And We're All Falling

Me and The Lonely

Wash had never liked silence. He especially never liked silence with Della. But there they were, riding in his car silently. And he hated it.

While he'd gotten everything cleaned up in her kitchen, she'd gotten her stuff together, even though he didn't know what she needed to bring to a horse's death (uh, he means what could possibly be a horse's death). The second she got into his car, her eyes were trained on the scenery and they didn't move. Wash simply started driving and kept silent. The drive was too short.

"Where do you want me to park?" he asked, slowing beside the entrance.

"My spot, please," was her nearly silent reply.

The second the car was in park, Della was out of it. He quickly followed her even though she had started to run. She didn't head for the stables, rather she went for the lengthy spread of pastures.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he muttered, picking up his pace.

He could see (at the bottom of the hill they were on) a group of people and a truck and trailer. Della was still far ahead of him. Or, rather she was. Near the bottom, her legs slid out from under her. Before he could even yell a warning, she was up and running again.

"How?" he said under his breath. "Just, how?"

When he finally got to the scene, even he (a lowly, non-horse person) could tell it was bad (knees on horses don't bend that way, do they?). He knew that whenever he saw a horse lay down, its side would raise and lower with its breathing. Charlie's didn't.

Oh no....he's already dead....

He looked for Della and found her talking to CT. Why hadn't CT called...oh she was probably trying to save him. Right, cause she's a vet.

"What happened?" Wash asked bravely, coming up to the duo.

"Crashed into a fence, got caught into the electric, broke his legs and died from the electric and shock in general," CT sighed, looking at the horse in question.

"Did you...?"

"Try to save him? Yeah, everything in my knowledge and power went into trying to bring him back. He...just didn't respond."

Wash looked at Della who silently had her gaze on the only bit of happiness she'd had for awhile.

"Wash, can I talk to you? Over there?" CT asked, pointing a few feet away.

Nodding, he followed her to the spot.

"What's the problem?" he asked.

CT sighed.

"I'm really worried about Della," she said. "Can you just watch her really closely for the next few days?"

"Yeah, I already had plans to," he agreed. "But why are you worried?"

"Lylla said that Charlie was her closest thing she had to home. She might get kinda homesick for lack of a home," she explained, watching as Della took scissors from a stablehand and began to cut away at the horse's mane.

Wash's mind flickered back to the night in the stables where she'd told him about the lack of family she had.

"Oh, crap, yeah," he muttered, looking away. "She has nothing."

"Just watch her, okay?" she said, walking back toward the scene. "Oh, and she'll be heading up to the retirees barn in a few. Lylla already told me."

"Wait," he called. "Why?"

"Get rid of the nameplate," CT answered.

"No, I'm not gonna let her," he said under his breath, walking toward Della.

Pieces of her hair flew around her face even though it wasn't that windy.

"Hey," he greeted softly.

She flinched.

"Hello."

"You, uh, you okay?"

She sighed and shook her head.

"No," she admitted. "No, I'm not. But I don't want to cry right now if that's okay."

"It's perfectly fine," he assured. "Whatever you need to do."

A few moments of silence passed while the stablehands started to move Charlie's body into the trailer.

"Can I go home now?" she asked quietly.

"Sure," he replied, taking one last look at the horse. "Let's go."

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"Wait. Before you head off into your room or office, I need to ask you something."

Della stopped and turned a tired face to Wash. They'd just gotten back to her apartment and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and never come back out. Wash, apparently, had different ideas.

"Yeah?" she asked, sighing.

"Look, I know that you're really upset right now, even if you aren't going to tell me that. So can you stay at my apartment for the night, or longer if you want, just so I can make sure you're okay? I'm worried about you and this place is so lonely and I don't want you to cry alone in here at 3am because you're too afraid to call someone and wake them up," he said, absentmindedly tugging on his shirt.

She trained her gaze on the floor. Wash only hoped that he'd said the right thing and hadn't just completely destroyed all ties with her.

"Wash?" she asked softly.

"Yeah?" he said hopefully.

"I don't wanna be alone anymore."

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