Special Treatment

Part 1 of 2

by

Silver-Eyed Rukia

Rated: T

Pairing: Rocket Angel (hinted); Pharah x Mercy

Note: Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

When she wasn't busy patching up bruised and beaten soldiers or burying herself in her never-ending research, Mercy enjoyed using whatever free time remained to slip out of her Valkyrie suit and into more casual clothing to relax and catch up on the latest news with a cup of coffee and some music playing in the background. The latter was a means to drone out any unwanted silence, similar to the silence before a storm: it simply reminded her too much of the countless warzones she had already seen throughout her life, despite learning how to save lives, not how to end them. She rid herself of those dark thoughts with a shake of her head that sent her blonde locks flying before settling into her favourite examination chair and making the holo-screen flicker to life with the push of a button on her keyboard.

Music started playing immediately, a random playlist of songs she didn't even all know, continuing from where she had turned it off the night before. Some unknown singer's voice soothed her over-worked body into a more comfortable position on her chair before she started scrolling through various news websites, free hand reaching for her filled to the brim mug while her baby blues darted through several interesting sounding headlines. Reports about the latest medical achievements, reconstructions of previously abandoned clinics and hospitals after they had been destroyed during the Omnic Crisis: they were news Angela longed to see, that filled her with hope and strengthened her resolve to keep pushing towards her goal to make this world a better place for everyone. The close-mouthed smile that dared to split her face in two made it hard for her to drink her coffee, so after a quick sip she put the mug back down, slipped out of her chair and into her coat and brought up her latest findings she had spent weeks of research on, on her computer, eager to continue her work and contribute to the stream of health-related breakthroughs, any plans to simply sit back and relax all but tossed out the window.

A new song started playing and Angela paused momentarily, fingers ghosting over the keys as she looked at the title of the song.

"Can't stop me now by Queen", she mumbled softly to herself before an image of Lena popped up inside her head. The through and through British woman had made it her goal to find out everyone's favourite songs after Mercy had voiced out loud that she enjoyed getting to know more about everyone. While Aleksandra had just laughed and mentioned that she usually only listened to music that would suit her work-out the former pilot had beamed at her and had already started rambling about some of her favourite bands and songs, which eventually led to Angela's desk being covered in various CDs, portable memory devices and lists with song titles scribbled on them. The compact discs were utterly archaic but Mercy loved the charm they held, so oddly fitting for the time-travelling adventurer. The low chuckle that escaped her sounded loud in the silence that ruled the transition from one song to the next and the doctor leaned back and simply listened when the next song turned out to be a German one.

'How does she even find out about these things?', she wondered quietly before her thoughts turned into another direction. 'I wonder if she managed to find out something about Pharah?'

The Egyptian soldier was as talkative as Tracer was quiet, which meant next to not at all. When the team was already celebrating a victory she would retreat to her room to check her armor for possible damages, when they sat together for breakfast or dinner she would sit off to the sides with a tray full of food that looked more like a military ration than an actual meal. In some ways Pharah was much like her mother, but the distance the woman put between herself and her teammates was a trait so unlike Ana that it baffled the doctor to a point of frustration. They had served together in Overwatch and while Ana had already passed, Mercy felt a pang of responsibility for the offspring of her deceased friend. Maybe it had been that specific feeling that had initially sparked her curiosity and interest in the dark-skinned security guard but she had realized, much to her chagrin, that that initial curiosity had long since turned into a full-fledged urge to get to know the ex-soldier better in general, not just her combat tactics. Those she was very well acquainted with, seeing as how she was the only one able to keep up with the airborne combatant.

Mercy was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the very cause for her distraction knocking on the door and eventually entering, startling her all the way to heaven and back as her eyes fell upon the dark-skinned warrior now standing inside the infirmary. Her yelped exclamation of "Um Himmels Willen!" seemed to startle the taller of the two, if because it had been in a language she didn't understand or because it had been fairly loud Mercy really didn't know, but her usual stoic expression softened barely but visibly before her accented voice rose above the sound of the music still playing.

"Apologies Dr. Ziegler, I didn't mean to frighten you."

The blonde, who had gotten up from her chair and had already been halfway across the room to access the fridge containing the research samples, shook her head in reassurance before her own accented voice finally replied.

"No need to worry Fareeha, I should probably turn this down a bit for the next visitor though", she chuckled with a hand gesture towards her computer before her attention returned to the woman still awkwardly standing some distance away from her. Her blue eyes roamed over the soldier's body in a silent examination, more a habit than a necessity, before the fact that Pharah was only clad in tight fitting workout clothing manifested itself inside her head.

