Disclaimer: Firefly, Serenity and related/recognizable characters/materials are copyright of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions and subsequent companies. I do own the character of Molly Maguire. This Fan Fiction is not intended for profit nor is any copyright infringement intended.
Timeline: This begins approximately six months pre-Firefly (series).
The stars outside the window were beginning to blur as Malcolm Reynolds continued to stare forward without blinking. He had been slouched in the co-pilot seat since the moment they left atmo and judging by the increasingly unsubtle coughing of his pilot his distraction had been noticed. A slight cut of his eyes towards the seat to his right revealed Wash's head studying the controls in front of him; as opposed to the steady, curious, gaze that Mal hadn't missed being pointed in his own direction seconds earlier.
"What is it Wash?"
"Nothing sir," the blonde replied quickly. "Nothing at all. It's just that, you seem a bit, how should I say, umm?"
"Spit it out."
"Distracted? No, no, you don't get distracted," the pilot began rambling nervously, as the implications of his statement began to hit him. "More like, preoccupied. Which you are, of course, completely allowed to be. Busy busy man that you are."
"Speak no more husband," Zoe's voice interrupted before her husband could dig himself potentially deeper. Her tone, however, implied that she was joking with the statement, more then anything else.
"Thank you wife," Wash muttered and flipped a few switches, grateful for the interjection of the ship's first mate. "So Persephone huh?"
"That's where we're headed," Mal finally broke his silence once more. "With a passenger to boot," he muttered the last part more to himself then to either of his crew members.
"Somethin' bothering you about the passenger sir?" Zoe asked, picking up on the tone of the man she had known for so long.
"Honestly don't know," he admitted and opened his hand to show her the gems he had been holding since he was handed them just over an hour earlier. "Look at these."
Zoe leaned over and studied the jewels that sat in the palm of her Captain's hand before replying, "They're awfully shiny sir. And I mean that quite literally. Should we be worried about these?"
"She said her family owns a mine," he responded. "Dunno what to make of that."
"Here's an idea," Wash interjected. "And it's a crazy one, lemme tell you. But, maybe they do."
"And even if they don't; it's not like there's so many of them that we'd need to be worried about Feds," Zoe elaborated, knowing that if Mal was bothered by the jewels he wasn't going to entertain any logical explanation. At least not at first. Malcolm Reynolds went with his gut on most things; logic came later.
"There's more," Mal muttered, closing his hand up and pocketing the stones. "Lot more."
"Oh," Zoe and Wash both replied, exchanging curious glances at the tone of the Captain. "What's bugging you sir?" Zoe questioned candidly as on the bridge with just her husband and old friend she felt comfortable enough to ask.
"Well, she pops outta no where, has no credits or coin to pay for passage and hands me a bag of gem stones. Then she basically tells me to take what is fair for passage to Persephone."
"Sir," Zoe replied quietly. "Now, don't take this the wrong way; you know I'm normally all for increased caution and paranoia when the situation merits it. But, maybe, she really did just need a ride to Persephone? We were lookin' for passengers."
Mal shook his head at the words of his first mate and forced a smile onto his face before responding, "You're right Zoe. I've just been a might twitchy from the lack of work. Starting to think everyone's the boogey-man."
"They aren't?"
Zoe smirked at her husband's comment as Mal stood and stretched. He quietly walked past them, lightly tapping his first mate on the shoulder in thanks and headed off the bridge. As he descended into his own quarters to lock up the stones he could swear he heard Wash's voice questioning if he was allowed to think that was weird. In the back of his mind the Captain couldn't help but agree with his pilot; but, he also had no idea why the young woman had unsettled him so.
After he had locked away the stones in a safe box he couldn't help but offer up a thanks to a God he no longer believed in that Persephone was only three days away and she would be off the ship soon enough.
"Dinner Molly," Kaylee's voice came through the door of the passenger dorm, followed by a light tapping that fully turned the brunette's attention away from the notebook she had been flipping through.
"I'll be right out Kaylee," she replied, raising her voice to be sure she was heard. She waited a few seconds and listened to the sound of boots on the grating of the floors before sliding the notebook back inside of her duffel bag. She stood off the edge of the bed and briefly debated bringing her pistol to dinner, chuckling at the sheer ridiculousness of the thought, before leaving the room and heading in the direction she had heard boisterous voices coming from.
She used the few minutes she had before she reached the mess to clear her thoughts of those that had been dredged up to the forefront of her mind by looking over the old journal. The book was a small piece of her past that she still kept on her person; a reminder of why she had left Paradiso thirteen years earlier, taking only a few captures and the sack of gemstones she had collected growing up from the scraps of her family's mine.
"Keep the past in the past Molly," she muttered, pausing outside the half shut door. "No use dwelling. In the end there's nothing left but ashes."
"You comin' in?" Kaylee's voice interrupted Molly's personal pep-talk and the older brunette looked up to see the mechanic smiling in the doorway and waving her inside. "We've actually got some real food tonight. I did some shoppin' 'fore the storm blew in."
