Hope for the Hopeless

Despite her attempts to stay awake she'd started to drift off, half listening to the stories, some man being interviewed about how he'd done nothing wrong, followed by the news anchor speaking a bit more on the piece. The female news anchor in turn started to speak as the next story started.

"In further news from today's breaking story, rescue and recovery missions continue at the site of Overwatch headquarters..."

Her eye shot open and she sat up in bed to watch, ignoring the pulse of pain the sudden motion send through her skull.

"Explosions rocked the Switzerland location earlier today, the cause of these devastating developments still unknown."

She watched the footage with a disbelieving, increasingly pale expression on her face. How had this happened? She knew there were those that disapproved of them and their methods in recent years...but...who would resort to this? It wasn't just minor explosions either...everything...everything was gone.

This...this couldn't be real. She changed to another news channel. And a third. All three were covering the story that had drawn shocked attention from around the world, the utter destruction of the headquarters of internationally known heroes. How many of them were dead now? She felt weak...sick...the remote slack in her hand as she stayed on the third channel. How had this happened> She should have been there...

The news tonight seemed to be just another corrupt bank getting sacked for being corrupt, the same shit on a different day really, and he was about to grab the remote to flip the channel off when another story was brought up that gave him pause.

Overwatch had been an inspiration to him since he'd first ended up here in the hospital, brave heroes fighting for what was right, nothing could take them down and they never seemed to give up. It had been why he admired them so much, they were fighting so hard, he could fight too. His eyes were glued to the TV as he listened to the story, a sick feeling rising in his gut a it went on.

He put a hand to his mouth and felt his eyes welling up as the horror sunk in, how many had died? How many were injured? He glanced in the direction of Ana's room, was she watching the news right now too? It had come out through his own piecing together a little while ago that she'd been a part of the group, thought she'd insisted he keep it to himself, he chewed his lip with a worried expression, only taking a moment to decide to go and check on her.

It was a bit of an effort to pull himself into his wheelchair, but eventually he'd managed to do so as he wheeled himself to her room. The effort was taxing given his current state, but his need to check on his friend overwrote any pain or exhaustion. He was gentle as he pushed her door open, peering in before slipping through, "A-ana?" His voice was tiny and it was hard to hide his own emotions, clearly shaken as well. He rolled himself up to the side of her bed and looked up at her TV, looking horrified, "Oh Ana...I'm..." He cut himself off and didn't finish his words, what could he say anyway?

She didn't look up from the screen at first, vaguely aware someone else had come into the room but not able to look away to acknowledge whoever it was. This news anchor was a man, his voice a bit more of a drone to it as he spoke.

"...in our most recent update, among the confirmed dead is Jack Morrison, commanding leader of the now controversial Overwatch..."

The rest of his report was drowned out by the growing ringing in her ears, the throb in her head, rising sick feeling in her throat. The show went to commercial, a too-loud, too-bright, too-happy thing advertising chewing gum, a thing that felt like a ridiculously out of place mockery in light of the news trying to sink in. She jerked, raising the remote up almost angrily to mute it. Everything was gone...Jack...Jack was gone...who knew who else...was gone...and these people sang and danced about chewing gum.

It was only then, as though in a daze that she turned to look at Sunny, swallowing hard. She tried to smile, but it didn't quite happen, just looking sick and haunted. She didn't say anything, just forcing herself to continue breathing, after a moment she reached out a hand towards him.

Sunny glanced between the TV, to Ana's face, unable to even imagine the thoughts that might be racing through her head right now, she'd been close to all of them, thought they never spoke of Overwatch and her involvement in it often, he knew she had to be close to them, this news had to have shaken her to the core, and the longer the report went on, the worse it got.

He could practically feel that heavy, thick horror hanging in the air when the reporter confirmed that Jack Morrison had been killed, a stone sinking in his gut, he could only imagine what she was feeling. He turned his gaze back to her face when she finally turned to face him, swallowing hard before taking her hand in his, bringing it to his cheek and hanging onto it tightly. He didn't know what good it would do, but he wanted her to know that he was here, and he'd stay here all night if he had to. He wasn't going to leave her alone, and if he was being honest, he didn;t want to be alone either.

She didn't cry. She hadn't cried since she was a child. But a part of her wanted to. She leaned back in bed, glad for the support behind her as she grasped his hand back just as tightly.

The silence stretched on between them, heavy, thick to where it almost felt like something she could touch. But she didn't know what to think of this. She'd seen horrific things in her life, more than she cared to think about. She'd more or less resigned herself to not going back...and yet to have that option taken away by someone else made it all the worse. And...that almost meant...Jack had lived through that last mission. He'd gone home. Had...had she just been left? No, of course not...they wouldn't have done that to her. And...could she be angry when she had not reached out in return either? The feelings all roared up in her at once and she barely knew which to follow first, she just held onto his hand like a lifeline in the storm of her own thoughts.

"I...don't know what to say." She finally spoke, quietly but voice weirdly calm and steady.

Sunny usually never minded the silence, when they ran out of things to say so they just kind of sat and enjoyed the fact that they had the company of another person nearby. But this silence was different, this silence was heavy and oppressive, it felt like a tangible thing and after a moment he laid his cheek against her hand on the bed, feeling as if all his energy had just been zapped at once. He didn't have the same resolve as her, and it wasn't long before he was crying silently.

When she finally spoke, it took him a moment to actually reply, what could he say? He couldn't just smile this problem away like he could everything else, "There's nothing to say..." He didn't look up at her when he replied, and his voice was frightfully small and weak, but eventually he pulled away and looked up at her, "I'm so sorry Ana..." But what good did his useless sorries do? What good did his useless anything do? He was just some sick kid in the hospital whose body was slowly eating him alive, he couldn't do anything to make this okay besides be there, so she didn't have to feel alone.