Authors Note:
You can't tell me I'm the only one who thought about Tarzan and Jane in this episode. Or Spiderman and Jane ;)
I love Washs Pre-Epsilon behavior!
There is a german Comedy-Drama series called 'Turkish for beginners' and at one point one of the femal protagonists says 'Me Tarzen...' then Points at her boyfriend 'He Jane.' Totally had to think of that as well.
Me Spiderman, you Jane
It feels like her heart was pumping endorphin through her veins instead of blood. The feeling is wonderful, in an odd way and even though it's far from unfamiliar Carolina still finds herself unable to describe it accurately.
This incredible feeling is numbing the burning and aching in her body, the tiredness and stress.
They jog through the crater that had been created at the crash site. Destruction is everywhere to be seen and the temple behind them is razed to the ground. It's nothing beautiful, this place is one hell of a warzone but Carolina can't help but feel good.
It's all at once, triumph, pride, joy, relief, satisfaction. They did it. They defeated Locus and Felix, they crashed their home base into the Temple of destruction and they were on the best way to get the S.O.S out and bring Charon down.
And in all of this, Wash and she made it out relatively okay-ish. The younger man jogs next to her. They had to leave their warthog a few miles away so it wouldn't get blown up as well. It was odd just how right it felt to fight alongside him like this again and how much his screaming in fear whenever he managed to find time for it reminded her of easy times long gone.
Still, they took quite the beating themselves and Carolina slows down her pace a little as she sees Wash having trouble to keep up. She's still grinning though, feeling high from their achievement.
"You good Wash?" she asks him.
He looks over briefly then huffs. "Yeah" he replies. "I mean I feel like I got hit by a truck but I guess it could be worse" he deadpans.
"If there had been an actual truck in it, yeah. You sure would have been hit." Wash gives Epsilon a dirty look from behind his visor that Carolina can picture too well.
"Oh, shut up."
They keep jogging and Carolina can't help but feeling all pumped when she says after a moment: "I wish I could have seen Felix face when I dragged him away from the entrance."
"I wish I could have seen his face when I caught his knife. He sounded incredulous already." Carolina manages a small and breathless laugh in return.
"That wasn't half bad, Wash. Nice tricks with the knife." The blonde turns his head towards her and looks at her as if he raises an eye ridge at the compliment.
"Well, what can I say? I learned from the best" he says then and sounds smug while doing so. It makes Carolinas smile grow a little more.
"So the late night trainings sessions with CT actually were for training, huh?" Carolina sees Wash stumble before he actually does it and she chuckles when he had to hurry and catch up.
"You know we were just friends!" the blonde insists with an edge of exasperation in his voice.
"Sure, whatever you say, Jane."
"Ugh, Seriously Carolina. We never..." he trails off and stares at her through the blank visor and the redhead can almost see how his mind grasps what she said right before. "Did you just call me Jane!?" It comes out more as a squeak than anything else and now Carolina can't stop herself from laughing out aloud. It steals her breath away and hurts her ribs and almost kills her back but it feels good. It's been a long time since she laughed like this. Wash is still staring at her, clearly sulking.
"Hey!"
"Oh, what do you want? She's got a point. Your clinging and screaming sure can rival Janes when they swing away" Epsilon taunts the younger Freelancer and Carolina can imagine lividly how he flushes but still glares daggers into the A.I. She would make a comment as well but first she needs to regain her breath.
"Yeah yeah, you can talk. You are a hologram, you don't get the weird feeling in your gut when doing that stuff" Wash huffs and weakly tries to pretend he overheard the insult. Then he gestures over to Carolina. "And what does that make her? Tarzan, the ape man from the jungle?"
Epsilons flickers between them and titles his head slowly. He's probably wondering if he can dare to say so or if Carolina will find a way to punch a hologram for it.
"I was actually thinking about Mary Jane" the redhead says easily with a shrug. They aren't far from the Warthog anymore. Wash gapes at her.
"Mary Jane… what?"
"Jesus Wash! I'm talking about Spidermans girlfriend, what did you think?"
"Oh." He returns flatly. "I forgot that was her name, too." Carolina eyed the younger up and down, recalling pictures of him hanging upside down from the couch and reading comic books. "And I thought you like that stuff."
"Well, yeah I just didn't think you'd talk about the Justice League."
"Spiderman isn't even part of the justice League."
"Oh my god" Church piped up. "Carolina is a freaking Superhero geek!"
The redhead shot him a glare. "What? You've got a problem with that?"
"Nope!"
"Not in the slightest, Tarzan."
Carolina glares at Wash now as well but then her expression changed into a small grin that grew predatory. She shoves the blonde man without a second though of it. He stumbles and almost makes a spectacular face plant. Carolina laughs again despite the sharp pain in her back and ribs. However, Wash catches himself just in time and then doesn't hesitates to shove her back. It catches her by surprise and now it's her turn to almost land face first in the dirt.
"You little piece of…" She's cursing but she knows the grin she has on her face can be heard in her voice. Wash yelps anyway and sprints ahead. At least he tries it but it's more stumbling than anything else because his ribs aren't all fine either.
"You want me to tell Tucker about your manly scream, Jane?" she teases from behind, not even bothering to catch up to him.
"Please don't" the younger Freelancer called flatly. The Warthog is already in sight and Carolina smiles once more.
It may not be the most appropriate time to feel that way but yet moments like this give her the feeling that things are going to be just fine eventually. So she has all right to ignore Epsilons voice in her head telling her they totally are acting like kids.
Authors Note: Hope you enjoyed this little piece. Normally I have the head Canon that Wash is actually older than Carolina but just doesn't act like it.