A/N: more revision.
Still thanking 24K, my ghost-co-writer.
And, I still don't own anything from Firefly. :(

Serenity: Walk Among Ghosts

Part 4: The Calm Before.

Zoë watched as Jayne led Kaylee off to the dining room where the environmental controls were located. The broad-shouldered mercenary was leaning toward the slim mechanic as they softly conversed. The soldier in her disliked that Jayne had no discipline, but the other side of her, the one that was the second-in-command, the widowed wife, the pseudo-mother figure to Serenity's thrown together family, could see that there was a sibling sort of love there. Jayne would die before he let anything happen to the young woman he saw as his sister. A chill swirled around her, lifting goose bumps under her shirt. Determined to ignore the strangeness of the building, she clenched her jaw and focused her gaze on the hallway. There was something odd about this place. If not for River, she'd have advised them to be long gone.

With Jayne out of the way, Mal near instantly relaxed. He glanced around the room. The books alone could get them a pretty tidy sum, he figured. Not that it felt right to actually take them. His eyes moved back to the tall woman in the doorway. How he could be relaxed with his second hovering over by the door with one eye on the hallway like an ambush was hidden around the corner was another matter altogether. Well, that was somethin' anyway. Trust Zoë to treat everyplace the same, like a war zone waiting to happen. Of course if Wash had been there things would be different. He sighed, keeping one eye on his friend, all the while fighting off the feeling that he was losing her just a little bit more with every passing day.

Over on the couch Inara was sitting next to River with one arm around her shoulders. Concern radiated off of the companion for the younger woman who was shivering under her brother's sweater while he kneeled at her feet and tried to make medical sense of his sister's spiritual crisis. Finding no reason for River's shivering, Simon finally resorted to holding her hands and whispering nonsense to her in an effort to calm her. River focused on her brother, curling her fingers with his and drawing into herself. She finally smiled weakly.

It was at that moment that the scream tore through the building. Simon felt River push him away, her eyes telling him to go check on Kaylee. He wasn't even sure how he got to his feet, his mind checked in with him when he was already half way down the hall and trying to stop before he crashed into the door. Mal's boots rang out on the wood floors in time with his, and it was only the iron grip on his waistband that kept him upright. With a rebounding boom that echoed in the two story rectangular space, first Simon, then Mal, connected with the wooden surface that was oddly solid and firm. Not even the knob rattled. The doctor's hand was curled around the elegant handle as he attempted to gain entry, but the door was not opening for some odd reason, even as the handle turned in his hand signaling that it was unlocked. Mal backed up a step, saw the difficulty, and put his weight on the door as well. A fluent torrent of Chinese slang flowed from the captain's mouth, ending with a "Why is this door being so stubborn?" At that moment both men discovered that the block was suddenly gone. Luckily neither of them actually fell.

It only took a moment for Mal to literally feel that Jayne had fallen another notch if that was at all possible. At the very least, he had company in the 'beat Jayne' department now, considering the look on the good doctor's face as Simon took in the prone, unconscious form of his lover whom was currently being slapped on the cheek. Jayne looked up at them with wide, scared eyes, "I suppose you wanna know what's happenin'?" His voice had a shake to it that calmed Mal down. Mal flung an arm out at caught the Doc's shirt, crumpling the white fabric in his fist and half blocking the black-haired man with his arm.

"Best be speaking right quick, now," Mal warned the man on the floor. Simon stopped, coiled like he was about to tear Jayne into pieces, held back only by the authority that the captain wielded with quiet sureness.

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Kaylee could hear voices. The all too-male tones sounded very familiar. Not her brothers' or her father's voices, but family-like all the same. But wait. Wasn't she half-aways across 'verse away from home anyhow? Or somethin' like that. Right. So these male voices weren't family. One was close to her and sounded scared. For some reason she found herself thinking, 'I should be waking up, right 'bout now. On account that Jayne is gonna get his arse whipped like a bad dog. Wait. Jayne. What is that crap he's spouting?' Which, all in all, was a very good question as the man kneeling over her was attempting to explain why he'd been slapping her cheek to her very irate lover, "Well, see. It was like this. I was takin' little Kaylee here over to them there controls. She was followin' me, just a step behind. And we was talking about your sister and 'Nara being all acting funny. I didn't even know she'd stopped. I was all the way over there, by the wall. She must've stopped here. I heard her scream and just had time to catch her before she fell. I didn't do nothin'! Why you lookin' at me like that, Doc?"

"Anything else, Jayne?" That was the Captain's voice there, Kaylee knew. The sound was like velvet over sharpened steel. 'Hun Dan! He is pissed,' Kaylee thought.

"The table was exposed --"

"What does the table have to do with you hitting Kaylee, you --" That there was Simon. Sweet, loving, Simon. Sounding like he was about half a minute away from ripping out Jayne's organs so he could sell them on the black market.

