They aren't meant to be. He's 23 years older than her. She's his second in command. He's still in love with his dead wife. Not to mention the UCMJ*.
But there's just something about being together that makes them throw all of that out the window.
"Screw fate," she says to him one day and he does just that.
The relationship isn't perfect, far from it really. They keep it secret as much as possible. There are issues of command and orders. The guilt of Ayani makes her feel like she's betrayed her friend in some manner and it constantly hangs over her head. The consequences of the fellow soldiers finding out weighs heavily on him.
But in the moments that they have to themselves, it makes everything worth it.
Today is one of those moments. They've managed to escape the colony for a little OTG time together.
She's spread out on top of his bare chest while they sunbathe in front of a beautiful pond. The rays beating down on them and wildlife blissfully chatting away in the distance.
He appreciates life in these moments. Wishes he had more of them with Ayani in a place like. Wishes he had made good with his son. But he's not going to argue with his second chance.
Especially when that second chance is a gorgeous woman who is madly in love with him. And he's madly in love with her.
She's brought a new breath to his life and it feels like he could run a marathon without a second thought.
They've spent the majority of the day just lying here but now he wants to cool down in the pond but she's asleep and he'll feel bad for waking her. They never get to just slow down and take naps. It's nice to let other people worry about the fate of the human race for awhile.
He gently moves her off his chest onto the blanket but she wakes anyway. She makes a little noise of annoyance.
"I'm going for a swim," he says quietly.
"Mmmm...stay," she asks as she loops her arms around his neck. He chuckles at her.
"Come with me?" he asks.
"But I'm comfortable here," she answers with a tightening of her arms.
"But I want to have some fun," he counters.
"Aren't you having fun in the sun with me?" she asks.
"Yes, but now I'm hot," he answers.
"Yes you are," is her comeback and she adds an appreciative hum. He now laughs at her.
"I'm going to go swimming and you are more than happy to join me," he says as he pries her arms away.
He wades in the pond and over the splash of water around his legs, he hears her puff out a sigh. When he's deep enough, he dives down and does a few strokes through the water.
Soon enough he hears her enter the water behind and feels her swim up to his back. She comes to stand behind him, arms around his waist, while she presses a kiss to his spine.
Yes, in the moments like these, he's glad to have let go and said screw fate.
But as it turns out, when you screw fate, it's really going to fuck with you.
That's the thought that continuously rolls around his mind as he stares into the fire. With one act, his world has turned upside down. His son has done something which he can never be forgiven for and Wash is dead.
There is no coming back after death and it's the second time that he's had to suffer through these feelings.
But he'll have to pick himself up and wipe the dust off his pants. The last time he went through this, the only thing that pushed him, was the thought of his son. The end result didn't work out so well. But this time he plans to do better by his colony.
It's 3 months after retaking the colony and he's finally starting to feel more than an empty shell. He can wake up in the morning without immediately turning into her non-existent body, he can't smell her everywhere he goes, and he doesn't see her in every dark haired women that is in the colony.
But he awoke this morning to an awful dream. Something that should have brought joy to his morning actually left a sour taste in his mouth. He had dreamed of a future with her. He had dreamed that she walked up to him and told him, 'screw fate,' as they watched the colony grow in front of their eyes. If she were here with him, that's future he would want. But instead, he'll grow old and tired as the colony continues on.
His morning has tainted been tainted by his treacherous subconscious and he slowly goes through his morning ritual of getting ready. But then a knock at his door startles him into action.
He pulls open his door to reveal a Private on his front porch, doubled over and out of breath.
"Sir, there's an incident going on at the gate," the Private manages to get out in between his deep breaths. He rushes out of his house and towards command quickly as humanly possible.
He arrives moments later to see a few men mulling around the market center but nothing else seems out of place. No dinosaurs bearing down on the gate or Phoenix soldiers trying to assault the colony.
"What is the problem Sergeant?" he address the man in charge.
"Sir," he turns and dismisses his men momentarily, "There is someone here. We put the guest in the command center."
He again takes off as quickly as possible. This is highly unusual. But as he enters, he sees a dark haired woman sitting at his desk. He must be dreaming because this isn't possible.
There she is. The second love of his life, alive and well. Maybe a little dirty and tired. But breathing and functioning which renders him completely speechless.
She looks up at the sound of the door closing behind him. She moves quicker than the speed of light to embrace him.
"Wash," he simply murmurs as he buries his face into her hair.
"Nathaniel," she says back and for the first time in 3 months, he feels whole again. He's suddenly crying and shaking. He's man of strength and he's very surprised by his reaction to her being alive.
"It's okay," she whispers as her hold on him tightens and she strokes her free hand through his hair. "I've got you. I'm so, so very sorry," she says. "I wish I could have gotten back here soon," she says as he continues to shake.
It's a good five minutes before he can pull back slightly to look into her face. The thought that this must not be real and that he's having a mental breakdown moves briefly through his mind.
But then she's kissing him and he doesn't care if this is real or not as long as she'll always be with him. The kiss steals his breath and he knows it must be real.
"I'm real," she says after the kiss. She can really read him like an open book. "I wasn't going to let fate tell me what to do," she tells him.
For some reason he finds this really funny and he starts to laugh while only holding her tighter.
Somehow or other, he's beaten almost every odd in his life and this beautiful woman has too.
A/N: Just a little something because I really hate Fox. *UCMJ is the Unified Code of Military Justice and is the law that applies to the military.