Save Him One More Time

Chapter 3

He pried his eyes open. The lights were on, and the clock pointed to somewhere between twelve and three. Was it afternoon? His gaze roamed over the room and he saw the medic, sitting there in a chair, head on her chest. She was asleep. A smirk found its way to his face, only to disappear in a sharp breath as he shifted and his shoulder burned. The previous day came back to him all in a rush, and he wondered what happened for her to actually stay here. Didn't she have other patients? Like McCree. "Hey, doc," he began, but no sound escaped his parched throat. He coughed a few times, and tried again. "Hey, doc."
She looked at him over her hands, stifling a yawn. "Oh, good. You're awake." She glanced at some screens. "And stable. Good, good." She stood and put the chair back in the corner before returning to the bedside. "What do you need, Commander?" She had a clipboard and a pen and was scribbling something down as she spoke.
"Water," was the first thing on his mind. She  shifted the pen to her clipboard hand and filled a glass from the sink without looking up, setting it on the tray next to him. "What else?" she said, continuing to scribble. He downed the glass in a few gulps and said, "McCree." The medic raised an eyebrow, and finished what she was writing. She sighed. "Jesse will be fine, as soon as we find a suitable prosthetic. What's left of his arm is healing well." She looked up at him. "You don't know any roboticists, do you?" He shook his head slowly. She sighed and wrote something down, walking around the bed. Reyes watched her with a bored curiosity. There was no denying she was pretty, and he wondered if she knew it. She unbound his shoulder, looking closely at it, but not touching, and put the bandages back. More writing. Reyes said, almost without thinking, "What's your name, doc?" She froze and looked at him. "My name is Dr. Angela Ziegler." He nodded once. She went back to writing. He'd started this conversation, he thought, and he might as well finish it. "Well then what should I call you, Dr. Angela Ziegler? Or do you prefer the whole title?" His attempt to lighten the mood seemed to work, and the doctor smiled as she hung the clipboard on the end of the bed. As she walked out, she said, "Most people call me Angela, Commander."
"It's Reyes, Angela," he corrected as the door closed.

"It's Reyes, Angela." Angela closed the door behind her. She sighed and stretched, yawning. Two thirty in the morning. She made her way to the camera room, checking to see if anyone else was awake. McCree was asleep, and the only other patient of interest was Commander Reyes. Ana was awake, but she was only there because of a slight complication with the nanotech Angela used in her staff. The problem had been solved easily, but Angela had insisted the sniper stay overnight. Just in case, she'd said. And right now Ana looked to be sulking. Angela shook her head and made her way down to the room.

A quiet knock on the door got Ana's attention and she turned to face it, arms crossed moodily. "Who is it?" The door opened a few inches. "Ana? It's Angela. Can I come in?"
"Well since you already opened the door, you might as well." She was in no mood for chitchat and huffed a sigh to show it. "What do you want, Angela?" She motioned to the chair with a finger. "Sit down. It looks important." Her curiosity was getting the better of her and she rolled her eyes at herself. Angela sat down, looking a little nervous. Ana sighed again. "Just spit it out, Angela, I'm we not going to bite you." Angela smiled and started in. "Well, I saw you were awake, and since I'm looking for help anywhere I can get it I decided to ask you." She paused and Ana sighed. "It's Commander Reyes, isn't it?" Angela gave her a confused look, but her cheeks flushed pink. Success. "No," she said, "I came here to see if you could help me with McCree. The boy lost an arm and he's not taking it so well. I want to make him a cybernetic prosthetic but I don't know anyone who can. And," she continued before Ana could open her mouth, "I don't know how to make one. Genji has promised me any help he can give me, but I still don't know the first thing about building an arm."
"And why not?" Ana cocked her head to one side. "You helped that guy, what was his name, the scientist, with Genji. You have a little experience with that. And you're a smart girl, Angela. Don't tell me you can't."
"I'm not, I just-"
"No," Ana interrupted. "You don't want to mess it up and that's good. But you have to believe in yourself. You invented the Cadeuceus technology, for heaven's sake! You are more than capable of building that boy a perfectly good new arm." Angela sighed. "You're right, as usual, Ana." She stood to leave. "I'll keep what you said in mind."
"And don't worry." Ana smiled as Angela opened the door. "I won't tell anyone about you and Commander Reyes." Angela froze momentarily. "Goodnight, Ana." She closed the door firmly behind her. Ana leaned her head on her hand and laughed.

