Chapter Nine
- What Should Be Left Unspoken -
Serenity: Cargo Bay
Kaylee is wiping down the outside of the stasis box where, during the months it's been in storage, it's gathered a layer of dust and sand. She hums a solemn tune as she does it trying to keep her mind off things. She buffs the control panel to make it shine and jumps back as the box begins to emanate a loud beeping sound. She begins to press other buttons, trying to shut the noise off but it just gets louder. Simon walks through from the med bay and when he hears the beeping sound he frowns and runs towards the box. He pulls Kaylee back and presses a few buttons, shutting the beeping off. Kaylee wrings the cloth she was using to clean the box in her hands.
"What did I do?" she asks timidly.
"You nearly set the self destruct off." Simon replies, pressing more buttons.
"It can do that?" Kaylee asks in a horrified tone, her eyes wide as sauces.
"You idiot, you nearly destroyed the whole damn plan. Just stay out of my way, I don't want to see you!" Simon yells.
Kaylee steps back, shocked and tears welling in her eyes. He's upset her a fair few times but never has he been so vindictive as his is now. Simon glares at her angrily and she begins to back away from him, tears rolling down her mucky cheeks. His face softens as she drops her gaze and runs towards her room. He sighs and closes his eyes, when he opens them again, his own eyes are filled with tears. He turn backs to the stasis box and slams the palm of his hand onto his forehead letting it slide down his face until he's rubbing his aching temples with thumb and forefinger.
Jayne, who was idly listening to the exchange from the door of the cargo bay walks across and with a furrowed brow barges into the young doctor deliberately.
"You yell at Kaylee like that 'gain and I'll knock a fair few brain cells out of that pretty boy head of yours." he growls menacingly.
"I don't have the will to be scared of you and your petty threats right now. Can we pick this up at a later date?" Simon says shaking his head miserably at Jayne.
He storms past the confused looking merc who watches him go, his mouth hanging open in hope of a retort that never comes.
Serenity: Kaylee's Bunk
Kaylee makes her way down into her bunk, the tears in her eyes making her vision blurry. She sinks onto her bed and buries her head in her hands. She sobs miserably for a few moments, her breathing harsh and sharp. She calms herself down and tries to take a deep breath.
It wasn't as if it was really his fault that he was snapping at her, after all his sister had just been taken by the Alliance, he wasn't really thinking before he spoke. But his tone of voice had shocked her and with the amount of pressure she had on her at the moment, she had truly taken his words to heart. She was so angry she could spit.
There's a knock on her bunk door and someone descends the ladder into her tiny room. It's Simon. Kaylee turns her face away from him, trying to hide her puffy eyes, rubbing them to remove the last trace of tears. Simon stands quietly by the bottom of the ladder, unable to think of what to say, opening his mouth and closing it several times. Kaylee takes a deep breath and looks over at him, her face as calm as she can muster.
"You gonna tell me what you're wantin', or you just gonna stand there like a goldfish flappin' its mouth?" she asks a waver in her voice.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you. I-"
"I don't wanna hear it Simon, forget 'bout it. Trust me, after we get your sister back, me and you'll be havin' words." Kaylee replies folding her arms and moving past the forlorn looking Simon.
She hikes up the ladder leaving Simon behind.
Serenity: Bridge Hall
Kaylee storms down the hallway, her footfalls making the metal grill flooring rattle loudly. She barges right past Mal who was on his way up to the bridge to check on Wash and how they were doing time wise.
"Hey, Kaylee, what's up?" he asks.
Kaylee just holds up her index finger and carries on walking without a word. He frowns deeply, since when had people decided to ignore him on his own gorramn ship? Only he wouldn't have minded some sort of memo slipped through his door, or at least a note on the fridge.
Simon makes his way out of Kaylee's room, his face ashen, and walks right past Mal without a word, doing an even better job of ignoring him than Kaylee did.
"Hey I'm not standin' here for the good of my health you know… what the hell is goin' on?" Mal demands his frown deepening and his hands now hooked into his belt.
Simon turns to him and shakes his head.
"It's nothing…" he replies trailing off.
"Better be the last nothing, I don't want arguments on my ship, bringin' up a storm in a teacup. Not at a time like this."
"It won't happen again." Simon says in a small voice.
"It's better not, this plan has gotta run smooth cause once that transporters on its way, we've passed our chance, dong ma? I already got a sulky doctor, I don't need a sullen mechanic to gum up the workin's too, cause this whole idea goes down the pan if she ain't bringin' her A-game."
"Why are you even doing this?" Simon asks after a long pause in which he looks Mal up and down carefully.
Mal frowns looking at the doctor with a mixture of surprise and puzzlement. Why was he doing this? He was risking everything, his freedom, his boat, his crew. Truth be told, and he wasn't going to let Simon in on this, he didn't like the kid to be so gorramn unhappy. There was no way he'd rest without his sister and if he carried on after her, he's be taking a dirt nap within the month. Mal settles his eyes on Simon's pale face.
"If it means I can rub the Allience up the wrong way, do a little point scorin' of my own, I'm more'n willin to do so." he lies with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
Mal gives Simon a sharp nod and continues his way up to the bridge leaving the doctor to think what he will.
