While Zoe piloted the shuttle up to the skyplex, Clint tied his own wrists together with a thin bit of rope that was lying around in the back of the shuttle. It didn't have to be much, but it did have to be obvious.
Zoe docked, and Clint stood up. Time to start the act.
"I'm unarmed," Zoe announced as she stepped out of the shuttle, arms up as she submitted to being frisked by Niska's stooges. Then she reached back into the shuttle and pulled Clint out. "I want to talk to Niska," she said firmly.
Clint was not frisked. Apparently having your wrists tied together and no obvious weapons was enough for these guys to not worry about that sort of thing. Granted, he only had a knife stashed in his left boot where they probably wouldn't have noticed it anyway, but still –!
Four armed flunkies escorted them along the same route that one had the last time they'd been to the skyplex, but this time, when they reached Niska's office, there was no Crow at the door to greet them, and no Niska sitting behind his desk like a genial old man.
The door was opened to reveal Mal and Wash were strapped to a metal frame where last time the nephew of Niska's wife had been hanging from a chain. JARVIS reported in Clint and Zoe's ear that they had only been electrocuted so far, though multiple times. The pair still looked like they'd been through a wringer though.
"No," Wash said weakly when he spotted Zoe – he was facing the door that had just opened between them. "No, no, no. Run, run," he begged softly.
Niska was grinning at Zoe as she walked into the room, a hand still clenched on Clint's shoulder, and approached the sadistic little man.
"I'd like my men back," she said.
"So you bring me another, all tied up?" Niska asked happily.
"When we figured out what had happened, none of the crew could figure out why you'd taken them, since you didn't mind us leaving when we told you we wouldn't be doing the train job. Until Hawkeye here admitted to having skimmed from your accounts. I think a guilty party for two who didn't even know about the transgression against you is a fair trade," Zoe said firmly.
"This is your opinion, is it?" Niska asked.
"It is," Zoe answered firmly.
Niska pursed his lips in mildly theatric thought. "Hmm," he mused. "As you say, having the man who actually wronged me is certainly better than men who did not, but even so, I could not trade two men for just one. It is not a balanced trade," he explained seriously. "So now, you have -"
"Him," Zoe said firmly, and pointed at Wash, cutting off Niska mid-sentence. "I'm sorry," she said falsely as she turned back to Niska. "You were going to ask me to choose, right?" she asked.
The elderly man gaped at her a little. He had clearly not expected her to be so quick about it, to show such little hesitation.
"Would you like to finish?" Zoe asked sharply.
Niska shut his mouth and gestured to Crow to let Wash down.
Wash simply fell. Zoe moved to help him up while Crow took hold of Clint and started to strap him into the third and final spot on the metal contraption where Mal and Wash had been electrocuted.
"But..." Niska said as he watched Zoe help Wash up off the floor, "I think a whole man for a damaged man might be too much. You should have some small refund," he decided, and picked up a wicked looking knife.
Zoe had just gotten Wash to his feet when Niska cut off one of Mal's ears.
Mal, of course, screamed. Even a very sharp knife, that would hurt. There were a surprisingly lot of nerve-endings in and around the ear – pain receptors among them.
The man wrapped it up in a white handkerchief and offered it to Zoe.
She tucked it into her vest, lifted one of Wash's arms over her shoulders, and started walking. The door closed behind them.
"You... are a Feng Le Sha Gwa," Mal informed Clint through the pain.
"Ni How to you too," Clint answered drolly.
Niska smiled and walked around to face Clint. "Tell me, Mr Hawkeye," he said, "do you know the writings of Shan Yu?"
"Shan Yu, Shan Yu..." Clint mused. "Let me think. What Shan Yu's have I heard of? There was the bad guy in Disney's animated film Mulan," Clint said. "Don't see him having written anything. The Xiongnu people of ancient Earth-That-Was called their rulers Shan Yu, I guess one of them might have written something..." he continued thoughtfully.
