TN Wash's Return
Chapter 1: Despair and Hope
Pairing: Wash/Taylor
Characters: A mixture
Genre: Ship and Hurt/Comfort
Rating: Nc-17
Warning: Sexual Situations…eventually
Spoiler Alert: All of Season 1
Summary: Post finale - As the colony gets restored, Taylor realizes a pulse pistol at close range should make someone fly several feet instead of drop straight to the ground.
AN: This is what I believe/hope happened. This is my happy ending. It's the only way I can make sense of what happened because the ship must continue. And, we all know those pulse pistols made Josh fly across the room when he shot that cabinet. I have added things into this fic that stem from actions taking in my other fic of how Taylor and Wash get together – TN Taylor's Temptation.
The day after the Phoenix Group left, Commander Taylor sat at his desk thinking about his last words to Wash. He joked that she needed to stay at the colony to be safe. Oh, how true those words were when he said it. He wanted to keep her away from the action and also knew he would not trust anyone else with the safety of the civies.
And now, she was dead. Yet another woman of his killed by enemy fire while he was forced to watch not able to do anything but despair.
His heart and stomach clenched in pain that threatened to destroy his sanity. He contemplated asking Zoe for another hug. It had helped the first time when he was sitting staring into the fire picturing Wash's face, which he would never see again. Her skin he would never touch again. Her laughter he would never provoke again. She is dead.
Taylor reached down taking the knife out of its sheath and held it in front of him. It was the same knife that he used to cut her clothing off of her the first time they had sex. It was what was going to end his life now.
Jim could handle the colony and had more than proved that. He had told him before when he took command for a few days that he would not want to have to do it all the time.
Well, there are things in this life that we have to do if we like it or not. He thought to himself while turning the blade over in his strong hands. No one was here to stop him this time. Wash was not here to stop him this time.
The corner of his mouth stitched in remembrance of when his memory returned after falling ill here at the colony. He realized that his wife was dead and went to slit his own throat to join her. The impact of the knowledge made him feel like life was pointless without his wife. Wash saw what he intended and shot him to stop him from killing himself. He was a little embarrassed after that because Reynolds and Maddy Shannon had watched what happened. But, there was nothing to be done for it.
He remembered flying through the air and going unconscious. Flying…his mind offered then played images of Wash's death.
He growled low with pain as he started to flex his hand over the handle of the knife, but controlled himself remembering something else Wash had told him after they got together. He had a freak-out not being able to find her when they caught the thief siphoning power from their grid. The night she came back he explained everything about his dead wife and son, so she would understand his reactions concerning her safety.
Wash explained that everyone dies, but she hoped that her death would have meaning. Wash further explained that even after death that the things about you that other's absorbed into themselves is a way of continuing to live. He thought of Zoe explaining how Wash taught her survival skills and how to make fire. Yes, he needed another hug.
She's not really dead. A little piece of her is in each person here. I better put the knife away before Reynolds sees me with it out again. I pulled it out yesterday to cut a line and he put his hand to his gun. The little shit. What was he going to do? Shoot me like Wash if it gets too close to my throat? Just what everyone needs to see is the Commander slitting his throat then being shot propelled though the air. If I do this, it has to be in private. Maybe I should go OTG and search for her body since it's not here. Where is Wash's body? No one found it. They must have dumped her OTG. I could find her and end everything there.
His mind offered…when you were shot, you were forced back several feet. She was not.
He started to ponder while running his hands over the cold metal in his hands that would soon be his death. She crumbled to the ground. She did not fly back. The force from the pulse wave from Lucas' pistol should have propelled her several feet. We have not found a body. They carried her away instead of dragging her.
Hope started to take root in his heart as he put the knife away then stood to his feet.
Reilly entered out of breath, "Stop the funeral plans for today. I think she's alive!"
"Explain yourself, Reilly." Taylor barked.
Reilly held out a pulse pistol, "I well, we have been looking for um her body. I even went back to where you saw um Lucas last. I just found this." She held out a pulse pistol.
Taylor examined it noting there were slight alterations to it and there were strange symbols etched into the handle. He recognized some of the symbols as things that Lucas would etch on his belongings claiming them. When he saw Skye again, he half expended to see the same symbols tattooed on her arms. "It's his."
"Remember how the bomb was a newer model. I think this is a newer model pistol that they have not issues to us yet. It has different settings. I tried them out, and the one it was set to was the lowest setting. What if he shot her just to make you think…"
Taylor cut her off, "That he killed her so that I would not come looking for her. It would give him time to interrogate her without any interruptions."
Guzman walked in, "Yes, that's what we thought."
Jim followed close behind him, "I did not tell you earlier, but Elizabeth got me out of the same situation because she caused one of the men to think that she gave him parasites. Lucas may have been making sure that would not happen again. No interruptions. Elizabeth said that Lucas had one of the nurses make a truth serum just after Wash was shot."
Taylor growled out, "You're just telling me this now?" He looked around at the conspirators in his office.
Jim walked closer, "We…we did not want to um bring this to you until we had time to piece everything together."
Taylor spoke slowly at first then his voice became very rapid, "He stuns her and takes her off to interrogate her. Does anyone know where they took her? Did they take her with them when they left?"
Reilly chimed in quickly, "Between us, we talked to everyone. No one remembers where they took her. No one saw her after that."
Taylor straightened his shoulders and adjusted his gun holster, "One way or the other. We need to find her, now."
A/N: Ok, this is my plan to bring her back. I think Fox should use this first chapter to start season 2. What do you think?
(Updated to fix Reilly's name. Thanks for the heads up about the spelling.)
