Glad you're still reading, hope you're enjoying it. This will be the last chapter in Simon's POV before it switches to the OC. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I'm a poor college kid. I certainly don't own Firefly or Serenity. I'm only here because Jayne Cobb kidnapped me and now I can't leave.
River was right. I am a boob. I should have acted on my feelings for Kaylee a long time ago. As I watched the screen displaying her vitals I held tightly to her hand. To think we could have died without ever getting to pursue our feelings for each other, well, it's not something I fancy to contemplate. We are both here now and that's what's important.
She gave my hand a squeeze to get my attention and I looked down at her. It struck me, not for the first time, that she was the most genuinely beautiful girl I'd ever met, both inside and out. Her sleepy voice traveled to my ears. "Well doc, whaddya say? Am I gonna live?" she punctuated her question with a teasing smile. More than once already she had told me I was being overprotective.
Not having known the origin or the potency of the tranquilizer that the Reavers used on her I had reacted in a way I thought perfectly appropriate. After boarding Serenity and getting off that terrible moon I had Kaylee brought to the infirmary so that I could make sure her body wasn't shutting down or anything else suitably Reaver terrible. I tossed her a glare that held no heat before answering her question. "It looks like you'll be just fine; your body likely just needs to sleep it off."
She reached over with her free hand to pat my forearm. "I think that's a shiny idea doc. I'm gonna sleep now. You should probably check on your sister. I'll be right here when you get back."
I watched her eyes slip shut before giving her hand a squeeze and letting go. Pulling the blanket up around her shoulders I made sure she was in a comfortable position before turning to leave the infirmary and search for my sister. After checking the kitchen, where I found Mal and Inara, but no River, I checked her room and her most common hidey spots. Having come up empty in those areas I checked the bridge, finding only Zoe and Wash. Finally I made my way down to the cargo hold. I was greeted by the sight of the resident merc. The gun strapped to his thigh was odd seeing as how he didn't usually carry while we were out in the black, but considering all we had been through recently, it wasn't hard to understand his desire to be armed. He was doing one armed pull ups under the walkway. I gave an exasperated sigh because I had already told him he shouldn't be straining his body so soon, but I let it go as he wasn't using the shoulder with a bullet wound and I still needed to find River. Other than Jayne the hold seemed to be empty until I looked up. River was laying on the very edge of the catwalk and staring into space. Immediately the doctor in me became concerned with her proximity to the edge. I began running to her while calling out, hoping she wasn't having another episode. "River? River!"
When I got to her she was smiling and still staring off into the hold. I got closer and she barely acknowledged me other than to say, "shh, you'll wake the space monkey."
I could feel my face scrunch up in confusion. "River, mei mei, there are no space monkeys." I had thought she was getting better since Miranda, but perhaps I was wrong. To be fair, I hadn't really had spare time to properly examine her since then.
Still she wouldn't look at me. She barely inclined her head in the direction she was staring. "Sure there are, the monkey is sleeping in those vines."
"What?" I followed her line of sight to the chains that hung down into the hold from the cargo crane, still not understanding. It took me a second to spot but I finally saw it, a person, not a monkey, was lying across several of the looped chains and they were sound asleep. My brain didn't immediately process what this meant considering I was stuck on having no idea how a person could even get up there let alone be stable enough to sleep. Then it hit me all at once. Kaylee was in the infirmary, Zoe and Wash were on the bridge, Mal and Inara were in the kitchen and Jayne and River were in here with me. Whoever it was up on those chains, they shouldn't have been on the boat. I turned to my sister with wide eyes. "River, why didn't tell someone there's a stranger on board?"
For the first time since I approached her, River turned her smiling face towards me. "Not a stranger. A space monkey."
Just to make sure I wasn't going mad I looked up to the chains again. Yup, still a person there. I walked over to the railing and called out. "Hey! Hey you! What do you think you're doing!?"
In a rush the figure startled awake. The quick movement must have thrown off their balance because in the next second they were falling from their perch. In a show of impressively fast reflexes the initially flailing person turned themselves around and managed to hook a knee over one of the loops of chain, bringing their descent to a harsh stop. At the same time the person reached across their body, pulled a pistol, and aimed it at Jayne. A dark moss green canvas jacket continued to fall as it appeared the figure was only wrapped in it and not actually wearing it. Jayne had reacted to my shouting and the falling individual by drawing the gun from his thigh to point at said person. Judging by the slender frame and the curtain of auburn colored curly hair that hung toward the bay floor the unknown stowaway was actually a young woman. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! Not a Reaver! Duiyu suoyou de ai shi yuzhou zhong de hao, don't shoot!" Of course, the feminine voice was kind of a dead giveaway as well.
