Chapter 16- Jack's P.O.V.

                                    

                                          
The next few weeks were hard on Gabe, I could tell. He always seemed elsewhere mental, even when he was doing the things he was required to do physically. Every ounce of free time he had was spent with Luisa during all her hours with Moira. As much as I understood, it was difficult for me, feeling the growing distance between Gabe and I. Over and over I told myself that it was not malicious and to be patient with my fiancé. His sister was one of the most important people in his life, that much was clear... and though I knew I was on that list as well, I often found myself wondering where exactly I ranked on that scale. I berated myself for stooping to such childish thoughts and never let myself have them for very long. I had asked him multiple times if he would like me to come help be an emotional support for both him and Luisa but I was always met with a simple, curt answer along the lines of disagreement. In these three weeks I could accurately say that my fiancé hadn't spoken more than one to two word sentences in every seemingly rare encounter that we had.
I was checking on our training equipment when Gabe approaches me. Well, I hadn't seen him approach but I felt arms wrap around me.
"Hello." I heard him whisper into my ear before he feathered kisses across my neck. I smiled, ready to turn around and kiss him.
"Guess what?"
"Wha-" I tried to ask but when I turned around I nearly felt sick as I saw him, Moira, and Luisa all there, bodies all that frightening dark smoke that we had seen Moira become weeks ago. I gasped and stumbled backward away from them out of utter shock.
"What's wrong, Jacki?" The ghostly version of Luisa asked.
"Don't we look powerful?" Moira grinned, her white teeth flashing blindingly against the dark background that was her body.
"Join us and together we will finally be able to end the war for good... and humans will forever be at the top of the food chain with such changes." Gabe added eerily, extending his shimmering hand to touch me. I gasped once more as my spector-like fiancé touched me. I thrust upward out of sleep, my breath catching in my throat as I choked back a cry.
"Jack...? What- are you alright?" My heart hammered in my chest but Gabe's voice sounded beside me groggily. He sat up partially and put a gentle, non-ghostly hand on my shoulder. My breathing calmed as I glanced over at my fiancé's face in the still dim room. Then I was hit with the realization.
"The bad side effects from the experimenting that you were talking about with Moira... Gabe, are you- do you become smoke-like? The same way Moira did?" I asked, staring at him with still groggy eyes. Even in the low lighting I could see Gabe's face shift.
"I was hoping you had forgotten about that..." he murmured.
"That's not an answer."
"You know I can't lie to you, Jack... don't make me say it." As my eyes adjusted more, I saw that he was frowning and couldn't look at my form directly.
"Gabe... no..."
"It only happens when my body is in major distress. I'm working with Moira to try and stop it because she knows I don't like it." He said.
"And what if you can't stop it?! What if this is now a permanent part of you!"
"Then I guess I'll have to learn to better control it... I did this for Luisa. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just... with everything going on I just couldn't worry you." He sighed.
"Worry me? Gabe, I just want to know what she's doing to you. Aren't you scared for Luisa?!" God, why did I ask him that?! Of course he's scared for her, Jack!
"Yes... but she's right, it's her body and her life in the balance." Gabe's voice cracked as he said this.
"I can't lose her, Jack... she's all the family I have left."
It was my turn to comfort him.
"Oh Gabe, that's not true... you have me. And you won't lose her. We'll be a family, all of us. She'll fight this off again and kick it's ass like she did the first time." I told him. I wasn't fully confident in the words coming out of my mouth so I just silently prayed that they would be true.
                          
