An unplanned reunion(Ana)

Writing a letter to Fareeha had been a difficult process. Writing one to Reinhardt had proved impossible. She had wanted the news of her reappearance to come to him from her, before it could somehow reach him through someone else, yet words on paper just could not get across everything she wanted to say, was trying to say, and the pile of crumpled and rejected letters grew. Finally she had just written down a date, a time, a place and sent it out quickly before she could rethink it further. Some things were better done in person.

On the evening in question she found herself outside, across the street and watching. She didn't know if he'd even gotten the letter, or would come...she had thought of going inside to wait, but if nothing happened it was easier to just slip away again. She was uncharacteristically anxious, unsure of what would happen before the end of the night.

She wondered if he would recognize the address. They were both new to the also newly formed Overwatch, she had been eager to get to her new duties, to prove herself as the worthwhile addition to the team they believe she could be. She had not come in looking for anything beyond doing her new job, but had not counted on him. A drink to get to better know one of her new teammates had turned into two and then three as the conversation went on late into the night, trading stories, sharing their goals and hopes for their new shared organization and futures, laughing harder than the normally serious woman could remember doing so before.

That night had turned into countless others, grew into love, a life together, a child together.

Then everything fell apart. At the time disappearing had made sense, people must have assumed she was dead, it had seemed the better option to allow people to continue to think that. Better than going back to everything that had been ruined, much of which she'd actively held herself responsible for. Going back to face the hurt and disappointment and the knowledge that she had made some terrible, terrible mistakes. Her head hadn't been in a good place at the time, and what she did had made sense back then. She wasn't as convinced of any of that anymore...but returning from the dead was not an easy thing either.

There was no mistaking him when he arrived, and her breath caught in her throat. He was older...but still as tall and handsome as she remembered him to be. She waited a few more minutes, closing her eye and taking a couple deep breaths to settle herself. This was it. She crossed to the place and stepped inside, once there it only took her a few moments to find him. She approached his table but didn't sit, instead hands resting on the back of the chair across from him.

"Hello Reinhardt." She said quietly, sudden catch of emotion in her voice to see him again so close to her after all this time.

Reinhardt didn't know how to react to the voice. It was familiar and at the same time foreign. It'd been years since he heard it. "No..." He muttered, slowly looking up. It was her, but it couldn't be. "You must really have it out for me whoever you are. Impersonating my dead wife right down to the voice. Who sent you huh?" He slammed a fist on the table and stood up, staring at the floor. "You can't be her...She's dead...I was at the funeral I spoke..." He looked at her. "You aren't her. There's no way you can be her!"

The words made her wince a little, but what more could she have expected? She couldn't say she would have reacted much differently had the situation been reversed. A few of the others in the place looked over at the big man's outburst, and she raised a hand in a quieting gesture, keeping the table between them until she could hopefully convince him this wasn't a sick joke set up to torment him.

"No one sent me. I know...believe me, I know how bizarre and unexpected this is. But I promise you I am who I seem, I did not come here to toy with you or hurt you."

Although is was a bit late for the last one, she'd already hurt him with this whole situation. She watched him carefully, not sure what he would do next.

He slammed his fist into the table, leaving a fist shaped dent in it. "You can't be her...you can't be..." He said, tears starting to stream down his face and onto the table. "Why...why do this...why now..." He looked up at her. "Does Fareeha know?" He asked her, his voice weak. He couldn't comprehend it right now but hopefully talking about their daughter might help. His knuckles were whitening from how tight his fists were clenched now.

It tore at her to watch the depth of his reaction, to see him cry. It hit her all over again what she had done to him and she had to swallow hard and drew herself up a little straighter. She wouldn't cry however. She never cried...right now though it was a struggle. She stepped around the table, closer to him.

"I wrote to her." She answered softly. "I...do not know if she received it. I have not spoken with her. I tried to write to you but everything...none of it sounded right." She started to try to explain.

When Ana started to cry, Reinhardt reached out and cupped her cheek. "My Ana...please...do not cry..." He said, wiping the tears away with his large fingers. "We should go some place private...Catch up and let it all out. On our own terms and time..." He said, standing up. "These people just want to eat in peace, they don't need us to make things weird." He said, taking her hand and leading her away from the cafe.

She glanced around, a good number of people were looking, or making obvious efforts not to look, at the reunion that was taking place. This had perhaps not been the best place to do this, someplace a little more out of the way where they could talk freely and allow themselves whatever emotions or reactions came was probably for the best.

At least he did not seem to still be convinced she was some sort of lie or trickery and was willing to listen to her, to hear out her story. That was what she had hoped for, at very least.

As he took her hand she let her smaller one slip into his, the feeling comforting and familiar. She gave his hand a firm squeeze, looking up to study his face as they walked. She didn't particularly care where they went, even if they just walked the streets of the city as they talked. She didn't speak at first, letting him unravel this a bit in his own head first and ask what he wanted when he was ready. For that moment, it was nice to be near him again.

He led her away and too a familiar shell of a home. "You remember this place, don't you Ana...This was where Fareeha was born." He said, smiling faintly at his wife. "During our whole time in Overwatch, this was the closest thing that we had to a proper home, and after you...left...I...I kept this place safe...Many gangs attempted to move into this place and I repelled them all. I used at is a refuge until they finished Numbani and the Omnics could move onto a place to call their own. Now though...maybe we could have a home again Ana...Forget all that we've been through and settle down for a bit." He said, holding her hands and kissing her lightly.

