Taylor stared at the paper evidence that he held in his hands, the undefinable proof that he and Wash had more history together than he had ever thought in the form of a son, a son that Wash had given up for adoption and not even told him about it or her pregnancy not that there would have been anything he could have done about it.

He had been married at the time and there had been his wife and son Lucas to think about but he would have liked to have known that he had another child out there, even if there would have been nothing he could have done about it.

For a moment a brief flare of irritation ran up his spine as he thought of Wash's duplicity on the matter and the living evidence of their one night stand was still in the brig for his possible betrayal of the colony which with Taylor having now discovered his parentage and true identity was for once in his life at a loss over how to deal with it.

He angrily glared once more at the papers that he held tightly bunched in his hands, screwed up tightly as he tried to do what was necessary to protect the colony but having already lost one son he was loathe to lose another.

"Sir?"

Taylor looked up to see his now second in command standing by the open door looking into his office with a questioning look on his face. Waving the man in he stared momentarily back at the papers he still held in his hands as his fellow officer waited for him to come to a decision.

As Guz waited patiently for Taylor's decision about Marshall he knew how hard it had been for the man standing behind the desk in the room, not only was Marshall a good communications Officer but the fact that he was Taylor's flesh and blood a fact which until recently had been unknown.

"I know what I must do, if this paper evidence is correct and that is to banish him from the colony but with no more people coming through the portal we need every person we have to keep the colony going. Not only that he was under-age when he signed up and technically is still under-age now for any patrols outside the perimeter. I just don't know what to do about this situation Guz."

Guz pondered for a moment before he gave his input to his commander and old friend, he understood the difficulty of the decision that Taylor had to make and he did not envy the commander one little bit. He knew himself that if it was his daughter who had done what young Marshall had apparently done and was now being judged for her alleged crime that he as her father would not be able to do what was required but as a soldier he knew he would have to.

As he was about to answer Commander Taylor a knock and a cough was heard at the door, turning he and Taylor saw Boylan standing in the open doorway studying the two men in the room before him.

"Err I might have a solution if you are willing to listen about what to do with young Ryan Marshall.

Taylor bristled at Boylan's assumption that he could interfere in business that was frankly none of his business and he stood a little taller as he tried to rebuff the man.

"This has nothing to do with you Boylan."

Boylan stepped into the room ignoring Taylor's words and holding his hands up as if to ward off some unknown threat.

"Just give me a minute, please Taylor hear me out, if not for young Ryan's sake then at least for the memory of his late mother."

XXXX

Over at the brig the young man in question was sat in the corner of his cell hunched up in an effort to combat the cold of sitting on a bare concrete floor, he glanced briefly over at the sodden bed on the other side of the small badly lit cell, wrinkling his nose at the smell of urine that radiated from the bed.

One of the guards the night before had thought it funny to urinate all over the bed while Ryan was being questioned again by Taylor and when he was returned to his cell, the guard had snickered in delight after throwing him into the small room sniggering as he told the young teen to enjoy his night's sleep on his now wet stinking bed.

Ryan groaned softly as he tried to shift his body into a more comfortable position and barely heard the noise of the door opening, something kicked his foot and he glanced up to see the guard that he had come to loathe glaring down at him, a plate in his hand.

"Here's your food traitor, hope you enjoy it I added some extra seasoning to it just for you," he sneered.

As he was about to place it on the small ledge that double as a seat and a table the plate seemingly accidental toppled from his hand landing on the floor with a resounding clanging yet squelching noise as the metal plate landed food side down on the floor.

"Oh dear I've dropped your food…that's aright though traitors like you don't need to eat do you or if you are hungry you can eat off the floor like an animal because you're nothing better, are you," the guard sneered.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE SOLDIER?"

The guard turned to find an irate Mark Reynolds's standing behind him in the small cell glaring at him as he caught him taunting the prisoner within.

Growling he reached forward and hauled the guard out of the cell slamming him up against the wall outside of the cell knocking the air out of the older man's lungs as Reynolds continued to growl at him, anger radiating off him at the manner in which he had caught the soldier tormenting the younger soldier.

"Get out of here before I report you to Lieutenant Guzman for your treatment of the prisoner within."

"You can't tell me what to do Reynolds's you don't have the authority."

"NO BUT I DO!"

Reynolds and the guard looked over at the sound of the slightly raised and angry voice from further down the hallway, Lieutenant Guzman stood not far from them, like Reynolds anger radiating off him at the situation to which he had walked into. He had heard some of what Reynolds's had said and through the open doorway to the cell beyond the two men he could see Ryan still sat hunched on the floor the remains of the meal that had just been delivered to him on the floor.

"Reynolds put this piece of scum into the cell over there and then returns to me here, to help me escort young Marshall to the commander."

"Yes sir," Reynolds replied to Gus's order as he hauled the guard off the wall and pushed him towards the cell on the other side of the hallway pushing the man roughly inside not caring if he stumbled and landed on the floor before he slammed the door shut and returned to the other cell where Guzman was squatted down in front of Ryan trying to get him up from the floor.