AN: Just a reminder that the characters are NOT mine but the story tends to belong to me with just a little prompt from my friends.
River Tam woke up with a screaming headache and wanted to scream along with it. Voices inside her head led her on the path of confusion and the feeling of paranoia. She scrambled out of bed and placed her back in a corner, feeling a little more protected. Pain made her want to lash out but lack of subjects had her grab fists full of her long, dark hair and yank hard. The only thing it seemed to do was make the throbbing worse.
She had started rocking back and forth when her door opened. She sat real still, trying to blend in while she watched someone that should be familiar through the curtain of her hair. His thoughts mixed with all the others in a conglomeration of ideas.
"Mei-mei?" she heard him say as he cautiously approached her.
The sentences she formed in her head came out fragmented and discombobulated. "Away! Gone!"
He opened his mouth but his words were muffled to her ears and she focused on the word 'medicine' and the vision he was projecting of a needle to place into her skin.
She jumped to her feet, prepared to defend herself. "No more shots. Head unfixable. Broken, lying in ruins. Walls made of glass shatter under pressure."
He out his hands up and took another step towards her.
She shrieked, startling him into a halt. "Untrustworthy! Blue hands white with effort not to be fooled for girl." In a swift movement she kicked out, bare foot hitting his mid-abdominal area and ran out of her room- leaving her would-be doctor hunched over.
The hallway felt cool to her feet as she let them lead the way for her escape. She must be free. Once she had found her way out her skull would subside.
She heard a sound and placed herself flat against the metal wall enclosing her. No door seemed helpful as she figured out she was on a dorm wing. Getting trapped in a bunker would not end pretty. For her attacker.
Big grunt too slow to be a doctor came around the bend, stopping as he spied her. Possible bounty hunter though her brain tugged at a memory. Irrational thoughts had no place within her capacity.
"Watcha doin', lookin' all crazy-like?" His voice boomed in her head and it took effort to not show weakness to the brute.
"Nothing," she forced out. "Stop me?"
He backed up, hands in air as surrender. "You the crazy. Not me. Ain't forgot the bruise you gave the boys or that you can kill with your brain."
Smarter than looks. "Not crazy. Am highly trained, gifted Read with astronomic potential to absorb knowledge. Graceful talented girl disguised as an assassin with an irrational yet understandable chromatochiric and nosocomephobia."
"Uh, right." He looked more than a little confused she thought and wanted to laugh.
"River?" came a voice from where she had been.
Her eyes cut to the big man and narrowed. "Escape imamate. Trouble not advisable."
"I ain't stoppin' ya. An' I sure ain't helpin' your pansy-ass brother."
She paused. "Sibling rivalry eclipses when jealousy overtakes decision making. Medicinal achievements shadowed by academic scoring of the young." She sidled past him and silently turned the bend to disappear from the meds.
She entered a door to find herself in the cockpit, confirming her belief that she was trapped. She glanced at the coordinates programmed into the auto pilot and recognized the pattern as her own. If only her head aching would not deter her cognitive abilities leaving her in such a state of perplex mystification.
Boots behind not unlike her brother's though heavier. She turned to see the man enter the room. She waited cautiously poised to run if need be.
"Hey there, Lil Albatross," he said to her. "Everything all right?"
"A burden on a ship trying to decamp to find a nest to have comfort in. Around the neck chain released a vision marking true."
"Um, ok." He glanced at the control board and at her hands as if expecting a weapon. No external weapon needed with such power-driven emotional extremities that speak for themselves.
"Too long a stay the fox falls in the trap."
He also looked confused. She thought he a simple creature. "Are ya sayin' you a fox?"
"Sly, devious, cunning, and brave, the fox wanders with purpose and survives on will. Wild and free, Earth-that-was held no boundaries on nature though stunted by human growth. Migrant and adaptable the vulpes vulpes culture thrives on various planetary forms."
She took one last look at the controls, approving of her ethereal doings and slid past who she recognized as a captain-y being to go back into the hall to try to get her bearings.
Tables, chairs, dining area with kitchenette. The smell of oil, a hint of grease.
"Hey, ya, Riv," came a bouncy voice.
She turned her head to the table. "A precipice in front, wolves behind."
She didn't remember how she came to the metal stairs. She went down to her knees to study the texture of the flooring. The design was not unlike pairs of ridged lips as if to kiss the foot that touched it in its proper form. A sound...imagined? real?...had her swiftly fleeing down the stairs in search of a friendly place to hide.
She shivered as she slumped behind a box, shielding her from all who looked over the area. Flashed of light even when her eyes were closed did not bode well for her mind. Different colors for the numerous beings inhabiting the ship that not all could see. Sounds crashing in overlapping the colors made even sight hard as her eyes watered from the effort.
Something caught her attention and her mind leapt in a sense of relief as silence became near proximity. Upon her feet, she scampered to the wall and fingered the button winking at her, highlighted by the lights that made her head pulse sharply. She smiled serenely and hit the door, sliding into the smaller area where only one sheet of metal stood between her and the silence she craved so much.
As her hands found the final button a soft voice stopped her. "What are you doing, little one?"
She turned her head to see a gingered-haired man with a goofy grin. "Loud noises permeates bone and grey matter."
He looked around. "The airlock is pretty soundproof."
She shook her head roughly, her hair flying in every direction. "Sound bouncing from side to side, echoing louder each pass as it has no outlet."
"So, what's the plan?"
She placed her small hand on the outer door. "Silent totality."
He stepped forward, his boot not making a sound. "But that's slightly permanent, little bunny. How will that help the crew?"
"Cares not. Head pain, tension bad."
He motioned towards the small window showing the frantic doctor beating on it and calling her name. "Simon had medication--"
She stamped her foot. "No! No more drug-hazed River! Has had enough!" She moved her hand to the release.
"Wait! They still need you. They need their pilot."
"You left," she accused, glaring at the friendly man.
"I wasn't given much choice, River. But you do. Tell Simon what's wrong so he can give you something that will help."
Her eyes watered. "So hard."
"You have a choice."
She looked back at him but he was gone. The banging got her attention.
"River! Open the door, please! River!"
She walked to the window and out her forehead on the cool glass. "Head hurts, Simon."
"Ok, mei-mei. Let me in and I can help."
"Hate shots."
"It helps work faster. Don't do anything..."
"Crazy," she supplied with a small smile.
"Bad," he disagreed. "I'm going to get the medicine for your head now."
"Anythin' make her less crazy," she heard.
"Not helpin', Jayne," was said before their captain put his face in place of Simon's. "Open the door, Lil Albatross. That's an order."
"What ya goin' to do, Mal? Put her in the black if she don't comply?"
"Jayne," Mal snarled, "keep it up an' I'll put you in the black."
As Jayne snickered River caught a wave of apprehension her crew members felt. For her. She realized she was running from the ones trying to help. She released the lock on her side and watched Mal hit the switch to open the door.
"River!" Kaylee said, taking a step forward before Zoe stopped her.
River put her hands to her head, surprised it wasn't breaking open from the pain.
"Lil 'Tross? Jayne here is gonna hold you so's Doc and help ya."
She felt hands on her upper arms but didn't struggle as they moved her forward and then still. The grip was firm but not tight and she opened her eyes and leaned her head back to look up at the merc.
"Don't wanna hurt ya," he warned.
She shook her head. "Brain hurts," she told him before allowing her body to collapse against his. She would have laughed as he flinched but instead she meekly extended her arm to her brother as he inserted the needle.
chromatophobia- fear of color
chiricophobia- fear of gloves
nosocomephobia- fear of hospitals
