They were an hour from atmo over Anson's World, and most everybody was in the bay, prepping. They'd bought folding tables with raised edges, so weapons maintenance could be done in the cargo bay rather than the galley.
The sting team for the day was Mal, River, Jayne, Zoe, Jamie, and Jenny; the rest would remain either with Serenity, or the shuttle they'd be taking to reach the private clinic, which was some miles from the spaceport. Inara and Simon would be the standby in the shuttle, which they'd equipped with crash seating, a long bench seat, and a single collapsible stretcher in case they needed to use it for medevac.
Jamie stopped Brian at the door of the galley. "Alright, son. Here's the rule. When people are getting ready in the bay, I don't want you to go in there and bother them. They're cleaning and loading their guns, and although everybody is careful, I don't want any accidents, dohn ma? Guns are dangerous."
Brian nodded solemnly; Jamie was suddenly thankful that Brian was such a smart kid.
"Maybe we can have Uncle Jayne set you up a special deactivated weapon, so you can learn how to use it properly and safely. I do want you to learn that soon, just not right now, okay?"
The boy nodded again.
"Good boy. Why don't you go see Uncle Wash? He said he could keep you company while we're landing and on the job. Don't distract him from flying, but I bet he'll show you how he flies if you pay good attention."
"Kay, daddy!" Brian said, and ran off towards the bridge.
Jamie went down to the cargo bay and sat opposite Inara at her table, taking out his own weapon and beginning to strip and clean it. The medium frame 9mm automatic he'd picked up on Ares during his first few months on Serenity was working well; he'd modified it slightly, with Jayne's help (the man was a master gunsmith, after all), to accommodate laser sights and, if necessary, a silencer. He'd also made some after-market modifications to its clip, to accomodate the taser rounds they'd come to favor for quick nonlethal takedowns.
"I'm not sure I like him knowing how to use guns." Inara said, finally, after focusing on her weapon for a while (she'd bought a similar automatic to Jamie's.)
"It's better for him to know how to use them safely, than not at all. I hope he never has to use them, truthfully, but he's better off understanding how dangerous they are and learning to respect them. We won't teach him to shoot, at least not yet. Just start him on how to handle them safely, if he ever has to."
"I know, bao bei." Inara didn't look or sound convinced though.
Jayne piped in from two tables down. "Hell, I shot my first gun when I was 5. The boy deserves to have the chance, at least."
Inara just shot him an exasperated look.
The shuttle landed on the pad near the front door of the McLaren building, and disgorged its passengers. Several local plainclothes lawmen were already onsite, keeping an eye on the building.
"Hasn't been any activity." the elder lawman said, as Mal approached.
"We'll go in anyways. Do you have any people around the back?"
"Yea, two men."
"Alright, they'll take the back door." Mal said, pointing to Jim Raven's team, which was just disembarking from their own shuttle.
"Johnson!" the older man said, motioning to one of the deputies.
"Sir?"
"Take the second team around back, show them the rear entrance."
"Aye, sir." the deputy said, going off to collect Raven's team.
"Jim, eyes open. No activity so far today, but we'll see what's up here."
"Aye aye." Raven said, winking, then leading the rest of his people off to the back entry.
The front door cracked slowly open; peeking around the corner with a fiber line, seeing the front desk and entryway deserted. The lights were on, and the detector in the fiberline signalled that the cameras were active. The infrared detector didn't pick up any laser detectors, however.
They slowly moved around the corner, checking each door with military precision; they'd all taken brief training courses in tactical entries after taking the positions as Marshals.
Mal was in the lead, light submachine gun at the ready, when he felt something snap under his foot. He looked down, and saw the monofilament line just at foot level.
"Oh, go se! Get down!"
The flashbang went off, blinding Mal and Jayne for a moment, and stunning the pair of them and Jenny.
The automatic weapons fired then.
Static, static all over. The clinic was too far in the middle of a busy city for River's taste; despite her continued growing stability, too many minds tended to press on her, filling her with nonsense, distracting her from her purpose.
She felt the warm dark of Mal's mind embrace hers; he'd been focusing on his control, and was already better than her at blocking out the others. He could form a matrix around and throughout her mind, give her structure to build on.
She heard/felt/saw the snapping of the monofilament-tripwire-trap! The light was blinding, and she felt the concussive pulse ripple through both her body and mind, as Mal, Jayne, and Jenny were stunned...
The thudding of automatic weapons triggered her instincts; she dropped, flowing out of the way of the oncoming shots; the others weren't so lucky. She felt the impacts as 15 shots found their mark, both stinging grazes and hammering blows on body armor.
