#04 - Pain

Sniper would fill up the reclining chair,
and she would lie on the couch, and they would take turns trying to out-bitch and out-moan the other about how much pain they had endured that day.

The shop door opened suddenly and Engineer entered the shop. Sniper clung to her shoulder as he limped into the shop with her. They slowly got him to her reclining chair, where she deposited him rather abruptly.

"SON of a-" The rest of his statement was a hiss of pain.

Engineer swayed this way and that as she clumsily made her way towards the couch, where she promptly collapsed. She removed her goggles, and squinted at the air in front of her.

"How long has it been since doc gave me those meds?"

Sniper paused a minute. "'Bout twenty minutes"

Engineer blinked a few times and shook her head. "World's still spinnin'"

Sniper rolled his eyes. "Least the Doc GAVE you meds."

"Oh come on," she said, lying down. "Ya didn't NEED to jump off that ledge."

Here sniper glared at her. "There were ROCKETS flying at my head." He then smirked. "'sides I got 'im in the end."

"Least you had the satisfaction..." She started.

"Oh, not this again." He groaned, massaging his temples.

"I will KILL that son of a bitch one of these days." She said, her voice carrying an edge he only heard when she was talking about a RED Spy.

"Yeah love," He said, well aware of this vendetta. "You'll get him in the..."

"It'll take WEEKS fer that bastard ta die."

She said, her voice raising for the first time in what felt like years.

He didn't respond for a while. "Least you got all them machines to hel..."

"Ah died 17 times today." She said bluntly. "You sir died all of TWICE."

"Yeah I just had to dodge rockets, scouts an' BOMBS all day."

"Only while they weren't gunning fer ME."

Sniper paused for a minute to glare at her.

"You don't have to account for them moving around this way and that."

She paused here. "'Course I do. Took me weeks to program that into the sentry..."

"YOU." He said forcefully. "Don't have to worry about it. The sentry does." He let the implications sit for a moment. "And so do I."

She was silent. She was boring a hole in the opposite wall. Well she was trying. occasionally she swayed a bit side to side, or had to blink for a good couple of seconds.

"Not True." Sniper heard her say. Her words made a blanket of thin ice and he was in the center of it. "I have to aim a shotgun, maintain machinery, spy check, play Doctor, and avoid playing catch the knife with enemy spies."

"People respect your work."

Here she paused to look at him. "What d'ya mean by that?"

"Camper." he said. He let it hang in the air for a moment before it continued."I am a bloody camper." He sat up for a moment, wincing when his leg moved the wrong way. With his best american accent he said.

"Damn Aussie don't do nothin' but sit n'shoot! the guy just hides in his corner and picks em' off one by one!"

Here she had to smirk at his impersonating skills, but she let the smile fade when she saw him slumped in that chair. She then straightened up herself, clearing her throat.

"Yo, I get that ma constant yammerin' is a HUGE distraction and all, but I really need to hold this casual conversation with you when you're in the middle of trying not to die! I'm also going to get super offended when you flat-out ignore me to make sure your sentry isn't going to fall apart."

Here he chuckled slightly. "That did actually sound like Scout."

"Y'see I internalize the yammerin' so ah don't got to actually listen to it."

Sniper looked wistfully at the ceiling."People talk to you though."

"That's my problem," She said, throwing up her hands. "People don't let me be."

Here he only paused.

"Ah don't mean you." She said. "Just everyone else. Ah got work to do! I got things ta fix. Yet every time the fridge blows up, or Pyro's getin' in trouble, it always comes down to me."

"You can always say no luv..."

"I'm a goddamn mom." She said. He heard the loss in that sentence. "I'm a goddamn Mom to seven grown ass psychopaths."

He really didn't know what to say to that.

He'd spent some thought on it himself.

"Ya need to tell 'em no luv."

She just looked at him blankly. "Hmm?"

"Say no. Right now."

"...You do realize the paradox of that right?"

"Luv." He said, insistent.

"NO." She said indignantly. "No I will not say it because it's pointless. If I say it I'm just doing what you said, and if I don't I'm literally doing what you told me not to do! It's an endless circle of the wrong gorham answer and..."

"And you still stood up for yourself." He said, smirking.

She just rolled her eyes and slumped back into the couch. "Yer different..."

He smiled here. "Why thank you."

She just stared at the wall again, blinking her eyes back into focus occasionally. She got up, swaying a bit, and slowly made her way towards her work bench.

"Ya should really stay sitting..." He began to say.

"Ah feel fine." She said, shrugging him off. "'M jus' gonna erect a dispenser." She looked up to a couple of high shelves, sighing to herself. She pulled a stool over, placed it in front of the counter, and stood on it.

"That's not gonna end well lu..."

"Don't care. Need a dispenser." she said,

now standing on the counter. He just watched. He watched her eye the toolbox she wanted, saw her CAREFULLY heft the thing off the shelf into her arms. And he saw the exact moment she miscalculated where the stool was and tumbled down, toolbox and all. The clatter it made left him wincing. He got up slowly, still limping, over to her. She was breathing. Looked like the wind got knocked right out of her though.

"Told you." He said, moving the toolbox and lifting her up. Well trying. He hissed when he tried to put weight on his god leg,
so she took that as a cue to get the rest of the way up by herself.

"Aww shutup..." She said, still out of breath. She walked slowly over to her tool bench, leaning on the counter for balance.
She came back with a pipe wrench, and gave the toolbox a small tap. The thing rattled to life and began to expand into a dispenser. She then looked at Sniper and pointed to the stool.

"Sit." She said. And he did. She hunched over the counter and watched, eyes half glazed over as the dispenser went up. It was ready for use, but she just kept standing there.

"Luv, it's ready." He said quietly.

"Ah." She said, her eyes back in focus, blinking furtively to keep them that way. She went to the dispenser and gave it a half-hearted

*whack*

She was caught up in the blue energy field now. The light tinted her a bright blue,
it was really something to see. The machine hummed and he watched in minor awe as she stood up straighter, cracking her back and shoulder. Then her smile crept up her face. Her real smile. The lopsided cocky one. He was so focused on her he didn't hear the

*WHACK**WHACK*

She blinked at the wall. "Much better."

He just caught himself staring. Her eyes were back. They were dulled earlier. Clouded over. Now they were sharp again.
Ready to cut more steel like they normally could.

"Ok, Up ya go partner" And he'd gone and drifted off again. She was next to him, a crutch for his shoulder. He let her half-carry him to the dispenser, which he chose to let support him instead. The machine hummed and the light engulfed him. Man that felt good. He let himself hunch over on the dispenser and felt all his muscles relax. The bliss faded away when the blue light did, but when he tapped his foot on the ground, it didn't feel broken anymore. He looked up and saw it again. God she grinned like that every day, but she was grinning at HIM like that.

He put a hand on her shoulder and dragged her over to the couch. Suddenly she was falling back on to it with him at his side. She shoved his ribs and he fell off. He was laughing.

"Bloody woman..." He said, shaking his head.

"Goddamn Camper." She retorted. The two of them just lay there for a while, just laughing quietly.