Save Him One More Time

Chapter 9

Gabe had managed to make it this far without getting anything on his suit. He hoped he could make it the rest of the night, since he hadn't ordered anything that could really drip on him. Angela had finished her plate, and sat with her hands in her lap, watching him with eyes full of affection. He looked up and smiled.
"You're going to make me nervous and spill something," he joked. She blushed and looked away.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to," she said, "I couldn't exactly help it."
"Oh, it's fine, Angela, really it is. I was just kidding."
She looked back at him and sighed.
"Morrison's not going to be happy about this." Gabe frowned.
"Why," he began with his mouth full, "wouldn't he be? You seem happy. I know I am." She shook her head.
"He doesn't like that I haven't followed his rather direct warnings against associating with Blackwatch. He didn't mind so much that I made Jesse an arm, even he would probably have done that on his own conviction." She motioned to the two of them. "But this. He doesn't like this." Gabe swallowed.
"Screw Morrison. Screw what he thinks. He can rot in el infierno for all I care." He leaned over the table slightly, setting his hands on the edge. "How do you feel about this?"
She copied his gesture, but reached across the table and put her hands on his.
"I'm here, aren't I?"
He chuckled. "Fair point."
"If I thought it would get either of us in trouble, I wouldn't have been open to much more than friendly terms, no matter what my feelings were. Morrison doesn't like this, but he hasn't specifically warned me to stay away from you. And I like a bit of a risk."
She sat back and frowned. "But there is one risk I'm actually surprised you took." He felt the blood drain from his face.
"What risk?" Was she surprised he actually asked her out? She sighed.
"Moira. Have you done your research? Do you know what she did? Why she was looking for a job in the first place?" She looked genuinely worried. He closed his eyes briefly and swallowed.
"Yes, Angela. I've done the research. I know what she did, why her experiments were shut down. In Blackwatch we don't have the facilities or the resources necessary for her to recreate any of those experiments. I've kept close tabs on her the whole time." He hesitated, then continued. "She didn't come to us, Angela. I went to her. I asked her to join." Her eyes grew wide. He went on before she could say anything. "I was mostly interested in her healing technology. We didn't have a doctor on our team and I was afraid one of us would die and that'd be the end of it." Angela nodded, seeming to understand.
"Well, I think you could have made a better choice. Many others in the field would have suited you equally well, without the issues. Almost all the scientists in the medical field had some kind of healing technology in the works and they would have loved to develop it." He raised an eyebrow.
"Like yours?" She nodded.
"Like mine. I had developed it a few years prior to being called in to help with Genji." She leaned in. "If you examine the beam from the Cadeuceus staff and the substance Moira uses, they are the same with one difference. Moira's can be used for damage as well."
It was his turn to be shocked.
"She can hurt people with those?" He slapped his leg. "She told me they had one use. One. To heal." Angela nodded.
"I have footage in my files, back at the base, if you want to see." He shook his head.
"No, no, I don't think that'll be necessary." He rubbed his forehead. Why hadn't Moira told him about the damaging factor? Why hadn't that had a chance to be developed further? How many battles could they have won, armed with those? His head spun, and suddenly Angela was helping him back upright.
"Are you alright, Gabe?" He nodded.
"Yeah, I'll be fine in a sec. Headrush, you know how those are." She raised an eyebrow. "Vertigo, Gabe. You get a headrush from standing up quickly. Vertigo makes your head spin." She let go of his arm slowly, making sure he wasn't going to fall off his chair before sitting back down. "Do you have an inner ear problem?" He shook his head slowly.
"I mean, I've had one of my eardrums ruptured once. But I don't think that-"
"It could be from that. Did anyone take care of it?"
"I think Ana did, but she couldn't do much except minimize the ringing. Although lately it's been a lot better." She waved for the check.
"Right, then, we're going back to base and I'm fixing your ear. Properly."