"Shiny," Molly replied, putting as bright a smile as she could manage through the case of nerves she was developing over seeing five people other then Kaylee staring back at her from the table.
"Molly, you sit here," the mechanic gestured and steered Molly into a seat across from a woman that on first appearances looked like the living embodiment of a doll. "This is Inara."
"Hello," the doll turned human replied in a cultured voice. "It's very nice to meet you."
"Same," Molly responded quickly and forced herself to keep her eyes up and focused on the others at the table even though all she wanted to do was sleep. A feat she still hadn't achieved, despite having been left alone for over two hours before dinner.
"That's Jayne, then Wash, 'cross from Wash is Zoe and then of course, you met the Captain earlier," Kaylee continued her introductions.
"Yes, I did. Lovely to see you again sir," Molly spoke directly to him, an easy smile on her face as she watched him shift uncomfortably in his chair. "I meant to ask you earlier, do you have a first name?"
"Do you have a last name?" he shot back, in a perfect imitation of the proper tone she had used when addressing him.
"Touche," Molly muttered. "It's very nice to meet everyone else as well."
"Ya not bad to look at. You can meet me better later," a gruff voice responded to her comment and without looking Molly made an assumption that it came from the large, reasonably handsome, man sitting next to Inara. When she looked up and registered his smirk she realized she had guessed correctly and simply grinned back. "Like that idea do ya?"
"Depends," Molly stage-whispered, leaning over slightly. "Do you like the idea of ever being able to use it again?"
Her words had the blonde Kaylee had introduced as Wash choking on whatever he was drinking, while the Doll across from her looked somewhere between scandalized and amused.
"Huh? It?"
"Oh, now he's really not havin' sex with me," Molly muttered under her breath to Kaylee, sending the younger girl into a fit of giggles as she attempted to pass a serving plate to Molly.
Soon after the table fell generally quiet for the next few minutes as everyone served themselves and began to eat. It was during this lull, eyes glued to her plate or chop sticks that she began to feel a prickling on the back of her neck; the kind you get when someone is talking about you. Glancing up she met a pair of brown eyes directly across from her. The eyes were curious, alluring and strangely cold all at once. It was in that moment that the woman Molly had subconsciously dubbed the China Doll in her own mind made sense; Companion.
The moment she made the connection between the woman's physical appearance and the look in her eyes Molly's mouth dried up around the food she had just placed into it.
"Can I help you?" Molly asked quietly after she had finished chewing a mouthful of the now chalky food.
"I was just wondering about you," Inara replied. "It's always nice to have a new person to speak with."
"I'm sure you get plenty of new people in your line of work."
The conversation that the other five had been participating in fell silent at Molly's statement and out of the corner of her eye Molly could see the Captain straighten up a bit in his chair; though whether his curiosity was peeked or he was aggravated had yet to be deciphered by the newest passenger on his ship.
"What line of work is it that you think I'm in?" Inara questioned politely.
"You're a companion, Academy trained I'm sure."
"You are correct," Inara conceded with a tight smile. "Though, I suppose it can't be too difficult to assume in surroundings such as these."
"Hey!"
"No offense meant Captain Reynolds," the Companion quickly reassured the indignant voice. "How did you figure it out?"
Molly met Inara's eyes and mimicked the expression she saw in their brown orbs before switching to a smile intended to charm and replied, "I'm a real good guesser. If everyone will excuse me? I'm quite tired."
"You sure?" Kaylee interjected as Molly stood up from the table, gathering her empty plate as she went. "You barely ate."
"Dinner was lovely," she rushed to assure the girl as she rinsed off her dish quickly and laid it in the rack. "But I'm not really all that hungry right now," she continued what she was sure was a feeble explanation, based on the various looks on the crew's faces. "Again, thanks. And, well, goodnight."
"Goodnight," a chorus of voices followed Molly as she left the common area and quickly walked back to the passenger dorms.
It wasn't until she was closed back up in her room that she allowed herself to relax and process what she had learned at dinner. The presence of a Companion on board the ship brought back a slew of memories that even the journal itself couldn't begin to unearth in her mind. She quickly pulled her boots off once more and climbed into the bed attempting once more to sleep and cursing her inability to relax in unfamiliar places, as it forced her to remain dressed.
Three hours later she was still studying the ceiling of the passenger dorm and praying for blessed oblivion.
There were a lot of things Mal loved about his ship; her occasional ability to keep him up at night was not one of them. Which was why he was currently on his third circuit of Serenity, mentally reminding himself to ask Kaylee to take a look at whatever was making the clanking noise keeping him awake tonight. He figured it couldn't be dangerous or important 'cause the mechanic was currently sleeping like a baby in her bunk.
"Nope, I'm the only one awake."
"No you aren't," a voice drifted out of the darkness, across the cargo bay from him, 'causing him to jump and pull his pistol. "I promise Captain," the voice, that he now recognized as their passenger. "I am unarmed."
"Where in the gorram hell are you girl?"
"Over here," she spoke again, this time accompanied by a wave that got his attention. Carefully he picked his way down the catwalk until he reached the other side where she was sitting. "Am I allowed in here?"
