ruffians | [open] come on baby and rescue me

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[open] come on baby and rescue me

[Everything after the explosion is a blur, a hazy collage of barely-there fragments and blackness that just barely forms any kind of coherent series of events. Just about explains what happened and shit all else. Half remembers arguing with Jack — same shit different day — but it was more heated than usual. Remembers the explosion and yelling for Jack in the hope he'd get a response; crushed under slabs of rock and metal bars and his dumb ass still wants to know Jack's okay.]

[Must've blacked out, pain or blood loss or head trauma, who knows. Lights and an alien facility, doctors and agents he doesn't recognise. Bloody hands clawing at arms pinning him to the bed, tying him down. Voices talking about tests, procedures, results. All staunchly ignoring his questions and threats.]

[It took much too long for him to realise where he was, and by that point it was way too fucking late. They'd moved him to a secure room once staying entirely corporeal proved more than he could manage, some explanation about nanites reacting with his SEP enhancements that he didn't fully believe, but had no choice but to accept. He didn't understand what was happening to him; why he felt cold but like something just under his skin was burning. Why something in his chest lurched and rattled when he got too angry, why the pain made his body slip away from his senses, trying to make the feeling of being something so different to what he was make sense.]

[He couldn't control it, and anyone else who gave enough of a shit to come for him was probably already dead, so he didn't have much of a choice but to co-operate. For now, at the very least.]

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[ There are a few grazes that Jack suffers, bullets tearing through the fabric of his jacket, mainly because he doesn't want either the bike or Reyes to get damaged in the crossfire. It's not a great place to defend from, but he wants to create enough of an opening that he won't be pursued.

He only has so much ammunition, though, so once he has that opening he aims his helix rockets at the outdoor stairwell he'd originally escaped from, weakening the supports to make it that much more difficult for them to chase after him. The explosion of blue pulse energy is the last thing he needs to see before he turns back to the bike, heaving Gabriel up onto the seat and then settling in front of him.

Since it doesn't seem like Gabriel is going to be up any time soon, Jack uses a length of bungee cord to tie them together by the waist, allowing most of Gabriel's weight to slump against his back. He revs up the bike and tears off, driving as fast as he can to throw off anyone who might be trailing him.

It's only when Jack is certain that he's lost Talon that he circles back to his closest safe house. The bed isn't the most comfortable thing, but he dumps Gabriel into it all the same. He looks human enough right now, save for the ashen pallor on his skin that doesn't fit him at all, but Jack knows what he saw back there. Either way, he can't keep his eyes off of Gabriel, so he ends up dragging a chair over to his bedside to watch him.

Given that he thought he'd never see his friend again, he's pretty sure it's a reasonable thing to do. ]

[When Gabriel comes to, he's groggy, unbalanced. Vision a little blurry as if his body isn't entirely sure it wants to be awake right now, but he sees enough to know this isn't the Talon cell he's grown used to. His instincts kick in before he has a chance to fully assess the room — though calling it instinct feels a little crazy when not so long ago this wasn't even conceivable — body falling away into smoke in a desperate bid to remove himself from whatever situation he's woken up in.]

[It's when he sees Jack, what must be a fraction of a moment later, that he remembers. Snapshots of Jack's voice in his cell, rushing down corridors, taking out a hallway of guards. If this is some Talon long-con, he's got a lot of explaining to do. There's a tired sigh from somewhere in the smoke, followed by the smoke coalescing back into that pallid form no one wants to think about too much.]

[If someone told him he'd end up here after starting Overwatch, Gabriel probably would've laughed in their face. He could imagine a lot of bad outcomes, but this is a little out there.]

Morrison.

[Serious as it is, there's a definite tinge of relief to his voice, and he sits at the foot of the bed. Elbows on his knees, body hunched forward and a frown on his face like Jack being alive is the strangest thing in the room.]

The hell happened?

[ It's been a long past few days, and so if Jack might have started to doze, no one could really hold it against him. That being said, the moment that Gabriel shifts in the bed, he's wide awake and sitting straight in his seat. He doesn't have to wait long for Gabriel to fall away into smoke again, and panic races through him as he half-expects the smoke cloud to disappear under the door, lost forever.

Instead, Gabriel manages to get a hold on whatever's happening, reforming into himself. Jack takes a few seconds to study his face (as if he hadn't been doing plenty of that while Reyes was out), his mouth twitching when he's addressed as "Morrison." Professional to the end, huh?

Jack can't handle sitting anymore, so he's out of his seat, circling around to face Gabriel where he's planted at the foot of the bed. ]

I got you out of there. Shook them off our trail.

