Welcome to the second chapter of In Strictest Confidence. I'm quite glad I got this one out as soon as I did, I feel like the ideas are just flooding through my mind about all the scenarios I could pull in this collection, and you'd think that would be a good thing. Well, you would indeed think so, but I tend to take these ideas, start every single one of them, and complete very few. Tis a curse I have borne for a long while.
That said, I think we're safe for now. I plan to keep putting out content as long as I have the time and the Overwatch energy going...and with that new Mercy Witch skin out right now, I'm very focused on Overwatch, lol! Sadly, I have only 1400 coins and not much luck with legendary drops in my loot crates...we'll see I guess. Of course I already have Hanzo, Pharah, and even the Roadhog Halloween skins, but Mercy? Nope. Can't be gotten so easily. I have a sinking feeling I'm going to be spending (more) money...
But all that aside, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I had originally thought of it as a Winston guest appearance, and I think he will appear one of these days...regardless, please enjoy. I was trying to make it humorous, but humor doesn't come easy to me in written form...I hope I did okay.
Please leave a review and tell me what you thought, thanks for all the love and support! Enjoy!
Mercy was used to being busy. Work never slowed at Overwatch. Never.
Except, it turned out, when the enemy was on an almost permanent trend of retreat. With nary a battle to attend to and thus no true injuries to speak of for the week, she was beginning to wonder what she was going to do with herself stuck at the base.
After checking inventory three times, double checking all her reports, attending to the needs of her patients and assistants to a tee, she was experiencing the rather odd sensation of boredom. Normally she would attend to her research and personal time.
This dry period just so happened to coincide with her funding renewal process, however. The lab was off limits for another four days. And as much as she loved the extra sleep, time at the spa with her assistants, and the ending of the book she'd been trailing for almost a month...she was ready to be useful again. And there wasn't a paper cut on Gibraltar to make better.
Things got so desperate she was actually suiting up to go on a day of extra drilling. She kept herself active and in good physical condition as a requirement of being on the field so much. Training wasn't new, but she had never before willingly gone above and beyond the call. This is what she became when even R&R was exhausted.
She'd come to terms with it at breakfast, or so she thought. She begged her chief assistant to grab her from it if anything came up, double checked with Jack and all the higher ups to see if she wasn't needed anywhere, even looked into taking a vacation in a third-world country to aid the doctors there...but evidently one week of no fighting was not enough to get her out of her post. Battles did spring up when they were least expected, they told her, so she couldn't risk leaving if heavy casualties arrived out of the blue until the overall state of affairs settled down. So she settled on hoping as she strapped on her helmet and wandered awkwardly onto the training course.
There was always the possibility something would go awry during training for someone. A few broken bones would be a nice distraction. Her smile faded when she stepped out of her own shoes and realized how horribly morbid that was to think about. In part because of the need to shake this way of thought, and in part because she was truly ready for a challenge, she decided to try a more difficult course today.
"Well…here goes nothing."
She put in the code of the program she wanted to run and got into position. Her caduceus staff wouldn't be required here, it was all about agility, mobility, and quick thinking in the face of adversity. She had learned the hard way teammates could not always save her as she could not always do the same for them.
She leapt from cover as the training drones came from three sides, two down the straight line that led to her objective, obscuring the finish line and firing numbing agent blasts; the other two popped out from either side of her starting point, half their bodies hidden behind crates.
Her side arm clutched tightly in her right hand, her eyes moving between targets with as much speed as she could muster, she darted into the fray. The robot to her right was blown in three consecutive body shots, and the other three did not aim as well as she did.
Taking the downed drone's cover, she managed a headshot on the single enemy directly across from her, but with heavy fire coming from the first two and clock ticking on, she advanced. Daring to be speedy, she zigged, zagged, and zoomed by the fire of the original two, never relenting in the pursuit of her goal.
