I´ve decided to just continue here instead of posting sequels, it´ll be much easier to reply to reviews this way- so here´s the first set of missing scenes from Instinct, enjoy :)
Spoilers: Instinct
Pairing: Wash/Taylor
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Not mine...
morningsong101, Madi92, metube and CapeCodMakai, thanks so much for the reviews and for enjoying the story, if any of you has any suggestions, either for this story or maybe for one shots, anything you´d like to read, please send me a message and I´ll be happy to try and get creative.
"Morning, Wash."
She looked up from her data pad, not at all surprised at his cheerful tone, if there was one thing Nathaniel Taylor was good at, it was ignoring elephants in the room.
Deciding to play along, Wash stood to attention and nodded curtly.
"Good morning, Sir."
"So how is the survival class coming along?"
"Hopeless, like always and I´d really prefer not to eat bugs every time I teach a class."
"Come on, Wash, you´ve called everyone hopeless ever since you´ve started teaching those classes- and don´t say anything about the bugs, they helped me survive when I first got here and ran out of supplies after a few days."
"Happy to let you demonstrate the bug eating in the future, Sir" Alicia replied smoothly before looking back down onto her data pad.
"They´ve started painting the houses for the 10th today, most people have been supplied with the necessary equipment already, Guzman´s unit is seeing to the rest right now."
"Good, they can help out a bit, too, seems to be a quiet day."
"Bet they´ll love that, Sir."
Taylor settled himself behind his desk and reached for his own data pad, then motioned her over and held it out to her.
"Supplies haven´t arrived at Outpost 3 so far, if we haven´t heard from them by nightfall, we´ll go out there first thing tomorrow."
"We meaning who, Sir?"
"We meaning Me and Shannon and some backup."
Wash sighed, nodding, sometimes she hated to be second in command, she wasn´t cut out for sitting at home and waiting.
Taylor caught the expression on her face and smiled, shaking his head.
"You´re not happy with that, are you- I´m keeping you scooped up for too long, tell you what, Wash- take a rover and go OTG for a while."
She just looked at him for a moment, trying to detect the agenda in his offer, he wasn't exactly known for his generosity when it came to bestowing free time on his units and she wanted to know why he was doing it now.
"I don´t understand, Sir, do you need me to check on anything?"
"No but since nothing pressing is going on here and you´ve finished with all the paperwork while I was getting the kids back inside the other day, you could just relax a little."
Now she understood what he was doing and it didn´t do anything to relax her.
"Thank you, Sir but I don´t believe in wasting my time with pointless outings, I´ll go and see if I can interest my unit in a little extra combat training, if you need anything, I´ll be in the barracks."
Taylor shrugged, immersed in his data pad.
"Sure, Wash- have fun, then."
"Thank you, Sir" she replied coldly, turning on her heel and leaving the office before taking a deep breath.
He was trying to get rid of her and she could understand where he was coming from, the tension between them was becoming unbearable and she had to find a way to deal with it, she didn´t want to loose her position over their differences, she had worked hard and risked everything to get where she was now.
She found Mark Reynolds where she had left him, leaning against the railing of the steps leading up to the command center.
"That was quick" he commentated, falling into step next to her.
"He told me to go OTG and have some fun" Wash huffed, not at all amused when Mark snorted.
"Trouble in paradise?"
He teased, hastily stepping aside to avoid her elbows colliding with his ribs.
"Why is everyone hell bound to believe that I´m screwing Taylor?"
Wash asked angrily, her hands balling into fists at her sides, the rumors were bad enough as it was but even more so since they were´t even true.
"I´m sorry" Reynolds offered, still sounding amused.
"No, you are not but you will be" she threatened and the young private paled visibly.
"Ma´am?"
"Combat training in ten, tell the others to hurry" Alicia growled before striding towards the barracks, leavening Reynolds to stare after her in horror.
Her unit arrived on time, no one was looking especially happy at the prospect of an extra training session with their CO, especially not when she was looking furious and in need to beat someone up.
Wash stepped onto the mats, looking expectantly at her recruits who all avoided to meet her eyes and finally Wash lost her patience.
