So this is my first – and possibly only – foray into Firefly Fanfic. I do not feel qualified or comfortable writing this verse. It's too brilliant in itself, and I'm coming into this fandom a decade late anyway. But sometimes I dream about things, and I dreamed something along these lines the other night. It takes place the day after the movie ends.
I don't own anything. Unfortunately, Firefly belongs to Fox.
It was a little more than a day, just as Mal had promised, when word came over the intercom that they were approaching the training house. Inara was sitting in the kitchen, staring at her hands, and when his voice announced to the ship that they were almost there, her head shot up, almost startled that it was here already.
She stood, took a deep breath, and after a moment quietly walked toward the cockpit. She passed Kaylee and Simon sitting together, and then Zoe standing off to the side, and finally Jayne polishing one of his firearms, as she continued on her way, and every set of eyes followed her as she passed them. She knew all those eyes were asking a question. Hers didn't give the answer. They still didn't know. Her mind had been in overdrive the past twenty four hours. She may have had a good answer yesterday, but now she either would step off Serenity for the second time in four months, or she'd stay on board and never look back. Her decision, whether to stay or to go, would more than likely be final. She didn't have forever. If she left, she'd never return to the ship. If she stayed, she'd draw her final breath on Serenity.
As she entered the cockpit after what seemed like the longest forty seconds of her life, Mal and River turned in their seats to look at her. They had startlingly similar expressions; if there were a few more years between them, an outsider coming upon the two as they guided Serenity through that ever so precious sky might mistake River for the captain's daughter.
"So what'll it be?" Mal asked, reclining back slightly in the chair and looking up at Inara. "Do we put her down?"
Inara looked out the window, at the looming planet. Below, if she were to say the word, was civilized life. It was a life with no fear of turbulence, of being awakened in the middle of the night to the announcement that they were in the same area of the sky as a ship full of Reavers. It was not worrying about being able to work; she had her girls to teach. It was having a room that no one would barge into, unannounced and uninvited, with a cocky, yu bun duh smile on his face.
She looked beyond the planet, to the black space that Mal, and Kaylee, and the rest would be hurtling through within the day. Off to their next job, whatever and wherever it was. No guarantees. Nothing besides the ship and each other. And given that Mal and River were flying Serenity, and not Wash, they didn't even have that.
The answer should be easy.
So what'll it be? Do we put her down?
Inara looked at Mal, still looking up at her, waiting for her answer. She glanced to the other seat, at River. A small smile was coming over the girl's face. She knew what Inara was about to say.
The companion looked away from the smile, and back at Mal, and then forward again, toward the black sky that had been more of a home to her than anywhere, and she realized that the answer was easy.
So what'll it be? Do we put her down?
Inara let out a breath that she felt like she'd been holding since she'd gotten up from the kitchen table, her eyes focused on the blackness behind the brightness of the world. "No. Keep flying."
Pilots take no special joy in walking. Pilots like flying. - Neil Armstrong