It wasn't often that Wash was able to directly partake in any of the action that cropped up on the crew's various heists. He was the pilot and that, of course, meant that he always got stuck with the piloty things.

While that was fun – he had ample time to create new and exciting scenarios with his toy dinosaurs – it was not exactly fulfilling after what? A couple of months now? Yeah. That sounded about right.

It got tiring sometimes, more often than not these days.

Job after job, he watched as Zoe and Mal left the ship to trade or smuggle something onto the worlds they visited and job after job, all he could do was wait while the uncertainty of their continued safety lay heavy on his shoulders and the urge to look out for their arrival plagued him, sending his heart racing every time static filled the radio and gunfire went off in the distance.

It was always a relief when the static made way for the voices of his wife and the captain and when the gunfire turned out to be theirs, but sometimes it wasn't enough. He needed to be doing something more. He needed to be out there.

At the moment, he was stuck in the background like the feint, barely noticeable dots off in the distance that were actually planets but appeared to be no more than flaws in the blanket of night. At the moment, he had nothing more to do than sit and wait and prepare for a quick take off if something came up.

Just once, he'd like to be in on the action. Just once.