbelt.

"Wow, he went out fast," she concluded with awe, "I know this heat makes for plenty of lethargy, but it's only been a few minutes."

She shrugged as she strapped in, her face lighting up gradually as she noticed Lena's livening spirits. The pilot began to prepare to leave, deciding not to warp the entire way in order to give Jesse some time to sleep, having to prepare for manual flight as Fareeha eyed her from the side, earning a suspicious glare from Lena as she tinkered with the control panel.

"What?"

Fareeha shrugged, returning her attention to the plain dashboard on her side, defeating the purpose of a co-pilot to begin with, her voice merely offering, "Nothing."

Lena hunched over low as she worked as though to hide herself, watching her passenger with a peevish glance. She made the final calculations before the flight, the Splitstream's engines beginning to whir to life as she pressed back against the seat to strap in herself, turning to see her phone illuminate from receiving a message.

"I saw you," Fareeha muttered without turning her head.

Lena's head whipped around toward her, "W-What?!"

The soldier turned to see McCree still asleep, his snores only increasing as a result, before she turned to Lena to reply, "You took that bullet for him."

Her eyes constricting, Lena couldn't find any words to speak in any sort of response, leaving Fareeha to shrug as she grinned, "You pulled that off during your and Angela's fight, remember? Wasn't too difficult when you can't dismiss sudden bursts of atmosphere as merely everyday occurrences."

Lena frowned, somewhat upset at being found out in some way, thought she still hadn't the will to speak up, simply clutching the steering wheel and lowering her head in a brooding manner. She was awaiting for Fareeha to berate her for being so stupid, or impulsive, the litany of things everybody criticized her for being, bracing herself for whatever Fareeha could say to degrade her act.

"I thought it was pretty neat," Fareeha spoke with a tiny smile, "Not everybody has somebody looking out for them like that. I'd say he's pretty lucky to have you as a guardian angel."

She shrugged, continuing along with a heartfelt timbre, "Look, I won't tell anybody. You broke, like, twenty-two different regulations, but still. Y'know, I was gonna say he must be someone special to you, but I realized you'd have done the same for any one of us if need be. You're just that kind of crazy, I guess. Stupid and caring and crazy."

Lena cracked something of a grin at Fareeha's words as the soldier got comfortable, trying to find a posture to sit in where her suit wasn't so constricting. She complained lowly to herself, finally finding something in the way of ergonomic peace before sighing however contentedly she was capable of, closing her eyes as jet-lag started to get the best of her.

Her eyes falling low in introspection, Lena quietly began to speak, "You can't be much of a hero if you don't believe in yourself. I believe in Jesse, and I know how much greater of an asset he can be when he believes it himself. That goes for everyone with a good heart."

"I guess I wear my heart too often on my sleeve, but… I know there are heroes in this world," Lena surmised, ever so whisperingly, "Maybe not enough, but that just means we can't lose the ones we have."

She quietly reached for the control panel, Fareeha's gentle voice forcing her to pause, "Just make sure we don't lose you, okay? For all the rest of us, a hero to heroes is more important than anything."

Lena managed to turn away before tears collected at her eyes, Fareeha smiling and keeping to herself in respect. The pilot carefully lifted a gentle hand up to wipe her face before it reached over to check Emily's message from a moment ago.

cheers, live
love*
;)

Her body shook with stifled laughter before she returned the phone to its place, shaking her head with disbelief at the thought of having this person so closely tied to herself. While she had a flat to return to, the threshold into that place was the furthest thing from her mind. So greatly now, especially after such a narrow call with death, she only pined for Emily, and the thought of crossing into that space between her body and her arms.

A loud snore broke the air, the two women spinning around to find McCree having slumped along the back of the bench, laying on his back with an arm falling off the side, his hat lost to the floor to reveal this face, made softened by sleep. The women rolled their eyes at the sight, Lena shaking her head once again with a mischievous grin.

"You cut it close though," Fareeha spoke up, "I'm guessing you don't catch bullets like a magician, huh?"

Lena chuckled with a knowing sidelong glance, "I guess I mistimed it a bit. I didn't think its stopping power would be so tremendous either; before I knew it, I was flying backward into him. I thought for sure he'd know what I'd done. Doesn't seem like he's put any thought into it though."

"You knocked him straight down to his knee; I think we may have a viable use for such a thing in the field," Fareeha shrugged, "Y'know, our invisible girl bomber? It'd strike fear into everybody's heart."

A gentle smirk appearing at Lena's face, she merely reached forward to proceed with takeoff, concluding easily, "Let's just get home, okay?"

"Oh, well yeah," Fareeha agreed, a vision of a blonde-strewn lady's face crossing her mind, "I'd hate to delay a single second."