MissCallaLily, morningsong101, mikaela prime, proud to be imperfect and Madi92, thank you very, very much for replying, it really means a lot.
I actually like both Guzman and Reynolds a lot and I`m glad you guys like the interaction between them and Wash- well, Taylor´s not a really nice man, isn´t he (gotta love him anyway, what can I say...) but he´ll wise up eventually.
I´m actually quite hopeful that if TN was actually being picked up for a second season the producers might have had a look at everything that´s going on on the web and decide to bring Wash back in, it´s been done with supposedly dead characters before after all and as long as there´s no second season, in my universe Wash will be alive- here´s the next chapter, enjoy, everyone.
Taylor sounded amused by her comment about the Sixers while Shannon looked a little green, probably not warning him about the OTG mission he was about to take part in hadn´t been such a good idea after all.
After Taylor had sent Shannon off to get some meds from the infirmary, he walked over to where Wash was checking the supply list on her data pad.
"That should be all, Sir" she informed him, looking over to the rovers.
"All right then, soon as Shannon gets back, we´re moving out."
He clapped her shoulder, smiling at her in that particular way designed to tell her not to worry too much and she smiled back painfully.
"Don´t give me that look, Wash, I´ll be back in time for evening rounds."
"Is that a promise, Sir?"
"If you insist then yes, it´s a promise."
Even though they both knew that such promises were empty ones, Alicia felt better as she watched the commander climb into the rover but a slight unease remained, they
didn´t even know what had caused the delay after all and no idea what the team would encounter.
When the gate had closed once again, Alicia made her way over to the infirmary, looking for Malcom and found him, just as she had expected, in the same room as Elizabeth Shannon who was talking to a patient.
"Hey, Malcom, how did it go?"
"Lieutenant, good to see you- everything went well."
"Great, so, I see you found your friend."
She indicated the doctor and Malcom blushed, looking flustered.
"Uhm, yeah, I did."
"You´ve met her husband, also?"
Malcom looked sideways at her, frowning.
"Is there anything you´d like to tell me, Lieutenant?"
She shrugged, arms crossed in front of her chest.
"You´re a smart guy, you could try to figure it out- or I could give you a message from Taylor."
"Right, ok, I suppose- I´ll remember that."
She turned to leave, her hand briefly squeezing the man´s shoulder.
"Don´t take it too hard."
"Easy for you" he muttered and Wash hesitated for a moment, then realized that she didn´t need to hear another twisted version of her supposed romance with her CO, so she left the infirmary and went back over to the gate, taking her audio set out of her pocket.
"Washington to Taylor."
"Copying, Wash- is everything all right?"
"That´s what I wanted to ask you, Sir."
"We´re fine, Wash, still on our way- stop fussing, you´ll be the first to know if we find anything."
She could tell that he was amused by her behavior but she didn´t really care, she was worried about him, she always was when he was OTG and since he insisted on leaving her behind every time, he´d just have to live with the consequences.
"All right, I´ll keep you to that."
"You do that, Lieutenant- Taylor out."
"What was all that about?"
Alicia turned around and put her hand on her hip, the other still holding the radio set.
"Eavesdropping, Reynolds?"
"No, Ma´am, I just happened to be standing behind you."
"And the difference in that is what exactly?"
"I wasn´t listening on purpose, Ma´am."
Wash couldn´t help but smile as she nudged him in the ribs, her smile widening when he all but doubled over at the contact.
"Come on, it can´t hurt that much, man up, Reynolds."
"Guess you have no idea how much you can hurt people, do you."
He gasped, keeping up with her long strides towards the command center as well as he could.
"Next time don´t let yourself be beaten up."
"I´ll do my best, now what was your conversation with Taylor about, you sounded worried."
"It´s nothing, according to him, I´m always worried."
"Perhaps it´s a female thing" Reynolds offered, the color fading from his face when his CO rounded on him, daring him to continue.
"Sorry" he added hastily, taking a step back.
"Reynolds, you are trying my patience, do yourself a favor and shut up, will you?"
"Yes, Ma´am."
"Good- now go and catch up on some sleep, we don´t know what situation we´re dealing with out there and I want everybody on full alert later- dismissed."
The young man looked exhausted and Taylor had been right, she shouldn´t have been so hard on them when they were on nightshift, tired soldiers weren´t good for anything.
She continued up the steps towards the command center and had just entered the office when her radio went off.
"Taylor to Washington."
"Copying, Sir."
"We´ve found them, all three are dead, some kind of attack, looks like a species we haven´t come across yet."
He sounded shocked, the incident seemed to take it´s toll on the commander, he never had been good at loosing people and Alicia knew from experience that he would find a way to blame himself for the men´s deaths.
She also knew that she couldn´t do anything about it now, she´d have to see if he would let her offer some comfort to him later, for now the best she could do was helping him functioning.
