Jumper
Rated: PG
Category: Double Drabble, Gen, Mal/Zoë Friendship.
Spoilers: Serenity (The Pilot)
Summary: Mal's In A Bad Place, And Zoë Knows There's Only So Much She Can Do To Help.
Note: Written in response to the LJ prompt of 'Jump' on firefly100. 200 words.
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He's seen a lot of things no one should have to see.
So have I.
But somehow, we've always seen each other through everything that left us broken, bleeding, and nearly too sore to breathe.
And I'm not just referrin' to bodily injuries.
When we got word about Shadow, he shut down for near a week.
I did the same when it looked like I was gonna lose my leg.
But we made it through those times, and too many others like 'em to count.
We've been broken and battered, but somehow never beaten.
At least not until four days ago, when I saw the spark that is Mal Reynolds disappear from his eyes when those Alliance cruisers came into sight.
Now, half a week of stinking, starving isolation later, I'm afraid for him for the first time in my life.
When what's left of the men are about, he stands straight and tall, but when it's just us, he sits and stares into space while his fingers rhythmically stroke empty leather along his thigh.
It scares me.
I've kept him from falling off many cliffs, just as he's done for me, but I can't help him if he jumps.