"Nighttime in Space"
Disclaimer: I do not own Wash or Serenity. Beware of SPOILERS for the Serenity movie. Not anything major, but certainly implied.
Summary: Wash reflects on his place in space and his place on Serenity. Implied spoilers for the movie.
Notes: I was watching the movie, for the third time, with my friend last night when I realized something. If I had to chose a way for Wash to go out, it would have been exactly how Joss did it. This story explains why I feel that way and why I think Wash would feel that way.
He sat in in the pilots chair, watching Serenity slowly inch forward into the darkness of space. Nighttime in space was so much different then it was back where he used to live. Growing up, he could remember thinking how dark the night sky was on his planet, how terrifying. He could remember running to his mom's bed and complaining of space monsters who were going to come out of the night sky and chew on his fingers like that beef jerky stuff he'd once had on earth-that-was. But that was forever ago, and now he was here.
He could remember his first time flying in space, real space. His first words had been something along the lines of "Ai ya, hwai leh! is it dark up here!" And the words "I want my Mommy!" had echoed though his brain. But then, when nighttime finally hit, he saw them. The stars, more brilliant and shiny then anything he'd ever seen, appeared in front of the ship.
And that's when he fell in love with the sky.
He loved his wife. He loved her more then the stars loved the sky. But flying this ship, getting his fellow crewmates from one place to another safely, that would always be his first love.
So there he sat, surrounded by the most special things. There were the plastic dinosaurs situated purposefully on top of the control panel. There were the photos of Zoey, Kaylee, Mal, and the rest of the family tacked to the control board around him. And right in front of him, just beyond the window, was night time in space.
Wash leaned back in his pilots chair and put his hands behind his head.
Yep, this was the way to go.