Spin Me 'Round, Carry Me Down... Part 2: ~ STRINGS ~

It was a day later and Kaylee was glad to note that she seemed to be feeling in better sorts. Not a lot better, ribs still bothered, but she was more awake and alert for longer, and the food that'd been made for her seemed to be of a help to her heath also.

"What're you doing over there?" Kaylee finally asked of River for curiosity's sake.

River stopped and looked over at her. "It's all a mess." She explained simply. "I have to work the vectors."

Kaylee laughed a little nervously. It seemed like a harmless enough activity. Things in the shuttle had gotten well and truly tossed about during planet-fall after all, and they might be staying on here a while. It would be nice if the place was looking fully right ways up for a change. Make her feel a little more right with the world again, she'd imagine.

"River?" She spoke.

"Hm?" Her shipmate turned from sorting through a box of machine parts (one of Kaylee's purchases from Opal City's market meant for Serenity) and looked to her, meeting her eyes.

"Do you think... Do you think Inara... I mean... There's no way she coulda made it back to Serenity. Not without..." Inara Serra was the companion to which this shuttle properly belonged, you see. She'd been right up in the middle of the capital when the Reavers had come.

"Not even hollow men know to look everywhere." River spoke sympathetically, getting up and coming over to sit by Kaylee's side. "I knew how to hide from them, and we were crashing at the time." She tried to comfort her friend, taking her hand in hers.

Kaylee regarded River a moment. "You got a way of... knowing things sometimes. You really think she's alive?" She asked hopefully.

"Who among us can say?" River answered in a wistful voice, looking down at their joined hands in a thoughtful, distracted sort of way.

"Was afraid you'd say that..." Kaylee replied.

River looked back up at Kaylee and brought a hand over to brush through her bangs. "She's tied to the world by strings we've woven. They aren't as easy to break as others..." She told her.

The look in Kaylee saw River's eyes seemed somehow ageless and wise in a way it was hard to define, but somehow Kaylee found herself believing in those eyes again. "You work miracles." Kaylee whispered, not really sure why she'd said the words.

A bright sort of teasing smile came to River's face at that. "Now, see? You weren't supposed to figure that out yet." River laughed and kissed her on the forehead before getting up to walk off and continue her cleaning efforts.

Kaylee just looked after her, not realizing the sigh she'd sighed until she sighed it.

Rest was a good thing, and so she closed her eyes and listened to River hum some song, letting herself get a little carried away by the melody. River had such a nice voice, it really was pretty to listen to. She'd not truly realized that up 'til now, Kaylee found herself thinking...

In her mind, she dreamed of falling, of flying, and of her family left behind on Isis Colony. Her sister was telling her something about how to fix a plow, which seemed passing odd to her sense she knew for certain it had gone the other way 'round. She blinked her eyes open though, her mind losing the dream and telling her that she was being poked at. "Mm?" She questioned vaguely.

"Stay still." River told her distractedly.

Kaylee looked down her body to see her current 'roommate' checking over her injured ribs with a look of determined concentration on her face. Cute expression, she considered, smiling inwardly. "River?" She questioned, a little of a smile coming to her lips that faded almost as soon as it had come. "Am I alright, do you think?" She found herself asking, laying her head back as straining her neck did not feel like a thing to continue doing right at that moment.

"Checking it." River replied, looking up to meet her eyes. "Your skin is very soft." She told her with all sincerity.

Kaylee laughed, though it caused her ribs to ache a little. "Well, I am a lady after all. We're all supposed to... Probably all the engine grease." She mused.

River smiled. "I made food." She offered. "Are you hungry?"

Kaylee considered this. "Yeah." She agreed.

"Be right back." River got to her feet and moved silently to the other side of the shuttle.

Kaylee watched her as she fussed over her cookings. Sun was shining in through the windows and it made Inara's shuttle look like a magical place, laced with gold. River looked like a character out of a novel like she was, the light making her glow in a way that was nice to look at. Why did she feel kind of hazy about things though? And shouldn't it be hurting more? Pain killers, she reasoned. Must be.

River was soon back at her side, offering her a plate of meat flavored tofu from a can, along with biscuits, a packet of orange juice, and what looked like freshly picked berries. "Here." River set the plate down and made to help her sit up at an angle a little (the better to eat from of course).

"You gave me a shot of something, didn't you?" Kaylee questioned, blinking.

"For the pain." River confirmed absently. "Made you sleepy." She further explained.

"You could have told me, you know?" Kaylee was slightly put out by this. When had River done it anyway? She tried to recall but couldn't catch a memory of it.

"Why?" River asked, silent for a moment. "...What you don't see can't bother you." Her voice was softly introspective in saying this.

Kaylee pondered that, then shook her head. "You're right. I should be saying thank yous, I should. You... You're really looking after me, aren't you? ...It means a lot." She took hold of River's hand lightly.

River just smiled and kissed her quickly on her knuckles. She then moved to retrieve the food for her. "Sustenance now, please?" Was all she said.

Kaylee just looked at her and then down at her food. "Where'd the berries come from?" She asked, taking a nibble of the bread next and deciding it was a little too dry. She sipped at her orange juice and decided to eat the bread with the much moister tofu meat stuff next time. It had sauce on it. She was grateful Inara tended to have better food supplies than the rest of the crew did though. Grateful too that River seemed to have a talent for preparing it.

"I went walking." River replied. She'd sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning against the side of the bed were Kaylee lay and was selecting bites off her own plate in what seemed to be a very systematical way. "The lake spoke to me. Said to choose the orange colored ones." River looked back up at her in all seriousness. "Many of the other colors aren't safe here." She informed her.

Kaylee looked assessingly down at the orange colored berries on her plate, then back at River who popped two of the berries from her own plate into her mouth and smiled to herself at their taste. Kaylee couldn't help but smiling too, bravely imitating her and eating two of her own berries, pleased to find they were sweet and good. Very, very good, actually... Kind of like a mix between a plum and a strawberry, she mused. "They're amazing." She informed River.

"The lake doesn't lie." River replied, spearing a small orderly stack of tofu, bread, and one berry with her fork and popping it into her mouth.

Kaylee shook her head in wonder at this latest of River's odd mix of quirks and went back about the task of eating.

to be continued

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