Chapter Text
Jack Morrison had spent most of the night in his quarters, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten much in the way of sleep. It had been Sunday and he’d worked anyway because work didn’t stop for him even on weekends. He’d only left his office the previous night because Ana had found him and threatened to carry him to his quarters herself. In retrospect, he should have called her bluff, just for the sight of the slender second-in-command of Overwatch attempting to pick up a super soldier and cart him off. He would have called Gabe in to witness it. Gabe would have laughed his ass off.
Maybe.
Gabe didn’t laugh or smile much these days.
And actually, Gabe might not have even been in Zürich the previous night. Jack had no idea. He had trouble keeping track of his husband’s missions these days. It didn’t help that it had been two weeks since the last time he’d even spoken to Gabriel by any means, because the last time they had seen each other in person they had fought and then Gabe had stormed out to sleep in his own quarters, even though the vast majority of his belongings were in the Strike Commander’s rooms.
Jack rubbed a hand across his tired eyes, hardly paying any attention at all to the quiet corridors and the few people around at this hour. Much to his frustration, he couldn’t even remember what they had argued about. These days they were both stressed over work, and while they tried not to bring their stress home, it seemed to be getting harder and harder to do.
Somewhere deep in his soul, a part of him admitted that he hated this job. He hated the never-ending stress, the piles and piles of paperwork, the constant kissing ass of this and that politician, the hours of fake smiling he had to do in front of cameras. Oh, he believed wholeheartedly in what he was doing, what all of Overwatch was doing, but… well he especially hated what it was doing to his marriage. There was a chasm growing between them. He wanted Gabriel to come home. He wanted to have a reason to stop working at night and lay down in bed again.
His stomach growled and Jack sighed. He should stop by the mess and get some food, but he was well aware that he had a call in less than an hour, and he had a myriad of things that had to be taken care of before then. So he headed towards his office instead, giving a nod to passing agents who stopped to salute him as he went by.
I’m so tired. Jack strode down the corridor leading to his office, idly noticing that Ana’s door was open, so he poked his head in there. “Morning, Ana,” he said, his voice deep and a touch rough.
She looked up from a report in her hand, her dark eyes twinkling merrily and she gave him a wide grin. “Good morning, Jack! You look like shit! You didn’t get any sleep last night even after I chased you out of here, did you?”
He scowled at her. “I got some sleep.” He paused as she continued grinning at him. “A little.” Her cheerful expression never wavered. “Okay, not enough, you’re right. Why are you so goddamn chipper? It’s too early for that.”
“No reason,” Ana replied, her elbows resting on her desk now and her chin propped on a hand. She continued giving him that huge-ass grin, and Jack suddenly felt suspicious. Amari was up to something. “Have a nice day today, Jack.”
He glowered at her before finally turning away and continuing down the corridor to the office at the end of the hall. He didn’t even glance at his assistant’s desk before popping off an absent-minded “Good morning” in that general direction.
“Good morning, Strike Commander,” came the reply.
Jack was in his office a few moments later, absently pulling off his long blue duster coat, when it suddenly occurred to him that the person at his assistant’s desk had not actually been Sarah. In fact, it hadn’t even been a woman. In fact…
He would have attributed his sudden thought as exhaustion, except that in that moment, in strode the person he thought he’d imagined at Sarah’s desk, carrying Jack’s favorite mug, the blue one with the Overwatch logo and “#2 Boss” on it, the mug that had a small chip on the rim because Jesse McCree had clumsily dropped it in the sink once, but Jack didn’t care because Gabriel had given him that mug and he cherished it. The mug was steaming with coffee and it was set gently on his desk and he stared blankly at it for a moment.
“Black, just the way you prefer it, sir,” said the person who was not Sarah. He was carrying a stack of paper and a data pad on top of that, which he now set down on the desk before hefting the data pad. “Here are the new recruit applications, with Lieutenant Wilhelm’s annotations. And here is the agenda and notes for your 8am phone call with Prime Minister Tanaka.”
And then he turned and walked out of the office.
Jack sat at his desk for a long moment, watching the steam rising from his cup. Finally, he took a swig of coffee, deciding that caffeine was just what he needed right in that moment. It wasn’t until he felt the caffeine and warmth hit his stomach that he stood up and walked back outside to Sarah’s desk.
“Gabriel, what are you doing?” he asked.
He thought he heard Ana’s chuckle through her open door.
