There was more. So much more. Wash doesn't remember but a fraction of it, and everything is jumbled and in the wrong order. There was a great deal about River. There was a great deal about all of them. We'll save that for another time, and all of this was conveyed both inside his mind and outside of time, in a place adjacent to where subatomic and galactic are one and the same.

Wash's eyes open. He sits up.

"Wow. That wuz a helluva thing."

He yawns. He stretches. He winces. Every bit of him hurts. He tries to find a part of his body that's not hurting.

He shrugs. He winces. He chuckles to himself and winces again at the pain, causing him to chuckle even more.

He gets out of bed slowly. Already the remnants of his dream is fading from his memory. Like sand in the palms of one's hands, it's just slipping away, but he does remember one thing that he thinks matters.

He was a little hard on River. She means no one any harm, and he's been irrational and cruel, and a downright scaredy cat. Sure perhaps she's dangerous, but everyone on board the ship is dangerous under certain circumstances; even himself. Perhaps having spent the last several hours afraid he was losing his own sanity, has offered him a taste of perspective.

He wants to apologize even if she doesn't understand him. Not for her sake, but for his own.

And that's what makes him get out of bed, give himself a bit of a stand up sponge bath, as best as he can manage in his condition... Actually part of it he does sitting down. ..That's what encourages him to put on some fresh clothes, cover the most sore parts of his body with gauze from his wife's first aid kit under the bed, and then slowly make his way back up the ladder to the hall.

Slowly but with sober confidence, he then makes his way to the infirmary, thinking perhaps River will be there with her brother. When he gets to the infirmary, he just stands there in silence.

Wash suddenly wakes up again, and realizes getting up and out of bed and to the infirmary was just all part of the dream. And so is waking up again. He's still dreaming.

He then finds himself sitting without an environmental suit on the hull of the ship. Sitting in the classic 'thinking man' position, contemplating that he might could still be dreaming and not realizing it. Then he realizes that he realizes it. He realizes that he's out in space, clean, with no wounds, but with no clothes on, and a tattoo on his butt, thinking that maybe he's dreaming inside a dream, but if he's out in space he should unceremoniously explode due to the sudden decrease in air pressure around him. He inhales. He exhales. He checks his pulse.

The stars sparkle behind him.

"Okay... So. How do I wake up?"

He looks around.

"It's pretty out here.."

He looks around some more. He shrugs.

"I better get back inside."

Wash stands up, but the camera switches POV to show us his backside as he makes his way to an airlock.

Wash climbs into the airlock, closes the door behind him, pushes a button, still naked mind you, and the air changes, blowing his hair around and a cloud of white smoke puffs in. Wash coughs, chokes, and falls to the ground.

When the smoke clears, he's on his knees, wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and alligator boots. His shirt glitters a bit in the light. He looks around.

The place looks like an old fashioned honky tonk with a large dance floor. There's a band playing a song he ain't never heard before. The husky bearded redheaded gent at the point of the band singing into the microphone waved his hand in Wash's direction, as if welcoming him into the room. Not a bad singing voice, but not all that great either.

"Take my love. Take my land. Take me where I cannot stand.."

It has a beat and you can dance to it, Wash thought to himself. He looked about the rest of the room, and the empty dance floor slowly revealed his fellow crewmates, dancing to the music. Kaylee dressed in her favorite dress, dancing with the captain. River and Simon dancing together, Inara and Book, Jayne and Zoe... Jayne and Zoe?

Wash walked over to the two of them, and tapped Jayne on the shoulder. "Mind if I cut in?"

"Not at all. Yer wife is scary." Jayne excused himself.

Wash and Zoe looked at each other. She put her hand on his shoulder, and took his other hand in hers. They smiled, they continued dancing about the room to the music, smiling at the others.

Camera pulls back to reveal the dancefloor. The four pair make quite a pretty spectacle. Also in the corner one can see Zoe sitting with Jayne at a nearby table just barely out of the light.

Zoe and Wash continue dancing. Camera cuts to an OTS (WASH) shot where we see Zoe close up dancing with Wash. Behind her the two stop when Wash sees the other Zoe sitting with Jayne at the table in the background.

The Zoe at the table clears her throat. "Just who do you think you're dancing with, dear?"

Wash lets go of the dancing Zoe and looks at them both. Focuses on the standing Zoe. Looks over at the sitting Zoe. Puts his hands to his face and rubs his eyes. Blinks hard and looks at standing Zoe again.

Camera cuts to reveal standing Zoe, but her face has been replaced by a gaping maw infested with maggots, other insects and a small serpent.

Naturally, Wash screams. Loud and long and painfully.

"That's not me." the voice of sitting Zoe is heard. Not at all frightened.

Camera cuts to Jayne sitting with Zoe. "Oh. Well that explains a lot."

Wash runs over to the sitting Zoe. "What?? That?? What's going on?"

"Why you asking me?" sitting Zoe smiles. Looks over at Jayne. They share a knowing look.

"Cuz you.. you're.. You're not my wife either are ya?"

The man sitting who looks like Jayne says, "Nope. She's over there." He points behind Wash. Wash turns around.

There was more. So much more. Wash doesn't remember but a fraction of it, and everything is jumbled and in the wrong order. There was a great deal about River. There was a great deal about all of them. We'll save that for another time, and all of this was conveyed both inside his mind and outside of time, in a place adjacent to where subatomic and galactic are one and the same.

There were others who had dreams, too. We'll save them for another time. Perhaps we may return to Wash's dreams. Perhaps some dreams are best left in the twilight.

Wash woke up for real eventually, and went about his life not thinking much of it, although the vividness and disturbing nature of that night occasionally returned in quiet moments of contemplation, nagging at him in regretful and hollow ways. However, beyond that, Wash paid them little mind... Except of course for that one curious incident, a few weeks later...