"Doubt that's an option. He won't go without Maxine. And Maxine...well...she told me to be nicer to him. I don't think she understands, really," Wash explained. It was a difficult situation and he couldn't just 'end', as Zoe put it, someone who his 5 year old knew without a good reason.
"Jo nearly killed him when she first saw him," he said with a chuckle. "See, we had him in a closet! It really did seem like a good idea at the time. Looking back on it...shoulda put a lock on that door."
The thought amused him in that impish, mischievous way that something forbidden would do to an otherwise kind soul as himself.
"Didn't ask the staff," he replied, simply. "Just figured. Any reason why that woulda been a problem?"
He wasn't an idiot. He read her anxiety immediately. Those facial twitches, the little crinkle of her forehead, the slight tightening of her jaw. It was like learning to ride a bike again and he remembered everything that had defined her.