****
Gabriel Reyes, in all his muscular and bronze-skinned glory, was sitting at Sarah’s desk, tapping away at the keyboard, his dark eyes focused on the computer screen. “What does it look like I’m doing, Commander?” he replied calmly, no trace of sarcasm or heat.
“It looks like you’re sitting at my assistant’s desk. Where’s Sarah?” Jack demanded.
“Tahiti, hopefully,” Gabriel replied, eyes still focused on the screen. “I gave her the week off. Well technically Amari gave her the week off, since I can’t sign off on Overwatch agents PTO. But I sent her and husband to Tahiti. Their anniversary is this Wednesday.”
Jack paused. “Sarah’s anniversary? I knew her birthday was next week, but…” he said. He felt like he should have known that and a pang of guilt tore through him. He shook his head as if to clear it. “Wait… you gave my assistant a week off? Without asking me? Who the hell is going to do Sarah’s job?”
There was a ping from the computer that signaled an email had just been sent out. Gabriel finally looked away from the screen to peer at him. “Why do you think I’m sitting here?” He calmly rose to his feet. “Have you eaten, Commander?”
Jack stared at him, and he found himself shaking his head. Gabriel hummed in reply and walked away from Sarah’s desk. “What the hell are you wearing?” Jack blurted out. Because instead of the usual hoodie and treasured beanie his husband normally sauntered in around the base, Gabriel was dressed way out of character. Tight dark blue dress pants, hugging his thighs and ass in all the right places, but instead of the armored boots he normally wore, he was wearing normal dress shoes, and a white dress shirt tucked neatly into his pants, and a silk golden-yellow tie that matched Overwatch’s logo, and over it all he wore a dark blue suit jacket that had said logo over the breast. Gabriel’s short-cropped dark hair, just barely long enough to be a touch curly at the tips, was neatly brushed back.
In other words, he was dressed exactly the way male administrative workers all dressed on a daily basis around HQ. And goddammit, he looked fucking good.
Gabriel glanced over his shoulder and gave him an odd look. “What should I wear, Commander? A pencil skirt and four inch heels?”
With that parting shot, he disappeared around the corner down the hall, leaving Jack standing there with his mouth agape. After a moment, Jack barged into Ana’s office, glaring at the Egyptian woman who was grinning widely at him again.
“What the fuck, Ana?” Jack growled. “What is going on? Am I getting pranked?”
“Not at all, Jack,” his soon-to-be-former-second-in-command said calmly. “We thought Sarah deserved time off for her anniversary.”
“Okay, that’s fine, but what I need is someone to replace her who will not create more work for me!” Jack shot back in reply. “You know, someone who actually knows how to do Sarah’s job? Besides, how long until Gabe gets bored of this little game and leaves me high and dry?”
Ana’s smile faded a little. “Jack, I’m disappointed in you. Do you think so little of your husband? I think you’re in for a big surprise.” She rose to her feet, gathering a data pad and a few other items, including her treasured blue beret, and headed for the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some recruits to evaluate.”
“Ana!” Jack whined, following her back out.
“Besides, I don’t know why you’re complaining. I would have thought you’d enjoy having a hot secretary at your beck and call.”
If looks could kill, Ana Amari would have been a pile of ash in that moment. But she was completely unbothered by his irritation and continued on her way. Shoulders slumping, Jack retreated to his office. He had half a mind to call down to HQ’s reception desk and have Daniela, the main receptionist, come take over for Sarah, because she’d done it before when his assistant had taken time off, so she at least knew the ropes. It would mean calling into a temp agency in Zürich to send a replacement receptionist, but at least that would fix his current problem.
He was still mulling over that possibility, standing behind his desk and absently rubbing his tense shoulder with one hand, when he noticed on his screen that a new email had arrived a few minutes earlier. It was an email thread that had started out for Sarah, from the personal assistant of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of England, asking Sarah how she and her husband were doing, and then moving on to asking to set up a conference call with the Strike Commander within the next two weeks to discuss a very important funding project. Gabriel had replied, politely letting the other assistant know that Sarah was on vacation in Tahiti this week but that yes, he’d make sure the Chief Secretary found a spot on the Strike Commander’s calendar, signing the message as simply Gabriel. This in turn was followed by a calendar invite for both Jack and the Chief Secretary for late next week. While Jack was staring at the screen, a final message arrived from the British assistant, accepting the invite and thanking Gabriel for his prompt response and asking him to tell Sarah to send pictures when she returned.
“Holy shit,” Jack muttered. “He’s fucking serious.”