"And don't worry. I won't tell anyone about you and Commander Reyes." Angela froze. Ana was very insightful, but this time she had gone wrong. "Goodnight, Ana." She closed the door behind her and walked away furiously. Ana was teasing, she knew, but still. There was a difference between a professional interest and a crush. And Angela did not have a crush. At least not on the Commander. Honestly, the lack of respect for the medics around here was plain annoying, she told herself as she stalked off to her quarters. She brushed her teeth, glaring at herself in the mirror, then changed into her nightwear and calmed herself before going to bed. She didn't have to be so angry at them. They really did appreciate her, she knew. Ana would fuss about being kept overnight when there was nothing wrong, and Jack would put the mission before the team sometimes, but only when he knew someone had their backs. She remembered what the bright young agent from Britain had told her some days ago, after a particularly difficult mission.
"If it weren't for you, love, we'd all be dead, and the omnics would win, and we can't have that, now, can we, Mercy?" She'd smiled and given her a hug. "Of course not, Lena. I'll always have your backs." She sighed a contented sigh and pulled the covers closer under her chin.
If she had only known then what the future held.

Reyes leaned back on his bed and tried to sleep, but his mind was too busy. He worried about McCree, after all, he was just a kid. And he'd lost his arm, the doc said. But he'd be fine, he repeated in his head, as soon as a suitable prosthetic was found. The doc said that. He thought of their earlier conversation. "What's your name, doc?"  He could have kicked himself for that one. What's your name indeed. Absolute moron, he was, couldn't even talk right to a cute girl. And then when she walked out. "It's Reyes, Angela."  For crying out loud. "Smooth, Reyes, real smooth," he muttered under his breath, trying to roll over without hurting his shoulder. As soon as he did, he fell asleep and woke up two hours later in a cold sweat.

"Jesse! No!" Reyes rushed to the kid's side. McCree lay there with his eyes closed, a thin stream of blood running from his mouth. "Come on, kid, wake up. Wake up!" he said, shaking Jesse's shoulders. He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Commander..." Genji knelt beside him. "I'm sorry," the cyborg said. And then Reyes realised that McCree was dead. "Look out, Commander!" Genji leapt up and shoved Reyes out of the way as a loud crack split the air. Reyes sat up, breathing hard, only to see Genji fall with a small hole between his eyes. Reyes watched, horrified, as Genji turned into Morrison and stood up, towering giant over him. "Reyes, you failed," he said, his voice louder than the cannon fire that had buried them in the rubble. "You never were good enough. They were so embarrassed that you were here that they hid you away. Sent you to the strike team. You never belonged here and you know it. This is all your fault. All your fault, Reyes!" and he fell to his knees, screaming, as the medic trained her beam on him. She turned to look at Reyes. Her eyes were red like blood. "What he says is true, Reyes, and you know it."

He woke up in a cold sweat. The last images of the dream faded and left him shaking and confused, but the words still remained.

"What he says is true, Reyes, and you know it."

What had he said? It was all so dim now, and even those last few words began slipping away. What had he even been dreaming? Whatever it was, he wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. Then Angela walked in.

Angela's pager went crazy and she squinted at it before answering. "What?" The night nurse responded, "The commander's heart monitor went absolutely insane just now, 125 and climbing." She rubbed her face. "I'll be right there, Drew." And she had a mission at nine hundred too. Oh well. She threw on a scrub and headed off to go check on her apparently restless patient.
"Reyes?" she said as she entered. He was sitting up in his bed, and his shirt was wet. She scanned the room for a tipped-over glass or a puddle of water on the floor, but there was none. "Doc. What are you doing here?" She blinked what was left of sleep from her eyes and looked at the monitors. "Well they're normal now," she muttered to herself. To Reyes she said, "Nightmares?" He nodded. "I can't remember it, though." She shook her head. "Probably for the better. Think you can go back to sleep?" He shook his head. "Nah. It's four. I should be getting up about now anyway."
"I can heal you now, if you want."
"What?" A sudden jump in the conversation confused him. Angela shook her head a little. "My staff. It's charged and ready for the mission in a few hours. I can heal your shoulder now, unless you'd like to wait for it to heal on its own." Reyes furrowed his brows. "Won't that deplete the charge?"
"No. It's got enough charge to bring someone back from nearly dead. Your shoulder won't use up even one percent." He nodded. "Then let's go for it, doc."