Second

When she picked him up years later, he wasn't Agent Washington anymore. He was Recovery One.

Project Freelancer was as good as done. They didn't need a pilot anymore to fly their agents in and out of fights. They needed a pilot only to bring some of the people from A to B and stuff. Not very exciting and she didn't like the paperwork and administration works she had to do now. But it was a job and all she wanted was to do her fucking job and have some peace at the end of the day.

She didn't recognize him right away.

When she walked up to her Pelican and commanded the last few useless helper to do their stuff, she saw the soldier in grey and yellow, talking to the Consoler. 479er thought of Washington, the immature, communicative young soldier. And she wondered who the guy was and if he would face the same fate as Washington did. Left alone and broken to a point he was unable to return to duty.

The Consoler left before she approached them. Good thing. She never really liked that scumbag because you had to be worried about slipping on the trail of slime he left behind.

She approached the soldier, coming to a halt in front of him. "Alright pal, rule number one: whatever you mess up on my ship, you clean it." Explained the pilot as she pointed over her shoulder with a thumb towards her ship. "Or you and me are gonna have a real problem, got that?" The man didn't falter at all like they usually did. He just stood there, shoulders square.

"I know the rules of your ship."

He sounded off, like it wasn't himself talking. But 479er recognized his voice. It was her who faltered. But there was nothing else coming from Washington, from Recovery one. So she decided to say something anyway.

"I didn't think I'd be bringing you to the field ever again, Wash."

It was like she could feel him scowl behind the visor but his stands didn't change at all. "A lot of things happen you never expected" he replied, voice even and distant. So unlikely him. "And my designation is Recovery One, as you should know."

"I know. And I also know you were under article twelve." She never had been the supporting kind of girl like Agent Connecticut used to be. 479er crossed her arms, considering Washington as if he wasn't the one who had been the annoying and naive kid brother to everyone. Just another soldier.

"Were is the magic word here" he said dismissively. "Can we finally get this started?"

479er shrugged. It wasn't like she knew exactly what happened to him. Failure during the implantation of the A.I. No longer stable and now unfit for duty. "Alright, then let's get moving."

The flight was quiet. Washington didn't talk to her. He didn't avoid her but all he talked about was the mission. And so there wasn't much to say.

When she stopped the ship near their location he just got up and walked to the back of the ship. She remembered him complaining all the time when he had to jump.

She opened up the backside and while the gate slid open, she turned in her seat to look back at Washington. "Hey, you know I hate corpses in my ship", she called. "So try not to die out there."

He looked back at her, though only briefly. "Don't worry about that. Picking up corpses is my job now." He jumped after that, not even waiting for a response.

"Huh." There was nothing to say anyway. So 479er headed back with her ship, waiting for her next order. Who the fuck thought about sending Washington in the field as Recovery One?

She flew him a few times after that. He still only talked to her about the mission, that didn't change. She did the same.

479er thought it was because everything besides the obedient soldier broke away. But sometimes she caught him leaning sideward against the wall so he could look out of the window, head titled against the cold metal. It looks more like him, even though 479er couldn't quite say why.

There were the other times when she saw him quickly cling to the nearest thing when she did a maneuver other people might call critical or something. So she thought a few pieces might be left there.

And so she wondered if these pieces were going to break as well when she dropped him off to get Agent New York.

After 479er dropped him off to get Delta and York, she didn't pick him up and only gave him a transition with orders to pick up North Dakota and Theta right away.

Command had an enemy and they also had a plan. Both South Dakota and Washington were only pawns in this. They were right about Washington not killing South. He was still Wash, somehow, somewhere. They were right about the enemy coming after them. They were right about South Dakota not caring for her team.

But they underestimated her determination to get an A.I.

South was gone with Delta when the recovery beacon from Washington got off and 479er didn't have anything to do with it. It wasn't her job to pick up corpses and there was no hurry for the recovery team to get to Washington since he had no important equipment on him.

She was drinking her coffee in the office, wondering how the perfect little soldier Wash had become could have been so stupid and not put a bullet through this troublesome womans head.

It wasn't until after five hours, when her shift almost was finished and she wanted to go to bed that she got the message to ASAP get with a medic crew to the place where the last beacon went off.

The recovery team found Washington severely wounded but still alive.

Well, shit. Maybe she should have known. He was always like a cockroach.