Serenity: Bridge
Wash is calmly piloting the ship, one eye on the scanner the other on the vast expanse of the Black before him. The only way to tell that he's unsettled by the whole fiasco is by the thin furrows of worry on his forehead. Mal takes his usual position behind the pilot, one hand on the back of the chair, the other leaning on the console, his eyes on the scanner.
"How we doing?" he asks as Wash makes an adjustment to one of the outboard sensors.
"We're doing good, recon we'll have caught up with it in a few hours, give or take. Everythin' okay with Kaylee and the doc? I heard them yellin' at each other… it's not like them, either of them." Wash replies.
"First time for everythin'. They'll patch things up," Mal shrugs, "That's good time you're makin'. Now you know the drill right?"
"We leave Serenity in orbit of the little moon here," he points at a map on one of the many screens, "I pilot Jayne, Zoe, Simon and you in the box, over to the medical Transporter here. Meanwhile, Kaylee will rig up an Alliance distress beacon, you know one of them crybaby's she built a while back, which will activate when you hit the little button on you box that'll send her a signal telling her that you've located River and you're ready to be picked up. Kaylee'll then guide Serenity in towards the Transporter askin' if there is anything we can do to help, usin' his Shepherd Book's mysterious ID and we sneak you back onto the ship. Easy as lyin'!"
Mal nods and smiles to himself, happy with the plan. Why shouldn't he be? It was his plan.
"Keep us flyin' straight, Wash, I gotta young mechanic I need to set in place." he mutters already leaving his pilot behind.
Serenity: Inara's Shuttle
Kaylee is sat in a huff on the plush cushions of the large seating area inside the shuttle. She sits cross legged her elbows on her chin and her head leading on an open palm.
"…I can understand why he's all upset and all, just… why'd he have to go a yellin' at me?" she continues, finding it hard to keep the hurt out of her voice.
Inara pours her a cup of tea and passes it over, sitting next to her friend and placing a consoling hand on her shoulder.
"Just when did things with boys get so tricky…" Kaylee sighs, sipping her tea.
Inara can't help but laugh a little and Kaylee looks at her reproachfully.
"It's always been tricky, mei mei, and as long as men stay as ignorant and narrow-minded as they are they will always be tricky." Inara replies with a warm smile.
"But you don't have any problems, s'pose you're used to men showin' affection to you in a weird way, your line a work." Kaylee shrugs.
"Oh, trust me, Kaylee. There are men out there I wouldn't even know where to begin with, Simon would be one of them."
"I suppose it begins with you takin' a nice large fee from their bank accounts." comes a voice from the door to the shuttle.
Kaylee jumps, slopping tea onto her overalls. Inara however just gracefully turns her head and glares at the owner of the voice. Mal is leaning against the wall listening into the girls conversation.
"Mind if I talk to my mechanic?" he asks a blasé tone to his voice.
"Would you mind if you at least knocked before you came barging into my shuttle?" Inara replies icily.
"You ever get tired of playin' the same old record?"
"Not nearly as much as I get tired of you playing the fallen hero." Inara snaps back.
There's a silence between them and for a second it looks like there's going to be words between them. Mal takes the high ground, ignoring her and his eyes swivel to Kaylee.
"You and that Doc keep rowing like that, Alliance'll hear us comin' miles off, make no mistake. You keep you're argufying to yourself while we do this job, then you can holler at each other 'til the cows come home. But I'd take delight if you didn't keep the whole ship entertained with your yellin', you make people jumpy." he says, his tone all macho and Captain like.
Kaylee glares at him, upset at the fact that she's just been told off in front of her best friend. Her cheeks flush and she storms past him into the cargo hold and heads for the engine room, bumping shoulders with Mal as she passes.
"Should be wastin' more time workin' than drinkin' tea." Mal calls to her.
Inara fixes Mal with a hard stare, one that any other person wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of.
"You really know how to motivate your crew." she says, ice in her tone.
Mal shrugs and moves further into the shuttle, something Inara glares harder at him for.
"Girl needed puttin' straight, this ain't no cats in the cradle milk run y'know." Mal shrugs.
"No it isn't, and that puzzles me somewhat. You're doing this without any monetary incentive, surely it can't be from the goodness of your own heart?"
"I not as black as you paint me."
"Really Mal, why are you doing this?" Inara asks seriously, fixing him with a look.
Mal sighs and sits himself down, cheekily helping himself to the brew on the table. He takes a long sip and pointedly looks at the seat beside him for Inara to sit down. With a sigh and a roll of her eyes she does so.
"Those people came onto my ship, attacked my crew and took a member of it. Okay, the kid muddy's the waters somewhat and we'd be better off without her. But nobody comes onto my ship and takes somethin' that ain't there's to take in the first place. Especially if that somethin' is human." Mal says taking another large swig of tea.
"That's actually quite noble, for you." Inara says with raised eyebrows.
"That's me. Not all business man all of the time y'know." Mal replies, jumping to his feet and striding to the door.
Inara also rises and clears her throat. Mal pauses in the shuttle door and looks at her expectantly.
"How much is he paying you?" she asks.
"Two thousand plat upfront then 10% off of his cut of the earnin's next six months." Mal replies with a lopsided smile.
Inara shakes her head as he leaves.