Mei now stood alone in the grey hallway, guilt making a nest of her insides.
She nibbled the inside of her bottom lip, wringing her hands. Had she made a mistake?
The look on Junkrat's face had been so familiar to her. It took her back to a place in her mind that she had buried long ago beneath bricks of will and mortar of spite.
After Mei had lost her family, she had become a recluse.
She holed up in her apartment bedroom, never going out to face society. They say that ruin spreads: from the heart, to the mind, to the body, to the world surrounding. Mei had been no exception.
Crumpled up papers which had been covered in unsatisfactory observations and research notes had littered the floor of her room. Her clothing lay in piles, strewn about the floor. Her hair had grown unkempt and wild, her skin dull, her eyes dim. If she was hungry, she'd call in takeout. She didn't keep track of her sleeping patterns, interchanging from going two days without rest to sleeping for 16 hours of the day. It was though she didn't live at all.
She simply waited.
For what, she didn't know. She had an idea, but the thought of it was too dark for her to accept. She had chased it away whenever it arose, numbly burying herself in her work.
As she stood in the silence, her hands began to shake. Remorse clawed away inside of her heart, and her blood froze as suddenly she realized:
She knew nothing about him.
All the news stories of the Junkers' crime sprees, the rumors, the fear: they were the only basis she had of his identity.
She had spent this entire time hating him for what he didn't know and for being insensitive and cruel, while she was the one who had seen only his shadow and immediately dubbed him a monster.
Pride and indignance rotted into shame in her heart, and she began to fret. She had to find out for herself what was wrong.
She had all but sprinted to Mercy's clinic, throwing the door open and causing the poor medic a terrible fright. Dr. Ziegler immediately jumped up from her desk and rushed over to Mei, who was breathing hard from the run. Her worried eyes ran the climatologist up and down, and she gently took her by the hands.
"Mei-Ling, are you alright? What's the matter?"
Her beautiful blue gaze settled on Mei's face, gently ordering her to answer. She frowned softly, seeing no evidence of physical injury.
"Is it your migraines again?"
Mei shook her head, fighting to catch her breath, and gently waved Mercy away.
"No, no, its not me….I just….I need some answers."
Mercy straightened, face softening. Now that she knew for certain that Mei wasn't in any critical danger, she allowed friendly concern to seep into her expression. She lays a pretty, slender hand on Mei's wrist, and smiles kindly.
"What do you need, dear?"
Mei finally looks up, her face grave and serious.
"I need to know what's wrong with Junkrat."
Mercy's brows shoot up in surprise before she grins, allowing herself to giggle fondly.
"What isn't?"
Mei gasps softly at her misunderstanding and shakes her head again, closing her eyes and opening them again to look her friend square in the eye.
"No, Angela...I don't mean his morals. I mean his well-being. Did something…..", she pauses, sucking in a breath.
"Did something happen to him?"
Mercy's face falls, her topaz eyes glancing away to avoid Mei's jasper ones.
'You know I can't tell you that, Mei-Ling. I took an oath."
Mei's gloved hands reach to clasp Mercy's, her eyes widening with worry.
"Please, Angela. Something is wrong, very wrong. And I think I've made a mistake. You've examined everyone in Overwatch, and you've read every inch of our background files. There must be something!"
Mei's round eyes are shining now, regret and worry making her face tense. It wouldn't have been the first time Angela had seen the woman cry, but she'd prefer to keep it from happening again. Mei's sadness was a terribly contagious thing.
Mercy bites her lip, seemingly wrestling with herself over something before finally looking to Mei and smiling weakly, relenting.
"I can tell you this, Mei: The nuclear events weren't very kind to him."
Turning away to pace around her clinic, she laughs bitterly, raising a black-gloved hand to thread into her blonde hair.
"In fact, it's a miracle he's even still alive. How he's not..."
She pauses and licks her lips, exhaustion evident in her voice. When she turns to face Mei again, her eyes are dim and haunted.
"...riddled with cancers….is a miracle. He managed to pay for his life with an arm and a leg. Well, and a patch of hair.", she laughs softly then, a pitiful attempt at masking her tired sadness.
"Among other things."
At her words, Mei can't stop the tears that begin to roll down her cheeks. Her chest began to burn and her throat prickled. Details were unnecessary: Mercy's face had spoken volumes.
He had been caught in the wreckage during the Omnic Crisis, and had lost his home.
A sob broke from Mei's chest, her lip trembling.
She had been so terrible to him.
Mercy took notice of Mei's distress immediately, reaching a delicate hand to cup her friend's wet cheek.
Mei hiccuped and sniffed, guilt flooding her heart.
"I-I-I called him a monster!", she wailed.
Mercy sighed, a knowing smile on her lips.
"You didn't know any better."
Mei exhaled a shuddering breath and wept, burying her face in her hands and crumpling down to her knees. Her tiny, miserable keening echoed throughout the sterile clinic, its echo bouncing from wall to metal wall.
Mercy knelt before her and gently spread her arms like the wings she wore on the battlefield, offering Mei a place to dry her tears. Mercy swallows thickly, willing away her own sadness before bending to speak softly into Mei's ear.
"It's hard to be people like us, isn't it? Feeling pains that aren't your own while all you can seem to do is stand by and wait with bandages on the sidelines, making your best guesses on what to do next to best protect them."
Mei's weeping turned to full-on crying, tucking herself into the matronly angel's welcoming arms.
"I care about you too, Mei. Just as much. And our world is filled with those in need of healing."
Mei looks up at her, her eyes red and shimmering with tears. Mercy gracefully produces a handkerchief and pats at the scientist's flooded cheeks, smiling assuredly to her, her blue gaze firm and bright.
"And that is why we fight."