And We're All Falling

Second Time Around

So, I bribed Carolina into giving me your number...hope you don't mind...

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Who is this?

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Wash...wanted to say I was sorry about the other day...

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The other day was nothing. It won't happen again.

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You and I know it wasn't nothing, but never mind that. I know North's ready to murder me over that whole situation.

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Well, he's close to wanting to do that....anyway, I guess we should try again.

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Again?

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Yes, again. I want to make things better.

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You might want to tell North so he doesn't kill me for taking his girlfriend away.

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I don't have to tell North anything. Let's go.

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Well, you do have a point but if he hurts me, it's on your head.

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You're such a baby. Go to the gym, nerd

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Hurtful!

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Catch you at the same cafe?

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Sure. In an hour?

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See you there.

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One hour later, on the dot, Della walked into the cafe that she'd recently ran from. Of course, she felt a little bit nervous (she technically was going behind North's back, wasn't she?), but she put up a front of confidence and calm. Easy enough, right? She was used to it after so many meetings with farms that could ruin her career in two days.

The hostess led her to a high-top table. Sitting down, Della looked outside. The park she was oh-so-familiar to was fairly empty except for a few kids running around with their parents. They looked...

Happy.

"Wow, I'm literally making the worst impression considering you got here before me."

Wash's arrival jerked her thoughts back to the task at hand.

"Fair reminder, I'm always on time," she replied, watching him sit across from her.

"Good point. Anyway, you can blame my kitten, Phi. He was stuck in the bookcase again," he explained, running a hand through his hair.

"You have a kitten?" she asked.

And from there, Wash launched into the story of Phi. Della was surprised that Wash had been so persistent in a lost cause. Usually, when two people would tell her that there was no way, she'd believe them. But he seemed to take that as a challenge.

"Long story short, I have a kitten who likes to try and make me late to everything," he finished, taking a sip of his water.

"It's crazy that you had that much determination to keep him alive," she commented.

"It wasn't fair to the ones who were already dead to give up on the one that was alive," he explained. "Alright, enough sad kitten topics. How are the foals?"

"For the most part, alive and well," she replied, biting her lip.

"For the most part?" he asked.

"Every season brings lost foals," she explained. "This year, I was hoping we wouldn't have any."

"And?"

"And my hope fell upon the deaf ears of our mares. Two were stillborn and we have three in the ICU at the equine hospital with low probability of living. So, yeah, doing real great."

"Well..."

"Well nothing. It sucks, I'll get over it."

Silence fell between the two at Della's snappy reply. Who could blame her? Seeing your work fail was never satisfying. And when it comes to the money that she was dealing with; it made that worse.

"Enough about your work," Wash declared. "Tell me about...other...things."

"Like what?" she laughed half-heartedly. "You wanna hear about the Bonsai Tree at my apartment? Or even better, what happened after we tried to do this last time? Oh, I know, how about when North dragged me to his work and shoved me in the midst of cancer-ridden kids who will probably die in that hospital? Tell me, Wash, which do you want to hear about?"

"He took you to Angel On My Shoulder? And the pediatric ward?" he asked.

"No, I fabricated the entire story," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry. I was surprised," he apologized.

"Why?"

"He usually tries to help people when they're upset. Instead, he put you in one of the worst situations he possibly could."

"Was it a wake up call? Hey, Della, snap out of it?!"

"You don't need a wake up call."

"Some of us have made it clear that I do."

"Again, sorry."

"So North is always trying to help people?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Yeah...I guess. Don't know why though," he muttered.

"What do you mean?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He's probably got enough issues to fill a book."

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(Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Red VS Blue, they are owned by the lovely people at RoosterTeeth :))