So when Gabriel came in a few minutes later with breakfast for Jack, the blonde had decided to play along, to see how far this would go, and mentally placing a bet with himself that Gabriel, former Commander of the Strike Team that had ended the Omnic Crisis, genius tactician, and current head of Overwatch’s black ops division, wouldn’t last more than 48 hours as Jack’s personal assistant.
“You only have twenty minutes before your call with Prime Minister Tanaka,” Gabriel said as he set the tray down. “Please eat.” Those coffee-brown dark eyes gave him a sharp look. “Knowing you, you didn’t eat last night.”
“I didn’t. I’m starving. Thank you, but it’s not in Sarah’s job description to feed me,” Jack said. He snagged a piece of scrambled egg with the fork anyway, because he really was hungry.
“I know it’s not, but she does anyway,” his husband replied. His face was expressionless, but his dark eyes belied a sense of calm. “Yell if you need anything.” He spun on his heel and walked out of the office, and Jack rather shamelessly stared at his husband’s beautifully round ass.
Which honestly, made Jack feel like a creep, even though he knew he was only looking precisely because it was his husband; he would never disrespect Sarah or any other employee that way. Now he wondered if this was some kind of prolonged foreplay. Which was not a thought he needed rolling around in his head when he had a thousand things to do.
“Asshole,” Jack grumbled after Gabriel.
****
Monday was normally a fairly uneventful day when Jack was actually in his office, and this Monday was no different. He had a ton of phone calls and a lot of email and paperwork to get through, but he was grateful that nothing catastrophic demanded his attention, because it still made him uneasy that Sarah wasn’t there. Still, from the emails that were cc’ed into his box as dozens of correspondences came through, Gabriel appeared to be doing fine. And it was surprising to Jack what a pleasant phone voice his normally gruff, grumpy husband had, because Jack kept his door open all morning and could hear phone call after phone call coming in, all of which Gabriel handled with grace, calm, and a politeness Jack would never have attributed to him.
He’ll be ready to explode by this afternoon, Jack thought to himself.
Especially when Daniela went on her lunch at 11am, and all of the main reception’s phone calls routed through to the phones for both Sarah and Ana’s own assistant, Arjun. For the next hour neither of their phones stopped ringing, because Overwatch’s main number was public and any idiot could call, and it was Daniela’s job to filter the calls to the appropriate place. Depending on whether the calls were coming through the main reception, or whether they were coming through on the direct line for the Strike Commander’s office (which was most definitely not a public number), the calls had to be handled differently. The more official calls were treated with a simple, “Strike Commander Morrison’s office, this is Gabriel.” But there was a script to answering the main reception number, a script which required the receptionist to sound overly cheerful and helpful, an absolute requirement instilled by Overwatch’s PR department.
Jack got very little actual work done during Daniela’s lunch hour, because he found himself fascinated by the sound of Gabriel answering the phone. He wondered how much of his husband’s soul was being chipped away every time he had to take a call from the main number and answer the phone with: “Thank you for calling Overwatch Headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland! We hope you are having a lovely day! This is Gabriel speaking, how may I direct your call this morning?” in an overly cheerful voice.
When the clock hit noon, the phones suddenly went silent as calls were automatically re-routed back to Daniela’s desk in the main reception. When peace had fallen over the office, Jack had to cover his mouth to contain his snicker when he heard Gabriel’s growl, “Thank fuck that’s over! I need a fucking cigarette!” Ana and Arjun burst into laughter.
“Gabi, you missed your calling, you’re a wonderful receptionist,” Ana called.
“Fuck you, Ana,” came the grumbled reply. “I’m taking my lunch now.”
And judging from Ana and Arjun’s laughter once more, Gabriel had probably bolted out of there.
Jack grinned to himself. He would be surprised if Gabriel even came back from lunch, much less actually showed up tomorrow. He still had no idea what this exercise was even about, but Jack felt a little calmer about it, at least. He would get Daniela up here to replace Sarah if need be, and at the very least, this had served to be quite amusing for Jack. And he had to admit, Ana was right; the view anytime his assistant was in his line of sight was certainly very nice.
****
In fact, Gabriel not only came back from lunch in an hour, surprisingly calm, but he brought Jack food, because of course the Strike Commander didn’t have time to stop and get lunch for himself. The rest of Monday passed uneventfully, with plenty more phone calls for Gabriel, including having to call Overwatch’s travel agent to argue with them over a change in the Strike Commander’s hotel stay for an upcoming trip to New York. There were more emails, more scheduling and re-scheduling, lots of filing of reports that Jack had already signed and approved and that Sarah insisted on keeping paper copies of in the filing cabinet behind her desk. All the while, Jack was constantly on the phone, even as he multi-tasked and read through never-ending reports.