She remembered the house very well, like so many other things it felt surreal to stand here and look at it, the same and yet different, no longer warm and lived in as it had once been.

"A lot of things have changed, it's been so long," She looked up to him. "Do you really think things can just...pick up where they left off?" Once past his initial shock, he didn't even seem concerned with where she had been, instead already ready to forgive and look to the future, whatever it held. It was quite endearingly like him, to be honest. "I was worried after all of this time...that you would be more upset. Or had moved on in your life." She admittedly quietly.

"I know things have changed...and I know things can never be the same again. But...But I still never forgot you Ana. It wasn't just you either. Gabriel and Jack...they're gone too..." He said, remembering all the friends he had to bury. "If you're back though...there might be a chance..." He muttered and chuckled. "Who am I kidding..." He turned to look at Ana again, moving a lock of her from her face with his large but gentle hands. "I couldn't move on...I had to keep some symbol of Overwatch alive. People were losing all faith in us and I did my best to keep what the team stood for alive, and there's even been a resurgance!" Reinhardt laughed, thinking of the new team of heroes that was coming together. There was something he realized Ana should know though, despite the joy of Overwatch still being alive. He sighed and turned away from her. "Fareeha joined Overwatch..."

Her gaze darkened a little at the mention of their old friends. "I know. It was on the news...I saw what happened..." Those had been dark days, she had been devastated at the news, and harshly blamed herself for not having been there. Not that there had been much she would have been able to do in the midst of such destruction, but it had still taken her a very long time to not feel so incredibly responsible and guilty over what had happened in Switzerland.

"But you are right...it took me long enough, but I realized there was still so much that could be done. Even after everything that happened, what everyone might think of us...it is no excuse to stop fighting. I had to come back. I am just sorry for how much I must have hurt you both in the process." Because she knew she had, he was incredibly forgiving to not be angry with her over all of this, she wasn't sure she could say she'd feel the same were their situations reversed.

At the news of their daughter she frowned and sighed deeply. That had been something the two had argued increasingly bitterly over, she had been dead set against it, while Fareeha had been equally insistent it was all she wanted to do. "Well...I suppose I should not be too surprised by that, she usually got what she set her mind to..." There was a bit of disappointment in her tone, but at the same time a hint of pride too. She'd always known her daughter would be successful at whatever she wanted to do with herself...she'd just hoped she'd eventually settle on something that wouldn't put her through quite so much in her life.

Reinhardt nodded as he listened to Ana and sat down in a dust covered chair. "She always was such a head strong girl..." He chuckled and reminisced about their daughter's childhood. "I still dread what would have happened if she found out that her biggest hero on the team was her father. We did a good job keeping that from her...I suppose having the whole team help raise her did us some good..." He let out a sigh though, and then looked at his wife. "Did we do the right thing though? Raising our daughter the way she did. All her heroes...the people who raised her, most of them are gone now...and her own father gave her away. Now she's doing the same work that tore her life apart...what's worse though, there's this vigilante out there. He's breaking into Overwatch facilities and stealing tech...what if he comes here..." He looked at his wife. "What do you say we get back into the field? Someone needs to protect the people, and we made a good team in our day. I don't know about you, but I still got a lot of fight in me Ana...What do you say?" He walked over and grabbed her hands, smiling at her.

She took in a breath and let it out slowly, thinking back about their daughter. It had been a difficult, heart-wrenching decision they had agonized over in the months before she was born. There had been a lot of difficult decisions she had had to make...at that point in her life she had honestly not given much thought to having a child, and there had been so many things to consider. She had remembered her own close family growing up and wanted that for her daughter, but they were hardly a normal couple who could just settle down someplace quiet and have a normal life where they went to work every day and came home in the evenings and went to the park on weekends.

In the end...they had decided there was too much risk there. They were well known and influential people, people with enemies among the most ruthless elements in the world, the sorts that were not above doing terrible things to get what they wanted. She would already be the daughter of the second in command of Overwatch, to be the child of two of the Strike Team members...she didn't want Fareeha to be a target, a pawn, something someone might use to leverage against them. She didn't want her to be hurt or worse because of who her parents were. In the end it was something they had kept between themselves, and only a few of those closest to them. Others of course knew Ana was her mother, but that was all.

Fareeha had of course had questions as she's gotten older, who was her father, where was he, she wanted to know about him. She'd always managed to deflect those questions, but she was never sure she did it well, and it never came without guilt. Was it right to keep it from her, to have her grow up without that? Was it right to have kept him from getting to openly take the part of the father to his only child? But so much of her upbringing had been far from traditional or even really normal. She should not have been so upset when she'd wanted this life...when it was the only life she'd ever known or been shown.

"We did what we thought was best. We did the best we knew how." She answered softly.

Her attention grew more focused as the conversation turned to the breakins and vigilante activity. "We did make a good team." She smiled fondly at the memory. "I came back because I couldn't just sit by anymore, because you're right...there's still more we can do." She looked thoughtful. "Do you know anything about this person, why they're doing this?" She asked.