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TheGeekySqueaker — They're gone...
Published: 2017-08-18 17:32:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 3424; Favourites: 37; Downloads: 0
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I received a request for a pic of Jack comforting Mei after she wakes up from her cryosleep.You can find more of my works below!
perfectdayforsomemeihem.tumblr…
archiveofourown.org/users/Miki…
Gone
An Overwatch Short
Summary: Mei Ling Zhou is finally found at Ecopoint Antarctica after being in cryosleep for 10 years, and is brought to Dr. Angela Ziegler for treatment. Unfortunately, no matter who tries to convince her, Mei seems to be in denial about her grim circumstances. With no one else to turn to Dr. Ziegler seeks aid from Mei’s closest friend, Jack Morrison.
This is a story that I wrote to go along with a drawing request for an angst/comfort scenario between Mei and Jack. You can find the pics below…
It was late. Very late. Certainly, too late into the night to receive phone calls. However, much to Jack's displeasure he was receiving one now.
The shrill sound of the rhythmic beeping woke him from his sleep. Groaning he sat up, blindly felt around his night stand, and answered his phone once he found it.
"Mmm, hello?"
"Jack?" The soft angel like voice was unmistakable.
"Angela? What the hell are you doing calling me at this hour?"
Wearily looking at the clock he could see it was 3 in the morning. Looking outside the sky was at its darkest being between midnight and dawn. No stars, no moon, and hardly any Dorado city lights were there to illuminate his room.
On the other end of the line Dr. Ziegler sat at her desk with the phone wedged between her shoulder and her ear as she used her free hands to fill out some paperwork. Looking at her own clock she realized that it was almost 10am at Watchpoint Gibraltar.
"Is it late where you are? Ah, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you, but it's important."
"3 o'clock in the morning important? Fine, what is it?"
"Well, it's incredible news really. A week ago, Winston sent a team to scavenge Ecopoint Antarctica. The team reported back to us three days ago and informed us that they found Mei Ling Zhou. We don't know how, but she's alive."
"... Alive?"
For a moment, the word didn’t seem to register with him. There was a conflicted ache in half of his heart that tried to convince him that he was simply having a very vivid dream, but the other half felt elation that he hadn't felt in a long time.
"Y-You've got to be kidding me. Are you sure? Like 100% sure?"
"I personally just checked on her 10 minutes ago. I'm sure."
Jack sat up from his bed, turning the light on his nightstand on. It blinded him for a moment, but for now that was the farthest thing on his mind.
"Well what the hell happened to her? Is anyone else from Antarctica alive?"
The phone was quiet for a moment before Dr. Ziegler sighed. "It's a long story, but the gist is that Mei has been in cryostasis for the past ten years. The search team found her and her colleagues in their cryopods… Unfortunately, her colleagues have been dead for a long time."
Jack didn't know what to say, and for a minute the phone stayed quiet as he tried to find his words. He didn't have to speak, however, as Dr. Ziegler continued.
"Look, Jack, she's alive, but we need you to talk to her."
Jack's eyebrow raised in intrigue. "Me? I mean I'd be glad to, but why do you need me specifically to talk to her? Is she okay?"
"... Physically, yes, but not mentally... She's gone into a state of shock, and now she's in denial of her situation. I tried to convince her, but she doesn't believe me because I look practically the same as I did before she was placed into cryosleep. Not only that, but I did some checking and..."
"... And?"
Again, the line went quiet before he heard Dr. Ziegler give another even more frustrated sigh. Whatever she was about to say it wasn't good.
"We tried to locate her family, friends, anyone other than her colleagues here at Overwatch. Anyone who was close to her is now gone. Either they perished in the Omnic Crisis, or they've died since. She has no one except for us here at Overwatch, and you were the closest to her out of all of us. She could really use the support."
Jack frowned.
It was true; Jack had been close with Mei. There was a time where he even harbored some feelings for her, but she didn't feel the same way. She had found another man; Ecopoint Antarctica's lead engineer, Kurt MacReady. Of course, Jack had been a little upset about this, but seeing as he valued Mei's friendship more than his own feelings he got over his infatuation with her, and focused on his job.
Sitting up the veteran rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he thought to himself, "Shit, out of all the people in the world this could have happen to... Why did it have to be her?"
He threw the sheets off, got up from the warm spot on the bed, stripped out of his shirt, and began to ruffle around his clothes drawer as he continued to speak to Dr. Ziegler on speakerphone.
"So, you want me to help break the news to her, is that right?”
"Yes, that's right."
Jack sighed. "Way to give me the hard job, Angela."
He heard her laugh softly. "You'll do fine. How soon can you get to Gibraltar?"
"I don't know, less than a day? I’ll charter a flight within the hour."
"Perfect. I'll see you within the day then."
｡｡｡｡｡
A mere ten minutes after their phone call Jack had packed a single bag, left his residence, and made his way to Dorado travel services. From there he hopped from plane to plane; first to Mexico City, then to Madrid, and then finally to Gibraltar.
