GREENLEAF - 3 DAYS EARLIER
Mal slowly makes his way through the crowded market place of Greenleaf. Flanking him are Zoe Washburn and Jayne Cobb. Zoe is a well poised military girl and is dressed the same as Mal. The two fought together in the war and have been partners ever since. Her dark hair is tied up out of her face and her brown eyes are scanning the market place for any signs of danger to her companions.
Jayne is the complete opposite of both Zoe and Mal. He's a hulking mercenary with a gun visibly slung at his hip. His hand never move more than a couple of inches away from it in the large crowd. His attire is more normal and down to earth than Mal and Zoe's. He's dressed in light brown combat pants and a faded Blue Sun Cola t-shirt that has seen better days judging by the many repairs to small holes, and some larger ones. His hair is cropped shirt and a small shaped beard adorns his face. His dark, deep set eyes are scanning the weapon stalls and the harem of young ladies who are hanging round the stalls.
Behind the three lookouts the rest of the crew of Serenity follow at a more sedate pace, stopping to look at stalls. Already the ships mechanic, Kaylee Frye, a pretty young thing wearing patched dungarees and a bright flowery t-shirt, has her hands full of engine parts. Her light hazel eyes light up as she spots a brand new damper gleaming in atop a table amidst more worn parts. She rushes forward to look at the items for sale, her hair fluttering in the breeze.
Simon Tam, the ships doctor watches her as she admires the items of machinery from every angle, turning it over and over in her nimble hands. Simon seems like an odd person to be travelling with such a ragtag crew. He is clean cut and everything from his neatly parted dark brown hair to the crisp white shirt and richly coloured waist coat screams wealth. He smiles at Kaylee begins to haggle with the salesman. Wash hits him in the stomach and points towards a table of jewellery, laid out on a rich cloth table cover. Wash whispers something to him and the two move towards the table, hoping to go unseen in the crowd. Between them however they stick out like two sore thumbs. Wash is wearing a violently bright Hawaiian shirt covered in dinosaurs that is earning him more than a few bemused stares from passers by.
Behind the rest of the crew, River Tam slowly follows. From her bare feet to the melon cradled in her arms you can tell that she is not entirely normal. She's dressed in a large, ill-fitting blue knitted jumper, possibly one of Jayne's hand-me-downs, over the top of a pale blue skirt. Her hair is straggly and lank, half of it covers her face, hiding it from the market-goers. She mutters to herself as she walks along, tenderly cradling the melon, towards Mal, Zoe and Jayne.
Jayne attentively sniffs the air like a blood hound.
"Whats that smell? Smells like my Ma's jew-allrey box." he ponders thoughtfully.
"That'd be soap. The stuff you use to wash," Simon looks Jayne up and down, "Or maybe not in your case."
Jayne ignores the doctors comment and moves off towards the soap stall, the source of the smell. He sniffs deeply and suddenly, violently sneezes, causing a loud outburst from River.
"Hwun Dahn! Gao yang jond duh yang! You'll wake the baby!" she yells.
The cursing causes a group of elderly ladies at the wool stall to look up from their knitting and tut loudly, beginning to rant about young people and their manners. River ignores the women and begins to softly sing an old Earth-That Was lullaby.
"When the bough brakes the cradle ill fall, down will come baby, cradle and all…" she moves off towards Mal and Zoe, leaving Jayne looking mighty creepified. He too catches up with Mal and Zoe.
"So where are we meetin' this guy?" Jayne asks rubbing his nose with the back of his hand.
"At some upper market clothes shop. Kinda place that the doc would look right at home at." Mal replies not taking his eyes off the crowds, still scanning for trouble.
Zoe looks at Mal intently.
"You think this will be wise, Sir? We don't know the guy." she looks back up at the crowd, squinting.
"Your husband knows him, take it up with him if there's any problems." Mal looks at Zoe for a second.
"Hey Captain, you casting nasturtions on my judgement? Rem is an old friend. A friend of the family, the family being… uh, me!" Wash smiles and throws a slightly sunburnt arm around Zoe's shoulders.
From behind his back, he produces a small parcel, a beautifully wrapped gift wrapped in blue and silver. Zoe looks surprised at the appearance of the gift. Wash smiles looking from the box up to Zoe and back to the box expectantly. Zoe peels away the wrapping paper to reveal a pale blue jewellery box. For a moment the normal bad ass Zoe look fades away and she blushes as she opens the box. Nestled within the box is a beautiful silver necklace, a pendant of opal, shaped as a teardrop, glitters in the sunlight. Zoe hugs Wash tightly. Kaylee moves in to look at the necklace and her eyes glow like she's just seen a new conductor coil.
"Oh pretty! Wash you have wonderful taste!" she moves closer as they pull away from another.
She practically snatches Zoe's hand towards her for a better look at the necklace. Wash shares a significant look with Simon who looks down at the floor smiling.
"Happy Anniversary, lambie-toes!" Wash says smiling brightly.
"Thank you bao bay," Zoe looks over at Simon, who doesn't meet her eyes, "And thank you Simon, for helping him pick it out."
