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Chapter Two: It Doesn't Always End with Death
"They all upstairs?" Mal asked, sauntering closer.
River nodded. She'd been laying across a group of crates piled off to one side in the bay. With her focus shifting back to the physical world, she swiveled to sit up, turning in the Captain's direction. The girl started swinging her legs back and forth, kicking her bare feet against the boxes and enjoying the physicality of the reverberation in her heels. She focused on Mal, looking intently at him and tilting her head to one side, listening.
"Hear anything interesting?" He asked, with an exaggeratedly serious face.
"Empty spaces. Quiet," it came out sounding like the half-question it was.
"Well, ain't that somethin'? You callin' me stupid, little one?" He smiled, and River was a little disturbed. She couldn't say what it was exactly, but there was definitely something off about the expression. Then again, none of her senses were entirely reliable anymore, so she was never sure whether to trust them or not. Sometimes she couldn't help reacting to what they told her, and sometimes she was paralyzed by inaction, unable to know what was really happening in the world around her and what was only in her head.
"Not stupid. Blank slate, can't hear you," her brow wrinkled, perplexed by this development. She didn't hear everyone's thoughts all the time, but usually when she focused on someone she could immediately hear something, often more than she wanted. Now, however, it was like the Captain wasn't even there.
"Well, good then! I know ain't none of us as brilliant as Simon says you are, but wouldn't be right for you to rub it in any. Thing is, I got a plan I can't pull off myself. After the way you handled ol' Early, figure you're the right accomplice for the job. Interested?"
"Simon won't like it," River warned.
"Yeah, well, I figured that. We just won't tell Simon until it's his turn."
She was bewildered by the fact she still wasn't hearing any thoughts from Mal, but not really worried, even when between one blink and another the Captain moved to grab her. She'd seen the inside of the Captain's mind enough to be sure he wouldn't hurt her, so she didn't even really start to struggle until she registered that he'd clamped a hand over her mouth. At that point she began to try and get away in earnest, but it didn't help. River cried out as there was a sharp pain in her neck, but by that time he'd drug her back towards the passenger quarters and her mouth was muffled. There was no one closer than the galley, and there was no way anyone upstairs would have heard.
…
"River says y'all have been makin' an undue fuss over me."
The room turned to look at him almost as one. None of them had noticed him coming into the doorway of the kitchen, in the midst of argument as they were. Predictably, the doc piped up with, "River said? Where is ..."
Mal waved Simon down, rolling his eyes. "She was listening in from the cargo bay, said the lot of you were making one heck of a noise in her noggin – least that's what I think she said," he looked perplexed for a moment before moving on, "said she was goin' to lay down for a bit. Specifically said to tell you not to fuss, doctor. As hopeless as it is to think you might follow that suggestion."
Simon huffed in annoyance, but he did sit back down. Mal walked further into the room, looking them all over. "Inara! You're back early, business not go as well as you hoped?" He added, sounding jovial.
The Companion muttered something under her breath and then said with overly-saccharine sweetness, "My business is still none of yours. Perhaps you'll tell us what business you had that was so important you couldn't tell any of us about it?"
Mal smirked at her and made a show of looking around at the rest of them, while completely ignoring Inara's question. "Just warms my heart to see you so concerned about your Captain's well-being. Only Jayne and the Shepherd still out then?" Without waiting for an answer, he clapped his hands together once in enthusiasm, and turned to the mechanic. "You got those repairs done, Kaylee? I am just about ready to be off this rock."
"Where have you been, sir?" Zoe cut across any answer the mechanic was likely to make beyond the nod she'd already given. Apparently the Captain's current lack of an answer on top of the stress of the earlier disappearance had finally caused her to reach the very end of her normally formidable patience.
"What? I decided to take in the sights for once, is that so wrong?" The false innocence in the tone wouldn't have fooled any of them even if they didn't know him as well as they did.
"Sir." Zoe added, her tone clearly conveying her disapproval.
"Now, look here! I don't ask you any about your shore-side ventures – as much as your husband tries to tell anybody'll stand still long enough. I don't figure you need to be pryin' into mine, dong ma? Ain't like to affect things for us on this ship any."
Zoe looked dubious, and the rest of the crew undeniably curious, but Mal refused to tell them anything else about where he'd been no matter how many times they tried in different ways. Although no one commented on it, a couple of the crew thought it was a little strange that Mal didn't get annoyed they kept asking. As a matter of fact, Mal's attitude was unusually jovial. No one wanted to comment on it though, figuring that might be the very thing to actually spoil it.
