Mal came too slowly and in pain. He groaned and rolled onto his belly, pushing himself to his hands and knees. He spat out the tacky glob of blood in his mouth and shook his aching head to clear it. Still on his hands and knees, he counted cracked ribs, the slick blood down the side of his face from the wound that knocked his lights out and the inevitable bullet in his shoulder.
Then suddenly, his breath froze. The last hour came rushing back. Time froze. His blood froze. He looked up. The mule was stick stuck in the side of the sandstone canyon wall, a thinning twist of black smoke rising up from it. Kaylee was going to kill him, but that was the last thing on his mind right now.
"NARA! BOOK! INNDEE!" he roared, scanning the crash site desperately.
"Cap-t'n"
Mal barely caught the soft reply, scanned the crash site and saw Jayne, sitting by the canyon wall, barely breathing. Dragging himself to his feet, he was suddenly beside the big man, heart thudding hard in his chest. He crouched, lifted Jayne's hands from his belly and swore at the rush of blood that followed. Undeterred, Jayne grabbed his arm, staining the cream shirt red.
"Tried...cap...I tried...got...shot" he gasped softly in Mal's ear. The Captain grabbed the merc's shoulder and looked into those half-closed eyes, trying to read them with a cold heart.
"Where are my boys, Jayne? Where's Nara?"
He followed the direction of his shaking finger to the shady side of the crashed mule. Distraught blue eyes crashed with blue-grey and blood bubbled on Jayne's lips as he spoke.
"Lost...Nara, in the fight...but, Mal, they...took the boys"
Malcolm Reynolds wasn't scared of much. It took a lot to shake a man like that. He'd seen too much, lived through too much, faced too much to be shaken. He could stand being shot, he could crack a joke in a torture chamber and he could keep a cool head as all around him guns were cocked and bullets flew. In just about any situation, Mal Reynolds was a collected, joking pillar of brilliant, half-assed ideas and escape plans. For all that, the word 'took' stilled his heart.
With hands that were shaking now, Mal ripped his shirt sleeve off, made a pad and pressed it hard to the hole in Jayne's belly.
"Ta ma de! Qing wa cao de liu mang!"
Mal ignored him. Belly wounds were no laughing matter. He had a blinding flashback to Kaylee, laying on the cargo bay floor, all those long years ago. They had to get Simon, or the big man didn't have a chance in hell.
"Bizui! You won't have to deal with your psychotic woman if you die!"
Jayne didn't reply. Not sure whether the merc was passed out or recovering his strength to launch another round of profanities at him, Mal took a shallow breath and pushed himself upright. Ignoring the agony, he forced himself into a jog and found her, eyes closed, in the shade of the mule.
"Inara! Nara!"
He fell to his knees by her side, desperate, and checked her pulse; it replied back strongly under his fingers. He breathed a third of a sigh of relief and pulled her into his arms, kissing her temple gently. He realised he wouldn't breath the other two thirds until Book and Inde were back in his arms.
"Nara? Nara, mei ren can you hear me?"
She murmured, and then her black eyes flew open. He held her hands as they grappled for some purchase on reality. She looked into his eyes, read his face like breathing, and burst into tears. Clenching his jaw so hard it hurt, Mal kissed every inch of her face as he dragged her to her feet.
"Oh, God, God, no, no, no" she sobbed, helplessly clutching his shirt. The only thing holding her on her feet was Mal's strength and it terrified the unshakeable captain.
"Nara, you need to listen. Stop! We gotta to find the boys, Nara! You can't help 'em like this, dong ma? You need to help me fix the comm. unit so we can get help. Jayne's shot" he shook her a little, unconsciously, and for a moment it seemed to help. She took a shuddering breath, put her shaking hands either side of his face and stared into his eyes.
"I couldn't...I tried...Mal, why have they done this?"
The rivulets of tears become a flood down her cheeks, tracing wavering lines through the dirt and blood on her face. She fell against him again, and as always, Mal caught her, even as his mind spun enough to put him out of place. His ribs screamed and he staggered against the side of mule, holding her fiercely, taking small comfort in the smell of jasmine and incense.
"I dunno. I dunno bao bei but I plan on finding out"
The boy sat with blue eyes wide and terrified, legs to his chest, looking out of the cage like a beaten puppy. Beside him, his brother stood, rage in every wiry line of his body. Black eyes of his mother glared evenly at their kidnappers, small and toughened hands making white-knuckled fists by his sides. One side of his body was caked in dirt where he'd been dragged onboard a hovercraft.
"Book, I'm scared"
Book looked down at his brother, nine-year-old Independent Reynolds, and sat down beside him. He put his arm around the smaller boy's shoulders and said nothing. His mind was a vacant whirl of bloody images.
"Dad's gunna come get us, right?" whispered Inde again. Book looked at his brother and nodded. Inde was trying desperately not to be scared, but terror was written into every wiry line of his small body. As for Book, all his fear was cloaked in anger.
"Course he is, and Uncle Jayne and Auntie River, and Auntie Zoe too. Don't worry about it, siao di di. They're coming right now"
"How are they gunna know where we are?"
Book gritted his teeth and looked out of their cage, studying the slick silver interior of this very fast spaceship, looking at the five hardened, rough men who sat around, chortling and laughing, passing a bottle of brown liquor. They were hurtling through space. There was no way stout old Serenity could catch this bird, and young Book didn't like Uncle Jayne's chances of getting back up after the hit he'd taken with that big rifle laying across one merc's lap.
Instead, he grinned cockily at Inde, the perfect younger version of his father.
"Coz River'll pick up the trail, won't she? These guys dunno who they're messing with!"
