Fareeha walked through the corridors, keeping her destination at the forefront of her mind: the infirmary. She wasn't injured beyond a few mostly healed bruises, and she didn't have a check-up scheduled for at least another week, but she did have a purpose in mind that involved chocolates and flowers.
When she got to the doors, she knocked and patiently waited for a response from inside. She was certain Angela's schedule was free for the next few hours, but she didn't want to risk barging she in on any impromptu appointments. Thankfully, it still appeared as though Angela was free, as she could hear the woman beckoning her in from inside.
As she pushed through the doors, she saw the Angela rummaging through the file cabinet, beginning to speak before she turned around.
"I'll be with you in one second, just let me-" she glanced over her shoulder, a smile reaching her eyes spreading on her face when she realised who the guest was. "Fareeha. It's nice to see you. Are those for me?"
Fareeha returned the smile before she walked over to the doctor, holding her gifts out towards her. "Who else would I be getting these for, habibti?"
The Egyptian and swiss woman had been officially together for the past two months. They were still happily in the phase of surprising each other with gifts and visits throughout the day, and it showed no sign of ending soon.
"You do have a point. Thank you." Angela smiled as she rounded her desk took the gifts, her grin getting wider when she realised Fareeha had gone all out and had bought her favourite chocolates. "So, how has your day been?" She asked, leaning back on her work station.
"It's been good. Hell of a lot better now I'm seeing you though." Fareeha joked, making a finger gun gesture at the other woman who just buried her face in her hands at the horrendous line, accidently skewing her glasses. She moved her hands away from her face and corrected them before she smiled at her girlfriend. "How was yours?"
"Ah, the same as always. Genji decided it would be fun to train with Lena but overextended his left arm and dislocated it. McCree came by and teased him about it while I was relocating the shoulder. Genji didn't find it funny."
"So that's why Jesse's face looked swollen when I saw him." Fareeha couldn't help but snicker when Angela nodded along; the thought of the cowboy getting decked by Genji was more than amusing, even if it would've hurt. She stopped following the playful shove and stern look she got off her girlfriend, who chuckled herself when her attempts at stopping Fareeha's amusement appeared futile. Watching Angela laugh, Fareeha couldn't help but feel so helplessly in love with her, and leaned over to give the woman a quick kiss that was eagerly returned.
"Fareeha..."Angela cupped the younger woman's face, rubbing her thumb across her cheek as she stared into her deep brown eyes. "I lo-"
"All agents, report to the meeting room immediately." Athena's voice spoke over the intercom, interrupting what Angela was about to say.
As much as the prospect of hiding in the medical bay and spending time together appealed to the two of them, both women knew they couldn't ignore such a call. With an irritated sigh, Fareeha took the lead as they both left and made their way down to the conference room.
As much as Overwatch had respected her wishes when it came to not taking her on as many missions, Angela still had to answer the call of duty from time to time, especially given that she was the only true field medic they had. At least this time, she had a girlfriend to bring with her.
Currently, they were sat inside the drop ship, readying their weapons and taking inventory of what they had. Pharah grabbed as many rockets as she could hold in one hand, and began to load them into the compartments in the suit, ready for a barrage if it was required, before moving on to load her rocket launcher.
Mercy was busy readying her Caduceus Blaster and placing it in the hidden holster under the side armour of her Valkyrie suit, before grabbing her staff and inspecting it closely, ensuring it was in working order before the mission. Fully satisfied, she strolled over to her girlfriend, who was still inspecting every inch of her weapon and Raptora suit. The younger woman glanced up, her eyes full of adoration. "Ya amar, you know I think you look beautiful normally, but I must say you look gorgeous with your wings."
Mercy could feel herself blushing at the compliment. "Thank you. You look rather fetching in your armour yourself, schatz, although you look better in a dress shirt. If only I had a way to get you into one…" She sighed wistfully before she smirked up at her lover. "Maybe I'll take you to dinner when we get back.".
This time Pharah blushed, her dark cheeks gaining an adorable hint of red as she considered what Mercy had just said to her. Mercy just thought about how endearing it was to see the soldier get stunned into silence by the proposition of a date, and how much she loved everything about her. It made her want to spend as much time with her as possible.
"I'd love to go to dinner with you." The dropship shook as it began to near its destination of Nepal. "I love-"
Just as Pharah was about to finish her sentence, Winston walked down the stairs to them, informing them that they had to be upstairs and ready to leave within the next minute or so. Not wanting to keep him waiting, they followed him back up the stairs, Fareeha letting those three words go unsaid.
When the team of Pharah, Mercy, Winston and Tracer had arrived at Nepal, they weren't sure what to expect. All they knew was that Zenyatta, who had joined with them the moment they disembarked, had informed them of an unwanted presence at the temple, and that the omnic monks required assistance.
The unwanted presence turned out to be a ragtag gang of Australians, each of them some form of damaged thanks to the radiation back in their home country. Pharah had heard of the issues within the country, and the fact that they were less than pleased by any omnic presence.
