Apprehensive as she was about the recall, Angela had grown to love her job. Now that the whole world didn't hate them, they received enough money for her to kit out her lab properly, and now she was making even greater strides than ever before in her technology.
That said, as much as Angela truly loved what she was doing, going on missions then being a doctor and a scientist was beginning to wear on her and, after a long discussion with Fareeha, she had decided to take two weeks off. (the fact that Fareeha also asked for two weeks off during the same period was a total coincidence, Angela was assured.).
She honestly hadn't thought she'd become too exhausted however, at least until today when Amélie had an emotional outburst and Angela ended up being unable to stop herself from rising to the bait. After apologising profusely for over an hour, she was certain the two of them were back on good terms and she felt comfortable leaving her in the hands of Doctor Markus for the next fortnight. She could still visit her anyway.
She pulled up outside her home, walking towards the front door as she rolled her stiff shoulders. (Doing a mountain of paperwork then driving was never fun.). All she wanted to do was get inside, have a shower and get in bed, preferably with Fareeha and a movie. After all, nothing was better than curling up in bed with her girlfriend and falling asleep in her arms.
When she stepped inside, all her previous plans flew from her mind. For whatever reason, a suitcase that was definitely hers was packed and in the foyer, and she most certainly couldn't fathom the reason why.
"Fareeha, are you home?"
As if on cue, the Egyptian appeared at the top of the staircase with her own suitcase in hand. Her face lit up and she attempted to get down the stairs as fast as possible. The slight waddle as she attempted to balance herself and the suitcase would've been amusing had Angela not been so perplexed.
She set the suitcase down and stood with a giant grin on her face. "Hey, so I figured since we never get to go anywhere other than when we're on a mission, we should go on vacation!" She reached into her back pocket and produced four plane tickets: two for Egypt, two for Switzerland. "Surprise!"
Angela stood dumbfounded. She glanced at the tickets, then Fareeha, then the suitcases and finally back to Fareeha, whose expression was slowly moving from pleased-with-herself to desperation.
"Surprise!" She said again, emphasising the existence of the tickets with a wave of her hand. "This is where you're meant to say: Vow thank you amazing girlfriend who I love zo much! I can't vait to go avay."
Instead of parroting what Fareeha said, Angela picked up on the imitation with a, "I don't really sound like that." Her face then broke into a smile and took a step closer to her self-proclaimed amazing girlfriend. "but thank you very much for the surprise, liebling." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed the taller woman.
Even though it was out of nowhere, going on a real vacation certainly appealed. In fact, the more she let it sink in, the more Angela realised how long it had been since she'd actually been away anywhere for purposes other than Overwatch and being a field medic. The most recent instance she could think of was when she was 25.
"So the flight to Egypt leaves at 4 AM and before you start complaining, it's a five hour flight so you can sleep on the way there. We'll be there for a week then it's off to Switzerland. Sound good?"
It sounded fantastic to her. Okay, maybe not the 4 AM departure, (That, quite frankly, was a pretty big negative.) but the idea of going on her first vacation in 14 years with her much loved girlfriend more than outweighed the disgusting time she'd have to get up in order to not miss their flight.
Fareeha set the tickets aside on top of their luggage and wrapped her arms around Angela, who took the cue to nuzzle herself further into her chest and wrap her arms around her too. "I love you." She mumbled into her shirt.
"I love you too." Angela felt the words being punctuated with a kiss to the top of her head. "Now, I got your message about what happened, so I ran you a bath and laid out a collection of movies on the bed for you to choose from."
Now that was an equally as nice surprise, made increasingly better by Fareeha agreeing to join her in the bath, both of them running upstairs in the excitement over what they would be doing for the next two weeks.
Angela had made a lot of bad decisions in her life, some inexplicably worse than others, and watching Final Destination the night before she had to catch a plane was definitely in the top 5.
It was meant to be a fun, if gruesome movie. Laughing at the terrible deaths with the knowledge that more than a few of them would never occur in the real world. It was only when she was boarding the plane did she remember the point that started the events of the movie and suddenly the fear of flying that she had harboured as a little girl and long since gotten over came back full force.