[ There's no telling how long it'll be before Talon finds them, though. They definitely shouldn't stay here longer than absolutely necessary. ]

What did they do? What... was that, earlier?

Looks like some kind of science.

[It's not his best joke, but in his defence he's been having a very stressful and traumatising time lately. Moreso than the standard.]

[Gabriel sighs and rubs his face with both hands, looking up at Jack with a tired frown. He wishes he had an explanation — honestly part of him is embarrassed that he doesn't — he should've been able to get some kind of information out of them. Something useful, something that'd help him understand what they did.]

[In hindisght, he probably shouldn't have fought back so much. Should've played along so they wouldn't sedate him all the fucking time. But there's nothing he can do about that now.]

Something to do with nanites and biotics... I got the feeling they could only do this with someone who'd been through SEP. [He shakes his head, all at once tired and frustrated. For all their poking and prodding, they didn't exactly tell him much.] Couldn't really tell you much more than what you saw-- I don't know everything they did to me.

[But he knows there's more and it scares him; the thought that he could wake up like Lacroix always knocking around in the back of his mind. An empty husk ready to be filled up with Talon's orders.]

[ Of course Jack has the same concerns, that they might have screwed around in Gabriel's head. Maybe he'll end up gutted by his best friend in his sleep, and Talon will sit around and laugh about how he fell for the same trick twice. Maybe this is all going exactly as they planned.

On the other hand, maybe he doesn't care. It's not like there's much left to him in this life anymore. If his final act is getting Gabriel the hell out of there, then that wouldn't be so bad.

It is strange for Gabriel not to have all the answers, when he'd prided himself on that sort of thing back during Overwatch. Not that Jack would expect anything to be the same under these circumstances. Talon had been torturing him, experimenting on him. Why would they have bothered to explain any of what they're doing?

Nanites and biotics, though. Maybe they could track down Angela, see if she'd be willing to examine Gabriel and piece together what's been done to him. Jack doesn't mention that now, though. He'll give Gabriel a few days to adjust, at least. ]

We'll figure it out. I think I'm still processing that you're actually here.

[ He breathes out and rubs at the back of his neck. There is this sense of awkwardness, as they hadn't been on great terms leading up to the explosion (to say the least). It all seems to matter a lot less now that Overwatch is gone, though. ]

["We'll figure it out." He wishes that statement was a relief, that he could just trust that he and Jack could handle this the way they used to be able to. But truth is, he hasn't been able to trust Jack like that in a long time now. Glass houses, maybe, but the damage is done. Relieved as he is to see him here those feelings don't just go away because it's been a while.]

Thought you were dead.

[Put all that negativity aside for now. because for all the fights in their past, it is good to see Jack again. There's a weak curl at the corner of his mouth, something that'd be a smile if he didn't seem deeply uncomfortable expressing anything except exhaustion and general displeasure.]

[Still, there's something unabashedly naked about the way he looks up at Jack. Just for a moment, the kind of honest look in his eyes that very few people have gotten to see.]

It's good to see you, blue eyes.

Thought you were, too.

[ As much as both of them might have been better off that way, it seems that they can't always get what they want. (Or they never can, these days.) So here they are instead, two ghosts -- one a little less corporeal than the other. That's not to say that Jack hasn't been affected in his own way, but neither of them want to talk about things like that, do they?

Jack knows better than to think they can start off with a completely clean slate, but Gabriel hasn't started giving him shit yet, and so he'll take it. The relief of being rescued is bound to wear off at some point and it'll start, but Jack will deal with that when it comes.

It's an old, dumb nickname, and yet something close to a smile flickers on Jack's face for a brief moment. Gabriel hasn't looked at him like that in a long, long while, and it's enough to make Jack bold, as he goes to take a seat next to Gabriel at the foot of the bed. ]

Would've come a lot sooner if I'd known they'd gotten their hands on you.

[ He never meant to abandon Gabriel, no matter what he'd been accused of years ago. ]

[The "would you?" is right on the tip of his tongue, but even at his worst, Gabriel knows when he's being combative just for the sake of it and Jack has never been the type to leave someone behind if he can help it. Even from a purely pragmatic standpoint, his being in Talon's hands is a dangerous prospect, let alone that chronically bleeding heart of his. He knows Jack wouldn't have left him there just as surely as Gabe knows the reverse is true; he'd never leave Jack in a place like that if he could help it. Even when he could barely stand to look at the man, he'd drag himself through fire and dirt to bring Jack home.]

Better late than never, huh?

