Chapter Text

“What d'ya mean I gotta teach the rookie how to shoot?!" Jesse McCree gnawed on the end of his cigar as he furrowed his brow at his commander. "I don't have the time for this stuff, Gabe." He emphasized his point with a judicious flick of the ash of his cigar.

Gabriel chuckled at the cowboy. "You know, for a guy always goin' on about time with all that high noon talk, you don’t have enough for such a simple job." He finished with a stern look. McCree was dependable and could always get the job done, it's what made them an effective team. He needed McCree to do this.

“Look, Gabe, we both know that I have better things to do than show some amateur how to shoot." McCree was having none of it. He was tired and worn out and the last thing he wanted was to spend time with some amateur wannabe sharpshooter. "Besides, even if I didn't, I could use some R&R after our last op. Find someone else." He began to leave.

Annoyed, Gabriel stopped him with his hand on his shoulder. "Oh come on, you're making it worse than it sounds. It'll take like what, half an hour so, and then you can go do whatever the hell you want afterwards and you won't have to hear from me 'til tomorrow, or better yet."

It was a good point about the R&R as they'd been running themselves ragged for the last few months. Still, he needed this from McCree. No one else was as good with a pistol and this recruit had a lot of potential. He hoped the promise of time off would be enough to get the cowboy to do him a favor.

McCree could be bull-headed. Gabe had noted it the day he'd recruited him into the Deadlock Gang a few years back. On ops, he appreciated that. But right now he was being ridiculous.

"Well, uh," McCree met Gabriel's stern gaze, "I could do that but I have other things to do"-

Hearing an almost yes, Gabriel cut him off. "What, you embarrassed your aim is gonna look shabby in front of the rookie?" Hitting McCree in his pride would close this deal. "I thought you were pretty good with that revolver of yours. Shame."

Jesse then realized that Reyes had got him right where he wanted him, Although Jesse had pretty thick skin, one thing that really struck a nerve with him was people telling him that his aim with his prized weapon “The Peacekeeper”, was not good and at best semi-decent. After all, he was Jesse McCree, badass Blackwatch agent, so he knew damn well that he had good aim and the last thing he needed was people telling him that it wasn’t impressive.

While he was trying to think of a witty comeback towards Reyes, Jesse couldn’t think of anything knowing that Gabe could do a lot worse than insult his aim. He figured that he might as well do Reyes a favor and train the rookie, as this was just wasting both of their time.

It can’t be that bad, just show the rookie a thing or two on how to shoot a gun, how to work it and all stuff. Maybe if I’m lucky, they’ll know how to shoot already, easier for the both of us.

“Alright, I’ll do it, but you owe me next time Reyes.”

“Knew you’d say yes eventually, kid,” replied Gabe as a slight grin appeared on his face for once, not exactly being the happiest person in Overwatch. “You’re doing me a big favor, especially now that I that I have a lot Blackwatch stuff I need to deal with. Morrison’s also been getting annoyed at me lately, which is kind of why you’re doing this.”

“Hold on, why is Morrison annoyed with you?” Jesse questioned, as Reyes only shrugged in response.

“I’ll tell you later when we both don’t have shit to do,” replied Reyes as he was almost out the door to attend to his own affairs.

“Wait! Can you least tell me who I’m exactly taking to target practice right now?!” shouted McCree to his CO, making him pause in his tracks.

“Oh you’ll find out in a little bit, Morrison already sent the rookie to go find you. Don’t break a leg,” said Reyes as he left the room, closing the door behind him. McCree then leaned against the wall waiting for the new recruit to show up so he could get this training session done. After 15 seconds of waiting, the door facing Jesse had opened, revealing a young woman that appeared in her early 20’s with short, spiky, brown hair, hazel brown eyes and two metallic earrings in her left ear. She was wearing a black, orange and gray jumpsuit commonly worn by Overwatch operatives during training, with a big smile on her face. The most intriguing part about this woman to Jesse was the device that she was wearing on her chest and upper back, emitting a bright blue light in the front and the back. The woman then approached Jesse and spoke.

“Hiya!” the woman exclaimed with extreme enthusiasm with a thick cockney accent, meaning that she was from the U.K.

“Howdy,” Jesse greeted the woman as it appeared that she was excited to be going to the shooting range.”

“Woah nice hat luv, I didn’t know that Overwatch had a cowboy, that’s so cool!” said the woman, referencing his cowboy hat and western drawl. McCree chuckled at this, knowing that out of all the unique and random agents that Overwatch, he was the unofficial “cowboy” of the group, which humored him.