That was when another two came out of the floor behind her, hidden behind a wall that shielded everything but their heads. Now she was trapped with no cover between four attackers.
She ducked first, and never taking her finger too far from the trigger, she used the boost in her step to fly out of harm's way and up against the wall. Now off the main path to the finish, she moved several strafes left, then right, then back to the left, and the robots did not easily follow her simple trickery.
But as the two new comers came, yet another pair joined the origina two near the end goal. All four bared their guns and let loose the training bolts, and her knee was hit before she could get away, removing the speed edge she had. She was hurrying to her best ability towards the new crates which had dropped from above, when yet a new obstacle, a fairly deep pit, opened up in her direct path, and she stopped herself from falling in by three fingers. She was breathing hard as she moved up and on behind the crates.
Her leg was going to burn later, but for now it simply felt dead, a phenomenon she very much disliked. Yet there was nothing to be done about it until after she got herself through this. Four against her, time passing quickly, the objective ever farther from her as the course extended itself in her moment of pause. This was where she depended on the soldiers. People like Jack or Jesse or Genji could be trusted to take away the enemy while they trusted her to have their backs.
All alone, she realized that this was something she ought to have been doing much more of, and decided she needed to capitalize on this time off as the timer got to red font, indicating imminent failure.
"Fear not!" A booming and unexpected voice called as a hulking figure dropped with the final pair of bots to join the foursome at the goal, "I am your shield! Go!"
Part of her was question what she saw, the other part was determined to prove herself capable in this test. From behind the bright blue shield of Reinhardt she took precise aim, juking to the side and back in between the perfect aiming spot and the safe zone of the old knight's protection, until the last bot remained.
She boosted forward and aimed high, coming in overhead and blowing it with a single shot, crossing the goal in the nick of time.
The smile on her face was great, but she suspected not as large as the smile behind the armored helmet. She ran to him, questions abounding.
"When did you get back? I thought you were with the main force moving through Canada?"
"I vas, but I heard you needed a shield!" He returned her affectionate embrace with one arm, the other holding the mighty war hammer that was his constant companion over his back.
"It's wonderful to have someone close back. I've been anxious to get back with you, but I've been kept here for lack of conflict."
"Lack of conflict? No. Ze the enemy lurks around every corner in ze field, but zey retreat often too. Ve de-bug zeir traps and scatter zem like flies vhen ve show ourselves, but zey persist in ze shadows."
"I'd love to be there for everyone...but what brings you back to Gibraltar?"
"A minor accident, slight infection, Ana says. Jack sent me home to take my medicine."
She was already taking him by the hand towards her office, "Then let's take a look shall we?"
Try to shrug it off as he might, she knew instantly there was more to this one than he would want to let on. If Ana was unable to get the job done on the field, it was something severe.
He talked her ears off the whole way, mostly insisting he was just fine, twisting in recent events and stories from the frontlines for her benefit. She kept up her bedside manner well before they got to the bed, but she was in full-on medical mode: observing the way he walked, analyzing his speech in relation to his pace and posture, subtly increasing her pace to see if he could keep up.
She had to admit, whatever was afflicting him, he was taking it in stride, she hardly noticed a thing wrong with him and his spirits were high. Oh, if only others could take their medicine like Reinhardt.
By the time he had removed his helmet and top half of his armor on the examination table, however, she knew his act was just an act, which she both appreciated and hated. Total honesty was always, always the best policy to take with your doctor.
His whole arm was crimson red, the blood in his veins almost glowing. A nasty affliction, and she knew whether or not he was at rest or using it, it had to be stinging something fierce.
"How did it happen," She asked, grabbing her clipboard and rustling through the container beside her all at once.
"As I said on ze training field, ze enemy leaves us traps to slow our progress. I volunteered to go into a high-risk area. It vas bitter work, to debug all ze houses and get ze families back to zeir homes and lives, but I did it gladly."
He slowed down and looked uncomfortably to the floor.
