Expanding Quarters (2/2)
Title: Expanding Quarters
Character/Pairing: Taylor/Washington
Word Count: Part 1: 1,921. Part 2: 2,927
Genre: Romance (and smut)
Rating: R to NC-17.
Warning: : Sex. Coarse Language.
Spoiler alert: N/A
Summary: response to the prompt posted by mercscilla in the December prompt post, summarised as: Wash makes a formal request to add a bedroom to her quarters. Taylor’s first thought is: She is pregnant. And it's not mine.
Authors Note: Some of this second part was already written when I posted part 1, but most of it tried to come to me last night as I attempted to go to sleep at about 0100. So there’s stuff I wanted to add, but it had disappeared by morning. I hate that. Also, bonus points if you can tell who the cousin is based on. I’m not happy with this fic, but I got so cranky with it that I gave up on trying to smooth it out.
This fic is written ignoring all the speculation for the season’s end.
Part 1 here
Hope bloomed in Taylor’s chest when Wash said there was a man she wanted to be with. He told himself not to get too optimistic. It could be someone else. That’d probably kill me.
But then: “And just so we’re clear, he’s you. I want you.”
The look on her face betrayed how nervous she was, and he couldn’t bear it. He reached out and took her hand and pulled her into his embrace. And damn if that didn’t feel fine. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his neck. “Since we’re being clear,” he said and she stiffened a bit against his body, “I was seriously thinking of banishing Malcolm. If anyone’s knocking you up, it’s gonna be me.” He felt her relax, shaking in silent laughter.
“We’re a pair, aren’t we?” She pulled back to look at him.
“Yes, yes we are. And I hope we stay that way.”
Her smile lit up her face, and he was torn between watching it forever and kissing her. Kissing won. She slid a hand around the nape of his neck and pressed herself against him. He couldn’t remember a first kiss ever being this good. She kissed him back with passion and he was surprised as his body reacted like a teenager. He slid his lips along her jaw and down her neck. When kissed the spot under her ear, she gasped and arched her neck. She rocked her hips into his and grinned against his mouth as she felt his arousal.
His hands were on her arse and under her top, and hers were undoing his belt when both their communicators beeped. Wash thumped her forehead on Taylor’s shoulder in frustration. Guzman’s agitated voice told them that a distress call was coming in from a team OTG. They smiled ruefully at each other, fixed their clothing and headed out the door.
Hours later, dark had fallen and the situation with the team OTG was resolved. No one was hurt, and all was well. Taylor and Wash left the command tower together and by unspoken agreement walked to her quarters in an easy silence.
“Drink?” Wash asked as she opened her door and headed to the kitchen.
“Sure,” he said, watching her. He wasn’t sure where this was going tonight, and they were both tired, so if a drink with his lieutenant was all that was on the table, he was happy with that. He wasn’t worried anymore, and if what had happened in the command tower earlier in the day was anything to go by, neither was she.
Wash produced an unmarked bottle and two glasses and poured them each a couple of fingers worth of a deep amber liquor. Taylor took his and waited until she’d had a sip before he took one. It was rather good. “Where’d you get this?”
“2149,” She answered. “I keep it in a moonshine bottle so anyone snooping is less likely to procure it. It’s one of the last left.” She joined him on his side of the bench and they leant together and sipped their drinks. They regarded each other silently.
Taylor reached out and tucked an errant lock of hair behind Alicia’s ear. She turned her face into his touch, and he felt that gesture all the way to his soul. Such a simple thing to have such an effect. Wash took his glass from his hand and placed it beside her own on the bench. She just looked him for a moment, and then she took that half step to him and rested her palms on his chest. She slid her hands up over his shoulders and down his back as he placed his on her hips.
He walked his fingers around her lower back and up her spine, enjoying the little hum she made as he did so. Her hair was a silken weight slipping through his fingers. He reached up and gently pulled it out of its band, then ran his fingers through it and massaged her scalp. Her neck and shoulders were tense, so he spent a bit of time there. He watched as her face softened and she rolled her head back in bliss.