“Heheheh, yeah I get that a lot. So are you ready to hit the range and show me what you got?” asked Jesse as he picked up his revolver from the table next to him and holstered it.

“Aye-Aye! I’m so ready to show you what I can do sir, trust me, I have some skills up my sleeve.” said the woman as she followed Jesse out the door.

“Woah now, you don’t have to get all formal with me missy, that talk can fly with the higher-ups like Morrison and Reyes, but you can just call me Jesse, Jesse McCree.” said Jesse as he and the woman walked towards the door leading into the armory and practice range. “Oh and I never got your name. Reyes didn’t exactly tell me who you are.”

“Oh, well my callsign is Tracer, but when we’re not on missions you could call me Lena, Lena Oxton.”

“Pleasure to meet you Lena.” said Jesse. Surprisingly Jesse actually like this new recruit, she was much more lively and energetic compared to some of the other recruits being serious and somewhat stiff when he tried talking to them. He began to wonder how someone with a cheery demeanor such as Lena had done to become a member of Overwatch, but he’d rather let her prove herself before he gave any judgment.

The pair had then walked into the armory room, with Lena staring in awe with the amount of firepower Overwatch had. There were weapons of different sizes and features such as a wide variety of ballistic pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns and sniper rifles, with a few energy weapons on the rack as well, consisting of pulse pistols and rifles.

“Like what you see here?” asked Jesse, noticing Lena’s look of amazement at the expansive arsenal in front of her.

“Wow, I’ve never seen an armory like this ever since I was in the RAF, this totally blows that one out of the water.” exclaimed Lena as she snapped out her excited state to reply to McCree.

“Great, nice knowing that you have some military background. Makes my job teaching you a bit easier.”

“Yep, was a pilot back in my days in the RAF, and a bloody good one before Overwatch recruited me to test some prototype plane called the Slipstream, it was supposed to have time-bending capabilities to get from point A to point B within a matter of seconds. However something...bad happened to the plane and me as well” Lena explained as her smile changed to a frown after mentioning the incident.

“I guess that’s a sore subject for you.” said Jesse, noticing the Brit’s quick change of expression. “You don’t have to talk about if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’ll be alright.” Lena gave a sigh as she was about to continue her story. “The teleportation matrix on the plane malfunctioned mid flight, causing me and the plane to disappear. Everyone thought I was MIA or dead for a few months till I reappeared, but I was I kept flashing in and out of existence until Winston made me this,” She pointed to the blue device on her chest. “It’s called a chronal accelerator. It keeps me here in the present and prevents me from disappearing. On the plus side, I guess you could say I got some cool powers from it.” Lena then perked up as she mentioned her abilities.

“Wait so that gorilla that joined a while back actually saved you? I’m surprised that he managed to pull something off like that,” said Jesse with surprise.

“I’m very grateful for him saving my arse from becoming a living ghost. After that all happened, me and him have become good friends!” exclaimed Lena with a giggle

“I’m glad that you got out of that mess and it’s good that you see the bright side of things when shit goes dark. I wish more fella’s that I know would be like that. Could you tell me more about your powers?” said McCree.

“Oh right, my powers. Well with the chronal accelerator, I can teleport in any direction that I choose, like this,” explained Lena as she blinked forward and backwards, accidentally knocking McCree down on his rear end.

“Whoops, sorry there luv, I still have to get used to it.” Lena apologized to McCree as she helped get back on his feet. As Lena was helping him get up, she noticed his features up close. She stood there admiring his well-built physique, his short goatee and his handsome face caused Lena to blush as McCree stood up again.

“Ehh it’s alright, happens to us all", said McCree "So do have a name for this ability?"

“Well I just call it blink, fitting isn’t it? I can also go back in time from a few seconds ago, so if I get hurt or something, I can just go back to my physical state from before I got hurt, and feel good as new! I just call it recall.” said Lena as she walked back a few feet and disappeared with a blue flash, reappearing in front of Jesse with seconds.

“Damn! Those are some mighty fine skills you got there Lena. With enough training, you’ll probably become the best damn agent Overwatch has seen!”

“Thanks luv, but I still need to master this power though. I’m sure that I’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

Jesse then realized why he was with Lena in the armory in the first place. “Aw shoot, I totally forgot that I had to take you to the practice range. Well today’s your lucky day cause Jesse McCree, is going to show you how to shoot.” boasted Jesse as he walked towards the armory wall.

“Yeah!” cheered Lena as she jumped into the air raising her fist in excitement. “Does that mean I get to choose what I want to use?”

