Disclaimer: I still don't own Firefly, Joss Whedon (what an effin quitter) does.
Chapter Two-
When Simon woke up he found that he couldn't move his legs. Sitting up too quickly, he put a hand to his forehead and saw that the bottom of his right leg was bandaged with a white cotton material; his left ankle was as well. The blots of red on each other the bandages reminded him of what had happened. He was covered in a coarse heavy blanket and didn't appear to have his clothes anymore.
Blinking, he saw that he was on the dirt floor of a small house, the walls a white concrete. Bright sunlight was still glaring through a small square window. Beside his feet were two long bullets sitting on a red-stained cloth, dried blood on the sleek metal.
"How much is it?" the woman's voice filtered into the room through a doorway to his left, and he immediately shot back down and closed his eyes.
"Probably enough to get a good one." Said a man's voice.
"How can you be sure? Those Alliance doctors cost a pretty penny." Her voice was worried.
"Tom said that his father had it too and that the clinic charged only a bit less than we have."
"Well how long ago was that? Tom's twice my age."
"I could ask…"
"Yeah. You could." Simon heard footsteps and the closing of a light door, followed by a sigh from the woman. He stayed still.
After a small "clunk" he footsteps came into the room where he lay.
"Wake up, boy." She said, her voice close to his face. He didn't move. "I know you're awake, don't try and fool me. I heard you shufflin' when I was talking in there." Simon opened his eyes, only to meet with her piercing green ones.
--
"Wash? Hello? You there?" Mal called into his walkie-talkie. No response. He looked at Zoe and Jayne. "Wash you hear me?"
"What did he say he was going to do?" Zoë asked.
"Nothing, just stay here." Mal put the walkie-talkie back into a strap on his belt and looked around. "I know this is where we parked."
"Well this is just great. We're gonna die here for sure! We got no food, no water, no money, and no ship!" Jayne kicked the grass with the heel of his shoe.
"And enemies with our doctor." Mal finished.
"I wonder where Wash is," Zoë mused. "He wouldn't just take off without tellin' us you know."
"Musta been trouble." Mal sighed.
"You all seem to attract a great deal of trouble, don't you?" All three of them swung around, guns in hand, to see another woman that bore a striking resemblance to the one that took Simon. "Hey, put those down! I mean no harm." She had long red hair like the other woman, but it was tied into one ponytail and it was longer, reaching down her back. Her skin was somewhat lighter and her eyes flashed bright blue in the sun.
"Who are you?" Mal asked. "The last redhead that popped up outta nowhere didn't turn out to be meanin us no harm."
"I know. I heard what happened from a friend of mine that works for her. I'm actually here to help."
"How?" Zoë questioned.
"I can get you some food and drink, and I might be able to help you get your doctor back."
"What about our money?" Jayne asked, taking a step forward.
"Just follow me, my part of the settlement isn't far in the other direction." She turned and walked to a lone tree where two brown horses emerged from behind. Mal and the others followed, glancing at each other.
"I don't know about this, Mal," Jayne whispered while they walked. "She looks an awful lot like that crazy broad from earlier."
"I know, but I don't think we got much of a choice. We gotta trust her. For now."
"How important is the doctor?" he looked to Zoë.
"How important is your money?" she said. He opened his mouth to reply but stopped, nodding.
"Now look here." The woman said. "I've got two horses so we need to share, that ok?" Mal nodded for them.
"Right then." She mounted her horse and Mal jumped onto the other, followed closely by Zoë. Jayne looked from one horse to the other, and then gave Mal a dirty look while climbing on behind the woman. "I'm Kaylin, by the way." She said.
Just before she kicked the horse's sides her ponytail swung to the left, and he saw a strange dragon tattoo on the back of her neck.
--
"Ain't I a good shot?" the woman asked, setting down a tray of bread and a mug of water in front of Simon and then picking up one of the bullets and bringing it close to her eyes. Simon looked at her grimly and put some bread into his mouth. "You know, you lost a good amount of blood out there. Coulda died, I reckon." He saw her eyes rest on his large bicep. He gulped.
"Yeah." He just stared at her, eating, not knowing how to respond.
"That shows you're strong, don't it?" she asked, sitting beside him and stretching her legs out in front of her. He still said nothing, trying to focus only on his food and not the way the underarm fabric of her tank top was so loose that he could see the side of her breast. "I wouldn't mind having a strapping man like you workin for me. You'd make good money. Probably better than you make workin for that other guy."
"I don't. I mean, work. For him. I'm just a passenger on his ship." He blinked.
"Good! Then you'd definitely be makin more with me than you make from him." She smiled and stunned him with her green eyes. "What do you think?"
"I uh… what exactly do you do?" he asked, gulping some water.
"We call ourselves opportunists, if you get my drift. We got a ship of our own, but it's been broke for a time. I was born in this here settlement, so we landed here to do repairs, and found some good work from passing people like yourself in the meantime."
"So you're scavenging thieves that prey off passing travelers?" he remarked, swallowing loudly.
"That's puttin' it dirty. Like I said, we're opportunists. And you'd be surprised just how many merchant ships like yourself come land here lookin to trade." She laughed. "It's good money for out here on the border-planets, but soon we'll be leavin here again."
"What is it you're trying to afford from Alliance doctors?" he said abruptly.
"I don't think that's any of your business." She said angrily, tossing the bullet back onto the ground and standing, about to walk out.
"Is someone sick? Sick with something you don't have medicine for?" he asked. She turned.
"As a matter of fact, you're right on target." He arched an eyebrow questioningly. "I'm sick."
--
"I found out she was sick when she came back with her ship about a month or two ago."
"What did you say she had?" Zoë asked, taking a bite of bread.
"Cancer. They found a cure for it about a hundred or so years back, and since then it's become less common. But a whole lot of people died from it back in 21st century."
"Maybe that's why she's so pissy." Jayne said roughly, pouring himself some more water.
"Yeah, I heard of that. It used to be all over the place." Mal said, sitting down with the rest of them at the table with a plate of bread. They had come back to Kaylin's town and then to her place, where they'd sat down to dinner.
"The meds are hard to come by these days," she said, swallowing. "Not many have it anymore, but we thought one of us may get it."
"'One of us?'" Mal asked.
"Moira's my twin sister. That's her name, by the way. We'd heard about a few in our family having it, but we grew up fine and healthy. Like I said, the first I heard of it was when she came back."
"Where did she go?" Zoë asked.
"I don't even know. She left a few years ago, but even then we weren't talking to each other." She drank some water. "When she came back to the other settlement, I heard about it from Geof, my friend who used to date her. He had moved to the other town with her when they 20, and was crushed when she just up and left. He said she'd been talkin' about feeling stifled, and wanted to go see other planets. I don't know how she got hold of a ship to actually do it."
"So that's why she took our money? To leave and get the meds?"
"I reckon so. I heard of her doing it to others like you. Mostly merchant ships, if I heard right."
"Well she can keep some money then, if it means her life." Mal started. "But we need to get our doctor back, and just a bit of cash, just to get us through to our next job."
"Then I'll help you get em back."
To be continued…..