A Horse for River

"Kaylee, we'll be gone for a few hours, and Wash is out restocking the ship," by which Mal meant: haggling with store owners for the lowest price on foodstuffs, "so you should be able to fix the whatever it was without anybody buggin' you." He, Zoe and Jayne were going out to line up whatever new, exciting job that the whole crew would be part of next.

"It's a drive feed modulator, not a 'whatever'." She crossed her arms playfully over her chest.

"And how am I supposed to remember that?" Mal said in a tone that indicated the pride he had in his mechanic.

"Captain, if we're late, Badger will find more excuses to not give us the job," Zoe interrupted with slight impatience.

"Don't he do that anyway?" Jayne shouted from the end of the cargo bay.

"Yes, but we should give the man as few excuses as possible, Jayne. It's respectful and makes him give us money." And with that Mal left, followed by Jayne and Zoe.

Fixing the modulator proved to be a relatively simple task. Kaylee had thought that the rattling sound it had been producing would mean she'd have to jerry-rig up some catch to hold the coil of wires inside the front of the modulator. It turned out that the rattling was caused by two corroded bolts that held the coil in place falling and getting tossed around as the engine turned. Still, the modulator was starting to go bad, so she spent the extra time cleaning all the connections until they were free of the corrosion that the drive fluid inevitably caused. It would keep the modulator good for a little while longer while she searched for a new one.

She looked over the engine, making sure everything was in place, including the almost-new compression coil (which she ran her hand over lovingly). She tightened a few loose bolts, but most everything was in place still from the last time something had blown (a couple of days ago), namely a piston for the hydraulics.

She quickly went through her mental list of any problems she could remember, and, finding no new ones that hadn't been fixed, she left and went to her room with the plan to sit on her bed and read a book. Maybe she'd even go so far as to munch on one of those chocolates she had hidden in a box on her shelf. Yep, she'd definitely bust into those chocolates.

"River, what would you say to a little trip?"

"Can't go on a trip: legs don't fly." River shot her brother her patented look that was normally interpreted as "you're a boob".

"Alright then,what would you say to a brief excursion to the movies?"

"Safety is like air."

Simon interpreted that as "will it be safe?". Then again, she could be saying something else...

"It'll be safe, I doubt anyone would look for us in this city." He hoped. River really needed to leave the ship sometimes, it helped her. Normally, it wasn't a problem, they landed on back-country worlds that hardly had enough population to bring in any Feds. On Persephone, it would be more of a challenge, but doable. She'd made enough progress in recent months to start to be reintroduced to people, to a normal life. A movie was a place where she'd only have to see people briefly, and she could let her wild imagination fly to fill in the gaps in the movie.

River seemed to consider her sibling's proposition. "Go ask Kaylee to come," she said, suddenly coherent.

"Wh-What?" The thought of asking the pretty mechanic to the movies, even just to help him keep an eye on his sister made him feel nervous.

"Don't want to leave her alone. Book is off with his symbol, and Inara is..." she giggled for a second, "entertaining someone." She had recently discovered what Inara's true occupation was, and it made her giggle, though only she knew why.

Now it was Simon's turn to consider his sibling's proposition. It wasn't as if Kaylee would be completely alone, she'd probably be working on the engine of Serenity. Then again, she'd help be cover for the two of them. This was the sort of world she thrived in, and he stuck out like a fancy necklace on a patch of dirt. Add River into the equation, and the two of them would attract a lot of attention.

"If you don't ask her, I will. And probably mention that thing you dreamt about..."

"You wouldn't."

River had a look on her face that said "try me".

Resigned to this little twist of fate, he headed towards the engine room. "If she's busy, I'm not going to bother her."

"She's not busy. And you're going the wrong way."

Kaylee had flipped to her favorite part of the book she had pulled off her shelf. It was the part where the dashing, if odd, hero confessed his love to the not-quite-princess (she actually was a princess, but she didn't know that yet), who had just led him on a whirlwind adventure to follow her dream. It was Kaylee's favorite scene, taking place on a calm lake with twinkly stars. She'd never really seen a lake, so the scene was all the more magical to her. She had just gotten to where the hero had started to say "I love you" when she heard a knock on her door.

"Come on in," she called.

The shiny shoes that soon appeared revealed her visitor to be Simon. Her mind, still partially attached to the world of the book, thought of Simon saying he loved her, and she blushed. A small blush, but a blush nonetheless.

"You need somethin', Simon?"

He looked at his feet and then at her, but not quite. "I was wondering if you'd like to go to the movies."

The words just hung in the air for a tiny moment, Kaylee a little too shocked to respond. Did he just ask her out?

"I mean, because I'm taking River, and she didn't want you to be alone, and besides, you could help me make sure we don't get any unwanted attention, keep an eye out for Feds..." His words came out in a rush, like one of those run-on sentences he had been taught about as a young student.

His nerve-induced rant seemed to bring Kaylee out of her minor shock. She had been afraid for a moment that she wouldn't have been able to respond, she was so surprised.

"Sure! Tell River I'd be happy to come."

Simon seemed to loosen a little.

"And I'll help keep ya both safe. Don't worry. Just give me a moment to get ready, I'll be right up."

This was just a little story that made it's slow way into my mind and then practically wrote itself, and here's the beginning. I had originally intended for this to be a one-shot, but it sort of got away from me. I hope you're enjoying it.

As always R&R/flame away,

Chocolate and ruffles,

far from the home I love