(Disclaimer: The following scene involves a surgical procedure I'm not sure even exists. It's probably pretty inaccurate. I'm not a doctor and this is only how I think this would be done, so please forgive any mistakes I've made.)

Back at the base, Angela dragged him into her clinic, barely pausing to throw on a jacket over her dress.
"Sit," she said, pointing to the table in the middle of the room as she went to a cabinet and pulled out several strange devices. She put plastic covers on each one, and picked up the first one. "Hold still, this isn't going to hurt." She put it at the outside of his ear, looking for something. She handed him a cotton swab.
"Be very careful and clean your ear out. I can't see much of anything. Don't go very deep, I don't need you rupturing it again on your own." She swapped out instruments and checked his other ear.
"While you're at it, you might as well clean both of them." She shuddered a little. "When was the last time you cleaned your ears?"
He didn't answer, but the face he made indicated it had been a very long time. She made a face. "That's nasty, Gabe. Very unsanitary."
When he had finished, she looked in his ear again.
"There's a lot of scar tissue. Do you notice any hearing loss on this side?" He shook his head.
"Not very much. It's the ear I put the comms in, so I'm used to compensating." She picked up a long metal stick with a sharp end, dousing it in alcohol. She hung it to dry, getting a cotton swab with a generous glob of red gel on it.
"What's that?"
"A numbing agent. It's pointless to put someone under for such a small procedure but I don't want it to hurt you. I'm going to remove the scar tissue and most likely cut along the suture line and then give you a quick blast from my staff. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes." She stuck the swab in his ear and waited a minute before stirring it around gently and removing it.

Everything was sideways and his ear was cold. She'd poured alcohol in his ear, to clean it out, she said. And now she put her hand on his head and said, "Lay over. It'll reduce the chance of you moving and messing it up." So he lay on the table, staring at the wall, and the light glinted off of something in her hand.
"Can you feel that?" she asked.
"I can't feel anything except my ear is cold," he answered.
"Good," she said. "Hold very still."
A few slight pinches and weird sensations later, she told him, "Sit up and hold this to your ear, it's bleeding a little." She handed him a piece of gauze and picked up her staff. She hit him with the beam on the other side of his head. His ear hurt for a second, and then it was over and she set her staff down.
"Let me see," she said, pulling his hand down and putting her scope in his ear.
"Much better," she said. "Like it never even happened." He put his hand to his ear. "Didn't have to shout, Angela." She laughed, a bit farther away this time.
"I didn't. You're just not used to hearing things so well from that side. It'll take a few days to adjust but you're back to full performance." She pulled him to a sitting position. He looked up at her. "Thanks, doc. Care to finish our date?" She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, smiling a little.
"And how would you propose we do that?"
He shrugged. "Well I did get a holotape, if you want to watch that. Or if not, there's chess, if you play." She took off her gloves, having finished cleaning up her mess. "What about we watch the tape and then a few rounds of chess to discuss it over?" She put them in the trash.
"Sounds good to me, Angela." He stood up and led the way out.

The holotape had been a very good one about the first human enhancement program, cut unexpectedly short by a terrorist organization. Gabe had won all four games of chess, Angela quietly protesting that he had to have cheated or something. But now they walked, hand in hand, toward her quarters, talking quietly so as not to disturb the other agents who were probably sleeping.
"Have a good time, Angela?"
"Oh yes. Thank you, Gabe."
"Of course."
A comfortable silence followed, broken only when they reached her door.
"Let's do this again soon, okay?" Gabe said, letting go of her hand so she could unlock her door. She turned around.
"I'd like that." She licked her thumb, reaching up to wipe a few missed specks of blood off his ear. They gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment, and their lips met.

When she finally pulled away, he wanted to pull her back in, but he let her go with a smile and an, "I'll catch you soon, Angel." A bout of vertigo caught him off guard and he nearly fell over. Huh, he thought, probably just a side effect. It'll be fine. He made his way to his quarters, and soon the entire base was asleep, except for the night watch and Moira.