"Wha-ha-hey! How'd you know?" Wash splutters flabbergasted.
Zoe points to a at a mirror from a stall angle towards the couple. Wash looks forlorn.
"Go se…"
River peers over Zoe's shoulder, standing on tip toe, looking closely at the necklace. She licks her lips and look up at Zoe, who is admiring the rainbow stone in the sunlight.
"Unlucky stone. Tears will fall… all will fall, broken… shattered." she mutters loudly.
Wash raises his eyebrows and looks nervously at River.
"What now?" he asks looking creepified by her comment.
"Opal, the death stone, unlucky death. All that wear it will certainly die." River mutters not taking her eyes off the necklace.
Mal moves forward from where he's been watching the exchange.
"Okay creepy girl, you go back to hugging your watermelon. Wash where the hell is this guy to?" he asks impatiently.
"Uh," Wash glances around a bit, "Up here, wait…that shop there." he points to a shop, just visible behind a line of stalls.
Multicoloured clothes gleam in the sunlight outside the shop door. Wash smiles to himself, still looking bashful from Rivers comment. Zoe sees this and fastens the necklace around her neck in defiance. Wash perks up as the group moves towards the shop.
The crew step into the shop and stumble as their eyes adjust. They look around the room, it has a warm feeling to it. Every available surface is covered in clothes of every style and colour. River walks into the shop and the door slams behind her with a sickening finality. Mal, Zoe and Jayne twist round to face it, pulling out their guns and pointing them at the door. There's no one there, Simon tries the door handle and shrugs. He looks back at Mal and freezes looking over his shoulder. Behind Mal there's the low high-tech hum and click of a laser pistol, the crew turn round and stare at the counter. Mal closes his eyes and turns around, opening them to see a tall woman stood behind the counter. She's wearing a floor length black leather coat over the top of a pair of tight trousers and a fitted black shirt. In her hand is a silver gun similar to the one Mal is holding up at her. The woman's startling green eyes glint from underneath the shock of short black hair across her face. She licks her deep red lips carefully and points the gun at Wash and looking at Mal, Zoe and Jayne who have their guns trained on her.
"Put the guns away people, or you'll be missing a pilot." the woman glances at Wash and moves forward, her gun pointed at his head.
Zoe puts her gun away straight away and Jayne follows suit, but Mal keeps his gun trained on the woman. Jayne looks the woman up and down.
"This is the guy you know?" he asks Wash, who is stood in shock staring at the gun.
"I never said it was a guy." Wash replies bashfully.
"Guns away, please." the woman motions at Mal with her gun, he reluctantly slides his pistol into its holster.
Jayne gives Wash a funny look, his eyebrows raised slightly.
"I never said it was a guy…" Wash repeats looking away from Jayne and back at the woman.
The woman moves further forward, the gun is now inches from Wash's head. He looks like he's about to be sick. The woman studies him for a second, taking in the orange jumpsuit and the bright Hawaiian shirt for a moment and then looks up at his face properly.
"You know my daddy told me if I ever did see you again I should shoot you dead after the way you left me. Leaving without even a goodbye." she says softly, her eyebrows deeply knitted into a frown.
"Rem, I… wait, what?" Wash looks even more sickly.
He looks pleadingly over at Zoe who folds her arm and raises her eyebrows, the movement makes her necklace glint in the light. Rem continues.
"Said I was a fool to try and stay with someone as land-crazy as you." she holsters her gun and smiling, pulls Wash into a hug.
A wave of relief hit's the crew and Wash sighs thankfully. Rem pulls back from the hug.
"Washie, its just been too gorramn long! Lau pung you, ne can chi lai hun you jing shen!" Rem smiles brightly at him, the air of menace gone.
"Washie?" Kaylee smirks.
The rest of the crew, except for River, hide laughs and smiles behind their hands. River just looks at Rem intently. Rem looks around smiling as the laughs die away.
"Why don't you introduce me to your crew?" Rem looks back at Wash expectantly.
Mal steps forward smiling slightly, unsure of the unexpected soft side of the woman who was pointing a gun at his pilot.
"Actually ma'am that'd be my crew," he shakes hands with Rem, "Captain Malcolm Reynolds."
"Pleased to meet'cha Captain Reynolds!" Rem tips her head on one side.
"Now tell me missy, how'd you know our… 'Washie'?" Mal asks looking at Washs' pained face.
"Oh, Wash and I used to date back in the day when we were in flight school. Was nice 'til he ran off after graduation. I'd get a Wave now and then, not as often as I'd like, it was basically just to tell me he was still alive and flying. Not heard from him since before the war, thought the Alliance had gotten a hold of him… or worse." Rem looks down at the floor, her fringe falling in her face.
"So you two used to date?" Zoe asks coldly.
Wash's face is now bright red and he smiles at Zoe bashfully. "Rem, this is my wife, Zoe." Rem's eyebrows shoot up and disappear under her fringe. She gives Zoe a wide smile.
