She danced.
Her body moved with fluid grace while her mind soared above. A quick spin kick, and one was down. A small shift and her arm stretched to flatten another. She twirled around the room, taking them down one by one, a beatific smile on her face the entire time.
A voice in her ear. "We're free, babe. See ya at home!" She sighed, knowing that she was going to be cheating on her Jayne. But they were safe. Her Jayne and their little Rebecca. She didn't want him to know she was leaving him, that she had a new lover who would spirit her away from this place. They would miss her, but they would live.
She danced on, flirting with her new lover. She courted Him, taking chances, knowing that at the end of it all, He would come to her. He would make her over, and change her into something that no one would recognize. Her mortal shell would be left for her family, but she would be with Him.
Sadly, she felt the dance coming to an end. As she prepared to accept Death into her heart, she felt something else, a new presence in her mind. She focused her awareness on the new presence, while continuing the elegant and deadly motions of her body. Then, suddenly, her dance changed. She was rejecting Him. She had to protect this new presence, this new little life she carried. Her mind quickly recalculated, and she saw an out. Not an easy one, but an escape all the same.
Now she moved with purpose, danced with a direction. As she incapacitated the last of the men attacking her, she held on to him instead of letting him slide to the floor of the warehouse to join his companions. Now it was all up to her, she held onto her unconscious burden, twisting around to face the door, as she heard the sharp retort of a bullet.
She felt a spike of pain, and fell to the floor, the soon to be dead man on top of her. Now, all she had to do was wait. From the pain in her neck, she could tell her calculations had been correct. The bullet had been deflected away from her jugular. As expected, the man with the gun, the man who had hired them was approaching the place where she lay. She had to time this perfectly.
He leaned over to check her pulse, and without opening her eyes, her hand shot up, wrapped around his neck and squeezed. He raised his arm to fire once again only to find a smaller hand around his wrist, squeezing it, so that his fingers dropped the gun of their own accord. Without a word, River pushed him backwards until he was on the ground, and she was standing. With a small sigh of regret at exposing her new little one to death so early, she quickly snapped his neck. Quickly, she rifled through his belongings until she found the pouch of credits she was looking for. River silently made her way out of the warehouse, back towards home, away from Death, and back to her Life.
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Notes: Written for Copper for a Kiss prompt challenge at rayne_shippers on LJ. Prompt #22: lover.