Remembrance (Overwatch: Reaper x Reader)

Chapter 8: Unfading Scars

     "I don't know what to do anymore, Jack!" Angela rested her hands on the vigilante's desk, her blue eyes dull and somber. "I've given her all the medications I can think of. Some for depression, some for anxiety, but nothing seems to work!"

     "Just stop worrying about her, Ange." Morrison sighed, leaning back in his chair with his hand an folded behind his head.

     "You want me to leave it alone?" The doctor looked appalled, "How can you say that? We have to be there for—!"

     "It's been ten years, Angela." 76 growled, scowling behind his visor. "(Y/N) needs to learn to grow up, and deal with it. Not everything lasts forever."

     "She loved him, Jack!" Angela seemed taken aback, "How can you—You're one to talk."

76 froze in his seat, furrowing his brow before removing his mask. With a slam of it on the table, he leaned forward over the desk to scowl at Angela. "Excuse me?"

     "I can read you even with the mask on, Jack." Angela stood firm on her words, "You've been carrying guilt since the explosion, which has manifested itself into pure hate. Self-hate. You hate yourself!"

The old soldier's faded blue eyes widened, a look of shock and irritation spreading across his scarred features. "Did you tell her?"

     "Of course I didn't!" Angela shook her head, clasping her pale hands together, "What am I supposed to say? The man you once cared for is now the world's most wanted extremist, set out to kill all of us? Even you?"

Jack didn't respond, so she continued. "It would break her heart, Jack! She doesn't need that!" Her eyes blurred with tears, "She needs us, by her side to give her the support she deserves."

     "She's an adult Angela, she can learn to face challenges her—"

     "You're the one who killed him Jack!"

The aging veteran seemed to stop breathing. She had struck a nerve. "You're the cause for all her pain! Of...our, pain!"

     "Don't use that tone with me!"

     "No Jack! You hurt her! You hurt me!" The doctor shook her head several times, "You hurt all of us! You—-Why didn't you come back sooner!?"

     "You know I didn't have a—."

     "If you truly cared about us, you would have come home sooner." Angela gritted her teeth, "You would have made up for your mistakes!"

     "Dr. Ziegler!" 76 grabbed her wrist, yanking on her violently, "Do not tell me, what I already know. You should be the one apologizing as well." 

Angela yanked her hand away, rubbing the red blush his hand made around her wrist. "You knee he was alive, Angela. Yet you refused to tell her."

     "But—!"

     "You had a choice of saving him, knowing what he meant to (Y/N). But you didn't." Jack narrowed his eyes, "If anything, you made it worse. You knew what Moira had done, if you had only left yourself out of their business, he wouldn't have turned into this...thing."

     "I just thought..." Angela bit her lip, puncturing the surface and drawing blood. She licked away the taste of iron and looked away.

     "You are also to blame, Doc."

     "What happened to you?" Angela sighed, "What happened to the Strike Commander we once looked up to?"

     "Enough!" 

Fed up, the former idol of Overwatch raised his hand and brought it down across Angela's cheek. She gasped, her breath getting hitched in her throat. A reddening splotch began to form on her skin, and a sickening smack reverberated in the air.

Upon realizing his mistake, Jack gasped. "A-Angela...I-I didn't mean--." He pulled his hand away, guilt wavering in his blue gaze.

     "So that's it, huh?" Angela murmured, "After all I did for you. I trained under you, and this is how you thank me?"

     "Angela, listen to me!"

     "We really are your captives, aren't we?" She turned her head, shoulders trembling.