"I´ll tell Malcom to be ready when you get back, how far out are you?"
"We´ll be back in about an hour with the bodies."
"See you in an hour then, Washington out."
Wash hurried out of the office and down the steps again, thinking that she wouldn´t need any more workout today than the damn steps were giving her and made her way back over to the infirmary, resisting the urge to roll her eyes when she found Malcom still staring at Elizabeth Shannon like a love sick puppy.
"Malcom, you´re starting to drool" she informed him briskly, coming to stand next to him.
"Don´t you have anyone else to boss around?"
He complained but instantly fell silent when she turned to him and raised her eyebrows.
"Taylor is on the way back, he has three dead soldiers who were attacked by an unknown species and he doesn´t like it, you can make yourself useful for a change."
"Why is it that no one here takes my work seriously? Everyone would have died from unknown some species in the meantime if it wasn´t for me."
"Yeah, whatever, just be ready when they get back."
Wash left the man to his sulking and went back outside, thinking that she might as well look for something to eat, knowing Taylor she wouldn´t get another break until they had found out exactly how their people had died.
Wash had just finished her breakfast when she was informed via radio that the rovers were in sight of the gate and she hurried over, shouting for the guards to raise the gate.
The commander got out first and came over to her while Shannon organized the transport of the bodies to the infirmary.
"Hey, Wash- everything all right here?"
"Yes, Sir- are you hurt?"
"No wounds to stitch up, if that´s what you mean, the rest I´ll deal with later- I´ll go to the infirmary now, wait for me here."
Wash was pacing in front of the gate when Taylor came back, his face expressionless as he beckoned her to follow him.
"Malcom doesn´t know what we´re dealing with, this is starting to look really bad."
"What does that mean, Sir?"
"I can´t see what we can do about it, looks like we have to sit and wait if that creatures turn up again."
"Where are we going?"
Alicia asked, realizing that she had followed him across the market place without even noticing.
He finally looked at her.
"Since we apparently have some time on our hands, we´re going to have a little chat."
Wash stopped dead, looking at him suspiciously.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"Just keep walking, Lieutenant, I lead, you follow, remember that."
He walked on, leaving Wash fuming as she hurried after him.
"You know, sometimes you can be an ass."
For a moment she wondered if she had gone too far but Taylor didn´t seem to mind, instead he simply nodded, looking almost amused.
"Yeah, I suppose I can be."
They had arrived at the barracks and were now walking towards Taylor´s own house that was situated at the end of the row of buildings, next to Wash´s smaller one.
"It could have been you" he told her quietly, "it should have been you, you were actually scheduled to go out there, I only kept you here in case Mira was out for revenge."
Wash looked up at him, torn between hope that he might finally be ready to give in and irritation that he had just openly admitted to sending less qualified soldiers OTG instead of her for fear of the Sixers planning to attack them.
"You shouldn´t have done this, I would have stood a much better chance against-"
"That´s not the point" he interrupted her, walking over to the kitchen unit, leaning against the counter.
"Do you have an idea what Mira might do to you if she´d get her hands on you?"
Alicia closed the door and followed him, she needed a drink if she was to survive this.
"Well, it wouldn´t exactly be a love feast" she half joked while pouring them both a generous amount of Scotch, "especially not after I smashed Carter´s nose in."
Taylor was still looking at her, apparently not impressed by her joke and Alicia pushed the Scotch at him before taking a sip from her´s.
"Ok, she´d rough me up a little, probably break a few bones, I doubt she´d kill me, if that´s what you are afraid of."
"You don´t understand."
He took his glass and drowned his drink, then motioned for Wash to sit down on the sofa with him.
"Thing is, if Mira came to the gate with you as a hostage I´d give her anything she´d want, anything, you get that?"
Alicia didn´t answer, there wasn´t anything to say, he had put the card on the table, as had she and now she would have to wait and see if he wanted to play.
"This isn´t a game, Wash, I don´t want you to go OTG alone until I´m sure Mira isn´t planning anything rash."
"Sir" she protested, "you told me to do just that just yesterday."
"I knew you wouldn´t take me up on the offer, you´re too damn disciplined for that."
Wash felt herself flaring up, she wasn´t his toy and she wouldn´t let him treat her like one, especially not when he put so much effort into keeping her on arm´s length.
"What if I had taken you up upon it?"
"I´d have taken the offer back" he shrugged, obviously seeing nothing wrong with his course of action and Alicia got up from the couch, her hand itching to reach for her knife.
"You´ve made your point, Sir, I take it that I´m dismissed."
She was upset and as much as she prided herself for her iron control, right now she needed to get away from him or she would be loosing it.
He looked up at her, his jaw clenching but nodded curtly, gesturing towards the door.
Author´s note: I´ll be changing the rating to M at some point, not really sure yet when it´ll happen, so if you can´t find the story under the normal rated sections anymore, it´ll be due to the changed rating.