Her control fragmented and shattered as she felt the bite of a shot through the armor, and another glancing shot off the skull that wasn't hers; Mal's protection about her mind fell, as he dropped to the ground, and River saw red-darkness flooded her-training surged into consciousness-7.8 meters away-5 minds-5.2 seconds until reload-destruction of targets in estimated 9.3 seconds-draw sword now-
River!
The voice in her head shocked her back to consciousness, and she turned from where she was sprawled, to see his piercing blue eyes, looking at her in pain and fear and shock, not for his own injuries but for the darkness that had flooded her. She took her hand off the blade on her back, and instead drew her small-frame 9mm automatic from its hip holster.
The automatics at the end of the hall went silent, and the 5 men standing there began the swift process of reloading, but they were too slow for her. She rose to one knee, steadying her weapon in the Weaver stance Mal had taught her, and 5 perfectly aimed shots rang out in the space of a second, almost like an automatic weapon's stutter.
The 5 men at the end of the hall shuddered and convulsed, collapsing to the floor with 1 taser round imbedded in each man's solar plexus.
She pushed with her mind now, looking for more; there were no others in the facility, except the 5 in the rear that were being engaged by Raven's crew. She could see Ken Baldwin taking a shot in the upper thigh, another burying itself in his shoulder, missing the body armor. The others had taken armor-shots and grazes, but nothing else life-threatening.
She found herself calling into the comm on her wrist.
"Shots fired, officers down! Medevac required, front and rear! Reynolds and Baldwin down, get in here Simon!"
"Enroute."
"On the way." said Maggie's caramel tones.
Simon didn't mistake the forced calm in her voice; he knew she would be a panicking wreck by the time he got in. Inara landed the shuttle right next to the front doors, and Jamie and Zoe ran out, both favoring their chests, but moving easiliy enough and with only a few grazes. They grabbed the collapsible stretcher, and ran in with Simon following close behind.
Jayne and Jenny were cuffing the incapacitated enemies, and River was frantically trying to stabilize the bleeder in Mal's shoulder. Simon gently pushed her aside, and sprayed biofoam into the wounds, stopping the external bleeding.
"We need to get him to the infirmary right away!"
They picked up the stretcher gently, and carried it to the shuttle; River followed close behind.
The local lawmen came in now, taking custody of the 5 assailants, and carting them off to the local cells to await later pickup.
River sat on the couch, inwardly focused, as Simon fought to keep Mal with them. She tried to block it out, tried not to feel, but could only sit there and accept it, accept the constant pain and terror of Mal's not-quite-doped mind, the almost cold and controlled exterior of Simon's exceptionally brilliant mind that was wrapped around a seething core of emotions, the biting grazes and pounding bruises of the others, as Inara checked everyone over; Zoe was assisting in the surgery on Mal, as she had the steadiest hands and most experience as an impromptu battlefield medic; she was also the least injured of them all.
She buried her face in her hands again, trying to block out the sight of the shots hitting her beloved Mal; she would be hiding somewhere on Serenity if it had been before, before she had entwined her essence with his; now she could only sit and wait.
The little boy collided with Jamie in a thudding impact, rocking the man back and eliciting a groan of pain as the boy threw himself against the bruise on his chest.
Brian pulled back, seeing the pain grip his daddy's face. "'m sorry, daddy. Didn' mean to hurt."
"You didn't, buddy. Just sore." Jamie whispered, and pulled the boy back to him, giving him as big a hug as his bruised body felt comfortable with.
"You alright?"
"I am now." he said, trying to smile, and failing miserably.
"Uncle Mal'll be alright, Uncle Simon is the best." the boy said with complete and total confidence.
"I think you're right, bud." Jamie felt more confidence now than before; Brian's optimism was catching.
"Daddy, you sure you're gonna be okay?"
"I know I am, but I think Aunt River really needs a hug right now."
"'Kay, daddy." the boy said, running off to find Auntie River. He found her sitting silently and alone in the common room, staring at the 'firmary door; he read the vibes she was putting off, prayers to a god she didn't believe in of oh god please let him be okay and self-incriminations of this is my fault i should have seen should have known should have taken it myself. The boy paused for a moment, then pushed ahead, through the thoughts that grew thick around her, that tried to form a rampart against anyone else.
She held out her arms as he approached, despite her expanding rampart of regrets, and he climbed into her lap, wrapping her up in a hug. He felt her tears begin, felt them soaking into his shirt, and waited patiently for her to let out all of the bad feeling.
Finally, her mind cleansed, she kissed him on the top of his head and hugged him again, thanking him silently, words not having the impact she needed.
They sat and waited, orphans of the world, waiting for the man who had saved them both to be saved.