Switched

Chapter Twenty-Three: Two

One hour to drop.

"So Reinhardt, Lucio, Lena, you three will blast in through here," Winston said, pointing to the hologram. "Cause chaos. Jamison, you cause the blast on level three and get the holovid. Lindholm, Mei, Jesse and I will come from behind and catch anyone you three run into," he said, gesturing to Lena, Lucio and Reinhardt. "That'll let you, Lena, escape to find Moira, Jamison and Angela. You four find Isabell if we haven't already. All comms will be on this time because Sombra isn't with them anymore.

"Once we get Isabell, we're out, everyone understand?" Winston glared at Reinhardt. "If we stay in there, it's their home ground. They have the advantage. I'm not having another collar incident if it kills me."

"Yes, sir," Lena nodded, and Blinked towards the cockpit. Everyone dispersed away from the holotable, and Moira retracted back towards her window, looking out.

She looked at the clouds. Below her, there were thousands, millions of people. Living their lives. A lot of them were suffering, a lot of them were hurting. Scared to go outside after dark, scared to go outside at all. Three people dying every second. Every single one of them with a family and friends who were only just hearing the news now. Ones gathered around hospital beds, ones still watching the Friday night game, unaware of what had happened to one of their loved ones.

Really put things into perspective.

Moira knew that it wouldn't go according to plan. Something would go wrong. Something always did. People were going to get hurt. There was every likelihood that they would be added to the three people dying every second. Or maybe it'd be slow.

Honestly she didn't care anymore.

"Hey, uh, Moira..."

Great. Jamie was here. Last thing she needed right now - more acting, more biting back tears. But worst was the fact that she didn't completely feel like that and she still craved his company even though it scorched her inside like the explosions he was so fond of.

So she turned around. "Hi, Jamison."

He was awkwardly fiddling with something, but his hands masked what it was. He sat on the end of the chair furthest from her in the row. "Are y'alright?"

She badly wanted to tell him the truth. That depression and terror were eating her from the inside, that she was scared as hell, that she missed everyone so, so much. Missed the way they used to treat her. But that wasn't the way they treated her - that was the way they had treated Isabell.

"I'm fine," she nodded. "You?"

"Angry," Jamie said, glancing at the object in his hands. "But what else is new?"

Silence stretched for a few moments before he spoke again. "I'm tryin', you know. I'm tryin' to be nice to you."

"Thanks."

"We've just... been through it all already, and I'm fuckin' sick of it." He tried to make eye contact with her. She looked away. "I need her back. At this point, I'm gonna end up killing people. Just blowing shit up. It's the only thing I've got left." He grinned a little at the memory. "It's the next best thing."

"They'll lock you up," Moira said quietly. "Overwatch is reenacted. You're close with some of them, but if you're putting people in danger, they'll still do it to protect them."

"Let 'em try," Jamie put his feet up on the chair in front of him. "I've mowed through worse."

"You're not like this," Moira snapped, her grip on acting loosening a little. Jamie blinked in surprise at her change of tone. "You're not. You help people. You laugh and you make dumb jokes and you make people smile when they're about to cry. You're an idiot, and I hate it when you prove me right. You've given up before you've even started."