Her hands momentarily stilled as she enjoyed his massage, then a wicked smile spread over her face as she grabbed his butt with both hands and squeezed. So he kissed that grin, capturing her mouth and devouring her.
…
Alicia had never been kissed like this. Nathaniel crushed her to his body and placed hot, wet kisses from her ear to her collarbone. She knew she made some sort of animal sound, because he chuckled. “I completely agree,” he said.
“Shirt off now.” She pulled his t-shirt out of his waistband and started tugging it over his head. He cooperated and then she was presented with an expanse of smooth skin with a light sprinkling of salt & pepper hair. She loved his chest. And his arms. Definitely his arms. She’d spent entire patrols daydreaming about those arms. She ran her fingertips from his wrists to his neck, tracing the definition of his muscles and humming happily. She leant forward and kissed a jagged scar on his collarbone, and for a moment, she remembered who they were and where they’d been together. His hand on the nape of her neck was soft and gentle. Then the moment passed, and Taylor growled as Wash turned the kiss into a bite.
Pressed together, chests, bellies, thighs, mouths, Wash could feel his erection pressing against her, and there were too many clothes. She made quick work of his belt, and Taylor seemed to get the message. They could go slow later.
Clothes hit the floor in quick order after that, and the nearest flat surface was the dining room table. She backed into it, her hands on him, learning the shape and feel of him. Taylor caught her now bare breasts in both hands, rolling her nipples under his thumbs, and she felt that all the way to her toes. He grabbed her hips and placed her on the table, then bent to take a nipple in his mouth. “Oh, God.” She whispered to the ceiling, and felt him smile against her skin. She circled his flat brown nipples with her fingertips, which earned her a light scraping of teeth over her own. She hadn’t realised til now how much she liked that. There seemed to be a direct link between her nipples and her clit. She wasn’t going to last long.
He knew. Somehow he knew how ready she was. He touched her, sliding his fingers through the moisture, testing her. He used two fingers and his thumb on her clit to play her higher, and she couldn’t help digging her fingers into his shoulders. Later, she’d kiss each half-moon mark her nails left on his skin.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Oh yes.” And then in one quick movement he removed his hand and was inside her. The fat slide of penetration was almost enough to push her over the edge. As it was, only a few strokes later she was coming, clenching around him and sinking her teeth into his skin where his neck met his shoulder. From a distance she heard her own high-pitched breathy moans.
He moved gently, letting her come down, and when she kissed the mark she’d made on his neck, he lay her down on the desk, lifted her thighs higher on his hips and thrust, and rolled his hips and thrust again. He put one leg over his shoulder to free his hand to caress her breasts, then his thumb was pressing into her clit and she was coming again. He climaxed with her, a guttural moan in the form of her name escaping him. Taylor groaned as she fluttered around him, burying his face in her hair that lay spread over her shoulders.
I never, ever want to move she thought, ignoring the beginnings of a cramp in the leg that had been over his shoulder, and the hard wood of the table pressing into her spine. She ran her hands up and down his back as he regained control of his breathing. Hard wood. Heh..
…
Wash laughed softly. Taylor grunted into her neck. “What’s so funny?”
“We got a bit carried away,” she said.
He lifted his head to survey their surroundings. It was fortunate she didn’t keep much on her dining table, because everything that was there was now on the floor. “Probably a good thing we didn’t do this in the command centre. We didn’t even make it to the couch.”
“I do have plans for that desk though.”
“So do I, my love.” He felt her shiver all over when he said that. “But I’m not sure it’s got the structural integrity to live up to them.” He rolled his hips against her, “Especially if we fuck like that.”
She laughed out loud then; a proper full-bellied laugh that was the second best thing Taylor had seen in a long time. The first had been earlier as he watched her face as she came. He saw everything he’d ever need in that moment; that it was all it was to her as it was to him, and any tiny lingering doubts he had had evaporated.
Her laugh and the vibrations set him stirring inside her, and she cut off her laugh with a gasp. He grinned down at her.
“Already?”
“All your fault.” He started moving.
“Oh no. No, no.” she pushed at his shoulders. “My turn.” This time they made it too the couch, but it was a close-run thing.