"And I thought I told you to call me Angela. There is no need for you to address me so formally, we are friends after all, no?"

Brown eyes finally shifted from a spot somewhere behind the medic's head to look straight at the Swiss.

"I shall remind myself for the future, doctor."

Mercy suppressed the urge to sigh before crossing the awkward distance to stand in front of the woman, willing her mind to stay focused on the reason why Pharah was here instead of marveling at her beautifully shaped body.

"What brings you to me this early in the morning, Fareeha?"

"Zaryanova forced me to seek you out after I wasn't able to dodge one of her hooks during hand to hand combat training. I apparently moved like a Russian mole rat as compared to my usual speed of a Siberian tiger", she replied with audible quotations marks surrounding the Russian animal references, an action that nearly made the blonde snort with humor. Aleksandra and Fareeha were maintaining a healthy rivalry due to their military backgrounds and the Egyptian was easily annoyed to be called anything but a soldier by the hulk of a woman, even if her stoic demeanor rarely ever let it slip.

Already switching from friend to doctor mode Mercy gestured towards the examination table before grabbing her chair and plopping down on it in front of her patient, crossing her legs for comfort. Unbeknownst to her the other woman was using her trained self-control to not stare at the pale, smooth legs sticking out of the suddenly relatively short looking skirt Mercy had decided to wear today. Pharah could feel her heart leap into her throat and was eternally grateful that she couldn't see a stethoscope anywhere, otherwise the doctor might think she was suddenly about to have a heart attack from being childishly nervous. This was just another medical examination done by her friend and supporter, one of the many she had already gone through.

'Then why are you sweating like you just finished a weight-lifting contest with the Russian?' Pharah clenched her teeth and chased away any unwanted thoughts. She didn't have the luxury to think of Dr. Ziegler as anything but a friend and a caretaker. Mercy was a medical genius and she? She was just a mere soldier.

"Fareeha?"

Torn out of her silent musings by the doctor's voice the Egyptian quickly brought her attention back to the bright blue orbs resting on her own brown ones, noticing the growing expression of worry on the woman's face.

"آسف doctor. Would you please repeat yourself?"

Frowning in worry but complying nevertheless the medic did as she had been asked.

"What are your symptoms?"

Pharah pondered for a second or two before gesturing from her neck up to the top of her head.

"Dizzyness. My head feels like it's about to collapse in on itself."

Nodding Mercy shifted in her seat before continuing. "Any pre-existing symptoms? Nausea, pains along the spine or the neck?"

"A blackout. I presumed it to be a side-effect from being shot out of the sky by one of Torbjörn's turrets yesterday but after awakening to this feeling…"

Pharah fell silent when she was faced with the intense gaze from the smaller but not any less intimidating scientist and suddenly wished she had ignored Zaryanova's urgings, if only to escape the scolding she knew would soon be raining down on her.

"And you don't deem a blackout worthy enough to mention to your doctor, especially not after being shot out of the sky before that? Now that you even mention it, where was I? We were matched together yesterday, I remember that."

"You were fulfilling your purpose, Dr. Ziegler. Two of our teammates had perished beneath the onslaught and you", she said, lifting a hand in a perfect mimicry, "brought them back into the fight." She purposefully left out the part where she had stopped and stared in mid-air, for maybe a second or two, at the beauty that had been Mercy in that moment: engulfed in ethereal light, wings brimming with energy as her radiance seeped into the lifeless forms of her comrades that then rose from the ground like flowers blooming after a wildfire. A second too long because when her instincts had kicked back in the turret had already locked on to her, successfully blowing her out of the sky.

Mercy's expression hardened as she stood from her chair, face briefly clouded by her mane of bright, blonde hair.

"My apologies, Fareeha. I failed to keep-", she started before a loud "don't" cut her sentence short. Startled and almost afraid of having offended the Egyptian, Angela wordlessly closed her mouth and pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Do not blame yourself. If anyone is at fault it is myself and my carelessness, not you. You were doing the right thing, like you always do."

'Like a raging fire', Mercy thought as she looked at Pharah for a moment before breaking eye-contact again, intimidated by the intensity of the stare. She knew the hatred wasn't directed at her, but simply seeing it hurt because it was a wound even she wasn't able to heal.

