Author's Note: I own nothing.
I know the ending's rushed/rough. I ran out of time. The prompt was "a piece of jewelry".
In a small bar on Persephone, two men held drinks in their hands, occasionally sipping them, sometimes speaking hushed words. One man was clearly aggravated at their current scenario, the other one seemed to be pleased, pleased enough that it would seem, one could say, that Christmas came early.
"I just don't understand how you could take the crap he spews out of his mouth standing down without even a hint of a fight, Mal!"
"There's a lot of things you don't understand, Jayne. Don't hurt yourself." The mild tongue lashing did little to calm the other man, leaving the latter to mutter angrily in a deep tone as he raised his drink to his mouth.
The two men were accompanied by a woman, looking stony and remaining silent throughout the short exchange. She had no drink, merely sat there, but was paying attention nonetheless. When the first man spoke, she rolled her eyes and fought a smirk that was tugging at her lips. She turned to the second man. "Do you think it's a good idea, sir, to take a job based on Osiris?" Her voice was just as cold and firm as the rest of her.
"Of course! Don't you remember the job on Ariel? It was the biggest haul we've ever gotten. If Badger says he has a solid contact, why don't we try to get our fair share of a deal?" He smiled and took a swig of his drink. "Didn't Kaylee say we need a new something or 'nother for the ship? After this, we can get it and have a ship that's not always threatening to break down."
"Sir, Simon and River were from Osiris."
"Who gives a damn about where they're from? Money's money. If it's good money, I say we take the deal."
"Jayne, watch your mouth." He said quietly, almost glaring at the other man. "I'll talk to him. They don't have to leave the boat. In fact, I might prefer it if they didn't."
The woman's eyebrows furrowed a little. "To be perfectly honest, I was more worried about River than Simon."
"Not my problem."
Kaylee sat on the floor of the cargo bay of Serenity, River sitting happily across from her. "So this guy stared as I fixed his ship in front of his father. He could bare lift his jaw off the floor after I was finished."
River dissolved into a fit of giggles, pulling her knees up to her chin and staring at Kaylee, her eyes filled with her laughter and joy. "Better tighten the hinges... the door will fall off." Kaylee stared for a minute before joining the other girl in her laughter, not sure whether it was genuine or purely because she was nervous about the other girl's words.
From the catwalk, Inara smiled over the scene, shaking her head slightly. "They make quite the pair. River and Kaylee... don't you think?"
Shepherd Book leaned on the railing and looked at the girls then at Inara. His smile faded and his voice lowered. "Forgive me if I'm being too bold... but I overheard you and the Captain speaking the other day about you settling down on Ariel..."
"Forgive me, Shepherd, but while you are not too bold, I do not wish to speak about that particular issue at the moment." Inara's voice was as elegant as always was, but it was clear to the Shepherd that he was to say nothing else. Inara didn't want to talk about her plans to him- she barely wanted to talk to Mal about them. She was only half sure she wanted to settle down on a planet, but she couldn't stay on this ship with Mal anymore... it was getting too painful for her.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to dwell on the topic for much longer as the hatch opened and the Captain himself entered, followed quickly by Zoe and Jayne, the latter grumbling as always. Mal looked positively cheerful. They must have gotten a job, Irana thought to herself. It seemed as if she was in for at least one more wild ride on Serenity.
Kaylee seemed to get the same impression as she turned to see them enter. A smile flashed across her face as well... although, that wasn't too hard to get her to do. No power in the 'verse could get Kaylee to stop smiling. "Good news, Capt'n?"
"You have no idea, Kaylee. Wash!" He called out- their pilot was nowhere to be seen and was probably in the bridge or grabbing something from the kitchen area. Mal started talking as he closed the airlock. "Badger got us a job on Osiris. There's a prized necklace there from the Earth-that-was. Made out of real gold and everything." He started up the stairs to the catwalk as Wash emerged from one of the stairwells.