"Erm...on ze last one, I was sharing a few jokes vith Lena and Winston, and I...did not notice ze trap in the ze corner. Ze needle jabbed me right between ze armor plating here on ze shoulder," he pointed. It was reddest there.
"Well Ana was right to send you here. This is a highly volatile toxin. If you had delayed yourself in coming to me the arm may have been lost."
"I vill endure," he promised, "Vhat do you need me to do?"
"Luckily, we're quite an advanced medical center. You'll be fine with a day's rest and a shot."
Something in the atmosphere itself shifted, and his great amber eyes showed an unusual emotion: was it fear?
"I'd razer not," he said quickly, "is there no pill or scan or somezing you can do?"
"No...it must be a shot."
"Surely a medic as vonderful as yourself can work around zat."
"Reinhardt...why so evasive?"
"I do not like needles."
She almost wanted to laugh, but dared not disrespect him so. He was too great a protector and friend.
"I'm sorry...it has to be a shot. That, or the arm goes."
"Zis will not do…" He muttered thoughtfully.
"I can make it quick."
"..."
"You aren't afraid, are you?"
"Afraid? Nonsense! I fear nothing!"
"Come now, Reinhardt. Don't be silly. Let me help."
He had curled his arm, and he was choosing not to look at her.
"Reinhardt...you are being a child!" She accused.
"Give me anyzing but a shot."
"There is nothing."
"Zen I will recover on my own."
"Not without losing your arm, and maybe much more."
"No...I vill overcome it myself."
"Don't make me order you."
She had turned to her unchallenged authority as chief medical officer sparingly before, only in the most dire of situations did she pull rank on the other officers; the one time she gave Jack an order she thought her heart would stop before he complied.
But she had never had to even think of doing such a thing with the gentle giant before her. Fear did strange things to people.
"There's nothing to worry about," She assured in his continued silence, "you'd be surprised how many agents don't like to get their shots...almost as many as don't like to take their medicine. Sometimes it takes a pill, other times it takes a shot."
Even now, however, he refused to let her see the wound.
She sighed and moved in closer, herself a little embarrassed to be saying what needed to be said.
"I can give it to you on the arm like a man, or over my knee like a babe."
She had never seen his face so red, the whitening facial har moving around like an uncomfortable caterpillar on his lips as he struggled to accept what had to happen. Something was straining in his throat, she could tell, but the cat had this lion's tongue for now.
"Very well, bend over."
Now he was looking her in the eyes, and there was anger there, but not directed at her. She knew in his head, the curses were flying, at the lack of alternate methods of treatment, at his own carelessness, and most especially at the faceless enemy agent who left the trap in the first place.
He was almost malfunctioning trying to make up his mind, but either way, she knew he was close to cracking and accepting it. It was all a matter of how to do so now.
"By the way," she said as she readied the injection, "as it is much farther from the infection sight, we might have to do it more than once if you want it in the posterior."
He moaned despairingly and closed his eyes as he relinquished his arm.
She smiled, an amused expression halfway between satisfied and unbelieving of how difficult it had been to get here.
"Hurry! Hurry and do it!" He told her.
The needle was just poking into his skin when he gave a hoarse shout, nothing like the battle cries he was used to throwing out on the field, but a cry full of other emotions. He sounded like he was holding hands with a ghost against his will, or forced to peek at his mother or sister in a state of undress.
As much as he respected him, now she really did want to laugh, as his wail got longer and louder exponentially with each passing second. The needle hadn't yet pierced his skin.
"Do it! Do it quickly my friend!" He screamed, tears now coming down his face as she stood still as stone.
She held her place for a few seconds, then the inner doctor took control.
"Reinhardt!" She shouted furiously, snapping him out of his fear and throwing him into awe, injecting the treatment so that he never noticed it.
After just three seconds, the medication was almost all in his veins, now returning to their regular blue color.
"Heroes never cry," She encouraged with a very warm smile.