literature

Heroes Never Die: Journey (14)

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ChloeTheAssassin's avatar
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The remainder of the day had passed in a blur. You’d been taken to Angela by Lena and during it all you insisted you didn’t need medical attention. Angela didn’t believe you, she felt a good deal for other people, after all. You were still so confused over what had happened by the time dinner rolled around that you decided to eat in your room. Eating in your room turned into you setting the tray down on your desk and curling up on your bed just staring at the food. You wanted to cry—you felt like crying—but nothing would come. After everything that had happened, your house blowing up, your assumed death, you realized that you were essentially a ghost.

A knock on your door jolted you from your absent thoughts. “Come in.” You said barely above a level at which whoever it was could hear you. The door opened and revealed Jack; he walked in and closed the door behind himself. “Hey kid.” He said softly before grabbing your desk chair and dragging it to the side of your bed. He sat backwards on the chair, his arms crossing over the back of the chair so that he could rest his chin there. “Jack?” You questioned, unsure of what was going on and unsure of if you wished to know. “How are you feeling?” He asked as he seemed to stare a hole into you, trying to figure out the answer on his own. It was a strange question to be asked after what had happened—you had thought that it would be obvious how you were but Jack was a good man so you obliged him. You sat up and dangled your feet over the side of the bed, your right hand coming up to touch the bruise on your neck in the shape of Gabriel’s hand. “I feel like I have nowhere to go. I feel like a ghost.” Jack ‘hmmed’ at your use of the word ghost and seemed to file that away for later reference in his mind. “You have a home here. We need to talk about Reyes.” You immediately averted your eyes to the floor, the last name of the man you’d felt so close to just a few hours ago hit you like a brick—or several bricks.

Jack stood up and grabbed the tray of food from your desk and placed it in your lap. “You look hungry.” He said off-handedly before he resumed sitting down. When you finally started to eat was when Jack started talking. “I shouldn’t have left you alone with Reyes, I should have been able to see the warning signs, and believe me kid there are red flags for this kind of thing.” You stopped chewing and looked at Jack with a curious expression. “What do you mean? What kind of thing?” You asked this around a bit of food in your mouth—you were so curious you’d let your manners go to some degree. He was somewhat amused, he hadn’t seen this side of you before since he’d had limited experience with you outside of you standing up for Gabriel. For a brief moment he could see the charm that had won his old friend and enemy over. “PTSD.” Jack watched recognition dawn in your eyes as the one term he spoke explained what had happened earlier.

It all made sense to you now, or at least you felt marginally better knowing that he’d not been maliciously attacking you with the conscious thought to kill you. Even so—fear thrilled to life in your mind as you remembered the previous events—you’d not seen Gabriel as someone to be feared in the same light that the public had until today. Jack could tell you were in thought as you ate with the mechanical motions of someone absent from the present. He couldn’t blame you, it was a lot to take in and even more to have to make a decision on which was why he didn’t pressure you for any sort of response. He had spoken to Gabriel almost the entire time between the attack and when it had come time for dinner. Jack didn’t want things to go south as fast as they had the last time Gabriel had been a part of Overwatch so he felt as if it was his duty to get to the bottom of this. It was almost a relief to Jack to figure out that the harm that Gabriel had done to you was both superficial and caused by PTSD—something he had personal experience with, something that was within his power to help.

“Where is he? Is he okay?” You finally asked after drinking some of your water. It was obvious that Jack was trying and for that you were grateful. It couldn’t have been easy for him to set aside the past as he had and attempt to help remedy the situation going on between you and Gabriel. Jack ran his right hand through his short white hair as he thought for a moment on how to answer your questions. “He’s still here. He’s beating himself up over what happened and honestly? This is an improvement over what he was.” You didn’t know what Jack meant by that but you felt simultaneously warm on the inside and bad over the fact that Gabriel was beating himself up over harming you. Jack’s tone of voice wasn’t lost on you—he still did not approve of Gabriel and he certainly didn’t seem to approve of you two being together.

“<Last Name>, I am going to take over your training… It isn’t safe for Reyes to be training you until he has this under control.” You didn’t like that proclamation at first but you understood the need for things to be different. The fact that Jack had pretty much decided for you was the only reason what he said had bothered you. At last you nodded, consenting to Jack’s plan—somehow the whirl of chaotic emotions you’d felt previously had calmed. He picked up on the newfound peace within your mind and stood up from the chair, returning it to its place in front of your desk. “Come on, kid.” He commanded—you set your tray aside and stood up obediently from the bed.

Wordlessly Jack led you from your room and down a couple of hallways. After a few minutes you realized he was taking you to the training room and you suddenly felt ill-equipped. You only had sweat pants and a t-shirt on after all—you’d planned on going to bed early. It was only as you walked into the room that you realized that Jack had brought you here to see Gabriel. He was giving the punching bag a good beating and appeared to be deep in thought. Hesitantly you looked to Jack and he gave you a reassuring nod. “I won’t leave you.” He said earnestly in reply to your trepidation and somehow that was enough to make you brave.

The newfound courage you had carried you to stand beside Gabriel within his line sight. Upon seeing you he stopped his training and stared at you uneasily—glancing at the mark around your neck. Your heart almost shattered right then and there when you saw the sorrow, regret, and guilt in his eyes as he looked at your neck. Thought sort of went out of the window after that—you closed the distance from him and wrapped your arms tightly around his waist. Gabriel wasted no time wrapping his arms around you though a large part of him hated that others could see this happening. These people were his enemies—they didn’t deserve to see any intimate details of his life or his relationship with you. His lips placed a kiss on the top of your head and lingered whilst he mumbled “I’m sorry.” You replied to him the only way that came to your mind which was to embrace him a bit tighter.

There may have been a lot of painful memories associated with Gabriel but Jack couldn’t help but feel a little warmed over the idea that his old friend was slowly starting the journey to being a better person. Maybe this would work out after all, he thought absent mindedly as he ran through what he’d teach you over the next few weeks.
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Lvl-100-Rachu's avatar
OMG I WANTED TO CRY AT THE END ;-; its so sweet. i love it