Fareeha practically had to drag her to their seats. Angela nearly broke her hand when the plane took off due to how hard she was gripping it and even now, half an hour later, she wasn't fairing much better.
"If you're that terrified, just put on your eye mask and headphones and go to sleep." Fareeha said, clearly aware of her fear despite the fact she had her own eye mask securely in place.
"No. If I go to sleep, then the plane might crash because I wasn't awake to will it into staying in the air." Angela replied, not realising how ridiculous her statement sounded until her girlfriend uncovered one eye to look at her.
"You're serious?" Angela nodded, half expecting Fareeha to burst out laughing any second. Instead, she just reached over and held her hand. "We'll be fine. They check these planes constantly. The pilots are properly trained. If anything does happen, which it almost certainly won't, we have life vests, and we're close enough to the front to escape quickly, okay?"
While the words didn't force her fear of flying back into the ether, it certainly made Angela more comfortable. Still, she had to point out that as much as they check the planes, they probably don't check them 10 times before being satisfied, then a further 2 times just to be doubly sure the plane won't spontaneously explode like Lena does, the mention of the young pilot reminding her of something rather important she forgot to do.
"Who are you messaging?"
"Derek. Doctor Markus. I forgot I promised Amélie I'd visit her. I'm asking him to make sure she knows we went away and me not visiting is nothing to do with yesterday and that I'll see her when I get back." Angela said as she rapidly typed her message.
Fareeha hummed at the response. She knew as well as anyone how volatile the poor woman could be at times.
Angela put her phone away, settling back into her seat and gripping Fareeha's hand again, promising her that she'd try to sleep through the flight. Of course, as much as her nerves were plaguing her, it didn't stop her from making a quip about endlessly nagging Fareeha in the afterlife if she was wrong and they did crash.
Had they not been in public, Angela would've been throwing herself at the ground and kissing it the moment they got of the transport, but as it stood they were, and all she could do was listen to Fareeha's "I told you so," as they went to collect their luggage.
They found Angela's first, and she couldn't help but notice the panic begin to set itself in on the Egyptians face when her own case didn't turn up for another ten minutes. She was halfway through worriedly figuring out how she would fit in Angela's clothes for the duration of the vacation when it finally appeared on the carousel, practically throwing herself at it the moment she saw it.
"Now how come you never act like that when I come back from a mission?" Angela teased as Fareeha made her way over and directed them over to the exit.
"I believe you should be more thankful that I didn't treat the case the way I treat you when you come back from a mission." She punctuated her statement with a wink, and Angela could feel her face getting hotter by the second.
"I walked right into that one."
"That you did, amar, that you did."
The journey to the hotel was a significantly less nerve wracking affair for the swiss woman, mainly because it didn't involve a flying death can. There was a moment of concern when Fareeha pointed out she didn't actually know how to get to the hotel, but that was cleared up when they discovered the car had GPS (the majority of cars did, but some car rental places still enjoyed renting cars without them.).
The hotel itself was delightful. Apparently Fareeha had booked one of the biggest rooms in the place; one that had a separate living area and bedroom. "Just because we're only here for a week, doesn't mean we can't have some luxury." She had said as Angela unceremoniously threw herself on the sofa.
Angela was about to fall asleep when Fareeha gently manoeuvred her so she could sit down and rest her head on her lap. She smiled up at her, lifting her head slightly and pursing her lips so that they could share a quick kiss. "So, schatz, what's the plan for today?"
The woman above her feigned thoughtfulness. "I was thinking we go out, have some street fo-"
"No. Absolutely not."
Fareeha chuckled. "Okay. My second plan was we spend the day in bed together. Napping, cuddling, whatever."
Angela couldn't help but smirk. 'Whatever' certainly appealed to her, especially as it more than likely included the other two options. She giggled as Fareeha picked her up and carried her bridal style to the bedroom.
As good as the first day was, they both knew they couldn't spend the entire time in the hotel.
"We could visit the Temple of Anubis." Fareeha suggested, glancing up from her phone in time to see Angela wincing at the suggestion. "Or we could go visit the other pyramids, or the necropolis mum used to hide in, seeing as they turned it into a tourist site."