"I´m counting to three, I want three people on the mat by then."
Reynolds was the first to step forward, probably thinking that it was partly his fault for making her even angrier than she had been to begin with, Henderson and Johns following, looking as though they were acting against their better knowledge.
"Fun" Wash smiled sarcastically, pushing her sleeves back from her forearms.
"Let´s play, boys."
Alicia stretched, allowing the hot water to relax her aching muscles but despite the pain she was feeling much better than two hours ago.
Her recruits hadn´t enjoyed themselves as much, she had been a little too motivated, taking them on three at a time, not holding back and emerging without having been beaten once, not that anyone had doubted that to begin with.
Thinking that she should probably stop wasting hot water, Wash stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself into a towel before starting to comb her wet hair, looking up when a knock sounded at the door.
"Wash, you in there?"
Taylor´s voice sounded impatient and Alicia rolled her eyes, typical, first he wanted to get rid of her, then he couldn´t do without her.
She pulled the door opened, instinctively reaching up to check that her towel was securely fastened.
"I´m a little indisposed at the moment, Sir, can it wait until I´m dressed."
One look at his face told her that he wasn´t listening to her, his eyes trailing down her body and up again, his gaze hungry and Alicia almost smiled, for a man who claimed not to be interested, he certainly was easy to manipulate by a little bit of naked skin.
"Sir?"
She asked, her amusement now audible in her voice and Taylor´s eyes snapped back up to her face, the intense blue much darker than usual, his expression unreadable.
"If I didn´t know better, I´d say you are doing this on purpose" he told her, stepping closer to her, their bodies almost touching as he braced his hands against the doorframe on both sides of her.
"But since you couldn´t possibly know that I would be coming here, I´ll just put it down to abysmal timing on my part."
"Careful, Sir, I might take offense" she told him playfully, glad that they were back to their usual light bantering.
"No need, Wash, no need" he sighed, once again looking her upside down in a manner that was far from appropriate in a professional relationship as he claimed their´s to be.
"Was there anything you needed, Sir?"
She asked innocently, batting her eyelashes and Taylor groaned, his hands clenching around the sturdy wood.
"Get dressed, Lieutenant" he pressed through gritted teeth, very obviously fighting for control.
"Permission to close the door first, Sir?"
Alicia smiled, biting her lip to hold back her laughter, she had rarely seen her CO so desperate.
"Close the damn door, now!"
She obeyed, shutting the door in his face, then she leaned against it for a moment, her imagination running wild as she wondered what might have happened if she had just dropped the towel, then she walked over to her clothes and got dressed hastily, pulled her hair up into a ponytail and opened the door, not at all surprised when she found the commander pacing up and down the corridor.
He lead the way without looking at her, back towards the command center and Wash followed him, trying to analyze the situation.
She was fairly certain that she could have seduced him back at the barracks, then again he would have regretted it the moment it was over and probably closed himself off completely and Wash didn´t think that one heated sexual encounter was worth loosing their friendship, if something was going to happen, then she needed him to want all of her, a relationship their friendship could coexist with, loosing him simply wasn´t an option.
Guzman was waiting for them at command, looking at the security screens.
"Commander" he greeted, looking up, then he smiled at the sight of her.
"Hey, Wash, haven´t seen you today."
"I was at the barracks, my unit needed a little extra training."
"Anyone still standing?"
Guzman joked and Wash shrugged.
"Me" she finally stated, making both Guzman and Taylor chuckle.
"Knew there had to be a valid reason you are second in command" Guzman muttered, yelping when Alicia hit him over the head.
"Break it up there, kids, we have work to do" their CO interrupted, not sounding as amused as he usual did while watching them bantering.
Not dwelling on that observation, Wash sat down next to Guzman, looking at the screens.
"What do we have?"
"Outpost 3, the supplies still haven´t arrived, we need to get someone out there tomorrow."
Wash glanced at Guzman, frowning at the hopeful look on his face and shrugging.
"I´ve been put in charge already, you can go play if you want to."