Wash's eyes opened unexpectedly, moving from Mal to Zoe and back again. "Did I hear right? Osiris? We got a legitimate job?"
Mal gave a bark of laughter. "I don't know anything about legitimate but the contact's solid, and we're going to go and do what we're told." He said with a small smile. Wash gave a small nod and turned around, this time heading for the bridge to get them moving as soon as possible. They didn't want any wasted time on this planet if they didn't have to.
"No. Fear of the unknown... those are known... stay away... he's going to keep me away! I don't want to go!" River suddenly started screaming with her hands over her ears and rocking.
Kaylee was the first one to her side, wrapping her arms around her and holding her still. "No one's gunna hurt you, River. You're safe here. Simon!" Kaylee let out a breath of relief as the doctor came into the room.
"I heard River screaming, is everything alright?" He asked, squatting in front of River and taking her hands in his. "What set her off this time? Anything specific or was it just random?" He asked Kaylee.
She shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. Mal was talkin' 'bout a new job on Osiris and she just exploded." She said, looking towards him to gauge a possible reaction from him.
Simon's mouth dropped and he slowly sat down on the floor. "Osiris?" His voice wasn't as confident as it normally was, not as smooth. "We're... we're going to Osiris? Are we sure?"
"As sure as the feds that will be trying to catch us." Zoe's voice came from across the cargo bay. She seemed to be the only one left in here, clearly watching River to see if she'd be okay. She crossed over to them and stood with her hands on her hips, looking down at Simon, who currently sat with his mouth on the floor as well. "Is that going to be a problem, Simon? I already talked to Mal about it. He said you'd be alright with it."
He struggled to get any words out. "I- I... it's been years. Not to mention the fact R-River and I still have more than a substantial amount of credits on our heads." He was shaking now, and since River seemed to be calming down, Kaylee got up and moved next to him, rubbing his arm soothingly and trying to get him to relax.
She looked up to Zoe and made a face that clearly told her to say something comforting to the terrified man. The other woman merely lifted an eyebrow and stared at the mechanic, silently asking her if she was serious. In the end, Zoe looked at Simon and shrugged. "It'll be alright, Simon. Mal knows what he's doing and he's got a plan. You're probably not even involved in this one so it'll be okay. You and River can stay on the ship. You'll be fine."
He nodded and shakily stood up, gripping onto Kaylee for support. He looked around as he tried to gain control of his legs. "Where'd River go?"
Zoe shrugged. "Who knows, with that sister of yours... she's probably off in her room already. You should probably head to yours as well. You don't look too good. Kaylee, see to it." She gave a brief nod to the mechanic before turning on her heal and heading up towards the bridge.
"Simon, I need to talk to you." The doctor lifted his head off of his bed and looked across the room to see Mal standing in the doorway. He put down the book he was reading and motioned for the Captain to come in. "You and River know Osiris the best and you know the buildings. We need your help on this one."
Simon sighed and sat up straighter, shaking his head a little. "Mal, I really rather not get involved for this-"
"You don't help, we don't get paid. The last time you helped, we came out with the biggest pay we've ever got from any one job." Mal said, now leaning against the wall and staring Simon down. "I know it's your home planet and I know you're hesitant, but I'm also saying you're part of my crew and I'm your Captain and I'm asking for help."
He sighed again in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine. What do you want to know?"
"We're looking about going into a certain Osiris Enterprises-"
Simon's face drained of colour when Mal spoke and Simon struggled to get his words out without them all running over each other. "You're going there? You- you- you can't! There must be some mistake, Mal. The job can't be for that." He said quickly. "Talk to Badger. Something's wrong."
Mal frowned at the doctor's protests and crossed his arms as he looked down on the other man. "Badger, for once, is telling the truth. And I can do whatever the hell I want, especially if there's good money involved. And there is. So tell me why I shouldn't."