The other two ideas were much better sounding to Angela. She still remembered the horror that flooded through her when Fareeha was shot out of the sky last time they were at the Temple. It had taken her the past month to get comfortable with seeing the scar on Fareeha's stomach, and she certainly didn't want to see the place again so soon after.
In the end, they found the time to do both of the other suggestions within the day. Despite being half Egyptian and having spent a lot of her time in Cairo with Ana, Fareeha had never visited the pyramids before and was equally as amazed as Angela was as they walked around the small areas that they were allowed in. They took copious amounts of pictures to show their friends when they returned, and nearly missed the transport to the Necropolis as a result.
The Necropolis was not nearly as impressive, primarily because the tour guide was much stricter than the one at the Pyramids. In fact, this one seemed ready to tear someone a new one simply for looking at the wrong thing.
"This particular Necropolis is a small one. Not nearly as impressive as Giza." The tour guide droned, Angela barely listening as she stared at the various markings on the obelisk they were stood beside. "The site was not touched for thousands of years, until it was claimed as a landmark three months ago."
Angela's attention, or lack thereof it, was drawn to Fareeha as the taller woman let out a quiet snort. "Wow, I didn't realise my mum was a couple thousand years old.".
"I guess she really is a mummy." Angela joked, earning a grunt of disgust from her girlfriend and a glare from the tour guide who clearly heard their brief conversation, who otherwise continued doing his job, beginning the rush the tour as the evening drew on.
Angela and Fareeha had snagged the last tour of the day, after all.
The next day was spent visiting museums, and while Fareeha had clearly found the previous days' events interesting, Angela knew within 5 minutes of stepping through the door to the Egyptian Museum that the only reason her girlfriend had agreed to going was because that was what Angela wanted to do.
Angela made up for dragging her around museums all day, however, letting Fareeha take her around the street markets. Unlike where they had previously visited, nothing was in a language that she could understand, and she very quickly became totally dependent on Fareeha's Arabic to get around.
"Habibti, we are in Egypt, what language do you think we use? Hieroglyphs?" Fareeha asked and joked when Angela complained about not even being able to guess what words meant due to the different alphabet. "Reed foot vulture snake lion."
Angela smacked Fareeha's arm with her free hand, the other one currently being held. "If you're going to do that, I will not translate at all in Zurich." She knew Fareeha saw straight through her bluff in the same way she saw the amused smile plastered on her face. "Now can we please find somewhere that sells food?"
"Sure." Angela allowed the taller woman to pull her along until they arrived at an out of the way restaurant. Of course, she understood absolutely nothing on the menu due to where it was located and the fact it probably didn't have that many tourists visit.
When Fareeha pointed out items on the menu for her to try, she was wary, but after constant promising that she wasn't trying to trick her into eating something hot again, Angela finally ordered Ful Medames.
Thankfully her trust wasn't misplaced.
The remainder of the time in Egypt passed quickly and before long they found themselves on the plane to Switzerland, Angela no longer a nervous wreck at the thought of flying, the fear happily reverting back to a childhood memory and leaving her alone.
The hotel Fareeha had booked for their week in Angela's home country was equally as nice as the one she had booked for Egypt.
"Honestly, liebling, you spoil me." Angela commented as she put her and the Egyptians luggage away while the woman herself busied herself with ordering room service, both having decided on the way over to spend the day at the hotel like they had in Egypt.
"Yes. Well, you spoil me every day by loving me as much as I love you." Fareeha smiled as she typed their order in on the tablet, too busy to notice the way Angela blushed. It was time like this where the normally level-headed doctor felt like an infatuated teenager.
"Liar." Angela said plainly as she put the last shirt away. "I love you significantly more than you love me."
She glanced over to see Fareeha finish their order and place the tablet down, the taller woman walking over until Angela was sandwiched between her and the wardrobe. "See, that's where you're wrong. It's impossible for you to love me more. I thought someone as intelligent as you would know that, Doctor Ziegler."