Really, it was all very mundane and he’d be surprised if Gabriel wasn’t bored out of his skull.
At precisely five, Arjun called out to Gabriel and Ana that he was leaving and bolted. College kid, Jack thought; must be nice to have a set schedule. But to be fair, Ana’s personal assistant had far less to deal with than Jack’s, as Ana didn’t have anywhere near the mountain of shit requiring her attention, and she spent a good chunk of her daily routine with new recruits anyway.
Jack kind of envied her. He felt like he never left this office and that someday he and Sarah were going to be found dead and buried under mountains of reports and budgetary requests and meeting minutes.
The US government spent how many millions making me into Captain America, and this is what I am doing? He thought grumpily to himself at around 7:30 that evening. The phones had long since gone silent this late in the evening, but he could hear the steady tapping of the keyboard that told him that Gabriel was still out there.
A little while later Gabriel came in with a stack of papers. “Letters for you to sign, Commander,” he said, sounding tired. He placed the stack on Jack’s desk, and the blonde took a moment to flip through them quickly. Standard form rejection letters for various charities begging for Overwatch’s funding and aid. Sarah must have left them to be done.
“Sarah just signs them for me. There’s a stamp of my signature, should be in the locked part of her desk. She left you a key, right?” Jack said after a moment, waving dismissively. He didn’t have time to sign a bunch of letters to a bunch of charities he would like to help but couldn’t. He had too many important things to do, like prepare for an obnoxious emergency budget meeting tomorrow. “Sarah would know not to bother me with these,” he snapped.
Gabriel stood there, and Jack looked up just in time to see the irritation crossing his dark features, his thick eyebrows furrowed and his jaw tightening. After a moment, however, he snatched up the pile of letters and headed for the door. “Sorry. Must have missed that in her notes. I’ll take care of it.”
He was gone, and Jack felt a pang of guilt for snapping at him. All things considered, for the first day on the job, Gabriel hadn’t bothered him at all to ask any questions, although Jack had heard him ask Arjun for guidance a few times. It really wasn’t fair to take out his own exhaustion and irritation on his husband. He would never have snapped at Sarah that way.
But he didn’t get up to apologize, because he really had too much to do for the next day’s meeting. He had no idea how much time had passed before there was a light knock on his door and he looked up blearily. Gabriel stood there with his jacket folded over an arm and his shoes hanging from the fingers of his right hand, opting to walk around in plain dress socks, which in retrospect was hilarious for a man who normally stomped around in very heavy armored combat boots but apparently couldn’t handle a day in dress shoes.
“I’m heading out,” Gabriel said. He paused. “Jack… please stop working. Come home, have dinner with me, and get some decent sleep. You look exhausted.” It was the first time he’d addressed Jack by his name all day, or had said anything outside of the context of work.
For a long moment Jack longed to do exactly that. The prospect of actually sharing a meal and an evening with his estranged husband sounded so appealing. And yet Jack looked down at his notes for the meeting the next day and knew he had a long night ahead of him.
“I can’t right now,” he said finally. “I have a really important meeting tomorrow. I’ll… I’ll come home in a bit, okay?”
Gabriel said nothing, but he nodded. He spun on a heel and left.
Jack didn’t actually make it back to his quarters until about 3am, just enough to take a quick shower and get about three and a half hours of sleep before he had to be up again. Gabriel wasn’t there, although the bed looked like it had been used.
Jack wouldn’t be surprised if Gabriel didn’t show up to work in the morning.
****
Gabriel showed up for work in the morning. He was already on the phone when Jack returned to his office, although Jack was too tired to really register what the call was about. By the time Jack was seated at his desk, staring somewhat blankly at his jam-packed calendar for the day (which Gabriel had set out on a data pad for him), Gabriel’s call had ended and he came in with Jack’s coffee in his favorite chipped mug. He said good morning, didn’t seem pissed about the night before, but he did walk out pretty quickly, although he was back fifteen minutes later with Jack’s breakfast.
“You don’t need to feed me,” Jack said, his traitorous stomach growling at the sight of the tray in front of him.
“Too fucking bad, I’m doing it anyway,” Gabriel replied. He paused a moment. “Sir.” Then he left again and was back on the phone.
