York's Interdimension Basket of Washes

[notyourrookie]

York is done with this. Every Wash needs a comfy, happy and most of all, not horrifying and trauma-inducing space where they can feel safe. A place where the horrors that inevitably await them in their own universes cannot intrude.

And York will provide. Even if he has to drag them across universes to do so.

Comments

[churbooseanon]

"Can't beat him again," David says simply. A perfect moment when the bits of Epsilon crystalized into something useful within him.

[depthlesslock]

'Sounds like you did it when you needed to though,' he points out. He starts leading the way through the base, keeping an eye out for Florida, though he's pretty certain the guy's out, either on a job or something else.

[churbooseanon]

"I ca'nt do it again," David repeats simply as he follows, looking at the floor. "Trust me. I'd need Epsilon, and he's... I don't know where he is."

[depthlesslock]

'People rarely no where he is in this world either,' he says. 'What did they do with him after they separated you?'

[churbooseanon]

"I don't know," David admits. 'Somewhere under PFL control. They took him from me in surgery, after he killed himself in my head. Except AI's don't die like that. They took the pieces still in the chip and left all of these fragments in my mind and all he left me, and they took me to a medical ship. It was prison under another name. You came for me though..."

[depthlesslock]

He's not sure whether to be grateful that at least they got him out of Wash's head, or mad that they took him away and are probably doing God knows what to him.

'Like a psychiatric hospital? Away from the others? Fucking assholes.' He pauses at the next news, but quickly keeps walking again. 'Thank God.' He came back for Wash. He and North both, probably. Thank God.

[churbooseanon]

"They wanted to know what I knew, and were going to keep me there forever," David says. He knows, because that's what he would have done in the Director's position. "I was going to just disappear."

[depthlesslock]

'So you couldn't reveal what you knew about what they'd done to Alpha and anything else,' he summarises. Well, it's a logical decision, but 'Fuck that.'

[churbooseanon]

"You have no clue how hard it is to live with that knowledge, to loathe them and have to seem loyal," David whispers.

[depthlesslock]

'I don't,' he agrees quietly. 'That must have been so unbelievably difficult, I can't even imagine.'

[churbooseanon]

"You can't," David agrees. 'Be thankful. Now... where is the fruit?"

[depthlesslock]

He is, very thankful. But he won't say that. He smiles at Wash's eagerness for fruit.

'This way,' he says, steering him down the hall.

[churbooseanon]

"What kind of fruit?" David asks. Does he have to share?

[depthlesslock]

'All sorts,' he replies. 'And plenty of it.

[churbooseanon]

"Why?" Is it cheaper here? If so, David is jealous.

[depthlesslock]

'Because the two Washes already here have been having a tough time lately, with eat-sh other and other things, so I'm trying to t-sheer them up.'

[churbooseanon]

Huh?

"Two other Washes?" David asks, shocked. He thought there was only one.

[depthlesslock]

'Yeah, the one who's always been here and then another one fell through the portal from an alternate universe same as you several months ago.'

[churbooseanon]

"Right, I remember," David says softly. For a moment he'd forgotten something. How sweet.

[depthlesslock]

York smiles and gently pats him on the shoulder, then guides him the last few feet of the corridor and opens the door into the main room.

[churbooseanon]

So there is the promised fruit. But why is it in the middle of multiple hims and a mound of pillows and blankets. Suddenly David isn't so certain of this idea.

"Uh..." He frowns at the gathering. York had said a nest, but... "Hello."

[notyourrookie]

Despite his earlier protests, the nest is actually pretty comfortable. And there is plenty of fruit. Enough that even he has had to take a break for a while.

He's got his datapad in one hand, catching up on some reading, something that he hasn't really done for ages, and he looks up warily when someone comes in and-

There's a jolt when he recognises him. Another him. That's never going to stop being weird. The Native Wash had fallen asleep curled up in a corner with a mound of blankets.

He looks the new him over. "Hey."

[churbooseanon]

This one isn't the one from this world. David knows it because... Well, he can recognize a few of the scars, ones the other them isn't in possession of. Seems like their worlds are a bit more... like. But this one is older. Interesting.

David shuffles nervously from foot to foot. He doesn't want to know this man's past, doesn't want another memory on top of the others, but he has to ask.

"PFL?"

[notyourrookie]

He sets the datapad aside and turns so he can get a better look at the other Wash, gaze flicking over him. Same scars, some of them. The haunted look in his eyes.

He gives a short nod. "Yeah. Epsilon?"

[churbooseanon]

"Yeah," David says softly before stepping carefully into the mounds and picking up a smaller pillow that had been set aside. "Yeah."

How else could he say it. Here, at last, someone who knew what it was like. "Did he...?"

He can't even put the words into the other man's mouth.