AN: Fill for sky_kiss's prompt of Wash/Taylor - Easy

Over the years Wash had discovered that sometimes it was just easier when people didn't know things.

When they had first come through the portal, her soldiers thought she was a real hard ass. A no nonsense CO with a core of steel where her heart should be. When they figured out that she really viewed them all with a veiled sense of fond amusement they finally started to get friendly. They'd since wormed their way into her affections and she cared more than she would like to say about them. She hadn't given them permission to care about her and she certainly hadn't given herself permission to love them back, but somehow just knowing she had a heart made it alright.

Before people knew about her and Taylor she had few female friends, occasionally confiding in Elisabeth and giving advice to Reilly, Maddy and Skye. After, she is getting sly looks from the entire female population, left and right. Vendors are telling her about the latest dresses they produced, women asking when are they getting married and where will they live? Women offering advice. They apparently thought knowing about her relationship gave them permission to pry into her personal life.

And now they all thought it was ok to come up to her on the street and rub her belly! Who suddenly gave everyone in the colony permission to touch her? Just because they knew didn't mean it was free-for-all time on Wash's tummy!

She tolerated it with the same grudging sense of duty that got her through Malcolm's weekly science briefings, only deigning to deck Jim when he started calling her stomach 'Baby Washlor.' He's taken the hit with a grain of salt, rubbing his bruised nose and telling her belly that 'yes, mommy is obviously very cranky today.' That earned him another swat, but given Wash's unwieldy state, he was able to dodge.

Nathaniel found the entire thing hilarious, often watching her from the command center as she made her way through the streets. She supposed the one benefit of everyone knowing was she could meet his looks openly. Given that, he often ended up chuckling at the look Wash would throw him whenever someone new would come up to pat her stomach. Scathing was a word that came to mind. Wash blamed him for making her life complicated.

Things were much easier when no one else knew.