At precisely 8:45am, Jack had a sudden panic attack at the thought that the conference room wasn’t ready to receive the UN budget committee, because Sarah always prepared for that kind of meeting carefully and made sure not a thing was out of place. He came storming out of his office, but found Sarah’s desk empty, and he immediately turned towards Arjun, who was tapping away at his keyboard, asking the young Indian college student where Gabriel was.
“Oh, he went to make sure the conference room was ready, sir,” the young man replied, looking up with a smile.
“Are you ready to go, Jack?” Ana asked, appearing in her doorway. “Director Petras’ transport is just about here.”
“Right,” Jack muttered, returning to his office long enough to retrieve his blue duster and his data pad. Privately he prayed that Sarah had left good instructions. This was an important meeting and he couldn’t afford any fuck-ups.
At 9:15 he was walking William Petras, Under-Secretary General at the UN and Director of Overwatch, into HQ’s largest conference room. There were already a number of other important people in the room, chattering and laughing quietly while they partook in a lovely spread of bagels and pastries set out on a side table, along with several pots of coffee. The projector was already on and showing the first slide of Jack’s presentation, as it should be. And there was even a vase of fresh flowers at the center of the main conference table.
For a moment Jack was floored. Everything was exactly like Sarah would have had it, even down to the flowers. He didn’t see Gabriel anywhere though, at least not immediately.
“Where is that hot piece of ass that follows you around all the time?” Petras asked casually.
Jack couldn’t help his face twitching or his teeth grinding, because he kind of really hated William Petras and yet the man was his boss and he couldn’t exactly take him to task for such disgusting language about Sarah. “Director, that’s really not…” He started anyway.
“Right here, Director, and honestly… I’m flattered.” Gabriel strolled into the room just then. He was dressed the same as yesterday, except that today he had a more form-fitting black suit jacket with the Overwatch logo on the breast and tight black pants, and he’d picked out a red silk tie. Jesus, fuck, it was unfair how hot he was, Jack thought.
Gabriel, unaware of the effect his presence was having on his Strike Commander, settled a fresh pot of coffee on the breakfast table, earning cheers from some of the other gathered members. Gabriel smiled at them before he went and joined Jack and Petras.
Petras was staring at Gabriel blankly and he looked at Jack for an explanation. “Uhh… Sarah, my usual assistant, is out this week. Gabriel is graciously helping me out.”
The older white-haired man blinked for a moment before looking back at Gabriel. “Don’t you have better shit to do than brew coffee and serve bagels?” Petras asked dryly. “Who is running that shit show downstairs if you’re up here playing secretary?”
Jack had a momentary vision of Gabriel punching Petras out right then and there, but for all that his husband’s jaw tightened, Gabriel’s hands remained clasped behind his back and he said nothing, because just then someone new swaggered into the room.
“Mornin’ everybody!” Jesse fucking McCree exclaimed as he sauntered into the room, and Jack suppressed a groan. By some miracle, the cowboy had at least had the decency to trim his scruffy beard some and forego his usual serape and spurs on his boots, and he was actually wearing a white button down shirt with a decent suit jacket and thank God he wasn’t wearing his stupid BAMF belt buckle, but the one thing Jesse had refused to leave behind was his goddamn Stetson. For fuck’s sake, Jack thought. Oblivious, McCree made straight for the breakfast pastries and coffee, pointing a finger gun and probably a wink at an older lady who stood by the breakfast table, earning a slight blush and undignified giggle.
Petras looked away from the cowboy to glower first at Jack and then at Gabriel.
“That’s Jesse McCree—” Gabriel started calmly.
“I know who the criminal is,” Petras growled.
“—Acting Blackwatch Commander,” Gabriel finished as if he’d never been interrupted.
The Director rolled his eyes. “Of course. Only you would have a goddamn gang member as a second-in-command, Reyes.” Gabriel fell silent and Petras turned back to Jack with a sigh. “You know, I try not to involve myself much with how you’re running this organization, as long as shit gets done, Morrison. But maybe instead of playing games, you ought to be focusing on doing your job—”
Jack bristled at the implication. “With all due respect, Director, no one is playing games. McCree has proven himself to be an excellent agent, despite his age. We thought giving him a chance to prove himself in a leadership position in a controlled environment, for a short period of time, was a worthy cause. But he couldn’t do that with Commander Reyes breathing down his neck, so we shifted some things around temporarily.” Okay, so it was a load of bullshit, but sometimes in Jack’s job bullshit was an absolute art form. He could feel Gabriel’s eyes on him, but he didn’t dare look away from Petras’ scowl.
