"I don't think the Cap'n would mind at all." Kaylee insisted in her most cheerful and convincing tone.
Kaylee and River crowded close around the crisp new 100-credit bill held gingerly in the engineer's greasy hands.
"But it looks so pretty and the Captain – well won't he need this?"
The little mechanic had gotten the money from Gunter's in a deal made good. River had watched quietly with wide eyed amazement, as Kaylee skillfully manipulate the chop shop owner into a deal on a pair of Asperators that he didn't even see coming. At the end of it all Kaylee had the equipment and the bill in her hands. She looked on it as free money.
He'd thought she was buying the Keplar brand, high performance, inversion charged and wildly overpriced unit. Instead he had watched her leave with two refurbished Caprisons and a hundred in change. Furthermore, and this is the part River still couldn't figure, Kaylee had a new proximity alarm in the bag along with them and Gunter seemed to think he should be happy about the deal. The math just didn't add up.
"Cap'n don't need to know about this one." Kaylee continued. "And you deserve somethin better than old hand-me-downs and that trash Jayne gets from his girl folk."
In front of the two girls was a store window filled with coplex, rayvon and silk dresses, all colorful and draped to catch the eye of the passersby. Kaylee had her eye on one in particular that she felt River absolutely needed and she'd taken it upon herself to convince River of the same. The crowd of the market place bustled around them as Kaylee tugged at River, trying to persuade the reluctant girl to come in with her.
"It can't hurt none just to look." She persisted. "And you can't go on wearing that sack all the time. It aint fittin."
"It fits fine." River replied naively.
"That's not what I meant."
"But the blue dragons are so beautiful …" River whined.
River fawned over the pretty paper bill with its dragons wrapping around the likeness of Lundinium and Sihnon, a symbol of the great Alliance. She'd always liked the look of the currency and Kaylee had to admit that it was pretty, for money, but down deep inside she knew what money was for and she had a hankering to use it. River, on the other hand, looked on the bill as a thing on to its own, not an object with purpose or a placeholder for something else, but as beauty art. She'd have hung it on the wall of the room where it would do no good for anyone.
"And the Captain – he's always looking after how much we spend." River added hesitantly. "I don't know."
"Oh pish! Capn's off getting a boat-load of money right now for himself." Kaylee grabbed River by the arm and dragged her into the store. "He'll never miss this one."
A tiny bell rang as the two girls entered the store. The owner, a kindly looking old man, had been watching them through the window and perked up as they came in.
"Now Missy, you should not be flashin your money around like that. Particularly not on a street like this one. You're bound to attract the wrong sort of folk."
"That's no mind." Kaylee answered. "It's all we got and we're fixin to spend it all right here and now."
To that the owner broke into a huge smile and showed them both to the fitting rooms with an armload of dresses.
"You take your time choosing and let me know when you're done." He added.
He settled back behind the counter and smiled at the two young girls as they chattered away, laughed and tried on everything he brought. He didn't mind at all. The best advertising in this dusty market was a busy shop and he was soon looking after other customers.
The pair was having so much fun that they hadn't noticed how the time had passed. Kaylee and River should have been back at the ship hours ago, checking on the refueling, installing the new prox alarm, the connecting the Asperator and stowing the spare. But Kaylee hadn't just been a girl out for nearly two years and River had never had this much fun before.
"Here." Kaylee finally handed River the dress that she fancied from the window, the one that she'd come in for. "You gotta try this one."
River took it hesitantly and retreated into the dressing stall while Kaylee sifted through the others. Kaylee had always thought that River was pretty, but she was usually dressed in some oversized sack or rumpled tunic. It was about time the girl got something nice, something not from a thrift shop. They were just not flattering on the girl. River was, after all, almost a grow woman now. She needed to start looking like one. River returned shortly, clearly uncomfortable with the fit.
"It feels to tight." She complained.