Later, as they recovered the ability to speak, stuck together on the couch in a sweaty mess, Wash said, “A bed next time. I insist.”
“Honey, I plan on utilising every surface in the house.”
…
Wash stomped through her front door and through her main room, dropping her muddy gear as she went. She headed straight for the shower. Taylor appeared out of her bedroom, drawn by the crash of body armour on the floor. “Hey,” she mumbled. He made his way back to the door and collected all her equipment. “You don’t need to do that,” she said with a hint of annoyance as she stopped to watch him.
“I know,” he replied. “But I want to.” He took all her messy gear out to the laundry and started washing it.
Alicia shook her head and went to her shower. As she was shampooing her hair, she thought about how Taylor was already in her house when she got home. He had been spending less and less time in his own quarters in the command tower, and more and more in hers. They spent every night together now. It wasn’t at all unusual for him to be here without her. His things were scattered through her home, mingled with her own. His toiletries were lined up in the bathroom cabinet beside hers. His clothes were in her closet. If she were honest with herself, she admitted that she’d stopped calling it ‘her house’ some time ago. It was now their home. Her annoyance at being picked up after in her own home faded. He was painfully neat in his own spaces, and now this was his space too. They’d both have to do some adjusting.
Her cousin Shelly was arriving with the next pilgrimage in a day or so. Wash’d need to clean up anyway, and make sure the new room was ready, so her man’s fastidious was probably a good thing. She smiled to herself. Taylor and Shelly would at least have one thing in common: Shelly was totally anal. It’s probably the only thing anyone could have in common with Shelly.
She shut off the water. Wrapping the towel around herself she looked up to see Nathaniel standing in the doorway. He had the same hungry look in his eyes that he’d had that morning, before she got this massive hickey on her thigh. “You know,” he said, “You could just move in with me, and your cousin could have these quarters.”
She shook her head as she dried off. “Don’t you remember what happened the first time we spent the night at your place?”
His salacious smile told her that yes, he remembered very well.
“Jim’s still teasing me about it.” She hung up the towel and walked naked into the bedroom. “There’s no privacy in the command tower. And people are always there, on watch, manning the coms.”
“There’ll be no privacy here either after tomorrow.”
“It’s only until we get the housing shortage sorted.” She slid on a singlet and a pair of pants.
“That could take months.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I can’t bear to share you just yet.”
“We’ll just have to be creative then.”
…
There were a bunch of important scientists and other VIPs in this pilgrimage. After his welcome speech, he made his way around the group, meeting the big brainiacs who would save the human race.
Wash was speaking to a tall lanky woman about 30 years old. He made his way over to them. Wash introduced him to her cousin, Dr Shelly Cooper. Taylor extended his hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Dr Cooper.”
Shelly looked at his hand like he’d just offered to give her typhoid. “I never shake hands,” she said, “unless there’s a suitable sanitiser solution on hand, so to speak. And those trained apes at Hope Plaza wouldn’t let me bring mine.”
Oh, Brilliant, thought Taylor. She’s one of those. He gave Dr Cooper a polite nod and went in search of Guzman. He caught Wash’s eye as he turned away, and she burst into a fit of giggles. He gave her a look that plainly said, ‘You’ll keep.’ Guzman was talking to a few new recruits.
“Guz!” Taylor barked.
“Yessir?”
“From right now, the housing shortage is your top priority. Draft in whoever you want.” He looked around for his Lieutenant and found her speaking to Dr Shannon, who was checking over some hypoxic freshies.
Taylor took Wash’s elbow and pulled her a bit away from the group. “You could have warned me.”
“Where’s the fun in that? I really enjoyed the look on your face.”
“You do realise she’ll be living with us? In the same house?”
“Yep and I have every confidence in your ability to… rise above.”
Behind them, Shelly was saying to Dr Shannon, “I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested.”
…
Shelly Cooper was the most impossible person in the history of the world. Taylor had actually said that after a particularly trying incident involving one of the main computers, and Cooper replied, “That statement is incorrect. I exist, therefore I am quite obviously possible. What you should have said was, ‘I give up, she’s improbable’.”