After a minute, Simon gave a small embarrassed chuckle and looked at his hands. "My, uh, my father runs Osiris Enterprises."
"Well, we ain't stealing from your father, Doc. Just his company. Think of it that way." Mal said very nonchalantly. "But you know him best and you'd know what his schedule could be. We don't need nothing final, we just need a vague idea. You know, when he'd go to work, when he'd come back, how paranoid he was about his valuables..." Simon stared at Mal, almost begging before turning his head away and sighing. "Glad to have you on the team, Doc."
A few days later Wash announced that they were approaching Osiris, and Mal started prepping most of the crew on the plan. Of course, this meant calling a meeting in the kitchen for everyone but Inara and the Shepherd, who showed up anyway. River was invited, but she wasn't around and as she wasn't particularly crucial for this meeting, no one cared to find her.
"Alright folks, we have a good job lined up and it's the best one we've gotten since Ariel. Should be a good, easy run. Our contact gave us the security codes and we have the layout of the building thanks to city records. Although, Doc here says that Gabriel works long and hard, comin' in early and leavin' late." He said, looking over the group before resting his gaze on Simon. "Tell us about it."
The doctor stood up and sighed, looking at Wash, Zoe and Jayne, who were all looking at him quite intently. Kaylee had that dazed yet happy look that was always on her face when she looked at him. "As far as I can remember, Father had a very ritualistic way of leaving the office. I used to follow him when I was little. He'll engage the cameras and notify the security guards at the entrance of each floor. The necklace itself will be in his main office, as the contact told us. He'll have it in his personal safe which is protected by a laser-safe combination lock. The rule with those is... if you get the combination wrong, the things in the safe are destroyed by a highly powerful laser." He looked towards Mal. "The contact did give us that combination, correct?"
The Captain gave a weird shrug. "We got a list of possible combinations. I guess we'll take to crackin' it ourselves. I did a fair job with the Lassiter, remember? Even with YoSaffBridge and whatshisface breathin' down my neck." Mal said, almost more than a bit proud of himself.
"True. But remember, if you make a mistake, the whole piece is ruined." Simon said warningly.
Mal rolled his eyes and moved to the front of the table, looking over his crew. "Zoe and Simon will be with me in the building. I will tackle the safe, Simon you'll be with us in case we need direction or you pick up on a danger sign or somethin'. Wash and Kaylee will take care of the radio waves and whatnot-"
"Wait, Captain- I told you I wanted minimal involvement in this." The doctor interrupted with a concerned voice.
Mal turned towards the man and shrugged a little. "A job's gotta be done, Doc. Once in there, you're our best tool and bet for getting out safely. You know the building better than us, even with the documents we're going to get from the city." Before Simon could even open his mouth again, Mal continued. "We'll enter from the roof and go down the stairwell there to the 19th floor. There we'll find his office and get to work. Kaylee will be in the shuttle on the roof with constant contact with both us and Wash. Jayne will be with her- guarding the roof's entrance door. No offense, Kaylee, but you ain't too good with a gun." Kaylee gave a small shrug but seemed relieved. "Sound good?"
Other than a small shift of discomfort from Simon's chair, there were no disagreements. Mal turned and left the kitchen, probably either heading to his bunk to contemplate the upcoming heist or to the cargo bay to retrieve weapons that they normally kept stashed away. One by one, people stood up from the table and left until only Kaylee and Simon were sitting across from each other.
"Are you goin' to be okay with all this?" She asked him quietly.
Simon shrugged a little, pushing his chair away from the table. "I guess I'll have to. Mal's doing a lot for me and River right now, keeping us below the radar... and going to Ariel saved us loads of aggravation. I don't want to shake it with him over something so trivial." He said, standing up. "It'll be fine. You just make sure no one's around when we're in there." He smiled at her.
Kaylee stood up and walked around the table, leaning on the chair at the head. "I'll be like your guardian angel if ya want."