[It's a pretty weak attempt at humour, especially when they have all the evidence they need of what late can mean with Widowmaker-- The thought of being tasked with hunting Jack down just to prove his loyalty flits through his mind, and the idea makes him want to reach for Jack's hand just to reassure himself they're as close to 'okay' as it really gets for people like them.]

[Gabriel doesn't allow himself that indulgence though, hands instead curling into weak fists in his lap. He's just so tired, and it's not something six or whatever hours of sleep can fix, as comfortable as being slung over Jack's back surely is.]

[He sighs, staring down at his hands with nothing to say.]

[ There's an empty silence that Jack feels to his core. Here both of them are, alive for better or for worse, but he has no idea where that leaves them, or what they're supposed to do next. It's a little like when a dog chases and chases after a bone, but once it has it in its jaws, it's at a loss.

Ultimately, he falls back on the practical questions. It's where he'd learned to dwell while in Overwatch, where letting his emotions play a part in his decisions could quickly become dangerous. ]

We should really have someone take a look at you. [ He glances over to study Gabriel's features, relieved that he still resembles himself at least some of the time. As bad as it is, it could be worse. That's what he tells himself, anyway. ]

You got Angela's number?

[Ha ha ha.........]

[He can feel that uncertainty in Jack, the way he falls back on pragmatism as a defebce mechanism. Gabriel wishes he had a solution for that, for both of their sakes, but he doesn't. And it's gonna keep him up tonight and tomorrow and probably every night for a while, but that's for future Gabriel to deal with.]

[Moreover, he doesn't like this awkwardness between them. Tense, he can deal with, tense and angry kinda became the norm after a while, but Gabe doesn't remember the last time a silence between them was awkward and he refuses to let that be how things are. Better hating eachother's guts than uncomfortable.]

Come here. [He pats the bed next to him, expression.] Sit down.

[ Not her number, no, but Jack is confident that he could track Angela down if he needed to, and she's the clear choice for this. Getting Gabriel to agree to it is another issue. As much as Jack has been avoiding his ex-agents so that news of his survival doesn't blow things wide open and make a bigger mess, he'd take the risk to get Gabriel the check-up he obviously needs.

All of those thoughts are swirling through his head when Gabriel cuts through it, requesting that he come sit next to him. Jack realizes he should be uncertain about the suggestion because for all he knows Gabriel could be a very real threat to him, but he can't work up the energy for it.

Gabriel has that tone he gets when he just wants to cut through all the bullshit, and Jack can't help but cling onto that familiarity.

He moves to take a seat on the bed, lifting his head up to make eye contact. For the moment Gabriel's eyes look normal, but Jack had seen them go red earlier. ]

[Jack would have to make a really good case for Gabe to go see Angela, and one that good might not even exist. He'd never let Jack take that risk, nor would he trust her with the information; there's really nobody left he'd trust except Jack.]

[Jack, who's sitting right next to him, looking at him with those bright blue eyes that it's always been easy to get lost in. He's not that same kind of boyishly handsome he was way back when, but the scars on his face and even the thinning up top give him a rough — rugged, even — kind of attractiveness that Gabe can't say he doesn't like. It's the kind of thing he has to huff an amused breath at, because of course Jack Morrison would get some nasty facial wounds and still manage to come out of it looking gorgeous. It's a good thing that jealousy or self-consciousness aren't feelings Gabriel comes by easily, because he has no idea what he looks like, but he knows it isn't good.]

[That's an issue for another time. Right now, all his focus is on the man in front of him. There's a moment of hesitation between pulling off a glove and lifting his hand, but it's one he gets over quickly. Raising his hand the rest of the way to Jack's face to trace that scar, the one that cuts between his eyes, with a gentle touch and a light frown.]

Guess I can't call you "pretty boy" anymore, huh?

[There's a slight tug of a smirk at the corner of his mouth when his gaze flits back up to meet Jack's eyes. He definitely thinks he's funny this time.]

[ The problem being that Jack has none of the qualifications needed to diagnose what's going on here, or to help. Angela might actually be able to reverse whatever it is that Talon did to Gabriel. That's a conversation for later on, when he's ready to get into another argument. Right now both of them are too exhausted for that, and too overwhelmed by the sheer fact that they're in each other's presence.

As for what Gabriel looks like, it's mainly his skin tone that's worrisome. He's ashy and pale, like all of the blood has been sucked out of him. Or like he isn't quite alive, which might be closer to the truth, and more disturbing as a result.

Still, he's maintaining a solid form for now, so Jack will take it.

When Gabriel's hand lifts, Jack's filled with the urge to shift away, or even to stand up and make distance between them again. It's been a long while since anyone has touched him (getting punched doesn't count), and he's not sure if he's ready for it, especially not from Gabriel.