She didn’t like being outside and spent most of her time in her room with a large data screen and mathematical equations that made Lucas’s rock scribbling look simple. Or so Taylor thought. He was a soldier, not an egg-head.
Wash had even gone so far as to enlist help from Reilly in getting Cooper to leave the house. That hadn’t gone well either: “How ‘bout we go for a walk to the markets?” Reilly had said.
“I don’t like outside.”
“What’s wrong with outside? There’s all sorts of interesting things outside.”
“If outside is so good, why has mankind spent thousands of years trying to perfect inside?” Cooper said, then launched into a soliloquy about the premise of her own statement when they were 80-something million years before the evolution of mankind.
So Wash and Taylor had indeed needed to be creative. Wash thought they were doing well at being discreet until she left Taylor in his small bathroom after a particularly enjoyable few moments alone, and Jim was wandering around the main room of the command tower with a range finder. “What are you doing?” Wash asked.
“I’m taking measurements for the soundproofing.” He tapped down a note. “After that first time when you set off that flock of pterosaurs, I think we need to take some preventative action, before someone thinks there’s a carno in the colony.”
Her trigger finger itched. It’d only be a short bout of unconsciousness. It was very tempting to shoot Shannon, and deny all knowledge. And hey, then I can hum I Shot The Sherriff and wouldn’t that be entertaining. It was only more irksome that she (and he) knew damn well that no one had heard them except Jim, because the man noticed everything and, she suspected, he was nosy bastard.
…
6 months later.
“Shelly’s moving out,” Wash told Taylor as she pulled her hair back and headed for the fridge.
“Thank God for that.” He stood in the kitchen, fresh from the shower and dressed only in cargo pants. They sat low on his hips, and did all sorts of things to Alicia’s insides. But there wasn’t time to explore that right now.
She gave him a look. “She’s not that bad.”
He snorted into his coffee. “Which house have you been living in?”
“It’s good timing.” She rummaged through the fridge. God, I miss milk.
“Hmmm?” he said, distracted by coffee that should be listed as a hazardous material.
“Otherwise we’d have to requisition another room.”
Character/Pairing: Taylor/Washington
Word Count: Part 1: 1,921. Part 2: 2,927
Genre: Romance (and smut)
Rating: R to NC-17.
Warning: : Sex. Coarse Language.
Spoiler alert: N/A
Summary: response to the prompt posted by mercscilla in the December prompt post, summarised as: Wash makes a formal request to add a bedroom to her quarters. Taylor’s first thought is: She is pregnant. And it's not mine.
Authors Note: Some of this second part was already written when I posted part 1, but most of it tried to come to me last night as I attempted to go to sleep at about 0100. So there’s stuff I wanted to add, but it had disappeared by morning. I hate that. Also, bonus points if you can tell who the cousin is based on. I’m not happy with this fic, but I got so cranky with it that I gave up on trying to smooth it out.
This fic is written ignoring all the speculation for the season’s end.
Part 1 here
Hope bloomed in Taylor’s chest when Wash said there was a man she wanted to be with. He told himself not to get too optimistic. It could be someone else. That’d probably kill me.
But then: “And just so we’re clear, he’s you. I want you.”
The look on her face betrayed how nervous she was, and he couldn’t bear it. He reached out and took her hand and pulled her into his embrace. And damn if that didn’t feel fine. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his neck. “Since we’re being clear,” he said and she stiffened a bit against his body, “I was seriously thinking of banishing Malcolm. If anyone’s knocking you up, it’s gonna be me.” He felt her relax, shaking in silent laughter.
“We’re a pair, aren’t we?” She pulled back to look at him.
“Yes, yes we are. And I hope we stay that way.”
Her smile lit up her face, and he was torn between watching it forever and kissing her. Kissing won. She slid a hand around the nape of his neck and pressed herself against him. He couldn’t remember a first kiss ever being this good. She kissed him back with passion and he was surprised as his body reacted like a teenager. He slid his lips along her jaw and down her neck. When kissed the spot under her ear, she gasped and arched her neck. She rocked her hips into his and grinned against his mouth as she felt his arousal.
