Chapter Three
- Persistence Pays Off -
Serenity: Med Bay
The med bay is deathly silent after the furore of earlier. Its dimly lit by the soft blue strip lights on the ceiling. Mal is gently dozing on the bench - his arm now bandaged in a sling, and strapped to his body to restrict movement. Simon removes the empty blood bag from Mal's good arm, checking his vitals carefully as he does so. He pulls off his rubber gloves, and washes his hands. He checks Mal's vitals once more and - satisfied with the results - leaves the med bay in search of his sister, throwing the used gloves in the bin as he goes.
Mal's eyes flick open as soon as the doctor disappears round the corner. He was only pretending to doze while the doctor went around his business. Sitting up he pauses, and holds his good hand to his head trying to get his head to stop spinning. It feels like he's suffering from the mother of all sake hangovers.
As soon as his head clears, he pulls the little round plaster from his arm that Simon had just stuck over the mark left by the intravenous drip from the blood bag. He slides his legs over the side of the bench and sneaks to the door where he looks left, and right to check for Simon - or anyone else - who would come and tell him to stay put. It's a bit much when you have to sneak around like a criminal on your own gorramn ship.
The coast is clear so he quickly returns into the med bay to collect his shirt, and get out of there quickly before Simon returns to check up on him. No doctor -no matter how qualified - is going to make Mal sit around taking 'bed rest' when there is a rat problem to deal with.
He picks up his tattered shirt from the counter top and tries to put it on one handed. It slips off his shoulders, and falls to the floor. He leans down to pick it up, and groans as a sharp pain shoots down his arm.
"I thought you were supposed to rest? Doctors orders." Inara says quietly.
Mal jumps at Inara's sudden appearance, and straightens up holding his hand to his thumping heart. He turns his back to her, and takes a few deep steadying breaths. Why did she always have to sneak up on him like that? And why hadn't he gotten used to it by now? She'd been on the ship nigh on a year and she was good at turning up in the most unexpected of places. Inara smiles to herself amused by his reaction, and shakes her head.
"You ruined a perfectly good shawl you know." she continues.
"I apologize for bleeding to death." Mal says defensively.
Inara is caught off guard by his sudden sharp tone, and she gives him a slightly cold smile. Mal's face softens, and he sighs to himself. Mal manages to scoop his shirt up off the floor with some difficulty, and a lot of pain. He just grits his teeth, and bares it to save face in front of Inara. He winces, and straightens up a flicker of pain crossing his face. He tries to put the shirt on again, struggling with finding the sleeve, cursing under his breath. Inara watches him for a few seconds before taking pity on him.
"Oh for goodness sake…" she mutters, rolling her eyes.
She confidently strides towards him to pull his shirt on. Her hand hovers on his shoulder a fraction longer than it should, it rests on the back of his collar even longer, her knuckles brushing his hair ever so slightly. Mal is embarrassed by her help, his cheeks flushing slightly. Then again the flush of colour might have been from her delicate fragrance that suddenly surrounds him. They stand for a moment, uncomfortably, yet comfortably close to each other. He clears his throat, and Inara removes her hand quickly backing away from him. Her cheeks darkening slightly in a blush.
"Uh… thanks." he mutters, turning to face her properly.
Inara shakes her head gracefully and gazes at him steadily as he adjusts the shirt, the empty sleeve waving around uselessly.
"Well, you're not going to stay put, are you?" she asks, placing a hand on her waist.
"Things to do, people to meet, stuff to steal," Mal replies with a smirk, "No rest for the wicked."
He nods towards the door, this is his way of politely telling Inara to get out of the way. Inara sighs, and moves folding her arms once more, and narrowing her eyes at him. She can't help but worry, after all he had lost an awful lot of blood. He turns to her at the door and takes a deep breath.
"And I'll, you know… pay for the… shawl I ruined. I promise." he says, smiling.
"It's worth more than a years rent for my shuttle. It was a leaving present from one of my clients. Londinium silk, hand-woven." Inara replies, smirking.
Mal grimaces at the thought of him bleeding onto something so expensive.
"I'll get back to you on that." he replies. He leaves the med bay and heads to the bridge, Inara in hot pursuit.
Serenity: Dining Area
Inara and Mal walk swiftly through the dining area. Jayne is sat at the table cleaning the dirt and blood from his guns and knives with an array of different cleaning tools laid out before him. There is now a rough bandage made of a clean strip of cloth wrapped around his cut finger, spots of blood have soaked through the thin material. Jayne has ignored it, and the young doctor hasn't even bothered to offer to take a look at it, already knowing the answer to his offer.