"So he finally found someone to put up with him, huh," Rem shakes hands with Zoe, "Good job getting rid of that damn face ferret! I tried for gorramn years." Zoe gives Rem a wider smile, to her, Rem is no threat.
As she relaxes so does the rest of the crew, as if she was keeping the crew tense they relax around her. Mal takes over the introductions to the other crew members.
"This is Jayne, Kaylee, ships mechanic, Simon, our doctor and…" he gets to River and he surveys her for a second "And this is River our…chef."
"Sure ain't much cheffin' to be done on a transport ship. Mainly protein base isn't it?" Rem says.
Mal looks over at River who is still hugging the watermelon and humming lullabies quietly to herself, her eyes following the lines of clothes.
"I know who you are. I have no quarrel with fugee's." Rem says softly not taking her eyes of River.
Simon lets out the breath he's been holding. During the exchange, Kaylee has moved off to look at some of the clothes on display.
"Now that's everyone, lets get down to business." Mal says clapping his hands together. "Straight to the point, I like that Captain Reynolds." Rem leads Mal, Zoe, Jayne and Wash to the back room.
"Its quicker that way I figure." Mal says following.
Rem leads the four members of the crew into the backroom of the shop which is surprisingly much larger than the shop itself. The room is decorated in bright colours and has a homey feel to it with a large comfy looking sofa against the wall and a small kitchen area along the longest wall. The windows and doors are wide open letting a lazy breeze into the stuffy room. As the four members of Serenity's crew settle themselves on the sofa, a thunderous Taiko drum beat fills the room from the street. Rem Rushes towards the door angrily.
"Enough of this luh-suh, every midday! Wuo dun MA!" she slams the door and window shutting out the sound of the drums.
Rem pulls a thick velvet curtain right across the wall cutting out the sound completely. She sighs and pulls her coat off throwing it onto the makeshift bed in the corner. The crew looks at her expectantly as she sits down in a squashy high backed chair facing the sofa. Rem surveys the crew before her, her eyes lingering on Wash.
"I have quite the job for you Captain. On the other side of the planet is an Alliance shipment of protein and medication. Its headed to the Alliance base on this rock," she looks at Mal, who is listening intently, "I want you to steal it."
Rem leans forward in her chair, waiting to see what the captain will say. But its Wash who says something first.
"Dear God, you expect us to pull this off?"
Rem looks up at him, closes her eyes and nods to herself.
"I can see how you think that you're going to have trouble getting the goods," she opens her eyes and looks at Mal, "But I need that equipment."
"So's you can sell it on for three times the price, coz that's what it sounds like to me." Jayne smirks.
"No, so I can save peoples lives." Rem replies quietly.
She looks back at Wash who looks at her puzzled. She realizes that Mal is waiting for an explanation.
"I don't know if you heard a couple of years back, there was a massive breakout from an Alliance prison. The public only knew that they were Independent soldiers kept as prisoners of war. But it was more than that. It was families loyal to the Independence too. I had a hand with the breakout and the following clear up letting them escape without a trace." Rem closes her eyes again as she finishes.
Mal, Zoe and Jayne look at each other, Wash just looks stunned. Rem continues.
"I found them a nice little moon, already terraformed and ready to go. Well out of the way of those Alliance wahg-ba dan duh puo-foo. The problem is they've had a harsh winter this year and food supplies are practically non-existent. Illness is ripping families apart. I need your help. If I get the goods then you'll be very well paid. And I think that you'd want to help out old comrades Captain." Rem looks at Mal, closely studying his reaction.
Mal is looking down at the floor. Rem reaches behind her chair and throws a huge money bag at Mal, who catches it in surprise. Mal opens it and peers inside, he looks back up at Rem.
"You're showin' this now? I could just shoot you and take it." Wash glares at Mal in disgust as he says that and Zoe's eyebrows fall and she looks angrily at Mal.
Rem smiles and looks deep into Mal's eyes.
"That's only half of the pay out." she says smiling.
Jayne sits up suddenly very interested.
"Half, damn…" he mutters peering over Mals shoulder.
Mal weighs the coin in his hands.
"Half now, the other half when you get the job done. Maybe more if I can get it, hell this job is worth every penny." Rem adds making the deal all the more juicy and tempting.
It's a huge amount of money for such a task, and this puzzles Mal.
"Why so much for the job? Whats the catch?" he asks suspiciously looking at Rem.
She puts her head on one side and pulls a funny face as she considers the questions.
"Well its under 24 hour surveillance protected by thirty highly trained Alliance soldiers at any one time. The amount you'll be taking, well lets just say your ship will be pretty stuffed…And I want to go with you. Its time for me to leave Greenleaf I think." Rem leans back again and the room falls into silence.
From the shop Kaylee's voice carries, she's trying to persuade Simon to try on a new shirt. Mal continues to weigh up the coin in his hand. There's enough in his hand to buy a second ship, and with the second instalment there would be enough for the whole crew to settle down on an outer moon and lead proper lives. There was only one thing that Mal could really say.
"Well ma'am," he looks up at Rem, "You got yourself a deal."