Wash had never been offworld before he came to Serenity.
He'd grown up on Europa, considered a pansy-ass Core world by the fellas in the Black, but was really just a border world with less desert and more Alliance breathing down everyone's necks.
Seeing the stars wasn't the only reason he'd wanted to get away.
His brother still gave him a wave from time to time. Wash would make sure Serenity was on a clear course, and they'd settle into laughing and talking, about Wash's Zoe and crewmates and about Matthew's Selina and little one on the way.
When his stepmother called, they'd settle into awkward silence and pointed comments.
His dinosaurs were called Ned and Nemo.
Wash had a secret weakness for those books from Earth –that – was that they'd called "science fiction". Zoe loved to goad him about it, saying that the real reason he loved to read about aliens so much was that he was desperate for news of his own species. He'd usually hit her with a pillow by that point.
That was, she goaded him about it until he came to bed one night and caught her anxiously reading through the ending of War of the Worlds.
He'd named Ned and Nemo after characters in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, one of his personal favorites.
Sometimes, when all the others except for Kaylee had gone off on some job, he'd run around Serenity holding them, like a little kid, voicing the characters' lines from the book in his other hand.
Sometimes he called Serenity "the Nautilus", and he'd pretend he was floating through the depths of the Pacific instead of hurtling through the depths of space.
Sometimes, he thought that Mal could be just a little too much like the Captain Nemo, smiling and friendly often, but sometimes snapping into terrifying violence –like when the Shepherd died (Wash didn't even like to think about that). Another similarity –even with so many people around them, both could seem so completely alone.
Wash had gotten Ned and Nemo for Christmas as a little kid, after months of begging.
He'd gone on an educational trip to a local museum filled with artifacts from Earth–that–was. Of course, he'd spent most of his time trying to chat up Lila Arrez (ah, the wonders of second –grade romance), until his motley class came to the Prehistory section, with its twelve –foot –high model of the Age of the Dinosaurs. Forget Lila, he was in love.
Kaylee had always liked his dinosaurs, but Jayne had had a personal vendetta against them from the moment he came on board. After the second time he had to narrowly rescue Nemo from a fiery death via incinerator chute, Wash had a little chat with the mechanic. That evening, Jayne's bunk mysteriously sprouted a glitch in the heating system. Wacky fun.
Zoe always said she hadn't known she was marrying the biggest kid in the 'verse until it was too late to do anything about it.
Wash always asked, too late to marry me, or too late to make me not be the biggest kid in the 'verse?
At that point, Zoe would throw a pillow at him and say it didn't matter.
They did a lot of pillow-throwing.
The happiest day of Wash's life was the day Zoe walked up to him and kissed him, hard, of her own free will, for the first time.
The second happiest was the day that he married her.
And Zoe would never admit that those were the happiest days in her life, too.
The first time Wash saw Zoe, she gave him a right hook to the face because he'd made a bad joke about Mal's coat.
The next time he saw her, she grudgingly apologized. Wash had the feeling that she was only doing it because that Mal fellow was glaring at her with his "captain death stare" that would make the president of the Alliance back down and cower.
By the third day on Serenity, Wash had their wedding planned, as well as all their prospective kids' names.
Of course, there was the matter of the mustache.
That, and the fact that every time she passed him in the corridor, she looked like she was sizing him up for a fight.
Wash had been the top in his class at flight school.
Once, when he and his pals were about fifteen sheets to the wind, he'd gone and gotten a tattoo on his shoulder –of a goldfish. It was purple. When he looked in the mirror the next morning, he thought he was finally going mad.
He'd never felt more completely in his element as when he was sitting in the pilot's chair, guiding Serenity through Reaver ships and Alliance fire.
He'd never felt as afraid as he did every single time Zoe went traipsing off with the Captain, shooting and getting shot at. And far too often, getting shot. "Here lies my beloved Zoe, my autumn flower…"
He never, ever dreamed he'd go first.