He sucks in a breath when York does that, his fingers warm against the line of his jaw. It's very intimate. He opens his eyes to look at him, and York is so very close. In the back of his mind, Wash is calculating the hundred or so ways he could kill him while they're like this, the constant background noise of his life these days.

But mainly he's just concentrating on York touching him.

He doesn't know the half of it. He wonders if York can see the guilt in his face, the wretched taint that he carries with him every day since he'd made his deal with Charon in exchange for his freedom. He wasn't sure it was worth it.

"Yeah," he says, the words bitter as ash in his mouth, "helping." He turns his head away just so he doesn't have to see the look on York's face. "You think there are some things you can't come back from?"