After a moment the Director snorted. “Fine.” He glanced over at the breakfast table. “And at least, if you decide to permanently promote Agent McCree, it looks like Reyes has a real future as a barista.”
Prick, Jack thought darkly as Petras walked away. He could feel the waves of hatred Gabriel was exuding now, but amazingly, his husband remained silent, at least until the Director was far enough away. “Pinche pendejo, hijo de puta,” Gabriel muttered darkly in his ancestral tongue.
Jack found himself agreeing but he just gave Gabriel a suffering look. “You know, maybe this wasn’t the best week for you to be doing this. I might need backup during this meeting. I can tell Petras is going to fight me today.” He spoke very softly, so that only super soldier hearing could possibly pick up his words.
Gabriel snorted. “After that display, do you really think I have any sway with this crowd? Let McCree talk, I prepared him for this.” At Jack’s incredulous look, the darker man shook his head. “He’s like you, he could charm a yeti into buying ice. Just trust me on this, Jack.”
Jack shook his head and headed for the table before remembering he would probably need coffee to make it through this meeting. He started to turn, but Gabriel placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll get it, Commander. Anything to eat?”
“No, thank you. Just coffee. Gabriel… this looks really good,” Jack said, nodding at the room at large. He meant it.
His husband just nodded. “Sarah left very explicit instructions,” he replied. Then he was gone, and Jack sat down and watched him walk over to the breakfast table and politely wait for a woman to finish getting her coffee, during which she flirted with him despite the fact that she normally felt intimidated by Blackwatch Commander Reyes when he showed up for these kind of meetings brooding and silent and glaring like he normally did.
“I’m in the market for an excellent assistant, if you’re ever looking to have a change of scenery, young man,” she said loud and clear, grinning.
Holy shit, she doesn’t recognize him, Jack thought to himself, silently awed. What a difference a change in clothes and attitude make.
Gabriel just grinned at her. “Thank you, ma’am, I’m flattered. But I’m not so certain you can afford me.”
She and several other ladies nearby tittered, and Jack caught Ana and McCree (sitting together on the end of the table from him) cover their snickers. Gabriel came back with two cups of coffee, one of which he placed in front of Jack. Then he retreated to a small desk in the corner which had a keyboard and a monitor. Sarah normally took meeting minutes and then emailed them out to all meeting participants, as well as archiving the audio in the proper place on Athena’s servers.
But then the meeting was starting and Jack had no more time to think about it because he had to convince these people to provide extra emergency funding for Blackwatch and Overwatch’s science division. Petras gave him a hard time, and Jack patiently and persistently explained why the next few planned missions were so necessary. Jack needed backup desperately and he glanced at Gabriel, who gave him a slight nod. With a sigh, Jack invited McCree to speak on behalf of Blackwatch. He winced when the young man stood up, holding his hat in hand. The minute he opened his mouth, Jack noticed his Southern drawl was much less pronounced, but still there in subtlety. He talked about a child trafficking ring that Blackwatch had been pursuing and was so close to shutting down, and this was the right audience, because there were enough women in the room to draw sympathy about the plight of enslaved children.
The whole time Jesse was talking, Jack was thinking about what a bucket of bullshit the kid was selling. The trafficking op was already under way, which meant it was already funded, but they didn’t need to know that. No one in the room was stupid, these people were all part of the UN in some form, and they knew what ‘black ops’ meant. But McCree talking about busting a trafficking ring would let everyone vote with a clean conscience, safe in the knowledge that for today, at least, Blackwatch was saving babies. The Director looked like he’d swallowed a lemon, but he didn’t speak because most Blackwatch operations were far more classified than the majority of the room were cleared to know about.
Jack was silently awed by the sheer audacity quietly on display here by Gabriel Reyes, who had prepared McCree for this… and as usual, Gabriel excelled at utilizing his people’s best talents. He’d even known that Petras couldn’t say a goddamn word about it either. Jack shot his husband a wry look, and as if feeling the weight of his stare, Gabriel looked up, gave him that signature shit-eating Reyes grin and a little bit of a shrug before looking back at his monitor.
Next up came the argument about the science division’s request for extra funding for Dr. Zhou’s expedition to Antarctica. Unfortunately for her, she was following McCree’s act. The timid Chinese scientist spoke about the work she was doing and why it was important, but she lacked Jesse’s boyish charm. Besides, science funding was always a harder sell. Jack spoke passionately about Dr. Zhou’s project himself, but he kind of felt this one was a loss. Shit, maybe he needed to get Gabriel to prep people for all future budget requests.