His hands were on her arse and under her top, and hers were undoing his belt when both their communicators beeped. Wash thumped her forehead on Taylor’s shoulder in frustration. Guzman’s agitated voice told them that a distress call was coming in from a team OTG. They smiled ruefully at each other, fixed their clothing and headed out the door.
Hours later, dark had fallen and the situation with the team OTG was resolved. No one was hurt, and all was well. Taylor and Wash left the command tower together and by unspoken agreement walked to her quarters in an easy silence.
“Drink?” Wash asked as she opened her door and headed to the kitchen.
“Sure,” he said, watching her. He wasn’t sure where this was going tonight, and they were both tired, so if a drink with his lieutenant was all that was on the table, he was happy with that. He wasn’t worried anymore, and if what had happened in the command tower earlier in the day was anything to go by, neither was she.
Wash produced an unmarked bottle and two glasses and poured them each a couple of fingers worth of a deep amber liquor. Taylor took his and waited until she’d had a sip before he took one. It was rather good. “Where’d you get this?”
“2149,” She answered. “I keep it in a moonshine bottle so anyone snooping is less likely to procure it. It’s one of the last left.” She joined him on his side of the bench and they leant together and sipped their drinks. They regarded each other silently.
Taylor reached out and tucked an errant lock of hair behind Alicia’s ear. She turned her face into his touch, and he felt that gesture all the way to his soul. Such a simple thing to have such an effect. Wash took his glass from his hand and placed it beside her own on the bench. She just looked him for a moment, and then she took that half step to him and rested her palms on his chest. She slid her hands up over his shoulders and down his back as he placed his on her hips.
He walked his fingers around her lower back and up her spine, enjoying the little hum she made as he did so. Her hair was a silken weight slipping through his fingers. He reached up and gently pulled it out of its band, then ran his fingers through it and massaged her scalp. Her neck and shoulders were tense, so he spent a bit of time there. He watched as her face softened and she rolled her head back in bliss.
Her hands momentarily stilled as she enjoyed his massage, then a wicked smile spread over her face as she grabbed his butt with both hands and squeezed. So he kissed that grin, capturing her mouth and devouring her.
…
Alicia had never been kissed like this. Nathaniel crushed her to his body and placed hot, wet kisses from her ear to her collarbone. She knew she made some sort of animal sound, because he chuckled. “I completely agree,” he said.
“Shirt off now.” She pulled his t-shirt out of his waistband and started tugging it over his head. He cooperated and then she was presented with an expanse of smooth skin with a light sprinkling of salt & pepper hair. She loved his chest. And his arms. Definitely his arms. She’d spent entire patrols daydreaming about those arms. She ran her fingertips from his wrists to his neck, tracing the definition of his muscles and humming happily. She leant forward and kissed a jagged scar on his collarbone, and for a moment, she remembered who they were and where they’d been together. His hand on the nape of her neck was soft and gentle. Then the moment passed, and Taylor growled as Wash turned the kiss into a bite.
Pressed together, chests, bellies, thighs, mouths, Wash could feel his erection pressing against her, and there were too many clothes. She made quick work of his belt, and Taylor seemed to get the message. They could go slow later.
Clothes hit the floor in quick order after that, and the nearest flat surface was the dining room table. She backed into it, her hands on him, learning the shape and feel of him. Taylor caught her now bare breasts in both hands, rolling her nipples under his thumbs, and she felt that all the way to her toes. He grabbed her hips and placed her on the table, then bent to take a nipple in his mouth. “Oh, God.” She whispered to the ceiling, and felt him smile against her skin. She circled his flat brown nipples with her fingertips, which earned her a light scraping of teeth over her own. She hadn’t realised til now how much she liked that. There seemed to be a direct link between her nipples and her clit. She wasn’t going to last long.
He knew. Somehow he knew how ready she was. He touched her, sliding his fingers through the moisture, testing her. He used two fingers and his thumb on her clit to play her higher, and she couldn’t help digging her fingers into his shoulders. Later, she’d kiss each half-moon mark her nails left on his skin.
