"But it wouldn't bother you at all. Because you don't care." Carolina's dead. There's no other explanation. He'd looked everywhere and sure, he looked for wash too but he'd been buried deep. Carolina? The director would've flaunted. Shoved into the front lines to prove that his way work best. The woman was never all that subtle.

But she's dead. Dead and gone and never, ever fucking coming back and it's just them. Him and this man with Wash's face and voice and it's all wrong.

he'll stay. He'll stay, he'll fight, and he'll die.

But he'll do it without bothering this merc.

"So quit pretending to give a damn." He shoulders past Wash and heads deeper into the caves, shoulders tight and jaw set. Brave new world, times change people and-

Fuck everything.