The council narrowly passed Blackwatch’s request for emergency funding, but denied the sciences. Dr. Zhou looked crushed. Before the meeting was over Jack was already mulling over where he was going to look for outside funding for her, and he had a few ideas that just might work. Such was a familiar dance in his line of work.
Jack had to escort Petras back to his transport, but he noticed before he left the conference room that Gabriel and Jesse were talking to Dr. Zhou, and that she looked a little more hopeful. Jack’s fine hearing picked up some of what Gabriel was telling her: the sciences always get pissed on by this crowd… don’t worry, Mei, Jack will find a way. He always does.
****
He found a way, but it took hours and many phone calls and lots of cajoling and the promise of exclusive first rights to new Overwatch tech. He went home late again on Tuesday night, despite his husband once again asking him to go to dinner and come home. Exhausted, Jack was in a shitty mood when he went to bed—which he noted wasn’t slept in at all this time—and he was in an even shittier mood when he woke up the next day, especially since the minute he opened his eyes he had a headache.
As usual Gabriel brought him coffee and breakfast and then retreated, while Jack was buried in paperwork all morning, suffocating on it all when at 8:45am Athena warned him of an upcoming conference call. Jack blinked owlishly at the screen for a moment and then looked around the desktop. He’d kind of forgotten that he’d arranged for this call late last night.
“Gabriel!” he shouted a few minutes later as he stormed out of his office.
Gabriel glanced at him, but didn’t do anything but hold up a finger, and after a moment Jack realized he was on the phone, the earpiece in his left ear glowing blue to indicate it was on. It took a few minutes before Gabriel disconnected. “Sir, that was—” Gabriel started.
“Don’t care,” Jack interrupted angrily. “I have a conference call with the Prime Minister of India in ten minutes. Where is my prep for this meeting?”
Gabriel stared blankly at him. “…uhh...” Meaning, he hadn’t even known about the call.
“I’d think this one is kind of important for you, since it’s Blackwatch related,” Jack said, feeling his headache becoming worse.
“Okay, if you just tell me what you nee—”
“I needed this shit done long before now! You’re supposed to look at the calendar every morning!” Jack snapped. “Forget it, I’ll deal with it. There were errors in the meeting minutes yesterday but you already sent them out. Fix them and resend them out with a goddamn apology. Petras noticed and he’s giving me grief about it. I emailed you last night about scheduling a meeting with Winston ASAP, but I’ve yet to see that happen. I have a media shit show on Friday and I should have the speech already from PR so that I can practice it, get Kareem on the goddamn phone and find out where it is! Sarah would have needled it out of PR back on Monday!” His voice had been steadily rising as he listed off his grievances and frustrations. “Get this crap done now, Gabriel, and get it done right!” The last he all but shouted, before he spun on his heel and stormed back into his office, the door hissing shut behind him.
By the time he threw himself indelicately into his chair, he could feel Ana’s judging stare from all the way in her office, through his closed door.
Gabriel didn’t bring him lunch that day. Although Jack did notice that he had a meeting scheduled with Winston tomorrow, and his speech for Friday appeared in his inbox within an hour with apologies from Kareem down in PR about the delay. And Jack also noticed the meeting minutes were resent out, corrected and with a very business-like apology attached for the errors, before lunch. The meeting with the Prime Minister of India went without a hitch and Jack called down to Gabriel’s office to talk to McCree about it. He saw plenty of emails indicating Gabriel was still working away out there, and he had a couple of phone calls patched in to him. At 4:30 Gabriel called him briefly to let him know that Acting Blackwatch Commander McCree was here to see him. McCree wanted to discuss the op in India which had mobilized that morning as soon as Jack had called him about it.
Jack hadn’t emerged from his office all day, buried in reports and budgetary matters, and also maybe his own guilt. But a few minutes after McCree left, Jack finally walked out. Arjun was gone, of course, but surprisingly so was Gabriel. Sarah’s terminal was locked, indicating he’d left for the day. Jack stood for several minutes contemplating his own surprise at this turn of events. Jack supposed he shouldn’t be, especially after the rather public dressing down Gabriel had received that morning.
“He left for the day,” Ana called from her office just then. “With McCree.”
“With McCree?” Jack echoed dully, standing now in her doorway.
Ana nodded. She wasn’t wearing her head scarf, her raven-black hair pulled back in a messy loose braid. “Yes. Jesse asked him if he wanted to go into town to get dinner and drinks. I think he must have seen how stressed Gabriel looked.”