“Woah, let’s slow down a bit first we’re going to start off small before I let you pick what you want,” said Jesse as he grabbed a semi-auto pistol off the wall.

“Aww, rubbish. I really wanted to try out some of the cool stuff in here,” said Lena as she folded her arms in annoyance. McCree chuckled at Lena’s expression, seeing that she was the type of woman to look cute when they were annoyed, with Lena played to a tee.

“Don’t worry, some of the agents get to choose their own weapons after spending some time in the range, and since you’re a specialized agent, I’m sure the top brass will let you chose what you want later,” Jesse reassured as he nudged Lena to try and get her to lose her pout.

“Fine, I guess I could always pick my own weapons later on I guess.” said Lena as she grabbed the pistol from Jesse’s hand, in which they both left the armory.

Jesse and Lena soon arrived the Overwatch shooting range, filled with soldiers testing out a variety of weapons with such precision. The pair had put on some hearing protectors and some safety goggles before entering.

“Now before we begin, you need to log yourself in first before you can shoot some targets,” said Jesse.

“Roger,” replied Lena as she walked towards the login tablet at the desk and began to enter her name and the gun she was using. As she was writing, McCree couldn’t help but notice one thing that he overlooked about Lena, her rear end was sticking out as she bent down to log herself in. It didn’t help that the skintight jumpsuit that she was wearing only enhanced her features. McCree then got a hold of himself after small drops of sweat ran down his forehead.

“Well now that’s settled, let’s get to it luv” said Lena as she walked over to Jesse, nudging his side to get his attention.

McCree wiped his forehead in relief that Lena didn’t notice him staring at her bum. The pair then went to an open range and got a target out over the range.

“Okay, time for target practice. The first step is to load the gun, which I’m sure you know how to do.” joked Jesse as Lena began to load a fresh magazine in the pistol and chambered a round. Lena had some experience using firearms before she joined Overwatch, so she knew how to properly operate a pistol, but regardless she listened to what Jesse was telling her.

“Next step, don’t put your finger on the trigger until you’re aiming at the target you’re trying to shoot at. Wouldn’t want to accidentally shoot something that you weren’t intending on hitting. Just put your trigger finger away from the trigger but not too far away, so you’re actually ready to hit something.” said Jesse, with Lena nodding in approval following through with Jesse’s instructions.

“Ok, now just aim the gun down range and turn off the safety to semi-auto.Try to control your breathing as you shoot and have a tight hold on the grip, you’ll be more accurate that way.” said Jesse.

With that said and done, Lena began firing down range pacing herself as she shot all 15 rounds in her pistol at the target. Jesse was actually surprised with how Lena was doing, as he thought that she wasn’t a good shot based off of what she told him. As Lena’s gun ran dry, she placed it down on the counter and pressed a switch, causing her target sheet to move towards her. Jesse then inspected the target noting how many shots actually connected.

“Wow, 9 out of 15, you’re pretty good for a rookie Overwatch agent.” said Jesse as he put his arm on her shoulder to congratulate to her.

“Aww thanks luv!” said Lena with a giggle and a blush on her cheeks. “I knew my aim wasn’t total rubbish ever since the last time I shot a gun in RAF training.”

“Don’t mention it. How about we try some new targets,” said McCree as put up a new target sheet and moved it down range.

After 10 minutes of Tracer firing at several targets with some other weapons McCree had picked out for, as well the cowboy giving the spunky Brit some advice and complimenting her, Jesse called it a day as Lena unloaded her last weapon at the target.

“You got some fine aim there Lena. You’ll do great out in the field, and I look forward to fighting alongside you.” said McCree as he and Lena discarded their goggles and ear protectors in the room next to the range.

“Thanks, I’m glad that I got to brush up on my shooting. We should hang more often when we’re both off duty luv.” exclaimed Tracer as she blushed.

“Aww shucks, it’s been a pleasure. If you need me for anything just find anytime, if you want to do more target practice or if you just want to hang out, I’m more than willing to,” replied Jesse with a grin on his face.

“That sounds great luv! I’ll see you soon, so… BYE!!!” exclaimed Lena as she blinked off into the hallway to do her own thing.

Jesse watched as she left his side and gave a chuckle. He had a feeling that he and the time jumping British woman were going to be mighty fine partners later on. Jesse had gone from being reluctant to training a new recruit to actually enjoying the time he spent with Lena. She was unique compared to some of the other women he knew, with her energetic nature and cheerful personality being like none that he ever saw before.What he didn’t know that the two of them could be something more, but that would be something for time to tell later on.