The blast doors spiraled slowly outwards revealing a girl. She was standing in the midst of a pile of Reavers, savage weapons gripped in her delicate hands. Her body posed gracefully, weight balanced on the balls of her feet as if to spring into dance at any moment. Shrouding her face was a waterfall of chocolate locks that were dripping with the blood of her victims. Behind the shroud were the dark eyes of an assassin, tensed but sure, flitting from place to place, assessing and seeking threats.
The crew of Serenity could only stare in shock. Suddenly the girl was no longer a girl. The crazy, moonbrained, little girl shell had been cast aside and there stood a woman, a crew member, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a fighter, a weapon. The wall behind her was suddenly blown open. The light streamed in through the dust and rubble and cast her in an ethereal glow and revealed more. She was an avenging angel. She was everything. She was their River.
The purple bellies came swarming in, guns trained on the girl, calling for a kill order. Her head swiveled toward them, the hunter assessing her quarry. With no kill order forthcoming, the tension raised, fingers tightened on triggers, and the assassin prepared to defend again. Her hands readjusted and gripped the stolen weapons, ready to stop them from hurting her crew, her family.
The tension skyrocketed further, blood dripped from her battle ax, and finally, the order to stand down was given. Guns were lowered and her gaze swept back to her family. They all continued to stare at her in shock. She had saved them all.
Then there was a phrase, uttered in a passionate yet reverent, whisper.
"Gorram shiny!"
The crew as one turned toward Jayne, their mouths now dropping open to stare in even deeper shock. He in turn was staring at River with a look that was many things at once. Admiration, respect, passion, annoyance, possessiveness, want, and strangely enough, what looked to be the beginnings of love.
As one again, the crew turned their eyes back to River, waiting for her reaction. Her gaze rested on Jayne, face blank, still in weapon mode. But slowly that melted away and warmth returned to her dark eyes making them sparkle in the small amount of light streaming into the room. The corner of her mouth tugged upwards into a smirk and she winked at Jayne. His mouth bloomed in a full blown smile and glee lit up his face.
Mal sputtered and finally spit out,
"Go se! The Doc is not gonna like this when he comes to! And just for the record, I don't neither. But I'm gonna let it slide on account a I'm 'bout to pass out here next to 'Nara. I got stabbed ya know!"