Jack shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and absently ran his hand through his golden, fading hair. “Uhh. Hmm,” he replied intelligently. Ana stared at him for a few moments longer, and Jack all but crumbled under her judgment. “Look, I was really stressed this morning, and I shouldn’t have yelled, but I was frustrated and I had a headache and—” Jack started babbling suddenly.
“Jack,” Ana interrupted quietly. She might as well have shouted, for all the power behind the way she intoned his name and the way he was instantly silenced. “Have you not talked to him yet?”
Jack shifted his weight again. “About?”
“Why he’s doing this?” She inclined her head slightly to the side. “You haven’t, have you?”
“Well… I haven’t really had the chance.”
Ana gave him an incredulous look. “John Jack Morrison, your husband has literally been sitting outside your office for twelve hours a day for the past three days, except today it was eight because you lost your cool. But in all that time, you’ve had him at your beck and call and could have pulled him into your office at any time.”
Jack licked his lips nervously and looked down at his feet. “I’ve been swamped…”
Ana made a disgusted noise. She was exhuming clouds of disappointment and goddamn it, he hated Disappointed Mom Ana.
“He asked me to dinner and to come home both Monday and Tuesday,” Jack blurted. “And I… I said no both times. He wasn’t there when I got home late those nights.”
Ana let out a sigh. “And he didn’t ask you again tonight.”
“No.”
“Jack. I think we both know he won’t ask you again. So now it’s your turn to make things right.”
“You could just tell me why he’s doing this. I thought it was a joke, a prank. But other than a couple of things that were honest mistakes any new assistant would have made, he’s done a great job, and he’s stuck with it longer than I thought,” Jack said. “I don’t understand. Was it just to give Sarah a break?”
“I’m not going to just give you the answer,” Ana said. She rose to her feet. “You need to want to find out for yourself.” She was gathering her things now. “You might want to head home early tonight, and you know, think about things. And maybe he’ll come home tonight so you can talk.”
Probably not, Jack thought bitterly. But he just nodded at her and bid her a good evening.
****
He didn’t go home until after 8pm that night anyway, choosing to remain in his silent and lonely office and finish up a few things. But 8pm was better than 3am like the past few nights, he supposed. His quarters were unoccupied, not surprisingly, and he wondered if Jesse and Gabriel were getting drunk right now, and he also wondered, with a pang, if Jesse had taken Gabriel to that gay strip club in town. It wasn’t that he was jealous, because he wasn’t going to begrudge his husband having fun, or looking at other men, especially when their marriage was becoming distant.
No, it wasn’t jealousy. It was more like… longing. To have Gabriel look at him with want again, like he used to in their SEP days and during the Crisis. Like he had the day they’d gotten married in a quiet but pretty ceremony in Los Angeles right after the Crisis had ended.
Jack took a shower and threw himself on the couch, turning on the vid feed and putting on a sports game that he promptly ignored. He wore nothing but pajama pants, staring up at the ceiling absently and thinking about how fucking hot Gabriel had looked the past few days, and how he’d smirked at the dumb old ladies who never realized they’d been flirting with the same man they found terribly intimidating and frightening on a regular basis. Idly, he spun the plain golden band on his left ring finger, playing with it as he thought. He sighed at the thought of that smooth buttery voice used for phone calls, a voice Jack could now only ever recall having heard a couple of times, he realized. During long Blackwatch missions where Gabriel had been gone for weeks, there had been a few times when Gabriel had been able to sneak a phone call in to whisper sweet nothings and dirty talk to Jack.
Oh my fucking god, he’s been using his phone sex voice this whole week, and I haven’t even noticed, Jack thought with sudden horror. How could he not have realized? How could he have been so fucking clueless? How could he have been so careless?
Ana was right to call him an idiot. The way he’d dressed, the meals he’d brought without asking, the voice and tone he’d been using, the invites to dinner and the quiet requests to come home… Gabriel had been wooing him all week, and Jack had completely missed it.
Gabriel Reyes was not a man known for subtly, so in all honesty, this was a surprising turn of events. But considering how they’d been drifting apart, maybe Gabriel had decided that trying something new would bring a spark back, gain Jack’s attention.
Fuck. I don’t deserve him, Jack thought as a wave of self-loathing washed over him. I’ll make it better. As soon as he gets home. We’ll talk.
Gabriel didn’t come home that night. Jack fell asleep on the couch in just his pajama pants. Although he did, oddly enough, wake up in the morning to find the vid feed off, and a blanket draped over him.