“Yes,” she breathed. “Oh yes.” And then in one quick movement he removed his hand and was inside her. The fat slide of penetration was almost enough to push her over the edge. As it was, only a few strokes later she was coming, clenching around him and sinking her teeth into his skin where his neck met his shoulder. From a distance she heard her own high-pitched breathy moans.
He moved gently, letting her come down, and when she kissed the mark she’d made on his neck, he lay her down on the desk, lifted her thighs higher on his hips and thrust, and rolled his hips and thrust again. He put one leg over his shoulder to free his hand to caress her breasts, then his thumb was pressing into her clit and she was coming again. He climaxed with her, a guttural moan in the form of her name escaping him. Taylor groaned as she fluttered around him, burying his face in her hair that lay spread over her shoulders.
I never, ever want to move she thought, ignoring the beginnings of a cramp in the leg that had been over his shoulder, and the hard wood of the table pressing into her spine. She ran her hands up and down his back as he regained control of his breathing. Hard wood. Heh..
…
Wash laughed softly. Taylor grunted into her neck. “What’s so funny?”
“We got a bit carried away,” she said.
He lifted his head to survey their surroundings. It was fortunate she didn’t keep much on her dining table, because everything that was there was now on the floor. “Probably a good thing we didn’t do this in the command centre. We didn’t even make it to the couch.”
“I do have plans for that desk though.”
“So do I, my love.” He felt her shiver all over when he said that. “But I’m not sure it’s got the structural integrity to live up to them.” He rolled his hips against her, “Especially if we fuck like that.”
She laughed out loud then; a proper full-bellied laugh that was the second best thing Taylor had seen in a long time. The first had been earlier as he watched her face as she came. He saw everything he’d ever need in that moment; that it was all it was to her as it was to him, and any tiny lingering doubts he had had evaporated.
Her laugh and the vibrations set him stirring inside her, and she cut off her laugh with a gasp. He grinned down at her.
“Already?”
“All your fault.” He started moving.
“Oh no. No, no.” she pushed at his shoulders. “My turn.” This time they made it too the couch, but it was a close-run thing.
Later, as they recovered the ability to speak, stuck together on the couch in a sweaty mess, Wash said, “A bed next time. I insist.”
“Honey, I plan on utilising every surface in the house.”
…
Wash stomped through her front door and through her main room, dropping her muddy gear as she went. She headed straight for the shower. Taylor appeared out of her bedroom, drawn by the crash of body armour on the floor. “Hey,” she mumbled. He made his way back to the door and collected all her equipment. “You don’t need to do that,” she said with a hint of annoyance as she stopped to watch him.
“I know,” he replied. “But I want to.” He took all her messy gear out to the laundry and started washing it.
Alicia shook her head and went to her shower. As she was shampooing her hair, she thought about how Taylor was already in her house when she got home. He had been spending less and less time in his own quarters in the command tower, and more and more in hers. They spent every night together now. It wasn’t at all unusual for him to be here without her. His things were scattered through her home, mingled with her own. His toiletries were lined up in the bathroom cabinet beside hers. His clothes were in her closet. If she were honest with herself, she admitted that she’d stopped calling it ‘her house’ some time ago. It was now their home. Her annoyance at being picked up after in her own home faded. He was painfully neat in his own spaces, and now this was his space too. They’d both have to do some adjusting.
Her cousin Shelly was arriving with the next pilgrimage in a day or so. Wash’d need to clean up anyway, and make sure the new room was ready, so her man’s fastidious was probably a good thing. She smiled to herself. Taylor and Shelly would at least have one thing in common: Shelly was totally anal. It’s probably the only thing anyone could have in common with Shelly.
She shut off the water. Wrapping the towel around herself she looked up to see Nathaniel standing in the doorway. He had the same hungry look in his eyes that he’d had that morning, before she got this massive hickey on her thigh. “You know,” he said, “You could just move in with me, and your cousin could have these quarters.”
She shook her head as she dried off. “Don’t you remember what happened the first time we spent the night at your place?”
His salacious smile told her that yes, he remembered very well.
“Jim’s still teasing me about it.” She hung up the towel and walked naked into the bedroom. “There’s no privacy in the command tower. And people are always there, on watch, manning the coms.”
