Chapter Text
I am right here with you
I couldn’t be more close
Pretending that I’m in this moment,
When I’m only a ghost
-So Far Away [Red]
Cassidy watched the woman seated across from him from under the brim of his hat; for all appearances, he’d tugged his hat down over his face and fell asleep. She looked small and frail, fingers clutching tightly at the serape he’d wrapped around her hours earlier - but it was her face that truly gave her away. Pure grief clouded her eyes as she stared down at her lap. It was the saddest he’d ever seen anyone, and he had seen a lot of sad people - usually right after he’d killed someone they knew.
Maybe she had known someone on that strike team?
Cassidy was tempted to reach out and try to comfort her, or at least make her hands relax because they sure looked like they hurt, but he doubted she would want that from him - or from anyone, if rumors were to be believed. He’d never talked to her before, though he’d heard of her and might have passed her once or twice in a hallway.
Doctor Angela Ziegler, the only person he’d ever met in over twenty years whose last name started with a ‘Z’. She was also the only person he’d ever met whose initials matched the ink on his left ankle - AZ.
He wondered if she was his match in some way.
Jesse was pretty sure he’d figured out one set - AA, for Ana Amari, a woman who couldn’t help but mother everyone. Jesse had wondered, when he had first met him, if GR was for Gabriel Reyes - but if it was, Jesse sure didn’t know what role he filled. They weren’t close enough to be friends, angry enough to be enemies, and Jessie didn’t swing that way so they definitely wouldn’t be lovers.
But that still left three roles to fill - assuming he’d gotten the AA right.
He couldn’t imagine Angela as his enemy, for a number of reasons. Hell, Cassidy doubted she was anyone’s enemy, not with her sterling reputation for saving lives both on and off the battlefield. She wore a fuckin’ halo and set of wings; her callsign was Mercy. She was probably the best goddamned person he’d ever met, and they’d barely said more than ten meaningful words to each other. He probably hadn’t even introduced himself.
Not like there’d been much time for pleasantries, considering he’d just pulled her out of a strike mission gone straight to hell.
No, if she was bonded to him in some way it was one of the other two - friend or lover. He knew it was always possible that she was his match - and that he wasn’t hers. Far too many people had to settle for less because theirs wasn’t a perfect match, and wouldn’t it be just his luck to be in that position?
Considering who they both were, Jesse was doubtful that he could ever entice Angela into his bed - so he could only hope that she wasn’t soulmated to him in that way. Of the three options, being his closest friend was far more preferable than the heartache of the other.
Not like that was any likelier.
Who was he kidding? She was the fucking angel of Overwatch and he was a semi-reformed gangster that had been press-ganged into becoming a Blackwatch agent. It wasn’t like there was any reason for their paths to even cross, except in rare - and extreme - situations like this one.
Angela would forget he even existed once they landed - and damn if that didn’t sting, just a little bit. It shouldn’t, since they’d barely spent three hours together and had said practically nothing to each other, but there it was. Cassidy knew better than this, he did, but the idea had taken root somehow. Like a sore tooth, he couldn’t help but fixate on the idea.
He’d get over it in a day or two, after exhausting himself in training and burying himself in mission planning. He’d forget her, just like she would forget him. He’d become a footnote - if that - in her life.
The carrier jolted as it landed, breaking him out of his thoughts. By the time he looked up again, he was met with cool eyes and a gentle smile. It was the exact opposite of the sorrow that he had seen on her face, to the point where he wondered if he’d imagined it all. As soon as the carrier rolled to a stop, they were both climbing to their feet.
“I do not think I have thanked you,” Angela said softly as they waited for the ramp to lower. He glanced over at her in surprise; Cassidy hadn’t expected her to speak to him at all, much less to thank him.
“Don’ worry about it; it was nothin’,” Cassidy said - though he was pleased at the recognition. If anything, he’d expected her to rail against him for arriving too late to save her team - but if he had known about the bomb, Cassidy doubted she would have been in the field at all.
“Maybe not to you,” Angela agreed, “but you saved my life, and I am grateful.” She shrugged out of his serape and offered it back to him. “If there is anything I can ever do for you, I would be more than happy to oblige.” Cassidy blinked as he grabbed the cloth; surely he had heard her wrong.
There was no way she meant that; those were just pretty words to make her feel better. Cassidy doubted she expected him to ever even attempt to collect - how could he? Okay, yeah, he was Blackwatch and he could probably find her with some digging, but not without drawing a whole lot of attention that he’d rather avoid.
“Sure thing,” Cassidy agreed anyway. There was no reason to antagonize her; she was more than capable of making his life miserable, considering her rank and who she was friends with. Angela nodded once before making her way down the ramp and into the sunlight as he settled his serape back into place over his shoulders.
Fuck, it smelled like her.
Cassidy headed down the ramp after her, steps hesitating briefly as he saw who was waiting: the Commanders and the Captain. For a moment, he panicked - he’d never done anything to warrant a visit from more than one of them, and now all three were here - but then he realized that they were all looking at Angela.
Ana drew Angela into a hug, which was unsurprising: that was what Ana did. What did surprise him was how Angela threw her arms around the woman in return. That didn’t match the cold woman of rumor or the calm one he’d just spoken to - which reaffirmed the grief he had seen on her face.
As Angela pulled back, shoulders tight with the stress of the day, Cassidy realized this was a private moment, one not meant for his prying eyes. Before they could realize he was watching, he slipped away into the shadows of the carrier to find a way off the roof. Still, Cassidy couldn’t keep himself from looking back at her one last time, the AZ on his ankle practically burning, and froze.
Reyes’ hand was on her cheek, his face far more gentle than Jesse had ever seen, and Angela was smiling sadly up at him. Something - jealousy? He wasn’t jealous, he couldn’t be - twisted in his gut as he forced himself to turn away before they caught him staring.
He was absolutely fucked if Angela was the one who was his fated lover, because there was absolutely no way she’d ever look at him the way she looked at Reyes.