Tabitha

By Fish & RSB

* * *

Wash frowned when Zoe shook her head in response to the bowl of soup he pushed toward her. She had her elbows propped up on the edge of the dining table, head bowed in the manner he recognized as ‘Not feeling well, do not feed the grumpy warrior woman’. She hadn’t had an appetite for a few days, and had been tired and foul-tempered; even the captain had given her a wide berth. “Baby, you have to eat something,” he said with no small amount of concern.

A slow side to side shake of those chocolate curls gave Wash all the answer he was going to get.

“Come on, it’s easy,” he continued, taking up a spoonful of soup. Wash began making engine sounds and maneuvering the spoon in a looping spiral that began to shorten as it approached Zoe.

“Good old soup coming in for a landing!” he announced. The spoon came to a halt in front of Zoe and hovered. “Earth-that-was to Zoe! Come in, Zoe!”

She finally lifted her head and the glare behind her red-rimmed eyes sent the spoon hastily back to the bowl. “Leave it, Wash. I’m not going to tell you again.”

“Look, I know you haven’t been feeling well, baby,” he began.

Zoe’s glare deepened slightly.

“But if you’re not going to eat anything for a couple days, and be cranky with everyone, maybe you should let us know in advance? Or at least go see the doctor? You know, the really socially clumsy one with the sometime creepy sister-girl?”

“Don’t need to see the doctor,” Zoe replied, putting her head back down. “I just need to-“

“See the doctor,” Wash finished. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Please. It isn’t as if he’s going to say you only have four weeks to live or you’ve got something planted in the back of your neck or that you need dentures. Just some simple medical advice, maybe get you healthy and hungry again.”

“I’m plenty healthy,” Zoe insisted.

“You were like this during the war, weren’t you? Wasn’t she?” Wash asked, turning to the captain as he walked into the mess hall. “She was, wasn’t she. Wal