They had their evening meal together, and as they were all getting ready to disperse, Mal sent Simon down to recheck the infirmary's stock, telling the doc he'd fallen into some extra money for supplies. If Simon thought it was at all weird that Mal kept passing by the infirmary and asking questions about things that kept him busy for hours, he didn't say anything. As it was, by the time Mal finally stopped pestering him, he only barely looked in on his sister all tucked up in bed before turning in himself.
Simon's earlier worry that Mal had gotten himself caught by someone who would come looking for the ship and find his sister had made the day a long and stressful one. Because of that, Simon was deeply asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He didn't wake up when the door to his room slid open quietly and his sister floated in lightly on her bare feet. River came to a stop standing directly over his bed, staring down at her brother. She reached out a hand almost touching the planes of his face, but not quite making actual contact.
"Simon," she whispered, and then again a little louder. Behind her, the Captain entered the room and slid the door shut before moving a few steps to the side to lean casually up against the wall, crossing his arms, with his eyes intent on watching River's actions.
"Waa, River? River, what's wrong?" Simon said, groggily.
River smiled at him, and gave in to the impulse to actually touch his face. "Nothing. Don't worry, Simon."
Simon sat up a bit, blinking and then rubbing at his eyes. "You woke me up to tell me not to worry? Why are your hands so cold?"
River giggled. "No, silly!" Then she turned abruptly serious. "Have to be quiet, Simon. Shhh."
"I -" he recoiled as River lunged at him, but it did him no good. "Ow!"
"Keep him quiet," Mal said in a forceful undertone, for the first time drawing Simon's attention to the Captain's presence. The doctor flailed a bit, half wanting the Captain to help with his crazier-than-usual sister, and half from the pain of what River was doing. Was she biting him? His thoughts were still too confused to organize much of a protest, and it wasn't much longer before he didn't even have the strength for it.
When she was finished with him, River lay her brother back down gently. "Won't wake by morning," she said.
"Can't think it'll be too late in the day," Mal responded thoughtfully. "I'll just mention you're having one of your peculiar spells and Simon is busy takin' care of it. I figure it should keep most of 'em off for long enough, 'specially if you do enough hollerin' they don't want to investigate too close."
"Better than most of your plans," River responded, somewhat dubiously.
"Hey now! I am still your Captain, girly. At least pretend to have a little respect."
River rolled her eyes and gave him a mocking little half-salute, before her expression came over thoughtful instead. "Amount of blood to sustain our new condition is unknown. Insufficient data available about presumed myths. Entire crew will probably need excessive quantities to prepare for interplanetary travel. Jayne eats too much. Must we turn him?"
"Nobody gets left, unless we can't help it. You know that."
She made another face, but didn't say anything else.
…
It was a disorienting experience, waking up after dying. Mal had figured that out hisownself just recent-like, so he kept an ear out for signs of stirring from Simon's room as the rest of the crew started to move about in the new day. He'd managed to bribe Kaylee with a little extra allowance for parts to hopefully keep her from even thinkin' on the doc any during this crucial time. The gal who had turned him had quite a stash of coin tucked away, which was coming in right handy now. She'd gotten lonely and figured on makin' herself a playmate nobody'd miss – which was why she'd been trawling the bars down by the spaceport.
It was to her detriment that she hadn't realized how contrary Mal was by nature when he brushed off her obvious come ons at the bar. She'd figured on her experience and the bond between a sire and a childe being enough to keep him in line. However, between his personal decision to never take orders from nobody again and his attachment to his ship and crew, which she'd told him to forget about, he'd staked her first chance she let her vigilance waver enough. Despite what he'd told little River, that was just the reason he had his own doubts about makin' Jayne one of them, too. The big merc weren't exactly reliable as a human-type man. There'd be time enough later to figure on that, though, as Jayne'd be last after the others were equipped to keep him in line.
When he'd first realized that woman had figured to keep him as some kind of minion-y pet, even before he'd staked her proper, he'd been thinking about what he did want to do with his shiny new unlife. The guilt he'd always felt on account of survivin' when near everyone else in Serenity Valley and on Shadow had died was suddenly gone along with the regular need to breathe. It had been freeing in a lot of ways. Some things hadn't much changed, though. He still figured his place to be on Serenity and to keep her running as she should be, he'd need his crew. That wouldn't work out too well, they got out in the black and he got too hungry. Beyond which, they'd have an advantage over the people they dealt with, were he to just go ahead and turn 'em now.
Might have planned things a bit differently if he'd realized up front River's uncanny abilities wouldn't give him away. He'd known that they were unreliable most days, but to realize she couldn't read his brainpan at all? Ah well. Mighta made the girl suspicious anyhow soon enough, and she'd been conveniently alone when he came back. And if River had to be first, Simon had to be next. Top three percent was gonna notice his sister didn't have no heartbeat. Besides which, they needed to stock up on plasma and that was purely Simon's department of expertise. He'd need to consult with the medic on those kinds of supplies.
