Alicia announced for the person knocking to enter. The door opened and in stepped the Commander.
"Look I'm sorry if I'm interrupting but I need to know is Mark your..." he was cut out by Mark "Yes I am Alicia's son." Nathaniel's face went white with shock, he would have never guessed that she had had a baby let alone that Mark was her child. Although they did look similar it wasn't obvious and in his eyes soldiers did tend to look familiar.
"So, have you worked things out?" he finally asked.
"Why aren't you a bit too concerned for just a commander." Taylor frowned. "I'm sorry but now that I have the status of your son." he looked to Alicia "I have the power that no one else has, which is to hit both of your heads together and tell your to smell the roses."
"Listen" Alicia started "I'm not sure what your getting at but if it's what I think it is, don't even think about it. The commander and I are..." she was interrupted by Taylor "In love! Come on Wash he knows and we both know more to the point." her face flushed, two surprises in one day, this was enough to give her a heart attack. She sat down on the seat that she was previously sat on waiting to meet her son. "So how about it Wash? One big happy family?" she looked from Taylor to Reynolds both of which were smiling down at her. " Her response to Taylor was a smile in return, as she stood she replied "One big happy family it is."
It had been a week now since the two declarations. Although the relationship between Wash and Taylor had not been declared, the relationship between Wash and Reynolds had. Some of the soldiers appeared to be irritated and angry, some saying that Wash knew all along and favoured Reynolds by giving him special treatment such as passing him in exercises that others failed with generosity. These soldiers were dealt with by the Lieutenant quickly and aggressively, some were on cleaning duties for a month and other were told they had to do double to training others had to do. This most certainly emptied thoughts of favouritism from their minds. Other soldiers were over the moon for the mother and son given kind and polite words to both of them.
Alicia and Mark had had nights in talking about the past and what life challenges they'd had, relationships that they'd had and people that they'd lost. Mark most certainly missed his foster parents but now he had Alicia to get to know more personally and hopefully be able to call her mother. Nathaniel and Alicia hadn't come out about their relationship purely because of him being her commanding officer. However, Nathaniel had come up with an idea to have a duel leadership. Alicia would be in charge of civilian part of the colony whereas the Nathaniel would be how a commander would be in charge in the military. Alicia would therefore no longer be in charge of her unit sorting out the mother and son problem. Nathaniel was determined to make this work, he'd not acted on his feeling for Wash which meant that a lot of time had been lost, he wasn't about to lose any more time. The announcement of the charge was to be made inanimately, the crowd of both civilians and soldiers stood looking up at the command centre. With Wash by his side he began to speak. He started with the small saboteur problem that had been occurring "As you all know we have been having problems with the colonies power, someone has been deactivating the power mains in the lower deck of our power station, if anyone knows anything about this please come forward later on today, I will be in the command centre a 9 sharp. I also want to address that Mrs Detoir has been awoken on several occasions by what she thinks is a group of youths. People we need to respect others when it gets later on a night, I know a lot of you have been working a lot harder than usual due to the festival coming up, so those who are out late at night but before curfew please keep it down." He paused and briefly looked at Wash. "Now on a lighter note I have an announcement to make. I am relinquishing my leadership of civilians to who you will now call Ms Washington. I will only be in charge of our military. People this is due to... due to ..." he looked at Wash for help but received none she was trying to avoid everyone's gaze who had just been surprised by the announcement of leadership. "Well as you all know me and Wash have been working together for a very long time, over time friendships get stronger, are lost or are even developed into something else, love." he paused again "myself and Wash are now an item." he concluded. There was a moment of silence and then a loud cheer erupted. The people of the colony were more than happy they were ecstatic as if they'd been waiting for this moment for decades.
As Wash and Taylor made their way down the stairs they were congratulated by many, some declaring that it was about time and some saying that they were shocked but wished all the best. Mark approached Alicia and gave her a tight hug which was then followed by a hug from her potential daughter in law.
"Wow. I can't believe that this is finally happening. Who'd have thought it eh?" Mark asked with a smirk.
"I know." replied Wash. She gazed into the eyes of Nathaniel "and now we can walk our future, together." With that statement they started to walk back to Nathaniel's home. Before they reached the door however, the siren rang.