He laughed a little and put his hand over hers, squeezing it slightly. "I'd like that."
The next day, around 12:30AM local time, Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and Simon climbed into the spare shuttle with Kaylee in the pilot's seat. "Ready for this?" Mal asked them as Kaylee started to lower the spacecraft into the atmosphere.
"This gorram necklace better be worth it." Jayne mumbled from the back where he sat, a little cramped. It wasn't that there wasn't a lot of room, but he liked to be alone and who didn't get a little annoyed before a big heist?
Zoe rolled her eyes as she watched out the windshield to the building that was quickly approaching. "It will bring in our biggest payback yet, don't you worry." They landed a few seconds later with a little bump. Mal shot Kaylee a sharp look before Zoe opened the door and the four of them filed out.
"Let's make this quick, people." Mal said, already walking to the roof door, kneeling on one knee and picking the lock. Simon looked back at Kaylee, standing in the doorway of the shuttle, waiting for them to enter. She mouthed the words 'Good luck' to him before slipping back into the shuttle, prompting Simon to turn around to see Mal standing up at his handiwork. "Simon, come on. Jayne... don't do anything funny." He said before he and Zoe disappeared into the black darkness that was Osiris Enterprises. Simon sighed and ran in after them.
They went through a few halls and Simon flashed back to his childhood, walking through the same halls just from a shorter stature. 'One day, Simon, all of this will be yours.' That's what his father used to say, before he expressed interest in becoming a doctor and then it was all about that. After a few minutes of following mindlessly, Mal's voice caused him to look around. "Alright. This must be it."
The room they were in was indeed his father's office. It practically screamed Gabriel Tam and nearly made his heart ache. There was the desk that that virtually demanded power in the room to whoever was behind it and the paintings on the wall of foreign beaches and cities. "It's behind that one." Simon said, pointing at a particular painting of a bear.
Mal crossed over and raised an eyebrow before taking the painting off of the wall. Sure enough, there was a heavy duty safe sitting behind it. "Great memory, Doc." He said with a grin, getting to work on the lock.
Everyone froze when there was a noise in the hall. Simon's heart rate skyrocketed as Zoe slowly pulled out a gun of hers and said, "I'll go look at it. Simon... come with me, please." He stared at her for a moment as she walked to the doorway and hissed at him. "Simon! Mal can take care of this by himself."
Simon's legs were like lead as he followed her into the hall. She pointed left and went right. He didn't know what use he could be unarmed, but followed her instructions nonetheless. He turned the corner but saw nothing. He was about to head back to the office when he felt someone pull him back and put a blade against his throat.
"You have five seconds to explain yourself." The man whispered into his ear.
He was about to ramble out an excuse, or call for help, when something in his mind clicked. "Father?" The blade moved from his neck and the hands holding him still twirled him around. In front of him was the last person he expected to see.
Gabriel Tam.
And that man did not look happy. His eyes squinted to view the man in front of him in the darkness. "Simon?" A moment passed. "Simon!" Anger flared in the man's eyes. "What are you doing here? I was coming back to check on something- how did you get in here?"
"I- I-" He stammered in front of his father, completely lost for words.
The anger seemed to recede slightly as he stuttered. "River's not with you, is she? I know you kidnapped her from the school. Simon, you were all over the news. Your mother's worried for you and keeps asking if I hear anything about you. You destroyed this family in a single bound, Simon! Do you know how long it took me to rebuild this company's reputation?" His voice was raising and Simon was getting a little worried about how loud his father was getting.
He was about to confess some things to the man, to ease his mother's suffering over losing both of her children and never hearing from them again. But then he remembered the last time he saw his father before this meeting and loathing coursed through his veins. "River is with me, Father. She is safe for the first time since you sent her to that so-called school. " He said with hate dripping from his words. "And I don't care about you. Or your business. You couldn't be bothered to save your daughter, my own sister, why should I care about saving your business? You treat it like your child but you couldn't care enough to take care of your real ones. Ones I cared for. So why should I care for your fake one?" He asked, glaring.
