Stage 5

York woke up in his quarters with a sore … everything. But as the fog lifted from his brain, he saw things much more clearly. Three days without food or water or sleep had clouded his judgment. Carolina wasn't coming back. That signal from Delta had been like an egg beater mixing up his brains. He still wasn't sure he had fully recovered. And whatever he had felt, it was only half of what Carolina got.

"I love you." It was the first thing he'd said to Carolina when he got to the infirmary. He'd wanted to say those words for years. Sitting at the bedside of the woman he loved, long buried emotions poured out of him.

"I should have said that a long time ago, and too hell with your damn rules. I should have grabbed you and kissed you and just loved you." Tears rolled down his face. "What the hell did you think was going to happen? You kept pushing and pushing. You never let up. What was so bad about what you had? What was so bad about me?"

York was pulled from his memory by Texas' bursting through his door with a swagger. She was, as always, in full armor.

They stare at each other for a long time.

"I'm sorry about your girl."

"Carolina wasn't anybody's girl."

What's behind that mask, he wondered for the thousandth time.

"What they did to her, what they did to all of us, it's wrong. The Director, Project Freelancer, the missions, the war, all of this is wrong."

"It's a little late for you to start act taking CT's side. You know, three weeks after you murdered her." It felt good to fling around accusations like a child. "You know a lot of people said a lot of things about you Tex, but I never figured you for a killer. Even after you took my eye."

"York you can sit in here and sulk and be pissed if you want or you can come with me and take down the people who caused all this."

Breaking rules, working with Tex, abandoning his loyalties, it's not what Carolina would have wanted. But Carolina is gone now.

"What'd you have in mind?"

Anger. Again.

A/N:

1) This was written well before season 10, and thus explains the discrepancy between my story and episodes 18-22.

2) I was a bit torn about posting it, since it really isn't polished, but I said I would get it out over a month ago, and I'm trying to be better with deadlines.