While Jayne did refrain from shooting, he didn't lower the firearm. The sound of running feet drew closer; apparently the shouting and the echoing clang of the chains protesting her chaotic fall had alerted the others and they were coming to investigate. Certainly the sight of Jayne and an unknown upside down woman pointing weapons at each other was mildly concerning. River and I walked down to join the rest of the crew as they came to stand in a semi-circle around the dangling girl. She eyed us warily before sighing and mumbling, "biao zi de erzi." Then she spoke more clearly. "Can I come down from here without getting shot? Please?"
Mal glared hard at the girl, radiating malice and suspicion. After a long, tense silence he gave a single nod of his head. She cast an uncertain glance at Jayne before tucking her gun away in what I now noticed was a shoulder holster that held the weapon snug to her left side. Curling her body up, she grabbed onto the chain before unhooking her leg and letting her feet hang down. With a deep breath she released her grip and dropped the good seven feet to the bay floor. After stumbling slightly and straightening she turned to us with a carefully neutral expression. We all just stared at each other for several long moments.
In this time I had the opportunity to observe her more closely. The mass of curly hair on top of her head made it hard to gauge her actual height but she appeared to be around the same size as River and Kaylee. Her unruly locks tumbled down to mid ribcage, but they couldn't hide the gnarly scar that ran diagonally across her left collarbone and over her sternum before disappearing under the white tank top she was wearing. The pants she wore were much the same style as Zoe's, though they were black instead of our first mate's preferred natural hues. On her feet was a pair of nondescript black combat boots.
Mal finally broke the staring contest to speak. "What in the qi jie diyu are you doing on my boat?"
She stood tall under his harsh gaze, her eyes flicking to the merc again before she answered. "Running, sir." She didn't seem to like the taste of the word "sir" in her mouth, trying to hide a sour face when the honorific left her lips.
We waited for her to elaborate and when she didn't Mal prompted her. "From what?"
Her fingers flexed and she shifted from foot to foot. "That God forsaken moon for one." At the mention of the moon my training promptly scanned her for visible injury and my eyes came to rest on her upper left arm. It was bound messily with dingy white cloth that was soaked through with an unmistakable red substance. Part of me noticed the jagged edge of her dirty tank top that rested just above her navel as the other part of me calculated the likelihood of the wound becoming septic without proper treatment.
Before my sanity could object the doctor in me had stepped forward and begun speaking. "Captain. I understand that this is your ship and she is a potentially dangerous stowaway. However, I am a doctor and this woman needs immediate medical attention. You can stand guard while I work and interrogate her when I finish, but that wound must be treated." Even I was impressed with the conviction in my voice.
Mal gave me his 'I'm the captain don't ever question me glare' before turning it on the girl. "You take all your weapons off and you put 'em in a nice little pile right here." He pointed to the floor in front of himself.
She pursed her lips, clearly not pleased with the demand. Then she moved her injured arm marginally away from her body before grimacing and letting the arm fall limp again. She seemed to accept that she couldn't safely reject medical help. "Fine." She stepped backwards over the jacket that had fallen and kicked it forward, causing it to fall open and reveal a vast array of small knives hidden in its lining. Zoe and Jayne both raised a brow at this. Next she shrugged out of the holster and dropped it on the jacket. With each new weapon she pulled off our eyes widened just a bit more. A large knife, not unlike the one Jayne caries, was removed from the inside of her right ankle where it was strapped around her boot. One smaller knife from within the opposite side of the same boot and two from the other leg. A necklace with a pendant that appeared to be a hollowed out arrowhead with a glass sphere full of some sort of purple liquid in the center. Last she pulled a holster for what appeared to be another big knife from the back of her waistband. When she finished she held up her right hand in the universal sign for surrender, her left was tucked against her torso. "That's all I've got."
The captain stepped over the pile of weapons to grab her roughly by the upper right arm. He walked her to the infirmary before stopping and turning her to face him. "You're lucky I'm in a generous mood. You've got until the doc's done fixin' ya up to think about what you're gonna say. Then we're all gonna have a nice long chat. Dong ma?" She simply nodded and he walked her into the infirmary before letting go. I stepped into the room after her as the rest of the crew settled on the couches outside to wait. Mal glanced protectively at Kaylee sleeping on the infirmary bed and seemed to decide against waking her. He opted instead to stay leaning against the door with his hand resting on the butt of his gun.
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