Wash looked up from his hand at the young woman who’d addressed him. Her words made him smile, albeit wearily. “Yeah, I know, but the pinching thing wasn’t working. In my defense, I didn’t expect it to actually hurt...”
Because punching walls usually didn’t hurt. Wash was aware that he probably looked somewhat insane to this girl. Taking a deep breath, he glanced back down at his hand and tried moving his fingers again. He winced at the pain.
“My hand’s pretty messed up,” he admitted. “So not so much with the ‘okay’.” Her suggestion of visiting a hospital was sound, sensible, and logical, but for Wash, there were more pressing matters. He shook his head.
“I shouldn’t. There are people I need to find.” He maintained the tiny smile, trying to be friendly despite the pain. No point in being rude to someone who was trying to be helpful. “You haven’t happened to see a man with a long brown coat, or an Amazonian goddess, or a Shepherd, or a doctor, or a Companion or anything, have you?” It was a complete shot in the dark, but he had to start his search somewhere.