It had occurred to him to round up some humans to take along for food instead, but the logistics didn't add up right. Sure'n there were drifters about and whatnot, but whatserface had already made that mistake, thinkin' she could take off with him. Even if he hadn't turned up, he had no doubt Zoe would have come looking, trailing the rest of the crew. You just never knew what attachments a body might have. Plus, humans along, they'd have to feed 'em and listen to 'em whine. Any managing to escape and speak on what they were or the location of the Tams, well, that didn't even bear thinking on. He'd broke into Simon's medical stocks of blood, and it weren't no worse than eating bland protein all the time, and seemed to be working okay to keep him from tearin' out the crew's throats for the pure joy of it, no matter how tempting the notion. Of course, it hadn't been that long yet.
That had been the other big hurdle he'd seen as a potential problem, having to start off with River. Girl could be called a lot of things, but predictable weren't never one of 'em. He'd tied her up plenty secure before she'd woken up, but it hadn't turned out necessary after all. Perhaps it wasn't so strange this new way of being which had made everything in his world seem so much clearer had a similar effect on the girl. Afore now, he'd have pondered long and hard on the unlikelihood of his luck allowing such a turn, but this was a new day. He saw there was no point to that nonsense now.
While he was waiting on Simon, he had Wash running a few tests up on the bridge and Zoe off-ship, seeing if she couldn't scrounge up Jayne from whatever cesspit he'd found to wallow in for the duration of their stop. With Kaylee already tied up with the engine, that left less chance of someone looking for the doctor and making things purely awkward. Wouldn't do for them to find him dead, or worse, revived and too hungry not to kill right off.
He finally sensed some movement out of the doctor's cabin after a few more hours of waiting patiently as he could manage. So it was that he woke Simon up completely by hitting him in the midsection with a couple of full packs of blood from the infirmary. Mal wasn't remotely surprised when the doc whined about it.
"We're keeping the whole crew and I can't trust you not to screw up and kill somebody instead right now, Simon. It ain't particularly tasty, but you should be used to that by now livin' with us on the raggedy edge this long."
Boy grumbled a bit more before tearing into the packets greedily. When he was done, he just looked up from the bed where he was sitting, still half-dressed from the night before. River'd been careful to mop the blood off his neck, so aside from the pale he looked much the same as ever. Which was a reassuring thing to a fella who could no longer use mirrors for hisownself.
"We're vampires? Drink blood, undead, allergic to sunlight, garlic, and stakes-to-the-heart vampires? This - this is ludicrous!"
"Now, now, doc. Keep your voice down. Ain't but the three of us yet, and while I got the crew doing busywork, we don't want to take chances."
The doctor glared at him a bit and stood up, almost looking like he was thinking on making some kind of challenge – which was not exactly unexpected, so far as Mal was concerned. All this time on the rim and the doc still hadn't figured out which fights he was guaranteed to lose. Perhaps Simon might have gone ahead and started one, but just then River's voice carried into the room from behind where Mal was standing in the doorway, "Don't be a boob, Simon. This is shiny."
"Forgive me for thinking I might miss the sun a little, mei mei," Simon responded in a much warmer voice.
"Uh, yeah. Point of fact on that, doc. Apparently it was just the sun of Earth-that-Was like to cause our kind to burst into flame. The garlic thing ain't true, neither. You might wanna stay away from pointy wood, religious symbols, and decapitation hazards, sure enough though."
"But … that ... why? How?" Simon spluttered.
"Can't run this boat on my own, and couldn't risk your sis outing me when I came back different. And the two of you do come as a package deal, I recall."
"That is not what I … can we at least kill Jayne?"
"River already asked," Mal replied, seeing the amusement in the siblings sharing that same thought. River shook her head mournfully when her brother turned his attention to her. Simon sighed in disappointment.
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A/N: About River being easily overcome, three things. Her abilities are very much hit and miss - even at the end of the movie she's having helpless fits in the face of danger. Second, science still definitively has limits in terms of strength/strain on the body, the supernatural doesn't necessarily. Third, Earshot – psychics are to vampires as mirrors are to vampires. Considering the treatment she sometimes gets in fan works, I imagine some people won't like what I've done here, but those are my reasons. In a similar vein (ouch!), canon vampires' rise times are pretty much plot convenient, and Serenity is somewhere between private home/public business as well as being owned by Mal, whereby I'm excusing the threshold issue.
