"York left with her while I was comatose," Wash says. "They came back, attacked the MoI just as I woke up. North left to help them. They went after the Alpha. Never came for me. Had time to get South out before the ship crashed though." And he knows there's reasons. He knows there's explanations. But he'll never hear them and part of him wonders if it just amounts to 'you weren't valuable enough'.

He notices the way the other Wash hunches up and sighs, then reaches out to wrap an arm around him.

"You need a memory that's just yours. Something you know can't be Epsilon or Alpha or the Director. Something that's an anchor."