Dr. Zeigler's Office
Chris was sitting on the exam table while Angela was going through her examination. Chris still maintaining that 1000 yard stare out the window.
"Well other than some bruised ribs and all that dust that got inhaled, everything seems to be as it should be." Angela said as she was cleaning up her desk a bit. She didn't really expect to hear a response from the boy. But the silence was deafening to her.
She looked down to see the locket he was still holding in his hands. She looked grew a small smile and started to walk over to the table.
"May i see that locket there?" she carefully asked.
Chris finally broke his stare with the sunset out of the window and met the doctors eyes before nodding slowly handing it over. Angela sat down next to him and looked at the picture inside. She thought it was a very nice looking photo.
"The older one is...was my brother." He winced at the necessity to correct himself. "He was a pretty cool guy. He was very handy around cars. We rarely ever had to take our car to the shop because he fixed just about everything."
"He sounds he was a very smart man." she placed a hand on his leg while offering him a small smile. "You know you are very lucky to come out of that mess with such minor injuries." She remarked. He didn't react to what she had just said but it mulled around in his mind. Lucky? Who could consider themselves lucky in this situation, he thought.
He just scuffed a little, "I guess that's one way of putting it."
Angela thought maybe it was a poor choice of words given how fresh the emotional wounds were. She took the pendant and wrapped it around his neck and clipped it so that it hung around his neck. Chris looked down to see the only thing left from his family.
"Now they'll never leave your side." Angela said with a comforting smile.
Chris simply nodded not saying anything more.
Gabriel entered the room seeing Chris staring down at the locket. "Hows he doing doc?"
"Other than some scraps and bruises, nothing at all." She replied. Angela got back to cleaning her desk and organizing her files.
Gabriel motioned to Chris to follow him out of the office. As they both exited the office they made their way down the hall walking towards the mess hall. "Listen Chris, we feel it might best suit you if you stay with us for a while, until you get your bearings together."
Chris didn't respond to him still looking down at his locket.
"Who are you guys, and why are you so concerned about me?" Chris finally responding to Gabriel.
"We are an internationally sanctioned task force, Overwatch. And well its what we do, look out for people like you." Reyes said. Winston would certainly be proud of Gabriel for putting it so eloquently what they do. There was definitely more to it than that but Reyes didn't to elaborate too much.
Chris finally looking up from the locket. Look out for people, he thought to himself. Something hit him in the best way possible. "How can I join?". Reyes eyes shot wide at his response.
"Your a little too young to be joining us, besides it's physically demanding, time consuming and worst of all-"
"I want to look out for people." Chris cut him off. Looking back down and opening the locket to steal another glance of the photo. "So no one else has to go through something like losing their life."
Reyes opened his mouth but closed it right away. How could he say no to someone who wants to be that selfless. Not even a day after Talon stole his life away, and he wants to do this?
"Why don't you sleep on it kid. People tend to make irrational decisions after going through a traumatic experience." Reyes replied.
Chris stopped walking and looked out the window of the hall to the coastline with the sun just about to disappear on the horizon. Reyes was taken back a little at the sudden pause in Chris' steps.
"My brother always loved the beach. We lived on the east coast so we only got to see the sun rise but he always treasured it when we saw the sun poking itself over the sea." A new sunrise means a new day. A new day gives the start of a new beginning. Yesterday may have been a shit day but that has no effect on what you do today. Only if you let yesterday wreck your new day will you forever be stuck in loop of disarray. Chris remembered what his brother had said to him the last time they saw the sunrise a few weeks ago.
"Mr. Reyes I can't change what happened today. Nobody can. There's no point in dwelling on this sunset, because the sun will rise tomorrow and it will be a new day. A chance at a new beginning. Don't deny me a chance at a new day."
Reyes just scoffed and shook his head and put his arm around the kids shoulder. "I wish more people your mindset kid." They both stood there for a little while watching the last bits of the sun disappearing behind the coast. Reyes pulled Chris along to the mess hall to get some food for the night.
While they were sitting enjoying their meal, being the only two in the mess hall, Reyes continued to keep Chris company, entertaining the thought of Chris joining the team in the future.
"You won't get any special treatment from us you know? You would be on an even playing field just like all the other recruits we look at." Reyes finally said looking at Chris. Chris simply nodded as he continued digging in to his meal. "You won't officially be able to apply until you are 18 too."
Chris swallowed his food and with a small smirk said "I guess that means I have more time to get ready then don't I." That was the first sign of something other than remorse and pain Gabriel saw in Chris' eyes. Gabriel simply smiled back and nodded. "Guess your right."
Genji and McCree entered the mess hall a little later seeing the other two sitting down at the far table both of which halted their steps. McCree just raised an eyebrow and softly said slightly above a whisper, "I've never seen Reyes act like this. He's never even taken this much of an interest in anyone before." Genji chuckled before adding, "almost seems like the spitting image of someone i know."
McCree just shot a look at Genji before finally letting out a sigh remembering what brought him and Reyes together. "I guess its just in Reyes' nature to keep that father figure."
Reyes looked up to see the other two standing waved them over to join them. As the other two joined them Reyes almost mockingly said, "Well gentleman your looking at the newest member of the Overwatch team."
Chris sat up straight and proud playing along with the tone and added, "I'm gonna be the best shot on the team." pointing his hands like guns before making them recoil back like he had taken a couple of shots. All of them sharing a chuckle.
Reyes showed Chris to his room which almost seemed like as big as his own room back home. "This will be your room for the time being. It's not too much but it will do for now." Chris simply plopped down on the bed. Reyes closed the door leaving Chris alone for the first time since everything happened.
Before falling asleep Chris opened up the locket and looked down at the picture again. A new day, he thought to himself, before he finally dosed off to sleep clutching his locket in his hands.
Reyes made his way back to his room when he was stopped by Morrison.
"I got your report. They couldn't have possibly have gotten this far could they?" Jack asked almost doubting the intel.
"It would explain the isolated explosion over the populated area. Talon likely is looking to try and use this for something sinister, but what use could they possible have. More importantly we haven't even made strides to attempt to start construction on project slipstream." Reyes added.
"Its likely they are rushing to try and beat us to the punch to gain whatever edge they can on us." Both Reyes and Morrison turned to see Winston approaching them while adjusting his glasses.
"More than likely they were running a test flight and the ship malfunctioned while re-entering space causing the explosion to appear practically out of thin air." Winston added.
"That would explain why there was no evidence of any accelerator burning agent found on any of the buildings around, but wouldn't there be debris from the ship itself?" Reyes asked with a puzzling look on his face.
"When dealing with 'time jumping' for lack of a better term, the laws of our physical time don't always follow what we know. The ship could have exploded over the here but the damaged ship might appear later or somewhere else. It's tough to say exactly what happened but that is the most logical conclusion." Winston replied.
Morrison looked distraught, "This isn't good. Somewhere in the pipes there is leak. I'm moving project slipstream to full confidentiality, only to be discussed on a need-to-know bases."
Both Winston and Reyes nodded in agreement all going their separate ways to turn in for the night.