I had this chapter ready for a while but I am Not Confident At All about it, so I hesitated to post it. I'm just a bit worried about the characterization, so please do tell me if anything seems wrong :s

With a tired sigh, Gabriel took a sip from his cup, grimacing at the bitter cold coffee before setting it on the desk. At least the thing made its work just fine. Now, if he could just finish his own work and go to sleep at a decent hour, that would be wonderful.

Being away on a two weeks long mission and with no one taking his place, the paperwork and reports waiting for him in his office had been piling up. A dreadful sight for a wounded man who just came back from a gruesome battle.

You'd think the secret branch of an international military organization wouldn't have so much paperwork and files, and Gabriel was still wondering just why the hell they had to go through so much bureaucracy just to get their hands full of the shit no one wanted to deal with. In times like these, being the boss really sucked.

Internally whining, however, wouldn't get his job done, so he gave up and picked the first file from the pile. And so Gabriel went on for hours, signing forms, reading reports and putting everything where it needed to go to be filed later, until he almost dozed off on the next report. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he decided to call it a day and get at least a few hours of sleep at the unholy hour of 23:35. And that was one of the good things that came with the job of commander: he could do pretty much whatever he wanted, including deciding his own schedule, without having someone yelling at him for slacking off, or, as he prefered to call it, rest like any other person in their right mind would do.

Standing up, he stretched his back and arms, sore from staying still in the same position on a rather uncomfortable office chair, until he heard a satisfying pop. He could swear the office work could easily wear him out faster than any mission, and that was saying something- and no, he wasn't getting too old for his job, dammit, he could still effortlessly supplex a man twice his size, no old man could pull a stunt like that without breaking half of his bones in the process... unless said old man was Reinhardt, who actually seemed to grow bigger and stronger as he aged.

Calmly pacing the halls that lead to his bunk, he took in his surroundings; with the frenetic routine of the organization and the constant fights, there was hardly the time to stop and just... think. Reflect on lots of things. The present, the past, the future, morality, deep stuff like that. Gabriel wasn't one to spend time musing over some philosophical shit, but he did like to simply take the time to appreciate what he had. It wasn't the prettiest job on the face of the Earth, or the cleanest one, but it was helping people, even if they didn't know it, and even if most of them wouldn't approve of it. Someone had to do it, and he just happened to be the best suited man for the job. He wouldn't mind getting a statue like Mr. Pretty Boy, though.

What really mattered to him, though, were his men in Blackwatch. Not the ones who came from the academy, eager to throw away their lives for the sake of making the world a better place and didn't care about the glory and bla bla bla- of course he did care for them, they were his responsibility after all, but they could easily get out of there and back into Overwatch if they ever wanted to, they didn't have any real problem holding them back.

The ones he cared about the most for were the troubled ones, who already went to hell and came back leaving part of themselves, if not everything, behind. The ones who looked like they were already walking corpses, who got into big trouble and were running away from a dark past. The ones who were considered absolute trash and completely worthless by the society. The ones who would never get a second chance, a chance to redeem and retrieve the life they threw away while they waited for hell to claim them.

Some of them turned out to be just as bad as people said they were. Those weren't worth his time, prisons existed for a reason. There were a few, however, who got dragged kicking and screaming -and even bleeding sometimes, like a certain cowboy he knew- into Blackwatch, begrudgingly agreeing to join following their survival instincts, not expecting to find redemption, a better cause to fight for... and sometimes even a family.

Those were the ones who made all this job worth it.

His train of thought was abruptly stopped by a soft sound coming from one of the nearest rooms. Staying still and alert, he waited, even if he wasn't sure what he was waiting for exactly. When he almost attributed it to his mind playing a trick on him, there it was again. He heard that sound too many times before to not recognize it. A sob. It was barely audible, but it was there.

It didn't take long before he pinpointed the exact room from where it came from, and when he did, Gabe couldn't suppress a curse. It was Genji.

Opening the door as quietly as he could -and that was another advantage coming with his position, having the permission to access every room in the base-, Gabe slipped in, closing the door behind him without a sound. Genji didn't even realize he was there, curled up on his bed and still trapped inside his own nightmare. With a tired sigh, Gabe approached him, taking in the tears staining his cheeks, the hair soaked in sweat, sticking to his forehead and the distress on his face, fully visible now that he took off his faceplate; he was muttering something, and even if Gabe didn't know more than a few words in japanese, the pleading and terrified tone along with what little he could understand was more than enough to know what was going on.

It wasn't a nightmare. It was a memory.

"Wake up, kid." Genji didn't hear him, still caught in his own hell, and Gabe got as closer as he could while still keeping enough distance between them to back off if he lashed out, silently thanking the SEP augments that sure came in handy in moments like these. "C'mon kid, you have to wake up!"

And sure enough, after a few more attempts at getting Genji to wake up without raising too much his voice, he finally snapped out of the hellish memory, eyes frantically darting around the room without focusing on anything but looking for the threat as his hands looked for a sword that wasn't there.

"Hey hey hey, it's ok, it's ok," raising his hands to not appear as a threat, Gabe kept talking with the most calm and soothing voice he could manage. "It's ok, that's in the past, you're safe here." His words soon brought Genji back to the present, his wide eyes finally focusing on the man in his room.

"C-commander...?" Gabe sighed in relief, unfazed by the bright red eyes shining in the darkness. Maybe months ago it would've frightened him, but he got used to it. It wasn't like the kid could do anything about it.

"It's me, don't worry, it's ok. Whatever you saw, it wasn't real, it's in the past." His words seemed to have some effect on Genji, who took deep breaths, trying to calm down. "That's good, take it easy." After a while, Genji was still clearly shaken, but at least wasn't panicking anymore. He ran a hand through his hair, still damp from his sweat, trying to think about something else than the memories haunting him.

"Thank you, commander. I apologize for the inconvenience." He quickly bowed, talking as if he didn't just have to revive the worst event in his life, trying to repair the cracks in the walls he spent so long building around himself, and Gabriel barely suppressed a sigh.

Dealing with this kid and his sheer stubbornness was exhausting him.

It was very frustrating.

With an annoyed groan, Gabriel firmly put his hands on Genji's shoulders, and despite his apparent aversion to the touch, the kid barely flinched, his eyes studying the commander's face, the frown still on his face.

"Listen, kid, I know you went through something terrible, and I can't pretend to understand how you're feeling, but if you keep up this act, you'll never heal." His voice was much lower and softer when he spoke again. "Let me help you."

Genji was silent, his face still and unreadable as it always was, letting the words sink in. Then, he lowered his gaze, the movement accompanied by an almost imperceptible whir, a constant reminder of what he was now. When he looked at Gabriel again, there was something different in his eyes, and for a brief moment, he smiled. There wasn't any happiness in that smile, but it wasn't a fake one either. It was a start.

"I'll... I'll think about it..."

Satisfied with the small accomplishment, Gabriel playfully ruffled his already messy hair, ignoring the weak protest.

"Think you can go back to sleep now?" Genji hesitated for a moment, but then nodded, going back to his bed as Gabriel made his way to the door. It didn't take long before he once again fell asleep, still tired from the long day and the unpleasant night.

Before completely closing the door, Gabriel heard a soft murmur in a foreign language, and after a moment of thinking, he remembered their meaning, and he quietly chuckled.

"I'm not your father, kid... but you're welcome."