It's been coming up a lot lately, sneaking in between the nastier Niska-inspired dreams; as if his subconscious decided, hey, so long as we're reliving one of the worst days or your life, why not relive the other one, too?

Wash is heartily sick of it.

The fact that Ace is going through the same thing not too far away sure as hell doesn't help any, either.

He gently traces his thumb up and down her side, focusing, simply, on that: on her. On breath, and heartbeat, and --

Naomi chooses that moment to give them both a strong boot to the ribs.

"Oof."