It had been nearly 15 hours as he made it to the Gibraltar airport, and although he knew he was expected at the Watchpoint he was still a little surprised to see a chauffeur for him at the front of the building.
The drive was a quiet one as Jack sat in the back, and committed to his thoughts. Much to his surprise he was nervous about seeing Mei again. He didn't know if she would be the same person he once knew, or how she would take the news that everyone and everything else had changed. Deep down he wished he already knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.
But he didn't.
Soon they neared the base, and as they got closer and closer Jack started to notice that the building hadn't changed very much. He disliked this place with a passion, but for a moment he remembered the good times he had here at Gibraltar. It brought a small, brief smile to his face.
If only he could bring back those old times. If only the world hadn't changed.
The long driveway finally brought them to the front doors of the base, and into the awaiting gaze of Dr. Ziegler. She looked as young and beautiful as she ever had, as if nothing about her had changed over the course of almost… 8 years? Had it been 8 years? Jack tried to recall when was the last time he had seen her, but of course he couldn't go by Angela's looks to tell how long it had been.
He waved the question of as the car came to a stop. As he stepped out Dr. Ziegler almost immediately brought the veteran into a hug.
"Welcome back, my friend. You have no idea how good it is to see you again."
Jack smiled. "And of course, it's always a pleasure to see you again, Angela. So, care to fill me in on the details?"
The doctor nodded, and gestured for him to follow.
｡｡｡｡｡
It seemed like no one else was in the base aside from Jack and Angela as the only things that could be heard were their footsteps and each other's voices echo through the halls.
"Mei will be here for a while. The cryostasis took a great toll on her body. She has to recover from muscle atrophy, damage from dehydration and starvation, a bit of damage from the cold, and for the first few days she was even blind."
"How long has she been here?"
"A little over a week. We felt that perhaps we would give her a few days of recovery before telling her what happened. We waited, and finally told her three days ago. At first, she hardly acted surprised, but then she became hysterical. She kept asking to see MacReady, and eventually we had to tell her small lies to her to get her to calm down."
Jacks expression furrowed for a moment. "What did you tell her?"
Angela frowned. "Well, we told her that MacReady and her other teammates needed some time before she could see them, but the truth is that they’ve been dead for years. The cryopods have a rather grim function of turning themselves off if the sensors detect that the inhabitant has perished. The ice they used would no longer give that body the supplements needed to live…"
For a moment she hesitated, taking a deep breath so she could muster up the will to finish her thought. “…The sad reality is that none of them would have made it if the cryopods didn’t have this function. As each one died less of the supplements were used, ultimately giving the others a better chance of survival. Unfortunately, it would have been very unlikely for more than one of them to survive. Mei survived simply on chance.”
“So, I’ll have to tell her all this bad news all over again.”
“I’m afraid so.”
Finally, they approached Mei’s room, and despite having years of training to remain calm in harrowing situations such as battle, Jack somehow felt his nerves become riled. The door was closed, but Jack could see through its narrow window.
There she was.
She stared out the window towards the Alboran Sea seemingly content for the moment. Incredibly she looked exactly the same as she did when he last saw her.
“I can’t believe it… It really is her.”
Angela smiled. “She hasn’t aged a day; another outcome of being frozen for so long. We don’t know how it’ll affect her in the future, but for now it looks like she’ll recover just fine… So, are you ready?”
Jack took a deep breath, and nodded. “No, but I didn’t come here for nothing.”
“Good. Just remember; be blunt and persistent about the truth, but be compassionate about it too.”
Jack nodded showing that he understood her advice, but his stare remained fixed on Mei.
With that Dr. Ziegler opened the door, clearing her throat to get the young woman’s attention.
Mei turned, and smiled. “Angela, hello again!”
Jack could hear her voice; it was hoarse and tired, but despite this she was clearly trying to remain cheerful.
The doctor smiled back. “You have a guest today. Can I show him in?”
Mei seemed surprised for a moment before giving a small but still excited nod of the head. “Yes, please do! I’d love company.”
Angela smiled, stepping off to the side so Jack could make his way into the room. As soon as he entered Angela stepped out, and shut the door behind them leaving the two friends alone together. Immediately Mei’s face lit up. Despite his aging she knew exactly who this was.
“Jack, is it really you? Your hair has gone grey already!”
“Yea, I didn’t really age very well.”
“Nonsense! I think you’re a handsome silver fox! Also, I doubt it’s your age; it’s probably that stressful job of yours.”
“What, my position as Commander?”
As they spoke Mei motioned for her friend to sit in the chair at her bed side, and he complied. She nodded, “Yes, that one. It’s such a stressful job; no wonder its showing in your hair color!”
Jack gave a smile, his eyes showing the smallest trace of pain over how his position was lost.
“Actually, I’m not Commander anymore.”
Mei’s eyes widened. “You’re not? What happened?”
Nervously scratching the back of his head, the veteran replied, “Overwatch was disbanded. Technically it still is.”
