Chapter Seven: Outside the Outsiders
Inara was sitting in her shuttle, just finishing up a call with an old client when there was a knock at the door. It was soft and hardly audible, but it was unmistakeably a knock.
"Who is it?" Inara called, making sure her night robe was tied tightly.
"It's… uh, it's Simon," the voice responded.
Assuming the doctor had some update on the status of breakfast, Inara welcomed him in. "What brings you here, Simon?" she inquired with a warm smile.
"Actually," he stuttered, "this is kind of embarrassing…"
"There's no need to feel ashamed with me."
Simon clasped his hands uncomfortably, noticing how sweaty they were getting. "Well, I was hoping… I mean, you know how I am when it comes to girls…"
"You want to impress Kaylee!" Inara exclaimed, leading Simon over to sit on the bed with her.
His smirk quickly changed to a typical Simon frown. "No, well, I guess… I just want to know how to talk to girls. It seems every time I try to talk to Kaylee, I hurt her, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong until after it comes out of my mouth. I want her to like me…"
"She does like you, Simon."
"Then why aren't we together yet?" Inara recoiled at his temper and he sighed. "I'm sorry; I just mean to say that I want to make things right and I'm not sure as to how."
"Oh, Simon," Inara giggled. Only Inara could perform the act of a schoolgirl with such sophistication and grace. "She's waiting for you to do something. Here, pretend I'm Kaylee."
Simon raised his eyebrow and moved his head back. "I'd really rather not."
"What would you say to me if I was Kaylee?"
"I'd say… I'd say… I'd say something stupid."
"Come on, Simon. I'm Kaylee. Tell me how you feel."
He took a sharp intake of breath. "Okay… uh Kaylee… I really like you. You're happy even when there's no reason to be. You light up a room… I wish more than anything that we could be together, and…"
"Hey there, Inara, I was wondering if you wanted to…" Kaylee walked into the shuttle unannounced and her eyes went wide. "I thought you were listening to a client."
The words he had last said were echoing in his mind. I wish more than anything that we could be together.
"Kaylee, it's not…"
"It's okay, Inara. I'm interrupting. Breakfast's ready when you are." Kaylee was on her way out of the shuttle as quickly and thoughtlessly as she'd entered.
"Kaylee, wait!" Simon leapt off the bed and chased her onto the bridge in the cargo bay.
"What?"
"I don't know what you think you were interrupting, but I can assure you, you weren't."
"What then?"
"I went to Inara for advice!" Simon confessed, "on how to talk to you. I wanted to impress you."
"You don't gotta impress me!" Kaylee sighed exasperatedly and clutched the handrail. "Simon, if you wanna impress me, you just gotta be you! Shiny?"
"Then why hasn't anything happened with us yet?"
"If you want something to happen, make it happen!" She was about to open her mouth to continue shouting when Simon leaded forward, grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her forcefully. Once they parted, neither of them spoke. Before either of them got a chance to verbally respond, the pair heard snickering from the passage to the bridge. Sure enough, Jayne and Wash were grinning at them. Simon blushed and walked in the opposite direction as the two of them headed toward the Brain of Serenity.
"'Bout time the Doc showed little Kaylee some lovin'," Jayne claimed, following the pilot to his headquarters.
Wash beamed as he slid the door to the bridge open. "I think it's great."
"They'd have some ruttin' smug lookin' babies," Jayne pointed out. "Unless the younguns don't take after the Doc."
"Jayne…"
"You know he's got that look about him…" Leaning against the wall beside the door, Jayne began to put on his best Simon impression. Of course, it wasn't very accurate, but the bits that were close were close enough to be identifiable with Simon's traits.
"That's horrible!" Wash laughed, sitting in his seat.
"And you think you can do better?"
"I can't do a Simon, but I can do a pretty darn good Mal. I've been practicing."
Jayne sneered and chuckled. "Oh, I gotta see this."
Just as Wash screwed up his face to put on a very Malcolm Reynolds-esque expression, the Captain himself walked through the door. "Wash, your face is funny. May wanna look to that."
"Oh hi, Captain…" Wash mumbled as Jayne fell into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
The breakfast table was empty, save for River. She sat at the farthest end of the table from the main door to the kitchen, curled on the chair. It was hours since breakfast and she hadn't moved one bit. No one had taken noticed until Zoe walked through.
"River?" Zoe asked, hesitantly approaching her. "River, honey, what's wrong?"
"Belonging," she whispered. "Everyone belongs. Everyone loves. I don't love. What is love?"
"Honey, you don't need love…"
Book's voice came from behind them, and Zoe could not have been more grateful. She needed help with this one. "River, you have your brother. He loves you very, very much."
"You don't."
"What?"
"River…"
"We're a team – a crew. I'm not part of the crew."
Zoe and Book looked at each other, both of them lost for words. Finally, Zoe opened her mouth. "You are part of the crew, honey. We're all in this together."
"Do I belong?"
"No one belongs, River," said Book. "That's life. We're all just lucky to have found each other."
