Disclaimer: Terra Nova does not belong to me. (If it did Washington and Taylor would have at least a half dozen kids, and Lucas wouldn't be in the only child conundrum.)
Attention: There are spoilers for the season finale Occupation/Resistance in this. Do not read it unless you have seen the finale.
He hears her everywhere he goes now. At first it drove him to distraction, but like a good soldier he adapts. He welcomes the wind on his face that brings with it her whispered words.
"Will you never stop getting injured?"
"Go easy on Riley. She hasn't had 20 years of seeing your disturbing ability at getting yourself into trouble."
"Give 'em hell Sir."
It's still hell without her. He's lost track of the number of times he's waited at the gate for her before going OTG, only to remember that she isn't coming. Not ever again. He knows Shannon is trying to see him through it. Hell, he's asked the man a dozen times over the past month to tell Wash to report to him. Shannon says nothing, just smiles sadly and has Riley report to him instead.
Riley has become the official second-in-command of the colony to everyone but Taylor, and she seems to know it. One day when he asks her if she is adjusting to the SIC role she shocks him with her reply. "I'm no second-in-command Sir. Simply the third with more duties." She knows that she'll never be able to replace Wash and he respects the hell out her for that.
He remembers when he had just gotten the Shannons back to base camp in the forest after Wash had made her noble sacrifice. He had sat by himself in front of a fire until Zoey had come and tried to relieve his pain with her hug. He spares a smile then for the childish innocence of the youngest Shannon, but he doesn't dwell long on it. Those thoughts lead to children in general, and inevitably back to his Wash. She had not so secretly loved children he remembers. Would she have ever had kids of her own? Would they also have been his? He lets the tear in his eye fall, and as it runs down his cheek he remembers when he said goodbye to her at the gate before he left. The gate! Isn't that the kick to the gut? She had wanted to go with him, to fight along side him as always, but he had told her no. He had ordered her to stay with the colony and keep it safe. To keep herself safe. It's when he is sitting there, silently allowing the tears to flow that he first hears her voice.
"Gonna sit here and cry over me Sir? I'd much rather you go ram the fury of Terra Nova down their throats for me. Forgive me, but I've not been dead long. I'm still a little pissed, so indulge a girl won't you?"
That causes a bark of laughter from him, startling Shannon who has just come to see him. As Shannon relays Wash's dying message, he recomposes himself into the Commander of Terra Nova. His SIC's dying message was to blow the portal, so by God, that what he's going to do. He barely has to convince the others.
Later that day the portal has been blown. Hope Plaza has been decimated thanks to Shannon and his Carno wrangling skills. The Phoenix group has departed from Terra Nova, and he's alive. Granted he's sitting there with a gaping stab wound in his side, but thanks to Skye it's no more than that.
She talks to him again that night. "Couldn't even wait a full day after I die to get injured again Sir? Well at least Doc Shannon is there now. Lord knows no field medic could ever stay sane around you." No field medic except her.
Life in the colony goes on. Terra Nova is rebuilt and thriving. Her people are moving on and on the outside he appears to have done so as well. As everyone believes that he is adjusting to a life without Wash's presence they can't know that she is with him at all times now, from her "Up and at 'em Sir" in the mornings to her whispered "Goodnight Nathaniel" right before he rests for the night. No matter where he is Alicia Washington will always be with her Commander.
A/N: I was soooo pissed when they killed Wash! I kept waiting for them to bring her back. (Oh look! The bullets were replaced with non-lethal rounds that only stunned her!) Sigh….R/R. Let me know what you think!