For a moment Mei didn’t seem to register the information, but eventually her mind came to what she felt was a reasonable conclusion.
“But Angela and Winston are here! Torbjörn, Ana and Lena too! They wouldn’t be running Overwatch illegally. That’s not the kind of people they are.”
Jack sighed, understanding that he was going to have to break the news to her sooner or later, but he truly did not want to break her heart. Despite what he wanted he was there for one reason, and that reason wasn’t to protect her feelings.
“Mei, we need to talk. I need to inform you of some bad news.”
Despite the tone in his voice the climatologist held an unwavering smile. She nodded, “What is it, Jack?”
He took a breath.
“Mei, you’ve been gone for a very long time. We fou-”
“Oh, I know already.”
Jack’s eyes widened with surprise. “Y-You do?”
Mei nodded. “Yes. I know I’ve been asleep for a year. It would have been longer if our beacon didn’t go off. Thank goodness Winston sent a team to respond to it!”
Jack’s heart dropped, his hopes of making the situation easier on Mei were dashed within an instant. She truly was in denial about her situation.
“… Mei, I’m sorry, but that’s not the truth. It’s been ten years, not one.”
Immediately Mei scowled, shaking her head. “Jack, I don’t know if you and Angela are playing a joke on me, but it’s not funny! It’s only been a year! Why do both insist that it’s been ten?”
“Because it is the truth. I have proof.” As Jack spoke he ruffled through his pocket trying to locate his phone. Upon finding it he unlocked it, opened a world news app, and physically showed Mei the date before picking the first few articles he could find so he could read the headlines.
“Today, February 25th, 2076. English Prime Minister Canterman to address the nation on arrangement on new immigration policies with Iraq.”
“Yesterday, February 24th, 2076. Numbani Airlines respond to recent terrorist attacks, ‘There was nothing else we could have done to prevent this’.”
“Today, February 25th-”
“Stop it, Jack! Why are you telling me this?!”
Jack gave her an unwavering stare. His eyes reflected on just how serious he was about what he was saying. “Because I need you to understand what’s happening here. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but the situation you believe isn’t reality. You’re using it to cope with what has happened, but you can’t do that. It’s not healthy. The truth is that it hasn’t been a year, it’s been ten years.”
The broken look on Mei’s face tore him apart on the inside. The tears in her eyes started to swell, and the only way she seemed to get rid of them was by closing her eyes and turning her head away from Jack…
Away from the truth...
“You can’t be right, Jack! Opara and Torres set our sleep cycles to a year or less. So, yes, maybe it was a little longer than a year, but there’s no way it was ten!”
“Mei, the team didn’t respond to a beacon; they were a salvation crew. As far as anyone is aware a beacon was never set off.”
Mei glared at Jack with eyes seemingly full of contempt. The more he tried to tell her the worse it got.
“Well then ask Opara! Or Torres! They’ll tell you that it went off!”
“… I can’t do that.”
“Can’t or won’t? They’re in the other room right-!”
“No. No, they’re not.”
Jack got up from his seat, and much to the mortified expression Mei was giving him he sat down on her bed. He took her hand into his own, but she pulled it away seemingly in disgust.
“What do you mean ‘No they’re not’?! Yes, they are! I’ll show you if I have to! I’ll have Kurt talk sense into your thick skull!!”
Mei tried to get up from her seat, but Jack prevented her from moving as he grabbed her arms.
“MacReady is dead, Mei. They’re all dead.” Despite how much she fought him on it Jack’s tone was stern, but not devoid of sympathy.
“Why the hell would you say that?! They’re alive, I swear!!”
Reaching out Jack brought her into a tight hug, and almost immediately Mei started to thrash and beat against his chest to get him off.
“Let go of me!! Jack, I swear if you don’t let me go I’ll have Kurt beat the shit out of you!”
Even though he was surprised at her violence and the expletives that were coming out of her mouth Jack still held on to her; his grip barely loosening as she tried desperately to get free.
“Mei, stop. They’re gone.”
“NO!!!”
“Yes. Mei, they all died years ago. The cryopods couldn’t keep you all alive. You’re the only one who made it.”
Slowly Mei stopped fighting against him, her fist unfurled as she wrapped her arms around Jack for a hug. She looked him in the eyes, and he could practically see the realization of ten years passing her by as the tears began to fall.
“… B-But they-”
“Mei, they’re gone. They’re all gone.”
The room stayed eerily quiet for a moment. Mei’s breath soon became shaky, and Jack could hear as she started to whimper.
Soon the whimpers evolved into sobs, which then became agonizing screams of remorse.
Everyone in the medical ward could hear Mei’s despair as each cry tore through her throat. Angela, who had been outside for their conversation, even found herself shaking, trying desperately to hold in her own tears.
Jack was the only one who held himself together, and there was one reason he did so.
Mei needed someone to be strong for her.
He stroked her hair, and slowly began to rock her back and forth as if he were consoling a child.
“… I’m sorry.”