A month had passed since the conversation about the side effects with Gabe. Luisa has asked both of us to come to her appointment with Moira today but Gabe and I had a meeting before then. Sojourn had called for us because we needed to plan a defense against yet another attack, this one in LA, California, near Gabe and Luisa's old home...
I kept quiet, just holding Gabe's hand as we made our way to the meeting room. Sojourn and Gérard nodded as we entered. Reinhardt, Ana, and even Torbjörn were also there. That was how I knew that the attack was major.
"Thank you all for coming. We've been called to join the SEP and the rest of the American army in a rescue mission." Sojourn began.
"A rescue mission...?" Ana asked, leaning forward.
"Yes... as we all know, Los Angeles has been attacked by the Omnics. They are keeping hundreds of the city's residents hostage. It has been almost forty-eight hours and the troops are slowly fighting off omnics and working on evacuating the civilians as safely as possible. But there has been deaths reported from both the troops and civilians... we need to find a way to assist them in the extraction of residents from the live zone and into safe areas. It is a very dangerous situation, which is exactly why I want all of you to go." Our sergeant explained to is.
"I understand and I agree wholeheartedly," I put in, "the original five are the best bet I think. If it's as dangerous as they've been saying then I'm not sure if I feel safe with the younger soldiers getting involved unless drastically necessary."
Reinhardt nodded from beside Ana and cleared his throat.
"Yes, ve can manage together." He said.
"Even if we met as old as dinosaurs!" Torb gave one of his full bellied chortles.
"Of course... just like old times." Ana smiled, looking between all of us. All their comments hit me hard in the nostalgic part of my heart. It was quite overwhelming to realize that so much time had passed in what now felt like the blink of an eye. What was I other than a soldier? What was my life? I barely classified as an adult, only about twenty-three when I had joined the SEP. That program had become my life, then so had Overwatch... it was not a normal life by society's standards. I had always dreamed of what my life after the war would be like but by my mid thirties I think it had hit me that those dreams were not happening any time soon... having Gabe by my side had helped a lot, especially when we had chosen to announce and commit to our relationship after being in Overwatch for a while. Many of our fellow members were so supportive and it helped me see that while this life wasn't exactly what my younger self had pictured, it was my life nonetheless and I would make it the best for me and my future family. Me, Gabe, and our child...
And that was how my mind reminded me that our appointment with Angela to check Bek and prepare the embryos was today. Embryos with both mine and Gabe's DNA. I knew I had to focus back and get through the rest of the meeting, finishing our plans on how to approach this.
We agreed that we would leave tomorrow morning. With our schedule set, we dismissed the meeting to go prepare.
"Are you okay?" I asked Gabe gently as we were heading to check on Luisa and Moira. He hadn't said anything at all during the meeting. Sojourn had shown us a map of where we were set to land and I could tell by the look hidden in his eyes that he was dealing with something emotionally.
"The area where the hostages are being held... its close to where Luisa and I grew up. If she hadn't been here with us, she would probably be one of those trapped civilians... or worse, dead." Gabe replied, eyes dark.
"Don't talk like that... we have to just focus on the here and now, what is, not what could have been. Let's go see how Luisa is going and do the thing with Bek, then we can get ready to go. You're sure you want to come instead of staying here with Luisa?" I triple checked.
"Of course... that's our home. I don't like any of this but I just have to fucking deal with it. There are probably people that we know trapped in there. I'd never forgive myself if LA fell to the Omnics and I did nothing to stop it." He said stiffly.
I guess I was lucky that I was a mid-eastern, Indiana boy. There wasn't much of interest there for the Omnics to want to target my home, so the people I knew and loved were all safe, for now.
"I can understand that." I said.
"Oh, I know... Golden Boy." Gabe teased me. We arrived at the medical wing and found Luisa and Moira in the lab. Gabe's sister greeted us but it was void of the emotional fervor she had once possessed when she had first come to the Swiss base. Now she was very tired and it was clear in her physical and mental presentation. Poor Luisa... I missed her laughter. She was getting a blood transfusion when we approached.
"So, how is LA?" Luisa asked, clenching and unclenching her fist as the blood flowed back into her arm. If I remembered the process as I had heard about it when Luisa agreed to Moira's way, the new blood most likely held the altered t-cells. I would never say it out loud in front of Gabe or Luisa but from my perspective, she didn't seem to be getting any better. She was just slowly deteriorating. I couldn't imagine that it was painless for her either.
"Not good. We're scheduled to leave tomorrow morning to go rescue hostages." Gabe told his sister, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze.
"My brave boys... such heroes." She smiled weakly.
"That's us." I said, unsure of what else I really could say. Nothing would have worked too, Jack.
"You guys gotta have some good news though, right? Any news on Bek and the possibility of a niece or nephew?"
"Actually yes, Bek is meeting us here to talk with Angela about creating and implanting the embryos." I informed Luisa and this caused her to light up.
"Bek arrived to speak with Angela fifteen minutes ago." Moira put in, the emotionless clip to her tone. Luisa nodded with a bit more energy than she had first portrayed.
"Oh yes, don't let me keep you, go on! Hurry!" Luisa shooed is away so Gabe and I went to check Angela's office. Sure enough, right as we went to knock, Bek burst out.
"Oh! There you are! Angela says my body is ready for implantation, like right now. She even said that she spliced some samples from the specimen you gave her and she can have embryos ready in minutes. Are you two ready?!" Bek rambled excitedly. My head felt like it was spinning and butterflies erupted in my stomach. Gabe's hand found mine and for a moment, I forgot about absolutely everything else.
"Are you ready?" Gabe echoed Bek's question and I smiled, saying words that shot me back nearly fifteen years prior.
"I've been ready..."
                          
