She brushed her hair and pulled it into a tie at the base of her neck. Leaning forward she frowned at the mirror as she studied the reflection looking for any traits she may have inherited from her mother and father. In the past few weeks she had started to realize that other than her abilities with weapons and a twisted sense of humor, there wasn't much that she had in common with her parents. Her build was slightly larger than most girls her age and from what she gathered from the captures of her father she had eyes similar to his, ones that smiled.
She blew up at a tendril of hair that had escaped from the tie, "This is gonna be one of those days isn't it?" she asked herself.
There was a knock on the door and Zoe popped her head in, "Andrea we're about to land in a few moments."
She turned around and smiled, "Alright Mom, I'll be out in a sec." She stood up and walked to the door of her bunk. She finally convinced everyone to let her move out of her mother's bunk and into one of the rooms away from the crew's bunks last year. It was like she was almost an adult, like everyone else. Maybe her mom would finally let her go on a job soon. Probably not.
"Now, don't be going out there to chase after any boys. We're going to pick up some supplies and that's it,"
"Mom, you seriously need to stop joking about that. How would Mal feel if he knew you were trying to pawn me off on greasy teenage boys?"
"He'd tell you to stop calling him 'Mal'," Mal answered. "What did I tell you about calling me by my first name little one?"
"Not to do it. I can only refer to you as Sir, Captain, or Uncle Mal," Andrea replied, "What did I tell you about calling me 'Little One'?" Andrea tried to stand in her full height.
"That don't matter none, now get going. Kaylee is waiting to take you shopping with her. Now scat."
Andrea did as Mal ordered and headed in the direction of the cargo bay to meet up with Kaylee. "She's going to start wanting to go out on jobs Sir," Zoe stated.
Mal shrugged in response, "I know I was just hopin that that day would coming later rather than sooner."
Andrea began to skip slightly as she made her way into the cargo bay, the skip turned into a slight dance as she started to twirl. Her twirl was abruptly halted when she slammed into a wall. She looked up, "Sorry Jayne! I was distracted."
Hazel eyes meet blue ones for a moment, and then Jayne looked away. "Next time watch where you're going. You're ditzier then your ma." With that he turned around and walked away.
"My mom ditzy? That's like saying Kaylee is a Reaver," Andrea said to herself with a laugh before continuing on her way.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. He nearly told her. Jayne started pacing. He promised Mal he wouldn't and he nearly blew it. Shit. Jayne rubbed at a wound on his chest that had long since healed. He found himself in the mess, where it all happened and looked up at the windows that now changed from the normal black of space to a clear blue sky. This was going to be one of those days, Jayne just knew it.
"Come on Andrea, we gotta get going so we can find all the shinies. I need a new compression coil for Serenity." Andrea looked up at Kaylee and smiled.
"Where's the short one?" Andrea asked. On cue a little girl came running, her face covered with grease, her overall patched up with teddy bears and rainbows.
"Mama!" the girl shouted out ready to pounce at her mother. Andrea picked her up and held her against her hip.
"You shouldn't be jumping on your Ma like that Lily especially when you're all greasy and gross," Andrea said.
The little girl giggled, "But Daddy said that I should show mom postitive atmossfear on account of her deli-cat position."
"Sweetie, why aren't you still with your father?" Kaylee asked. The young girl shrugged and looked around avoiding eye contact with her mother. "Lily, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything! I just starting dancing like Drea does and Daddy starting crying! I didn't do anything!"
Andrea watched as Kaylee's normally cheerful face appeared to have a shadow cast over her. "It's not your fault sweetie. You can come with us. Drea can you carry her so she don't get lost in the crowd?"
Andrea nodded and picked up the younger girl, "But what about Simon?"
"Don't worry about him, he just needs to be alone for a little bit," Kaylee answered.
Andrea struggled to keep Lily in her arms, the five year old's attention was captured by the sights and sounds of the marketplace. "Lil, you need to stop squirming around or I'm gonna end up dropping you on your head."
"Just put me down."
"Can't your Ma will yell at me, and so will the Cap'n," Andrea answered. Lily began to struggle and jumped out of Andrea's arms and ran to her mother. She turned to face Andrea and stuck her tongue out. "Brat." Andrea looked around, her gaze stopped on a window for a clothing store. She tilted her head and looked longingly at the dress in the window. It wasn't a particularly fancy dress, it was a simple sundress. Andrea sighed; she wasn't allowed to wear dresses anymore. Her mother said that they got in the way of a job, and they made the wrong kind of men pay attention. Last year, she dressed up to go out when they were planet side in a dress she found tucked away in the closet of her room. It was a simple blue dress, but it was the shiniest thing Andrea ever saw. She wore her hair down, the natural curls made her look like a real girl, instead of the tomboy she was. The second she stepped out of her room and into the mess everyone stopped talking. Then the Captain ordered her to go back to her room and put on some pants and threatened to make her clean out the septic tank. Andrea stopped fantasizing about wearing a dress after hearing Simon and Kaylee arguing in the infirmary.
But this dress in the window was so shiny. Andrea looked back at Kaylee, she was holding on to Lily's hand while she was arguing with a clerk over the price of some engine parts. It wouldn't hurt to go try one on, that way no one could yell at her and she could feel like a girl for a moment.
Andrea examined herself in the mirror, the dress hung well on her frame. She looked much older than fourteen; she could easily pass for eighteen, especially with her hair down. She pulled at her hair, she hated always having it tied up, but that was the way her mother liked it- telling her that she shouldn't hide her pretty face. But Andrea liked hiding sometimes. And the wavy curls that sprung up naturally
Her build was somewhat larger than the average girl, she was slender, and nearly as tall as her mother. She did a slight twirl to watch the dress moved. Movement. Andrea loved movement. She looked down at the hem of the dress, it was transparent and she could see the outline of her feet.
She wiggled her toes and smiled at how odd they looked through her dress. Toes were an interesting thing, but living on a ship leads to a need to always wear shoes. Shoes were annoying and sweaty and hot. Andrea hated shoes.
She took one final look at herself in the dress trying to memorize her appearance. "One day I'm going to buy a big fluffy dress or a super slinky dress and wear it," she looked down at the price of the dress. It was irritation to spend money on an article of clothing. Andrea had saved up to buy some real food to eat, some dried meat to hide in her room to eat and something to drink that wasn't powdered milk or stale water. She changed back into her clothes, the brown pants and dark green shirt. She laced up her boots and took one final look at the dress.
Walking out of the store Andrea smiled to herself while she played with the neatly folded package that held her new dress. And she had enough left over to buy something eat before she had to be back. Scanning the crowd for Kaylee and Lily she was glad to see them in the distance at a general store looking through a bin of wooden toys.
Andrea headed in that direction, looking for some kind of stall to purchase something to eat. She bumped into something and dropped the package containing her dress. Looking up she was surprised to see someone familiar.
Not someone she met before, but the woman in front of her was very familiar. Thinking for a moment Andrea tried to remember if this woman was ever a passenger on Serenity. No, not that she could remember. The woman was shorter and had a smaller build, she was leaner. Andrea's eyes met with the woman's- they were like a cat's. Large, cunning, intelligent. They were like her own.
Andrea looked down to find her dress when she looked up the woman was gone.