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He should’ve known better. The second he stepped onto Jupiter 2 and Maureen wasn’t criticising his work or fighting him on the engineering specifications, he should’ve known better.
Don West would never call himself a coward - if anything he’s a hero. That’s what he’s been telling himself since they landed on this godforsaken planet and he decided to help Dr. Smith - or whoever she was. Turns out though, being a hero isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
So, the second Maureen starts to ask him to help pilot the hollowed out shell of a Jupiter into space with John he’s already walking out the door.
He spies Judy out of the corner of his eye and refuses to make eye contact as he brushes by, he knows what’ll be on her face, he knows the look she’ll give him, he knows that as soon as he sees those dark eyes pleading with him he’ll give in. So he refuses to look.
He makes it about ten feet down the hall before he looks.
And there she is, and the expression on her face makes him feel like he’s been punched in the gut. Sometime over the past few weeks she’d managed to do what so few others ever had, she’d wormed her way into his heart, without even realizing it. When she looked at him, he felt like he could move mountains, it was as if her own determination poured into him until he felt as confident as she looked. What’s even worse is that she somehow made him start caring - about her, about her family, about everything, and more importantly, she made him care about what she thought of him.
And now, with her standing in front of him, begging him to help save them all, to do the right thing he tries to say no, he tries to mean it too when the word escapes his lips. But then she’s looking up at him with those eyes, the ones that make him care each and every day, and he feels the ‘yes’ rippling out of his heart.
“Son of a bitch.”