Author's Note: None of this is mine. Now that's said I wanna thank my buddy Bea for giving my fic a look before posting. Thanx so much! And thank whoever translated the Chinese from the show. I recycled, so thanks. And lastly, thanks to the song Everytime (Britany Spears I know but hey it's pretty) and Broken Wings that helped shape this little fic. Thinking about continuing so let me know how you like it and stuff I can work on. Constructive criticism please Thanks guys.
Wash was sitting in his chair, actually Wash was asleep in his chair. Over the pilot's first few months on Serenity Wash had lost his normal sleeping pattern. He had just gotten used to sleeping at night and working during the light. But there was no day in space. So Wash slept whenever it was possible. Which wasn't often due to the unpredictability of living a life of crime. "Wash," he would say to himself when no one was around, "You have always considered yourself a fair man. Never cheated on a test. Never cheated on a girlfriend. But here you are now. Driving a ship that was practically made for smuggling. And the captain obliges the ship's true reason for existence. Mama was right. I ain't all there in the head." Then he would argue with himself that he wasn't doing the stealing himself. Mostly it was Mal and sometimes Bester would give him a hand. Oh yes and there was Zoe. The first mate. When Wash first saw Zoe he automatically thought he had happened upon an angel. Just one wearing combat boot and a firearm. This automatic notion was twisted within the week he agree to pilot Serenity. He had watched that angel gun down seven men. She didn't even blink while her guns ripped men from this world. That whole killing thing was another thing that Wash wasn't fond of. But he wasn't doing the killing. No he was just the pilot…but at that point he was just an overly exhausted man sleeping.
"Warren!" A voice called Wash away from his dream of his home planet, Calliope. Instead of seeing his giddy sister jumping on his mattress he saw Zoe.
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear the Captain calling you on the com. Course not because you were asleep. The Captain didn't hire you to sleep, backbirth, now get us going. Ma-shong." Zoe in a rage stomped away from Wash.
"Ummmm…..Where would that be? I'm assuming we are changing course cause we are kind of flying to Persephone like you told me to. Just on auto-pilot." Zoe stopped in her tracks. Wash noticed her rolling up her fists and closing her eyes.
"Captain says that it's too hot. Fly us to Whitefall."
"Whitefall but that's gonna take days!"
"Do it, Warren, dong ma?" Zoe looked back at the pilot. Wash sighed and readjusted the computers to head in the other direction. As his hands brushed against the machinery Wash glanced back to the first mate. Zoe was still in the doorway. This was his chance. He had a question for her he'd always meant to ask.
"Do you ever smile? Or laugh?" The pilot assumed that she would brush him off with some military-tough-ass-chick-talk as usual but she surprised him. She answered.
"Not usually. Not since the war anyway." She leaned against the lockers and kneaded her hands. Unwilling to look the pilot in the eyes.
"How can you not. I mean. Humor was my way of surviving that luh-suh planet I was from. I would think-"
"Well you don't know. I was in a war. Friends dying all around me. Praying every night that I would make it through. No amounts of smile or laughter can save you from that." Zoe was shaking with strength and finally allowed her eyes to meet the pilot's. Wash then decided that this woman was an angel, just a damaged one. One of the seraphim whose wings needed tending. It was time for Wash to pull out his big guns.
"Did you ever play with these when you were little?" Wash asked as he pulled out his dinosaur collection.
"Can't say I did." Zoe said shaking her head.
"This guy is Mr. Stego he is the diplomat. He enjoys gardening and collecting Blue Sun cans. This is his rival Tee. Tee was the bully in school always picked on the dorky dinos like Mr. Stego. Tee enjoys eating and weight lifting in hope of making his little arms stronger." Zoe lifted up her eyebrows, which Wash considered a good sign.
"I've been wondering lately. Do you think Tee has a resemblance to Mal? I mean not the suspenders or anything but look at those high cheekbones." It was then that Wash heard the most beautiful noise in the world. Zoe laughing.
"You are not right in the head you know that, Warren?" Zoe continued to smile making Wash's stomach flop.
"Yeah. My Momma always told me that. And by the way Zoe, it's just Wash."
"Thanks….Wash." Zoe left the bridge with enthusiasm she didn't seem to have before. And she looked back at Wash, giving him one last smile.
"Oh yeah," Wash sighed to Mr. Stego, "I'm in love."
Take these Broken Wings
And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
-"Broken Wings" By Mr. Mister