Angela flashed her a smirk before reaching up to grab the collar of her shirt and pulling her down into a loving kiss that left them both breathless. "Let's just agree with love each other as much as possible, ja?"
"Oh, you're no fun." Fareeha huffed as she back away, clearly agreeing in spite of her behaviour.
After their food arrived and they finished it in rapid time, the lounged together on the bed, flicking through the television and finding absolutely nothing of interest. Eventually, Fareeha came up with an idea on how to pass the time on their stay in day that involved the use of the bed and the strange excess of bedding the room came with.
As childish as it was, Angela did enjoy being the joint Queen of a pillow fort for the rest of the day.
The time in Zurich passed very similarly to how it did in Egypt. They spent the first two days visiting various points of interest and museums. Much in the way Fareeha had visited various museums in Egypt and therefore had little interest in visiting them again but did so for the sake of Angela, the swiss woman found herself doing the same for her. The only museum she was fully engrossed in was the FIFA museum, which just so happened to be the one museum that actually seemed to bore Fareeha.
Following that, it was the standard visiting shops and eating out, at which point the week appeared to speed up and before long it was the night before they flew back to Gibraltar and back to work.
The two women had decided to go out to a bar, Fareeha being very enthusiastic about going to one in particular. Angela couldn't fathom why, the bar in question was really just a standard place that had the occasional disco and karaoke night, the latter actually happening to fall on that night.
"If you're dragging me here to make me sing, I am leaving you." Angela threatened as Fareeha pulled her through the door.
"Oh no, I'm dragging you here for a much better reason." Fareeha let go of her hand and gestured to a table in the corner, a dark-skinned man sat at it looking at his phone briefly before looking up and catching the swiss woman's eye.
Angela quickly abandoned Fareeha as she made her way over to her brother, who stood up and held out his arms to hug her. "Falke, it's been too long."
"It has, it's good to see you." Angela felt him squeeze her tighter before letting go and moving to wrap Fareeha in a hug too. "And it's good to see you too, Fareeha."
They all sat and spent the next hour catching up on what they couldn't fit on their messages to each other. Apparently, nothing had changed in Falke's life, although he was considering seeking a transfer to Gibraltar to work as their team doctor instead.
"It'll be better for my relationship. Long distance is taking its toll on both of us now." Falke clarified when Fareeha questioned him. Angela couldn't help but feel a twinge of hurt for her brother and her best friend. She wanted them both to be happy, and the thought of them having relationship troubles was not a fun one.
"Plus, I'm over the Switzerland team now. We keep losing, Gibraltar doesn't." He added, quickly reverting the conversation to being light hearted.
The rest of the evening was filled with joking, beer and Angela wanting to curl up into a ball and die of embarrassment when both her brother and her girlfriend decided to get up on stage and partake in the karaoke.
"Now take this life and pull the, pull the trigger. Stop my pain." They sang together, both doing a gun gesture and pretending to shoot each other in such an overdramatic fashion that Angela genuinely thought she'd pull a muscle from cringing. Still, Angela ended up admitting to herself that the two of them sang wonderfully together.
Unfortunately, the bar ended up having to close for the night and while Falke walked the two of them back to the hotel, he had to leave to return home himself. Before he left, he promised to visit them at the Watchpoint in the near future.
The flight home was as fun as returning from vacation ever was, and yet Angela couldn't contain her excitement about actually being able to sleep in her own bed again, nearly driving off without her girlfriend in an attempt to get home faster.
It was when Fareeha was unpacking and she was relaxing on the bed that she had the cruel reminder that the end of her time off was imminent in the form of a text from Doctor Breslin-Kimishima – Amélie's therapist.
'Hi Angela. Hope you had fun, but I'm giving you a heads up that you have one hell of a mess to sort out tomorrow'
She sighed as Fareeha curled up against her side, her phone being removed from her hand and placed on the bedside table. "I know it seems bad, but vacation isn't over until we go back to base tomorrow.".
Angela smiled as she turned to face Fareeha. "You're right." She leaned forward to kiss her. "Thank you so much for this. I love you so much."
Not bothering to get changed, they fell asleep in each other's arms, contented and relaxed.