"Little late to be asking that ain't it?"
"Better to ask forgiveness?"
Mal chuckled lightly at the tone she used, mainly as in no way shape or form did it imply an apology, and shook his head. He slid down and took a seat next to her, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the middle railing as well with both of their feet dangling above the cargo bay, and sighed. The silence stretched between them for a few minutes, strangely comfortable to the man who had been so certain this woman unsettled him. Turning his head to the side he studied her profile in the dark. Long hair hung straight, unbraided, down her back and she was studying the floor below them intently with a blank expression that began to bring the discomfort back into his stomach.
"What're you headin' to Persephone for anyway?"
"No real reason," she replied immediately. "Just needed to get off that backwater moon."
"Because?"
"Got fired," she admitted.
"For?" he prodded, his gaze never leaving her profile and hers never leaving the floor.
"Threw a drink in the face of some purple belly and then hit him. And before you freak out, he grabbed my ass."
"I'd have promoted ya," Mal responded, smirking lightly.
"That's what I said," Molly grumbled, the blank expression turning into a light pout. "My turn," she continued. "What's a registered Companion doing on your boat anyway?"
Mal rolled his eyes at the question, one he had asked himself on and off for a long while, and finally replied, "You know how that works, she's considered respectable, an Ambassador. Keeps certain eyes off of us." Molly's answering snort told Mal all he needed to know about her opinion of the profession. "Why do you have a problem with it?"
"Let's just say that The Guild is part of the reason I haven't been home in almost fourteen years," she whispered back, a frustrated crease appearing on her forehead as she turned her head to face him finally. "But, that's my own fault I suppose."
"The Guild?"
"That's what I said," she responded and Mal shifted nervously as her eyes seemed to bore into his. "You don't like me much do you?"
"Don't know ya is all," he admitted. "Can't dislike ya. But you're a bit strange; not, dangerous. Just a little strange."
"How so?"
"You switch back and forth 'tween proper and, well, not. I don't like people I can't figure out."
"I've lived many places Captain," she told him quietly, her tone taking on one of a confidence. "As such, I guess I lost a bit of where I came from," she added, shrugging slightly. "I change and adapt as each situation presents itself. But I promise, I'm not here to cause trouble. I really did just need a ride to somewhere else. Serenity provided that."
"Guess I'll have to take that for what it's worth."
Molly nodded and pushed herself up into a standing position; Mal's eyes followed her progression until she was standing over him, still leaning against the railing and once again staring below them. He waited as something in her expression told him she was going to speak again and a long, strained silence stretched out for almost a full five minutes before she did open her mouth.
"I like my privacy Captain. I'm sure you do as well. I'll stay out of the way of you and your crew; providing I am given the same respect."
"Noted," he replied; once again confused, but finally not uncomfortable with her. "Goodnight, Miss...Molly."
"Goodnight Captain Reynolds."
When Molly re-entered her room, again, she forced herself to change for bed feeling finally that she might be able to sleep after the strange conversation she had with the ship's Captain. The man was an enigma to Molly. She could tell there was a lot more going on behind his eyes then he showed to the world. She hated that she realized that.
"What were you thinking?" she muttered into her pillow, punching it a few times for good measure. "Just tell the man your how life story why don'tcha?"
Molly sighed and flipped over in the surprisingly comfortable bed as she contemplated the last half hour. She hadn't been lying when she told Captain Reynolds that The Guild was part of the reason she had left home at fifteen years old; the only detail she had left out was that The Guild itself hadn't had any part in her leaving. Her parents, registering her with The Academy and her acceptance letter, providing she chose to attend, had been the reason. Her ability to study the people on this boat, Captain Reynolds especially, was merely a natural talent at reading body language that had prompted her acceptance into The Academy.
"Oh, won't you make a wonderful Companion one day," she muttered, remembering the words of the head mistress. "My ass," she added spitefully.
Three days later and Molly Maguire was off world on her way anywhere that didn't involve her money and status obsessed parents. Parents who, truth be told, never had any real money or status to begin with.
"Three days and you're on Persephone. Just avoid Inara like the plague," she added out loud, reinforcing her thoughts for her own ears. "Just play it like you told the Captain. You like your privacy and would like to be left alone. That'll work."
She had told the man the truth, traveling for years, living in different places and her own innate talents for adapting were the reasons she could switch between tones and grammatical intonations when she needed to. And while she had no illusions that The Guild would even care that she hadn't accepted their offer; it didn't mean she wanted it brought up or to be reminded of what she could have had.
Because her what she considered her one greatest accomplishment on some days; she also considered her one greatest regret on others.
Note: Hi guys. So, this is an entirely different fandom for me to be writing in (though not reading or watching). Mostly when I write, it's original fiction so it's my all my own characters/plots/etc. My writing in general tends to lead towards more introspective and dark; hopefully that isn't a turn off for anyone.
I very much hope you're enjoying this so far; and I very much welcome constructive criticism on things that you feel could either be fleshed out or approached differently - characters, interactions, other things like that. I thrive off of anything that could help me become a better writer or storyteller.
Much love.
