[Adrenaline gathering in the pit of his stomach, the tang of anticipated failure sticking in his throat. It's floodgates, minutes away from crashing open and making it bitterly apparent that too much time has passed for Wash to simply back into step with an old teammate deemed dead rogue and worse more times than should be feasible.]
[Contemplate committing this to memory, in case this is real, in case it's the last time he ever sees him. Contemplate it, but decide against it, because memory is a sieve, reliable only in its unreliability.]
[He's certain the failure will be his. It'll have to be. If the last thing Maine remembers is the mission, would it occur to him that his old teammates might be scared of him when he isn't even aware that they are, in fact, old teammates?]
[But he manages it: a low whisper, a fractional nod.]
no subject
[Contemplate committing this to memory, in case this is real, in case it's the last time he ever sees him. Contemplate it, but decide against it, because memory is a sieve, reliable only in its unreliability.]
[He's certain the failure will be his. It'll have to be. If the last thing Maine remembers is the mission, would it occur to him that his old teammates might be scared of him when he isn't even aware that they are, in fact, old teammates?]
[But he manages it: a low whisper, a fractional nod.]
Sync.
[Here we go.]