"You will have to undress from the waist up for the examination. You can keep your bra on."

Choosing to ignore her lack of emotional control Pharah wordlessly complied and easily slid off her frame-hugging tank top, leaving her torso exposed safe for a simple, dark sports-bra. Her dark skin was dotted with faded scars, some visibly older than others, and her muscles rippled with every movement she made, a detail that gave away how tense she really was. Now standing, Pharah was obviously taller than the blonde Swiss and Mercy took half a step back to quickly check her back for any obvious signs of trauma. When she didn't find any she placed her hands on the other woman's shoulder blades, eliciting a mixture between a twitch and a shrug.

"Oh sorry, I should've probably given you a heads up", Mercy said while mentally scolding herself. Pharah very often acted like a frightened deer and she really didn't want to scare the poor thing away. Plus her hands felt comfortably warm on the muscular back of the soldier and she was really enjoying that.

"I did not expect your hands to be so cool, doctor. No need for precautions, you can proceed."

Angela only hummed in response before her hands made her way over the woman's exposed back with trained ease. She felt several hardened patches of muscle that were common for hard-working people as she made her way up and closer to the Egyptian's neck, about to finish her fruitless search for any abnormalities until a specific spot she pressed down on caused Pharah to hiss in anguish and momentarily flinch away from the painful contact.

"I think I've found something", Mercy chuckled when she saw the woman's skin darken further in an unconcealable blush that was, thanks to her complexion, not as apparent as it probably would have been on Mercy's face. Probing the obvious knot one final time the doctor sighed and sanitized her hands before running one of them through her blonde locks.

"Well, I've found the issue", she started, the corner of her mouth curling upwards into a close-mouthed grin when the soldier slowly turned around to face her, already putting the top back on. "Your tenseness is causing your muscles to harden, especially in that one specific spot I just discovered. It's most likely pinching off a nerve which results in the dizziness, nausea and your blackout since it's fairly close to your neck."

When all she received was a deadpan stare, Mercy crossed her arms over her chest and blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"When was the last time you took some time off? Just doing nothing but spend your day relaxing or not working out?"

"I skipped morning training two weeks ago."

"Uh-huh. And then went on and did twice the normal amount for evening practice."

When, yet again, she was met with nothing but silence the medic sighed and wished she could just use her Caduceus staff but she knew that wouldn't teach Pharah the importance of taking care of her body with resting and breaks and not just non-stop workouts and training. So instead of using her advanced healing technology she opted on choosing a somewhat outdated but still as effective method.

"I expect to see you tomorrow, Fareeha. We'll try to relax your muscles and rid them of some of the tension with some simple physiotherapy, like massages and stretching exercises. Until then no more working out, understood? Doctor's orders!"

Pharah nodded and thanked the medic before extending her hand in an effort to show at least some form of gratitude. What she didn't expect was the healer to grab her hand, pull her close and squeeze her in a short-lived hug instead of just shaking the extended limb so when they separated the utterly dumbstruck look on the Egyptian's face was enough to make Mercy burst into a fit of merry laughter.

"This is exactly why you are in dire need of some stress relief, Fareeha. Loosen up, the more you tense up the more painful the treatment will be. It also won't persist if you don't start taking care of yourself properly."

Pharah, unable to think of anything appropriate to say, bowed slightly and thanked the doctor again, this time in her native tongue before looking at her with eyes that reflected honest gratitude.

"I shall work on that, Dr. Ziegler. I will see you tomorrow then."

Angela smiled and gave a short wave, trying to ignore the growing feeling of anticipation for the upcoming day that was swirling around inside her chest.

"See you tomorrow, Fareeha."

The door to the infirmary closed with a soft clicking noise and Pharah held her breath until she heard the doctor sit back down and turn the music back on before she released said breath, pressing a closed fist over her rapidly beating heart while she rested her back against the cold door.

'In dire need of stress relief. If only you knew, Angela.'

Translations

Um Himmels Willen - For goodness' sake! (German)

آسف (āsif) - Sorry (Egyptian Arabic)

So...my fiancée has officially turned me into Rocket Angel trash so here you go! Enjoy some cute fluffy Mercy x Pharah stuff because they are adorable and my two mains (along with Zarya, hehe). I love Overwatch and I can't WAIT for it to come out! Woooh the hype is real! I will definetly write more for these two so stay tuned :) May just take a bit to write :d

Phrase of the Day

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.

~Orison Swett Marden

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No flaming please.