Mal makes his way past him, Inara still following him. Jayne watches Inara go as he shines his knife with a filthy rag, leering at her as he always does when she graces him with her presence - which isn't very often for that exact reason. He frowns up at Mal as he realises that he's with her.
"Didn't the doc say for you to stay put?" he asks, polishing the knifes handle as he speaks.
He holds Mal with a passive gaze. Mal looks back at him, his eyes wide in utter confusion.
"Since when did you give a good gorramn about what the doc says?" he asks, completely taken aback by Jayne's sudden concern for his wellbeing, and admittedly a little concerned as to what he was being so nice for.
"I normally don't, but seein' that big ol' bitta metal stickin' outta your shoulder… well s'your funeral if you don't let it heal." Jayne replies with a careless shrug.
Mal shakes his head in bewilderment, his mouth slightly open.
"Who are you and what have you done with Jayne Cobb?" Mal demands.
Jayne sarcastically pretends to laugh silently and sheaths his knife. Inara shakes her head at Jayne and looks back at Mal. She fixes him with a pleading look.
"I hate to say it, I really do," she throws a look of distain at Jayne who is still leering at her, "But Jayne is right Mal. You need to sit down and rest."
"No I need to sort out this whole steaming pile of go se before it gets any more out of hand." Mal snaps, getting angry.
He turns to Inara, a deep frown darkening his face. Normally he wouldn't snap at her that viciously, let alone raise his voice at her - well, not after that one time that she'd slapped him across the face - but she's beginning to irritate him with her constant pestering. And following him around like a lazy kitten is not helping his mood.
What's even worse that Jayne is agreeing with her, and it just gets him even more wound up. He leans towards Inara, deliberately breaking her personal space.
"Will-you-stop-following-me?" he shouts, slowing it down and snapping each word.
"I will… when you decide to sit down and REST!" Inara replies defiantly, her voice strong.
Mal stares at her, grinding his teeth in annoyance. He blinks his eyes hard hoping that when he opens them Inara will have disappeared and hoping to mask the spasm of pain from his shoulder.
Inara, however, doesn't back down, she stares right back at him calmly. She puts her hands on her hips, and raises her eyebrow at him almost as if she's waiting for him to snap at her again. Mal shakes his head in annoyance, and continues onto the bridge ignoring her angry stares. Not letting it go, Inara follows him.
Serenity: Bridge
Mal enters the dimly lit bridge, and looks at the vista of stars in the front viewport. When Serenity is flying in the black like this, the bridge is mainly lit by a small bank of lights just at the front of the control panel that Wash is sat at. Buttons flicker and flash, throwing different coloured lights across his face as he checks the navsat for any unusual disturbances.
As Mal walks to his usual spot behind Wash's pilot chair, Wash turns his chair around. He flinches back in his chair as he comes face to face with Mal.
"Jeeze, Mal, you look like hell." Wash exclaims, not lying.
A little voice in the back of his head warned him that this wasn't the best thing to say to a pissed off Mal, but as ever he just ignores it. Wash had seen Mal in some states over the past few years, and more than once he'd been on the other end of a blood bag for him. The first time it had happened, Wash had almost fainted at the sight of all that blood. He'd never admitted - not even to Zoe - that he really wasn't good with the whole gushing blood thing. He'd quickly gotten used to it, which wasn't a good thing as it showed just how much people got hurt in this line of work. He'd even seen his own spilt blood on occasion, and managed somehow not to throw up or faint. Well, not while anyone was watching.
Right now Mal definitely looked like death warmed up. Wash wasn't going to lie to him. Not when he could get away with winding up the Captain so easily.
"I'm going to ignore that." Mal mutters.
He turns to Inara who is leaning by the lockers by the door. Wash gives her a bemused look, he doesn't often see Inara on the bridge unless there's an emergency.
"Who said you could come onto the bridge of my ship?" Mal snaps.
"I'll stop coming onto the bridge of your ship when you stop coming into my shuttle unannounced," Inara retaliates, "Now, stop being so pig headed, and sit down at least." she insists, waving a delicate hand towards the co-pilot seat.
"That wouldn't be such a bad idea you know, Mal. You do look a bit… sorta pale green around the face." Wash adds, waving his fingers in front of his own face for emphasis.