Quickly, the team of five set off to start reducing the attackers, with Winston breaking them up and Tracer taking out the flankers. Pharah's responsibility was to fire at anyone who tried to take the central path through the temple, as well as attempt to incapacitate any of the ones who Winston and Tracer couldn't kill. Zenyatta tried to stay between Winston and Tracer's position, throwing discord orbs and harmony orbs accordingly, ensuring their safety and allowing Mercy to stay with Pharah so that she could damage boost her. If worse came to worse, the Valkyrie suit would allow her to fly to whoever was in need, but as long as all went well, she was better suited to stay with Pharah.
The mission was going well, most of the Junker's having fled once they realised how poorly equipped they were to deal with the situation and soon, the group of radiation afflicted criminals was beaten down to two stragglers: One that wore a gas mask that closely resembled the face of a pig. The other a hunched over man that bore striking resemblance to a rat; both of them currently inside and concentrating fire on the two airborne women while the remainder of the Overwatch team ensured that the Junker's who had fled continued to do so and didn't try to round back on the temple.
It should have been easy to take out the two stragglers, even without a rocket launcher, but the smaller one was moving erratically and firing his own weapon in a completely random fashion, with the larger one drawing in air from a gas canister every time he took splash damage.
It was beginning to get to Pharah. She couldn't get a direct hit on either of them, and a concussive blast was out of the question, seeing as she couldn't get a good shot behind them and firing in front of them would just push them further back onto the platform they were currently on. Not only was the difficulty in hitting them making her frustrated, but in the back of her mind she was aware that she only had a finite amount of fuel to stay airborne, and she probably needed to touch down sooner rather than later.
In an attempt to make some progress in the fight, Pharah allowed herself to drop slightly lower, giving the jump jets time to cool off for her to make a sudden manoeuvre to the left.
The actions of the next few seconds played in slow motion to Pharah.
She strafed to the left, and narrowly avoided the hook that the pig like monster threw at her, completely unaware that Mercy was currently positioned behind her until she saw the blonde woman come rushing past her with the hook firmly wrapped around her waist.
The hook dragged her right in front of the large man, who readied his scrap gun and aimed it at the position where Mercy's head was soon to be.
Pharah screamed her name but her rapid pulse stopped her from hearing herself. Thankfully, it distracted the Australian as Mercy arrived at his feet, his temporary inattention giving her chance to move backwards and attempt to fly herself back to Pharah, whose mind had become a pit of white noise filled panic.
Mercy was almost in the clear when the pig-headed bastard regained his concentration, firing the scrap gun at the woman who howled in pain as the nails and bolts shredded into the back of her Valkyrie suit, landing harshly on the ground close to the edge of the platform.
A second too late, the rest of the team arrived in the temple, having apparently circled back after chasing the others away. The two leftovers quickly made themselves scarce when they saw them, giving Pharah the chance to drop down and inspect the damage to her beloved girlfriend.
Mercy was on the ground, one arm beneath her as she reached out for Pharah with the other. Her face was contorted with pain, her wings were bent and shattered, her halo had snapped in two and her back…the armour covering it was shredded, bolts and screws embedded firmly in the freely bleeding flesh underneath.
Pharah wanted so badly to picked her up and cradle her, and she was about to when she realised Mercy was frantically shaking her head, trying to say something but failing as blood filled and slowly dripped from her mouth. Instead, she settled for kneeling beside her, hand hovering an inch away from her severely injured back as she covered her mouth and screamed for the woman who was growing weaker by the second.
She had to be forcibly moved away from Mercy by Tracer and Zenyatta as Winston carried her broken, barely breathing form back to the dropship, the omnic monk desperately trying to do all he could for her during the journey back to Gibraltar.
It had been over a week since the mission in Nepal. By all accounts, it was successful, but to Fareeha, it was the biggest disaster of her life.
Angela had been hurt, and very seriously so, almost having succumbed to her injuries by the time they arrived back at base where they learned the true extent of her wounds; aside from the superficial lacerations and barely embedded nails and bolts, there were some pieces of metal found deep within her abdomen, causing an almost deadly amount of internal bleeding. One of her kidneys had been so badly damaged that they had to remove it, her other kidney thankfully not having been hurt too severely. The worst injury of all had absolutely no contest whatsoever; her spine had been completely severed by the blast. If it wasn't for the fact she'd used herself as a test subject for her own nano-technology (something Fareeha and the rest of Overwatch totally did not know about), she would've been dead before they even got out of the temple.
Angela had woken up two days after the incident, but Fareeha hadn't been to see her yet. She told herself it was because Angela had been in and out of surgery, and then she told herself it was because she was probably doped up on enough painkillers to sedate a horse and wouldn't be much fun to talk to.
She refused to acknowledge the real reason as to why she wouldn't see her.
Fareeha sat, playing with her food when McCree sat across from her with his own tray. She hoped that he would just get on with eating, but she had no such luck.
"You alright there, 'Ree?" She glanced at him, noticing that his face was no longer swollen from his confrontation with Genji, but he was still a tooth down.
"I'm fine, Jesse." She continued to stab her fork into the potatoes that Lena had lovingly prepared for everyone as part of their dinner. She was lying, of course, and she hoped McCree would let it go. After all, it wasn't like he or anyone else knew of her and Angela's relationship. That, and that it wasn't really any of his business what she did or didn't do, although he was like an older brother to her, so he was probably going to make it his business anyway.