"Who says I didn't care about you?" His father's voice was full of venom he hadn't heard in the voice since the last time they met. "Did I not get you everything you ever wanted to be the best doctor in the Core? Your mother and I loved you until the day you had to go get involved with those men. You just had to go ahead and destroy your future."
Simon's heart raced in his chest, adrenalin from between the heist and the argument coursing through his veins. "I rather bury my future than my little sister!" He snapped. "Only an idiot like you would see what I was doing and be against it."
"Don't you dare talk to me that way, Simon Tam! I am your father!" The man shouted, standing up tall and looking down at him.
He didn't get another word out before Simon cut him off. "I am not your son!" Simon said back angrily. He stood waiting for a slap across the face or the knife the man held to penetrate his skin but none of that happened. In fact, slack went across his face as pity crossed his eyes.
Suddenly, a flash of light passed over his shoulder and hit Gabriel Tam square in the heart, sending him a few inches back and onto the ground, his eyes closed. Simon spun on his heel to see Zoe standing at the end of the hall, putting her gun back into her holster. "Don't worry. It was set to stun. I doubt he'd remember anything in the morning. Now, are you ready? I'm sure Mal is done, we've left him alone long enough."
He nodded and started walking to her, not looking back on the body of the man that used to be his father. Only when he turned the corner did he see a glimpse of the body and he felt guilty instantly. "Zoe, I-"
"Don't talk. If he remembers anything, we're going to be worse off than we normally are. They know you're alive and our current location. We'll need to be out of this sector as soon as we get out of here." They entered the room where Mal was reattaching the safe's door onto the body. A gold necklace was lying on the floor next to him. "You finished, sir? There was a... incident and we need to get out of here pronto."
Mal stood up and put the picture back on the wall. "The laser system won't do 'em any good now, it's gone, but it looks pretty, don't it?" He said with a smug little smirk. He grabbed the necklace off the floor and put it in a bag he pulled out of his pocket before meeting them in the doorway. "Well now, we'll have to skedaddle then, won't we?" He said. Simon always enjoyed easy missions like this one ended up to be- Mal was always relatively happy when he didn't have to work too hard for a big payout.
With a mere smirk at both Simon and Zoe, Mal walked past them and started up to the stairs to the roof. The two of them followed suit, moving quickly and touching nothing. Simon stopped for a moment and Zoe glanced at him, her eyes telling him to hurry up. "I thought I heard something." He explained.
"Every more reason to keep moving." She said, glaring at him and grabbing his arm, pulling him up the final stairwell. They broke into the cool night air and Jayne smirked slightly when he saw the bag in Mal's hand.
"Done good, Mal." He said with approval, turning and climbing into the shuttle. "Kaylee, start'er up, they're back."
Simon gave one more look to the door which Mal was relocking before climbing into the shuttle and taking a seat, his stomach caught tightly in his throat.
There were only a few whispers on the flight back to the ship. As a whole, they mostly sat in silence. There was a radio transmission every now and again, but nothing substantial. Once they returned to Serenity, the five of them got out of the shuttle and saw Wash running down the stairs from the bridge with Inara standing on the catwalk, smiling at them. Just by Inara's smile the tense atmosphere seemed to dissolve around them. "By the look on Mal's face, I have to assume that the mission went well." She said, observing the man's smile as he started to go down into the cargo bay to put the small pouch away in one of the nooks in the siding.
"You assume right, Inara. Wash, get us on course to get us out of this sector as fast as we can. I'll call Badger and tell him he'll get his prize later or on a different planet. We're going to go under the radar for a week or so." Mal said, taking off a side panel and looking up at their pilot.
Wash nodded. "Yes sir." He turned towards Zoe and smiled a little. "I watched you do your job, want to come and watch me do mine?"