Mal licks his lips and bites his lower lip hard. He takes a deep breath, ignores their comments, and turns back to Wash.
"So did you tell that rat bastard, Ivan that I wanna see him?" Mal asks, holding his bad arm close to his body.
Wash looks from Mal to Inara, and shrugs helplessly. He knows that there's no use arguing with the captain once he's set his mind on something.
"Yeah, Zoe did. Ivan wants to meet us on Persephone as soon as. He said he'd be waiting for us at the docks. He was pretty insistent, the words bullet, and brain cropped up a few times." Wash grimaces, leaning back in his chair, and sighing.
Mal swears under his breath in Chinese, and grinds his teeth again.
"Things are just getting better and better," he growls as another shot of pain travels down his arm, "Get everyone to the dining area, now." he adds snappily.
He storms towards the dining area himself, holding his arm tight to his chest.
Inara sighs, and hangs her head slightly in weariness. Wash's lips twitch into a pitying smile. He knows exactly how she feels having had the exact same argument with Zoe on more than one occasion.
"It's like talkin' to a brick wall sometimes, ain't it?" Wash says in an overly cheery voice.
"I find brick walls to be more responsive. And they tend not to answer back." she replies, rubbing her temple with a long finger.
The constant argument is making her head feel tight. Its taken all of her willpower not to slap Mal… or burst into tears, however it was more than likely she'd end up slapping him.
"You know what Mal's like, he doesn't take anyone's advice. He's too high and mighty for that." Wash says with a frank smile.
Inara laughs lightly, looking down at her feet. That's not really how she would have put it. He acted high and mighty with her, but not so much the rest of the crew, not unless he was in a really foul mood. He genuinely thought he was better than her, but both she and Mal knew that wasn't true. It was just something else he used to wind her up. Inara looks up at Wash, giving him a radiant smile.
"This is true." Inara replies with a slight roll of her eyes.
Wash shrugs turning back towards the console to plug in the co-ordinates for Persephone, and inform the crew of the impromptu meeting with Ivan.
Serenity: Dining Room
Inara takes her leave of the bridge with a wave of goodbye, and follows Mal down the connecting corridor as Wash's voice comes over the intercom. She catches up with him at the table just as Wash finishes his cheery little speech to the crew. All she does is look at Mal, and open her mouth to say something. He throws his good hand into the air to halt her.
"Okay, okay!" Mal snaps. He roughly pulls a chair out from the table, slams it back onto the floor, and sits down heavily, crossing his good arm across his bad one to protect it.
Inara is strongly reminded of a little child who is being told off and the urge to slap him comes back.
"You gonna stop pestering me now?" he asks, looking up at Inara who seats herself next to him and beside Jayne who absentmindedly polishes the barrel of Vera as he watches the exchange in interest.
Mal looks up at him, an angry frown on his face. For a moment they look at each other, Jayne not quiet understanding why he is getting glared at by a wild eyed Mal. Then Jayne makes a little 'oh' sound as the penny drops, and goes back to cleaning his gun still listening intently, but not lifting his eyes from the barrel of his gun except to throw Mal a dirty look. During this unspoken exchange between the two men, Inara hasn't taken her eyes off Mal's pale face. She tries to hide her worry, but it just comes out as a pained expression.
"What," Mal asks, paranoid by her staring, "I don't got sumat on my face, do I?" he runs his hand over his face nervously, giving extra attention to his stubble on his cheeks with the tips of her fingers.
Huh, need a shave, he mused as he rubbed his chin with the palm of his hand. Inara, however, just shakes her head in disbelief, her eyes wide. She smirks and lets out quiet laugh.
"Look at that, Malcolm Reynolds actually listened to someone for once. Where is the champagne?" she sighs, leaning back in her chair.
"Well, there's a first time for everything." Mal replies with a cheeky grin.
"Well I've just been proved wrong." Inara adds. She looks away from a suddenly confused looking Mal.
Jayne smiles as he polishes Vera, he was waiting for a snippy comment from Mal, but it never comes. He chances a sly look up from the barrel of his gun at Mal. Jayne groans inwardly.
Mal is fixing Inara with a soft reproachful gaze. Uh oh, Jayne knew what that meant. He suddenly felt very awkward at the table, something he didn't usually feel in any situation. He just wasn't the awkward kinda bloke, him and awkward didn't sit well, it made him want to shoot things. He clears his throat, quickly scoops his cleaning equipment up, and swings Vera over his shoulder. Best to get outta here, them kinda looks always seem to be catching.