"Really? Because the doc's been up and aware since yesterday, and apparently there's only one person who hasn't been to visit her yet." He spoke matter-of-factly as he dug into his own food, clearly not falling for Fareeha's lie.
At least he's not pressing me for the reason I haven't been to see her.
McCree was quiet for a moment as Fareeha didn't bother to move. "She's feeling pretty low, y'know. Maybe you should go see her.". When she didn't answer him, he continued to press the issue. "I'm sure she'd feel better if she saw you. She misses you."
"I'm not sure why…" Fareeha mumbled under her breath. McCree heard her, but didn't understand what she said, asking her politely to repeat herself only for her to glare at him. She hadn't meant to, and quickly apologised for doing so.
Fareeha inhaled deeply through her nose, trying to put her newfound frustration at bay. She couldn't fathom why seeing her would make her feel better, especially after what happened, but when it became clear that McCree wouldn't drop the issue and gave her the single most pitiful look in the world, she realised he probably wasn't going to leave her alone until she went to see her and thus, she begrudgingly got up and left.
When Fareeha entered the infirmary, it took her all her strength not to burst into tears there and then.
Angela was on her side, looking horribly bored and sorry for herself as she read a copy of Suspicion. She was wearing a hospital gown that was left open and pulled down to just above her waist, her upper body covered in bandages and gauze, both being used as dressings and a way to preserve her modesty. An IV bag was dripping a solution into the tube that went into her left hand. She hadn't yet noticed her girlfriend watching her from the doorway.
Fareeha took a steadying breath before she spoke. "Hi, Angela."
Immediately, Angela looked up from her book, the sorry look she wore melting away into one filled with joy. "Fareeha!"
The look of total love in her eyes, the pure delight at seeing her; it was too much for Fareeha. She immediately broke down, her knees shaking as she tried to keep herself upright and failed, dropping to the ground as her tears fell freely.
The nurse in the room rushed over to her and helped her into a chair next to her girlfriend, giving the both some privacy by vacating the room immediately after. Angela put down her book and began rubbing her back while she made soothing noises, trying her hardest to calm her down.
"Fareeha, it's okay. I'm okay." She said, keeping her voice low and soothing while Fareeha continued to sob next to her.
"No…you shouldn't be here. This should have been me." Fareeha stopped for a moment to take in a shaky breath. "If I hadn't moved, he would never have got you and-"
Fareeha felt a hand on her cheek, the thumb rubbing in circles as Angela shushed her. "You didn't know I was behind you. You couldn't have known he would get me. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't my fault. It was his fault. All that matters is that I'm here now, with you.".
At Angela's soothing words, Fareeha began to calm down, even if her tears still fell freely. "You don't blame me?"
"Of course I don't." Angela gently tugged Fareeha's face towards her own and kissed her, the younger woman deepening the kiss and putting her hand on Angela's back, immediately recoiling when it was met by the feel of not only plastic and bandages, but cold metal that didn't belong to the nerve plates on the older woman's shoulders.
Fareeha leaned over and saw a white metal peeking out beyond the wrappings, the surrounding flesh raised and pink. If it wasn't for the curiosity at the new acquisition, she probably would've started crying again. Whatever it was, it was obviously some sort of medical aid to help with the fact her spine had been severely fractured.
"I created a cybernetic spine blueprint a few months ago. Never really had the chance to test it until now." The older woman shrugged as well as she could, given the circumstances, averting her gaze from her girlfriends. "They implanted it five days ago. I could feel below my waist as soon as I came around, and I managed to walk a bit yesterday, so it's safe to say it's a success.".
Fareeha was beyond ecstatic at the news. After being blamed for what happened, the thing that scared her the most was that Angela would never be able to walk again and would have to change her lifestyle to account for the change. Of course, she wouldn't give up being a doctor (the only thing that would make her give up would be death itself), but she wouldn't be able to go on missions for a very long time, if ever again, even if she wasn't over keen on them. This time when Fareeha cried, she cried because she was happy that Angela was okay.
She began to kiss her through her tears, feeling Angela's grin stretching across her face as they showed their affection.
Fareeha pulled back, ignoring the playful whine her girlfriend gave. "You're such a brilliant, intelligent woman." She kissed her again. "I'm so lucky you're my girlfriend." And again. "I love you.".
Angela froze at the words. In the two months they had been together, neither of them had said those words, though it wasn't for lack of trying. They didn't particularly mind not having said it yet; the relationship was new, and they were in an organisation that was currently illegal. They didn't want to waste breath on words that may be meaningless in a few weeks' or months' time.
Recent events changed that.
When Angela didn't reply straight away, Fareeha panicked that she'd overstepped the mark. What if she still wasn't ready to say that? What if Fareeha had just ruined the entire relationship? She thought she was trying to say that back on that fateful day, but maybe she was wrong and going to say something else?
The panic quickly disappeared when Angela said, "I love you too," before she kissed her girlfriend again.
In that moment, they had both never felt so in love with each other.