"Shut up, Doc." Kaylee made herself moan with the effort to control her own body. She felt like an Alliance cruiser had run her down and not stopped. Pain coursed over every nerve, flooding her with dull agony. Part of her mind informed the other part that pain was not supposed to be on the agenda for the day and that she'd not been injured anyhow even as the sound passing through her lips got the three men's attention. There was a faint rustle of fabric as her lover's scent became stronger. She felt his warm, tender, soft hands as he focused his medical knowledge on her. Mal's voice still came from a height that relayed that he was standing, "Kitchen, Jayne. Now."

"But, Mal--"

"Now, Jayne. Kaylee can find the controls on her own once she comes too. Doc? You take care of her. I'll deal with Jayne."

There was a long pause in which Jayne slowly got to his feet and Simon stared at him like he was evil incarnate. Finally the doctor answered with a, "Yes, sir," before returning all his attention to Kaylee. Mal wasted no time in herding his wayward mercenary out of the dining room and across the hall. Kaylee could hear the sounds of her captain's boots ringing out on the hardwood floor and the faint sound of a slightly disused door swinging shut. Simon finally began speaking a mix of English and Chinese nonsense to her that she knew from their cuddling sessions. She curled her hand around his and squeezed before opening her eyes. His string of loving words broke with, "How do you feel?"

"Something bad happened here, Simon. Something real bad. Can't you feel it?" She tightened her grip on his hand to keep him there. He frowned and shook his head all the while looking deeply into her eyes. He believed her, that much she could tell. Maybe River had been saying the same thing to him, or perhaps 'Nara was acting just as out of character. Of course, she'd been jumpy ever since Serenity had touched down on this ball of dirt. "Someone put a woman's head in a fancy dessert and presented it at a swanky dinner party. It was horrible, Simon. Whoever it was, they all knew her. I think her grandmother was the guest on honor at the party, too. I could feel her – shock, terror – I'd never felt anything so strong. I hope River's not feeling this from touching stuff."

Simon was rather floored. "Look, love, we'll sort it all out. Okay? I don't know what you saw and felt but you don't go making things up. I believe you," with that he kissed her to reassure her that his feelings were just the same as they had always been. "Let's check the control box and get back to the others." She nodded, feeling more herself than she had in quite a while. At least Simon wasn't calling her crazy like Jayne practically had. He helped her to her feet and kept her away from the furniture as they moved toward the environmental control panel. She made quick work of it, her face slowly contorting into a frustrated frown.

"There's not at thing wrong with it. It looks like it was calibrated sometime within the last 3 months. Odd."

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Meanwhile in the kitchen:

Jayne was looking at Mal wondering if he could count on the good Captain to save him from the mad doctor in the room across the hall. For once he'd actually done nothing wrong, yet it seemed that everyone was placing the blame on him. It was times like this that he missed Book the most. The wise preacher always had known how to make others think about things before they killed on another. With him gone Mal'd taken a step deeper into darkness and insanity. He was far less stable than he'd been before Book's death, not that he'd been a calm person before. He decided that perhaps silence was the better part of valor at the moment anyhow.

The captain in question was looking around the opulent area. The cabinets and counters were of top grade materials. Any fool could tell that they had cost big money to install. He reached out a hand and brushed some of the fine dust off the shiny stone countertop. Jayne's breath hitched behind him, and he looked over at the brawny man with a questioning expression. "I reckon you were telling the truth, hum?" Jayne was watching him closely like he was expecting him to become possessed from touching the surface. "Nothing happened to me Jayne. Nothing jumped out. I expect that Kaylee will confirm your story and that Simon will be back to his normal suave self."

"Yeah?" Jayne was hopeful. That would be really good, if true. Mal just nodded as he turned his attention to opening the cabinets and peering inside. "Kaylee was saying that this planet made her feel uppity. I don't know, Mal… Even Zoë's acting tight. Like she does when she's sensing a fight coming. Tell you the truth, I wanted to leave after sweeping the place."

Mal turned at looked at him, "And yet, you spoke like everything was peachy, Jayne. Why?"

"Zoë." He looked at his boots. Mal tapped his foot in annoyance. The silence punctuated with 'tap, tap… tap, tap' finally became more than Jayne could bare, "She said that River would go into full reaver-killing mode to get back to here, Mal. That she'd hurt Serenity. I just couldn't see any argument against that. River's scary when she goes all kill-first-ask-nonsense-never."

One of the cabinet doors slowly creaked closed as Mal's hand fell away, "Knowing River, Zoë is likely right." Jayne looked up at the captain's intense gaze. "Thank you, Jayne, for thinking of the damage River could do to my ship. I just wish you and Zoë had pulled me aside and told me the truth before now."