“There’ll be no privacy here either after tomorrow.”
“It’s only until we get the housing shortage sorted.” She slid on a singlet and a pair of pants.
“That could take months.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I can’t bear to share you just yet.”
“We’ll just have to be creative then.”
…
There were a bunch of important scientists and other VIPs in this pilgrimage. After his welcome speech, he made his way around the group, meeting the big brainiacs who would save the human race.
Wash was speaking to a tall lanky woman about 30 years old. He made his way over to them. Wash introduced him to her cousin, Dr Shelly Cooper. Taylor extended his hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Dr Cooper.”
Shelly looked at his hand like he’d just offered to give her typhoid. “I never shake hands,” she said, “unless there’s a suitable sanitiser solution on hand, so to speak. And those trained apes at Hope Plaza wouldn’t let me bring mine.”
Oh, Brilliant, thought Taylor. She’s one of those. He gave Dr Cooper a polite nod and went in search of Guzman. He caught Wash’s eye as he turned away, and she burst into a fit of giggles. He gave her a look that plainly said, ‘You’ll keep.’ Guzman was talking to a few new recruits.
“Guz!” Taylor barked.
“Yessir?”
“From right now, the housing shortage is your top priority. Draft in whoever you want.” He looked around for his Lieutenant and found her speaking to Dr Shannon, who was checking over some hypoxic freshies.
Taylor took Wash’s elbow and pulled her a bit away from the group. “You could have warned me.”
“Where’s the fun in that? I really enjoyed the look on your face.”
“You do realise she’ll be living with us? In the same house?”
“Yep and I have every confidence in your ability to… rise above.”
Behind them, Shelly was saying to Dr Shannon, “I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested.”
…
Shelly Cooper was the most impossible person in the history of the world. Taylor had actually said that after a particularly trying incident involving one of the main computers, and Cooper replied, “That statement is incorrect. I exist, therefore I am quite obviously possible. What you should have said was, ‘I give up, she’s improbable’.”
She didn’t like being outside and spent most of her time in her room with a large data screen and mathematical equations that made Lucas’s rock scribbling look simple. Or so Taylor thought. He was a soldier, not an egg-head.
Wash had even gone so far as to enlist help from Reilly in getting Cooper to leave the house. That hadn’t gone well either: “How ‘bout we go for a walk to the markets?” Reilly had said.
“I don’t like outside.”
“What’s wrong with outside? There’s all sorts of interesting things outside.”
“If outside is so good, why has mankind spent thousands of years trying to perfect inside?” Cooper said, then launched into a soliloquy about the premise of her own statement when they were 80-something million years before the evolution of mankind.
So Wash and Taylor had indeed needed to be creative. Wash thought they were doing well at being discreet until she left Taylor in his small bathroom after a particularly enjoyable few moments alone, and Jim was wandering around the main room of the command tower with a range finder. “What are you doing?” Wash asked.
“I’m taking measurements for the soundproofing.” He tapped down a note. “After that first time when you set off that flock of pterosaurs, I think we need to take some preventative action, before someone thinks there’s a carno in the colony.”
Her trigger finger itched. It’d only be a short bout of unconsciousness. It was very tempting to shoot Shannon, and deny all knowledge. And hey, then I can hum I Shot The Sherriff and wouldn’t that be entertaining. It was only more irksome that she (and he) knew damn well that no one had heard them except Jim, because the man noticed everything and, she suspected, he was nosy bastard.
…
6 months later.
“Shelly’s moving out,” Wash told Taylor as she pulled her hair back and headed for the fridge.
“Thank God for that.” He stood in the kitchen, fresh from the shower and dressed only in cargo pants. They sat low on his hips, and did all sorts of things to Alicia’s insides. But there wasn’t time to explore that right now.
She gave him a look. “She’s not that bad.”
He snorted into his coffee. “Which house have you been living in?”
“It’s good timing.” She rummaged through the fridge. God, I miss milk.
“Hmmm?” he said, distracted by coffee that should be listed as a hazardous material.
“Otherwise we’d have to requisition another room.”