He forces himself to stay still, though, his brow furrowing and his stomach twisting as Gabriel's cold fingers run over the scar tissue. Once it's over he can't stop himself from letting out a breath. ]

Never liked it when you did, anyway.

[At this point in time, he's so well attuned to Jack that he might as well have flinched away for all the good his staying still does. A frown flickers on Gabriel's face when he lets out that breath and he pulls his hand back, turning his head to look around the room instead of at Jack. He doesn't feel much of anything anymore, but he feels the sting of rejection pretty clearly in that moment.]

Maybe if you weren't so damn pretty all the time.

[Gabe manages to keep his tone light, even now he's considering that maybe he jumped the gun. It's been a long time since they were close like that, a lot of years and a lot of fights ago.]

[And he wasn't this back then either.]

[It's a lot. It's a lot all at once and it's suddenly dawning on him that he has no idea how he feels about any of this. He didn't have the chance with Talon and now Jack's alive and he's out and Gabe might be a quick thinker, but that's too much for him to figure out in approximately twenty minutes of consciousness.]

[There's a way to get some time to himself though, if he can convince Jack to go for it.]

You look like crap now. When's the last time you got any sleep?

Edited 2018-04-24 02:34 (UTC)

[ It's not rejection so much as uncertainty, but Jack can't take back his reaction, as controlled as it had been. He watches as Gabriel pulls his hand back, and forces himself not to read too deeply into it. This is a lot all at once, and trying to sift through thirty years worth of interactions, with all the arguments and intimacy and everything else, isn't something that either of them are capable of right now.

Jack is relieved that Gabriel is here with him rather than captured by Talon, there's no question of that, but everything that comes next he's less sure on. He figures that he and Gabriel will figure their shit out, because they always did, but they also never had to deal with anything quite like this before.

And both of them are tired.

Gabriel brings that up dirctly, and Jack's shoulders shudder with a contained laugh. ]

Funny question, coming from you.

[ Jack hadn't been good about getting enough sleep during the Overwatch days, and that hasn't improved now, but Gabriel had been just as bad as him, if not worse. ]

Uh-uh, Morrison. Don't deflect.

[Gabe leans back on his arms, raising an eyebrow at Jack as he does. It's true, they're as bad as eachother, working until they keel over. He still remembers when things were good, pouring over maps and plans and an endless supply of shitty coffee. Sometimes he wondered if Ana didn't come up with those sleep darts to get them to rest once in a while.]

[Right now he's pretty well rested though. Moreso than he can ever remember being. He figures they're gonna have to move soon, they should be at their best when it comes to it.]

I just spent the last however long being sedated every night, remember? That's more sleep than I ever got with Overwatch.

[ Of course Jack can't get away with anything when it comes to Gabriel, and he heaves out a sigh. The answer to the question should be obvious, but he realizes the bottom line is that Gabe is trying to push him to get some rest. He's been working on this project for so long that it probably is about time that he crashes.

There's a part of him that's still reluctant, though. What if he wakes up and Gabriel is gone? What if this was all some vivid dream? He doubts it, but when Gabriel is literally capable of turning into a smoke cloud, he thinks it's fair that he's concerned. ]

That's not morbid at all. [ Getting sedated nightly to be kept under control isn't the right way to catch up on one's sleep debt. ] If I sleep, what're you gonna do?

[ He takes a look around the safe house. There's not much here to keep anyone entertained, except for the wall he's covered in print outs and intel documents. Most of it Talon related, for obvious reasons. ]

Keep watch. Try and make sense of... Everything.

[Gabe pushes himself up off the bed with a sigh, glancing around and focusing on that research for a moment. It warms the heart a little to see the visual evidence of how hard Jack worked to find him and get him out of that hell. More than that though, he might have some of the context Jack was missing to put some of this together.]

[When he looks at Jack again, it's with a shrug and a lightly amused smirk. Because focusing on how absurd all this is is pretty much the only way he's gonna be able to handle it right noe.]

I mean, a ghost just came and saved my ass from illegal terrorist experiments to make me into a spooky cloud assassin.

[He delivers it pretty lightly, considering, like it's just a mildly amusing anecdote about some dumb shit McCree did in training. Eyebrows raised in an expression that's very much daring Jack to correct him on any of this.]

I think I could use a few hours to think that over.

[ It is a lot to take in for both of them, and if this is Gabriel's way of asking for some space and some time to process, then it's not like Jack can say no. It would likely do them each some good. There's also a question of trust here. Will Jack let his guard down enough to sleep while Gabriel is here?