Zoe chuckled and walked over to him, running her hands over his shoulders and resting on his chest. "Whatever amuses you the most, dear." She said with a small grin.
Wash took her hand and led her up the stairs to the bridge. Simon could have sworn that he heard him say, "I could easily amuse you up there, too you know... It doesn't have to involve the dinosaurs."
Simon took action of his own and left the crowd, moving without really paying attention, just walking where his feet took him. A minute or so later, he came to a halt outside of River's room. Without as much as a second thought, he opened the door and found his sister picking at the blanket on the bed. He walked the few paces across the room and sat down on the bed. "Hey you." She turned towards him and cocked her head to the side, picking his hand up from his side and playing with his fingers.
"Something bad happened." She said, lifting her eyes up to him. It was nice, the moments like this, when she was more or less coherent and in tune with reality.
He didn't want to worry her, however unlikely that was in her current state, so he lied to her with a smile on his face. "Nothing too bad. I just wanted to see you. You've been disappearing a lot lately." Simon said, gripping her hand. "I've missed you."
River smiled and leaned in, hugging him tightly. Simon automatically hugged her back, his head still not in the room with them. There was a knock and a voice that brought him back to earth, almost prompting him to breathe a sigh of relief. "Simon?" He turned to see Kaylee in the doorway. "Can we talk?" She asked him quietly. River pushed him away and turned back enthusiastically to her blanket, so he got up and followed her out the door.
She led him to the catwalk over the cargo bay and leaned on the railing, looking out. She said nothing, so he mimicked her, looking over the empty space and waiting for something to happen. The ship jostled a little. Out of nowhere, Mal's voice echoed. "Wash! Be careful, will ya?"
Surprisingly, two responses called out from the bridge.
"Sorry, Captain!"
"Sorry, sir!"
"Zoe told me what happened." Simon looked over, surprised at Kaylee's quiet voice. It wasn't even that Zoe told the crew, but that Kaylee wanted to talk to him about it. "How are you holding up?"
Simon shrugged. "There's nothing wrong. Honestly."
She laughed, repositioning herself so she was looking at him. "How can you say that with a straight face? Zoe hit your dad with stun gun right in front of ya. Somethin's gotta be biting at you."
"It's nothing. I promise." He turned towards her. "Look, I don't want to have to explain anything to the whole crew. Nothing happened."
Kaylee smiled a little. "The others don't know. Zoe only told me." She said, almost a little proud of herself. "She wanted me to make sure you were still here, not still in that building. It's dangerous, to not have a person completely here, ya'know?"
In that moment, he felt a surge of appreciation towards Zoe for only telling Kaylee. She knew the mechanic would be the only one he'd talk to about this type of stuff anyway. "When I heard we were going to go to Osiris, I let myself get a little happy. I was hoping I wasn't involved or we'd be here for a few days. I was going to take you to all the places where I grew up." He admitted. "I mean. As best as I could have with a price tag on my head." He said with a small smirk.
"So you mean through a video camera attached to a robot that we controlled from the ship hundreds of light-years away?" She asked with a smirk.
He laughed and nodded. "Yes. That."
"Wouldya have let me seen your house?" She asked. "Or too many bad memories?"
He looked at her for a moment before turning back to look over the cargo bay. "I might have. The house... itself does not have bad memories. It has good ones. On the other hand, the people inside it..." He let the sentence hang. "He was my father and I'll remember that. But once River was taken and he refused to help... I kind of knew where we placed in his mind. Ever since then I never really cared what he thought of me, because he didn't care about us. Or I told myself that to make the situation easier for me." He sighed a little. "It... it was weird to hear him telling me he cared more about his business and reputation than his own children. It was like we didn't exist... we didn't matter."
Simon felt pressure against his shoulder and he looked to see Kaylee leaning against him. She put her arm through his and gave it a small squeeze. "You matter." She told him. Suddenly he felt warm lips against his cheek. "I promise."