Kaylee just stared at her dumbfounded. The evening gown flowed on her like a cascade of gossamer on an angel.
"Oh River." Kaylee mouthed incredulously. "You're gorgeous."
River looked in the mirror, not recognizing herself at first and then scrunched up her face uncomfortably at the stranger looking back at her. The dress was fitted to her body, showing curves that she didn't know she had. The slit up one side was near to the hip, showing a long fluid leg incongruously ending in a rough boot. The back was draped elegantly to under her shoulder blades and the neck tastefully high and asymmetric.
"I don't like it." She announced. "I feel like I can't move."
"Honey, what do you have to move for when you look like that? They'll be comin to you."
"I want to try this one." River picked out a flowery, plainly cut silk sundress with short cap sleeves "Then we can go home."
The teen retreated back into the stall again, pleased that the strange woman in the mirror had stopped staring at her. Kaylee waited quietly outside thinking about what River said. 'Home.' She'd said Serenity was home. It had become home to Kaylee too, though she sometimes missed her real home back on Harvest. It had become home to all of them, all of them but Simon.
Kaylee set the other dresses beside their purchases from earlier in the day. She hadn't noticed the quiet beeping of her Com unit, now hidden under the garments, or the warning from her captain that it held inside. She hadn't noticed the sun slowly moving west or the store clerk fidgeting impatiently as it got later. Nor had she noticed the tiny bell ringing each times the shop door opened and three men entered the store to check them out.
"River?" Kaylee asked innocently. "Do you miss Osiris? Your home there?"
The stall became quiet and still.
"Serenity is home." River replied weakly. "I don't remember Osiris."
"I sometimes miss my Dad's shop, my family and all." Kaylee rambled, "And then I get to see 'em, you know, like last week and – well I was just wonderin that's all."
"Once I did. Part of me still does." River spoke lucidly.
The three street ruffians were now browsing through women's undergarments and working their way around the two clueless shoppers. River pulled the posh fitted gown off over her head and flipped it on the stall door. She didn't feel safe in a dress like that – too much skin, too much attention. It could get a girl hurt. River wondered briefly whose thoughts she was thinking as she pulled the other dress on in its place.
"I don't think it is safe to go back yet." She paused a moment and pondered on this feeling of insecurity.
"But you feel safe here, don't ya – on Serenity?"
Why didn't Simon feel the same way as River? Why did he want to make Serenity his home? Kaylee wondered.
Kaylee took the evening dress from the door, put it up to her body and look in the mirror. River was right; this dress was too revealing for a girl on the rim. But maybe – maybe Simon would want to stay if Kaylee was more like thems that wore sophisticated clothes like this.
"But don't you just want to go and visit? You know – don't you want to see your family?"
River did not answer.
Why Kaylee hadn't notices the trap closing around them was just part of who she was. She expected honesty when faced with honesty and couldn't see the bad in people. The storeowner had noticed the thugs when they came in. He could see that trouble was coming. Slipped off to the back room without a sound. River could feel it all around her, but to Kaylee felt nothing. She was too busy trying to figure out how to make Simon's want to stay, make Serenity his home too.
River came out of the stall in her bright flowing summer dress just as the three men pulled out their knives. She grabbed Kaylee, still holding the slinky black gown up to herself, and pulled them both to the safety of the stall behind her. In a flowery silk flash used the door to hit the man attacking from the right in the face. She spun and kicked the second in the mouth with the bottom of her combat boot while ducking under the thrust of the third. She grabbed the arm of the third and bent it back with a loud crack and scream. Then she used the blade, still grasped in the now limp arm, to stab the first man in the ribs, as he cut at the empty space where River and the floral sundress had been. All three hit the ground nearly simultaneously; as Kaylee cowered in the stall. The whole thing was over in only seconds.
"Are you alright Missy?" The store's owner exclaimed, coming from the back room with a shotgun in hand.
River smiled and curtsied. "I'll take this one." She said. "I can move in it."
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