Authrs Note: Basically just how 479er witnessing Wash in fife situations of hi live where she has to pick him up. And he one time she does no longer have to do so.
First
The first time 479er picked up Agent Washington he still went by the name David. He was nothing but another young and unexperienced soldier that wouldn't survive very long in this war and the battles the Freelancer fought. That was what she thought when she saw the blonde man, twenty maybe, sitting next to a destroyed a jeep. North and South Dakota, not since long member of Project Freelancer as well, had gotten the job to pick the new candidate up.
He didn't look very impressive, really. His yellow armor was covered in blood and dirt and other gross fluids that came from an aliens inside. He looked pretty pained, his right arm was in a make shifted splint. North crouched next to him, talking in a hushed voice while South was taking out her anger and spare energy by kicking at the corpse of an alien.
479er hadn't actually been supposed to pick them up in the middle of a canyon. But that was her fucking job, getting the people from the Project inside or outside of the field. So here she was, landing the Pelican in the small canyon as if it was the easiest thing in the world. North had been the one to send the emergency call after they got attacked by a number of Alien.
Agent Washington, or David Connor back then, had not been what she suspected from a man that was sent directly after the basic to the front to fight aliens in order to protect a colony somewhere no one thought of it as worth it. He looked young and unbroken and unafraid. Confident and determinate, yet somewhat naïve.
He was bloody and maltreated but still cracked a smile to greet her when she walked up on them.
He was also surprisingly vivid despite his condition. The way to the Mother Of Invention was filled with a lot of talking and screaming and yelling and fighting.
David was talking quite a lot and it was very unnerving. He seemed rather excited and 479er was not sure if the boy just hadn't been told what lay ahead of him or if he was plainly stupid.
(He didn't know what lay ahead of him. No one could have known.)
The screaming and yelling started when South had enough of him talking and asking questions and got up, surely with the intention to punch her new teammate in the face. It wasn't much of a good idea because the ill-tempered woman never dealt well with flying when siting perfectly still already.
So the result was yelling because she threw up, using Davids helmet to puke inside. Thankfully North had been there as well, sort of managing to take care of both of them and their problems. If 479er wouldn't have known better she would have said they both were Norths younger siblings.
Washington, with grey armor but still yellow accents now, was just another experiment, another candidate chosen for a certain reason. It wasn't hard to guess in his case, really. He was inferior in skills to the other Freelancers. 479er saw that and she was sure even he himself knew that. But he always pushed on.
What happens if you put someone with potential but lack of skills in a superior group?
She picked the Freelancers up a lot. At all kinds of places, in all kinds of conditions. She never expected to pick him up so often. But somehow he kept surviving. With luck and help and being stubborn.
Either he breaks and will be left behind. Or he keeps pushing because that's what he does best.
He was like an annoying kid most of the times when she was flying them. But he grew on her. He grew on everyone and as annoying as he could be, he was impressive. Because he was still able to be like a kid brother and it was real and not a set up innocence like York had.
479er thought that when the day came she didn't need to pick Washington up anymore something would be missing.
A lot was missing long before that day came.