Title: A Normal Girl
Rating: PG
Archive: You can archive this just tell me where it is.
Disclaimer: I don not own Firefly or any of its characters, Joss Whedon, Fox, and Mutant Enemy do. Lucky bastards.
Summary: Set after "Bushwhacked". Mal is up late and runs into one of the passengers. Mal/River (kinda)
Author's Note: Okay, only the second episode of the season and I'm already writing a fic…plus I am in the process of writing another. Has to be some kind of record for me. Some of you who read the summary are probably thinking 'what'? River and Mal?? Just bear with me. I like them from the first episode, they are both my favorite characters. I was against the whole Inara/Mal relationship until "Bushwhacked" where they showed more of Inara's caring side. Now I am both a River/Mal and Inara/Mal fan. Enough with my rambling. On to the fic!!
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It was past 1 AM. Wash had gone to bed hours ago, or at least had least gone to his and Zoë's quarters, leaving Serenity on auto pilot. Mal looked out the front view port at the vastness of space. Everything was quiet. What was that old saying? In space no one can hear you scream? That saying kept coming back to him over the last two days. Seeing those bodies, the boy/reaver. He wasn't afraid, he had seen bodies like that before, some even worse. It was the thought of his crew and passengers. They had been that close to dying a horrible, bloody death. They were like his family, they were his family. If he hadn't broken that boy's neck…..
He stopped the thought. He was never one to think on what ifs. He walked down toward the kitchen. He couldn't sleep so he might as well raid the fridge. He flicked on the lights—and jumped.
"River?"
The young girl was sitting at the table holding onto her knees. She was wearing a long nightgown, which from the looks of it she had borrowed from Inara.
"Does your brother know you're here?" he asked. Stupid question Mal, he thought, if he did she wouldn't be here. "What are you doing in here?"
River drummed her fingers on the table slowly.
"Couldn't sleep," she whispered. She stopped drumming her fingers and ran them through her hair. Mal walked over to the stove and put the coffee pot on, he wasn't going to sleep anyways. He leaned against the cabinet, staring at the girl, her back facing him. She looked so thin and pale, and her hair could definitely use a good combing. Other than that though she looked like a normal girl, on the outside anyway. Suddenly she let out a little laugh. She looked over her shoulder at Mal, then rubbed her brow before turning back around. She definitely was a character, but Mal actually liked her a lot more than the brother.
He poured himself some coffee and sat down across from her at the table. She looked up at him quickly, then looked back down.
"River," he said her name. It was a few seconds before she looked up, meeting his gaze. "Why'd you go onto the ship after us?"
She slowly rocked herself back and forth in her chair, clawing at her neck with her fingers. "I….I followed the voices," she whispered.
"I bet you did," he leaned back in his chair, seeming to be satisfied with her answer.
The girl was crazy, he didn't need to shake her up anymore. She was crazy, but there seemed something about her. Like how she saw the bodies when both he and Zoë had missed them. She was obviously a genius, he was sure of that much. Looking at her he wondered what exactly the Alliance had down to her. He wouldn't put torturing an innocent girl past them, the dirty bastards. The question was why?
"I won't tell!" she blurted out. "I won't, I won't!"
"Shh, it's okay, River. You don't have to say anything."
"Dead! So many dead…." she whispered.
He leaned forward over the table.
"That must have scared you. Those bodies. The Alliance. Having to hang off the side of the ship. I'm sorry."
"The stars," she looked up smiling, her face alight. "Simon was scared," she was rocking again, a little faster this time. "It was so pretty. The stars…..flowers. He wouldn't let me go again," she said in a sad tone.
Mal smiled, "I'll talk to him. Maybe he'll let you go out. I'll take you myself, make sure nothing happens to you."
River smiled again. She really did look normal, no different than Kaylee or Inara, well maybe not Inara, but like Kaylee at least.
"You just have to promise never to leave the ship again, unless your brother or someone else is with you. Okay, River?"
She just looked at him. "Okay? Can you promise me that?"
She nodded, smiling, "You won't let anything happen to me."
After she said this she laid her head down on the table. Mal frowned down at her.
"Why….why don't we go take you back to your brother."
She lifted her head, nodding and held out her hand to him. He looked down at her. She looked so helpless, yet enduring. He took her hand and led her out of the kitchen toward her brother's quarters.
"Thank you, Sergeant," she whispered into his arm.
"What did you say?"
She lifted her eyes to meet his gaze. This time it was Mal who smiled.
Fin