If Gabriel really does want him dead secretly, then it's not like there's much point in hanging around anyway. He's dedicated the last however-long to this one task.

He raises an eyebrow at Gabriel's description of the events, but doesn't correct him on any of it. ]

All right, be my guest.

[ Jack gestures to the door that will lead Gabriel back into the small living area. ]

There's a couch out there you can crash on, if you need to.

[It's not likely he'll need it — even if he does get tired, Gabe's pretty good at powering through and he's not about to leave them unguarded — but he acknowledges the couch with a nod.]

Get some rest, Jack.

[He turns to leave the room, deciding he'll wait for Jack to fall asleep before he starts pouring over all that research of his. And it's not any burning questions about what he looks like that has him looking for the bathroom, but hey, if he happens to find it and it has a mirror then it's only prudent he take a look.]

[And he's definitely not using this as a way to distract himself from any deeper questions, like what Talon did to him means or how to handle being around Jack like this now.]

[Anyway his reflection is kind of underwhelming. Gabriel flicks the light on and spends a while staring, looking at different angles, expecting something to change. It's not even the worst he's ever looked. The ashen tone isn't great, he's not a fan of the way it makes him look a little like soneone who died out in the cold, but he was expecting something a little more... Monstrous. Red eyes, maybe. Fangs. An upsettingly long tongue.]

[How disappointing.]

[ It does make sense for them to sleep in shifts, but Jack figured he would give Gabriel the option to pass out if he needed to. There's no telling how his body might behave from moment to moment, when they have so few details on what was done to him. Jack's gotten used to sleeping alone in safehouses. He's capable of instantly waking at the first sound of something going wrong. If Talon manages to pursue them here, he'll know it.

As usual, it takes him a while to fall asleep, and even when he does pull it off, it's not a deep sleep. He remains vaguely aware of Gabriel's movements in the other room, tosses and turns a few times before ending up flat on his stomach with his face buried in the single pillow he has.

Even then, it's a struggle. He'll sleep for half an hour at a time before he wakes up again, as if his brain wants to remind him that he did get Gabriel out of there after all. He finds himself tempted to go out and talk to him, but he figures that Gabe probably needs his space in light of this whole mess, and he should respect that.

What a night. ]

[He gives it an hour or so of pottering around the safe house before Gabriel comes back to look at Jack's research, quiet as can be as he enters the room. Jack's a light sleeper anyway, and right now they're on high alert, he doesn't want to wake him if he doesn't need to.]

[After a while of just standing there, looking at everything, he has to admit he's impressed. Not that he thinks Jack isn't capable of this kind of recon, but they had teams to delegate to for so long. It wouldn't be strange if he got rusty at it. But this is a pretty impressive spread of information and a lot of it is stuff Gabe didn't know himself.]

[As he gets more engrossed, he paces a little, occasionally mutters to himself to try and reason something out when it doesn't immediately make sense. Once or twice he moves something, a connection he thinks is wrong or just seeing if it fits better elsewhere.]

[It's the closest he's come to feeling like himself in a while.]

[ The truth is that Jack had been pretty rusty at this kind of detail-oriented work, after having to be the big picture guy for so long. That being said, there are some skills that you never truly lose, and after scraping the rust off, he'd been able to jump back into things. It had taken him a while, but here they are.

He remains still in the bed at first, but the more that Gabriel moves around the room and mutters to himself, the more that Jack begins to stir. A distant part of his mind takes him back to another time and place -- Gabriel had stayed the night, and then got up early to work on something, while Jack attempted to catch some more precious hours of sleep. They came by them so rarely.

Slowly he lifts his head to get a look at what Gabriel is doing, and when he sees him reaching out to move something on the wall, he grunts. ]

Hey... that's mine.

[ His voice comes out groggy, maybe even a little petulant. Don't just touch his stuff without asking, Gabe!! ]

[Ah, there's a familiar tone of voice. Gabe huffs a laugh, not bothering to put it back.]

Sleeping Beauty awakens.

[He's still focusing on the wall, but he doesn't put the sheet of paper in his hand up anywhere, glancing over his shoulder at Jack.]

It didn't fit where you had it.

[ Jack pushes himself up until he's sitting, yawning as he drags a hand across his eyes. He hadn't slept much, but the fact that he's letting himself wake up slowly like this is a hint that he trusts Gabriel, against all logic. ]

You want revenge on them?

[ On Talon, he means. If Gabriel wants to take the fight to them eventually, Jack isn't going to argue the point with him.

What else are they supposed to do, but go down in a blaze of glory? ]

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CRASHES BACK IN AFTER THREE MONTHS

i can't believe

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