There's got to be a morning after [VERY OPEN]

[craaazyisland]

It took a few moments for any thoughts to register for Steve when he opened his eyes. He recognized the inside of a quarantine bubble, that was for sure, but it took him longer to recognize the medical equipment hooked up to him, an IV in his arm and bandages wrapped around his bare shoulder and in a few other spots.

It didn't take long to recognize the feeling of having been run over by a truck, either. Every bone in his body ached, and even the slightest movement made him want to groan. It felt like he'd been asleep for a month-- a dreamless sleep, preceded by blurry, disconnected memories of what felt like a dream.

Memories of something he desperately, desperately hoped was just a dream. He had a sinking feeling it wasn't and part of him knew it to be the truth. But desperately hoping was the only way he could keep himself from screaming, which would hurt, so he'd keep on with that desperate hope anyway.

Steve lay awake and stared at the ceiling. Maybe if he stayed quiet they'd think he was still asleep, and he could put the truth and all the fear and sorrow that came with it off a while longer.

Comments

[leafonthewind]

Wash made a face. Steve looked like River, tucked away in a corner in a ball. The way she'd looked after she'd been unleashed at the space port. "That makes a lot of us," Wash said. He couldn't count how many times they should have crashed in a ball of fire but he'd gotten them down safely anyway.

"I'm Wash," he said, changing the subject. He resisted the urge to make some kind of snarky remark about the kid's name being 'green and nasty' - he already felt bad enough, he didn't need Wash piling on.

[craaazyisland]

At least this guy seemed pretty nice. And genuinely so, too. Steve was acutely aware of when people were just pretending to be nice to get something out of you or to get you to do something for them. With both of them stuck in quarantine, the odds of that were pretty low.

"Steve," he replied.

[leafonthewind]

"Good to meet you," Wash said, and then because the brakes on his mouth only lasted so long, "You know, now that you're not trying to eat me. Sorry."

He wasn't going to tiptoe around the subject. River responded much better when you didn't tiptoe around the fact that she was crazy and could kill you in your sleep with minimal effort. This kid seemed a lot more stable than River, but you never knew.

[craaazyisland]

Fortunately for Wash, Steve had a pitch black sense of humor when he didn't feel defensive. "I don't think I actually eat people. More like crush them to death," he corrected. "Or at least that's how it was the last two times."

He shrugged. "Nobody died but I don't think I'm gonna get off that easy."