Guzman grinned, checking the screens with renewed energy while Wash got up again and walked over to Taylor´s desk.
"I´ll go and put the team together, anyone specific you want to take?"
"Just Shannon" Taylor replied, then added "keep an eye on Malcom, he´ll be back tomorrow and I don´t want him to harass the poor Doc too much, especially not with her husband away."
"He´ll be heartbroken" Wash mused, thinking about their chief science officer who hadn´t talked about anything but Elizabeth Shannon for weeks, having requested her to be recruited specifically and Alicia had a nagging suspicion that the man hadn´t planned on her turning up with her husband in tow.
Taylor shrugged.
"I won´t mind a bit, making a play for a married woman, husband there or not, isn´t anything I´d tolerate, anyway."
His voice had gotten colder, his sense of honor dictating his words and Wash hoped that Malcom wouldn´t anything stupid, like trying to break up the Shannons in plain sight of the commander.
Aloud she said "I´ll try and give him a hint, Sir."
"Not a hint, Wash, the man doesn´t get subtlety, just make it blunt."
"If you say so, Sir- I´ll go and arrange everything, see you for evening patrol?"
"Meet you down by the gate at 1800."
It hadn´t been hard to put a team together, after the workout session she had given her own unit that morning, everyone jumped at the opportunity to get out of the colony for a day, afraid that she might go on to plan extra hand combat training for everyone else.
After she had finished with her preparations, Wash made her way over to the newly painted housing units, looking for Jim Shannon but when she found him with his family outside their house, still having fun with the paint and looking utterly relaxed she decided that the next morning would be early enough to inform them of the trip after all.
"Hey, Wash" Shonnon greeted her, pointing at the house, "how do you like it?"
"It´s yellow" the lieutenant observed, shrugging.
She wasn´t a fan of colorful houses, much preferring the wood in it´s natural state but most families liked the extra paint, especially those with children.
Shannon looked back at the house for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah, I suppose it is, isn´t it- what about your´s?"
"The officer´s houses are right besides the barracks, helps with controlling our units and no one actually made the effort to paint their´s."
"What, no bright pink for you?"
Wash rolled her eyes.
"Look, Shannon, I hate to break it to you but you aren´t funny, never were, never will be, so just do me a favor and give it a break."
His smile brightened, for some unknown, unfair reason he reveled in annoying her.
"I have a gun" she threatened, glaring at him.
"I have one, too" he shot back, patting his holster for emphasis.
"Mine is bigger" Wash told him, her finger trailing over the trigger of the rifle hanging at her side and Jim held his hands up in defeat.
"Low and dirty, Wash, I really expected better of a lady."
"If you call me a lady one more time, I will hurt you, Shannon. Now get inside and help your wife with the cooking, make yourself useful."
"Point taken, you clearly are much more threatening than me."
"You bet your ass, I am- see you tomorrow, Shannon."
"Night, Wash."
He winked at her, waving when she started to walk off in direction of the gate.
Taylor was already waiting for her, leaning against a watchtower.
"You´re late, Lieutenant."
"I was busy getting my daily dose of annoying cop, Sir" Alicia replied smoothly, making Taylor grin as they began to walk along the perimeter.
"Came out on top?"
"Sure did, Sir."
"Good girl" he joked, laughing when she glared at him.
They made their usual round, talking with the soldiers standing guard on the various spots along the fence, the members of Alicia´s unit wincing at the sight of her.
"They can hardly stand up straight, Lieutenant, if you insist on roughening them up so bad, you should choose a day when they don´t have to do night duty" the commander observed, turning back to see Reynolds lean heavily against the gate for support.
"It´s good for them, they´re going soft on me."
They had reached the gate again and Taylor leaned on one of the thick wooden bars, looking out at the dark jungle beyond the plane.
"We´ll go out at 0700, should be back before nightfall, if you´re here at 0600, I´ll brief you before we head out."
"I´ll be there, Sir."
He turned towards her, studying her for a moment, then his expression softened and he smiled.
"Goodnight, Wash."
"Goodnight, Sir."
She could feel his eyes on her as she walked away from him