It had been almost five years since I joined the SEP. It was so strange to have had so much time pass. It was also then that I had been fully hit by the realization that this had become my life. Gabe and I had saved countless lives in all of these years. The two of us had become inseparable but we hadn't kissed since he saved me from drowning. I wanted him so badly but we both knew that it was inappropriate. I guess we both were holding back feelings but the more you tell yourself you can't have something, the more desperately you want whatever it is.
After five years of being SEP soldier, Gabe and I were formally requested to join the formation of Overwatch. We reacted as normal people would when we were told in the office of our program's most elite member but as soon as the door to our shared room closed, everything changed. Gabe took me by surprise by shoving me up against the wall, kissing me hard. I gasped, my hands flying instinctively to his hair. His kiss felt like the best thing I had ever experienced... like he was breathing new life into my lungs. I mean, he technically had when he saved me. I didn't want to but I found myself pulling away.
"What... why now?" I asked, my voice heavy with breathlessness.
"Because we're getting out of here... you know what that means? A new place, new rules... and we may even be able to help make the rules. Maybe you'll take over Overwatch, Golden Boy."
"That's crazy. You're absolutely crazy..." I laughed.
"Crazy perhaps but I can hope, right? I can't control myself anymore... I need you." Gabe growled, nipping at my neck.
"By 'need' you mean... like... sex?" I managed to get out.
"Yes, sex. I mean... if you want me." Gabe pulled back, looking at me with his very serious expression. Yet, there was something almost hidden beneath that seriousness... it was compassion, that emotion I rarely saw from him. But oh God, of course I wanted him. It was just a lot to process in such a short time span.
"Fuck, of course I want you. Just a bit surprised at your sudden change of mind is all."
"Yeah, sorry to spring it on you." Gabe kissed me once more.
"Please, by all means... spring." I laughed against his lips. He pulled away one more time.
"You're sure you're ready?"
"I've been ready."
                          
I found myself back in the present with Gabe and Bek bringing me into a room. A few minutes later Angela was coming in adorned in her lab coat and glasses. She was also carrying a petri dish, a look of pure focus on her face.
"Hello gentlemen," she smiled, then looked at Bek where she laid in the exam bed, "thank you for changing so quickly, just slide down and get set up in the stirrups please. Then we can get this show on the road."
"Are you ready, Bek?" Gabe asked as he and I stayed close to the young woman's head.
"Yes..." Bek nodded as Angela prepared for the implantation.
"Thank you again Bek... for all of this." I put my hand on her shoulder, swallowing the lump of emotion building up in my throat.
"Of course... you two deserve a chance to be fathers and I know you'll be great ones." Bek said, then squeaked in shock.
"There. You're all set. All you can do now to help the implantation is go lay down and relax. No training or missions unless desperately necessary. No need to put two lives in danger at once. We'll test you in two weeks. Understand?" Angela said sternly.
"Understood." All three of us said and then laughed at our unison.
"We may have just made a baby." I said.
"And in the weirdest way possible." Gabe snorted, wrapping his arms around us both.
"Hey, I think it could have been weirder." Bek laughed.
"You three are quite the threesome." Angela shook her head at us.
"That is one of those weirder ways." Bek winked and all three of us broke out into cackles. I saw that Angela had turned bright red as a response to Bek's vulgar twisting of her words.
"Oh dear lord, I am not here. Get out of my lab." She covered her face in embarrassment.
"Of course. We'll see you in two weeks." Gabe winked at the doctor we followed her out to let Bek get dressed again.