"Shan Yu was a great poet. He wrote volumes on war, torture, and the limits of human endurance," Niska explained. "He wrote 'Live with a man 40 years; share his house, his meals, and speak on every subject – then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano's edge. On that day, you will finally meet the man'," Niska elucidated.
"Ah, and I suppose you want to 'meet' me at some point during my stay," Clint said. "Well, I've always been more of a fan of Nietzsche when it comes to poetry or philosophy on the subject of pain."
"Really?" Niska asked, and gestured to Crow.
A whole lot of volts just went through the metal contraption – and through Mal and Clint as well by consequence, as they were very thoroughly strapped to the contraption and even had some pads attached to them to make sure that they were electrocuted as well.
Clint spit out a bit of blood. He'd bit his cheek a little too hard holding back a scream. The voltage wasn't as bad as it could have been, thanks to JARVIS, and he'd had worse before while he was a SHIELD agent, but it still wasn't a fun experience.
"It's the whole 'what does not kill me, makes me stronger' thing," Clint continued, as though he hadn't just been electrocuted and spat a gob of blood on the floor at his feet. "Not so big on the Marquis de Sade though."
"De Sade?" Mal joined in, aiming to distract himself from the pain as well. "Isn't he the one we get the word 'sadism' from?"
"That's the one," Clint agreed. "The whole 'pleasure in pain' theory. I grant you though, he's got his place. There are some guys it's felt really good to kill."
Niska walked around the metal contraption to stand with Crow.
Clint blinked. Yep, his eyes were working. He really was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
"Hello Loki," he greeted neutrally.
Niska whipped around, Crow looked over, and Mal twisted as much as he could from his strapped position to look in the same direction as Clint was.
"Oh, hey," Mal greeted. "What brings you here?"
Loki glanced down at the one small gob of fresh blood on the floor – on top of layers of dried blood from other people – and looked back up at Clint, then Mal, and finally he settled his gaze – and narrowed it – on Niska and Crow and all the implements of torture that were lying on a cloth-covered trolley between them.
"Who are you?" Niska demanded. "What are you doing here?"
"He is Loki, of Asgard, and he comes burdened with glorious purpose," Clint introduced, a little sarcastically. "Right?" he checked with a slight, dark, smirk.
Loki smiled back and bowed slightly. It was the first time Clint had ever joked about that time
around him. He hoped it was progress and not just because he'd been tortured a little.
"What purpose?" Niska demanded with a sneer. "Crow," he ordered with a gesture towards the switch that would electrocute Mal and Clint again.
Crow reached for the switch.
"Please don't," Loki said, suddenly in front of Crow with a dagger to his throat. With a dagger half-way through his throat. With a bloody dagger and Crow's head on the floor at his feet. "I come with glad tidings," he continued as he stalked slowly around Crow's body and towards Niska.
"Of a 'verse made free?" Clint suggested.
"Absolutely," Loki agreed.
"Free from what?" Niska asked as he backed up a step – subtly trying to get away from Loki and towards his office.
"You," Loki answered the little man – and by comparison he was very little.
Niska opened his mouth to yell for his guards.
His head fell to the ground with his mouth still open.
"That's all very dramatic," Mal complimented tiredly, "and I'm glad to see the sicko dead, but I'd be grateful if you would please untie us now?" he asked.
Loki released Clint first, for which he got a very quiet 'thank you', and then Mal.
"Much appreciated," Mal said as he sagged down to the floor.
"JARVIS?" Clint called hopefully.
"I'm here, Sir," the AI answered.
"Take everything. Niska's dead. Are Wash and Zoe back on Serenity yet or -?" Clint asked.
"They are only just now reaching the shuttle Sir," JARVIS replied. "I will advise them to not take off yet."
"Thanks," Clint said, and hauled Mal up off the ground and put an arm over his shoulders.
"Clint..." Loki called softly.
Clint turned slightly to look at him.
"Are you alright?" he asked helplessly.
"I've been through worse," Clint answered. "Before you, even," he added, and headed for the door.
It was a long trek to the shuttle through Niska's skyplex – and past a lot of confused grunts. They just weren't used to seeing Niska's 'guests' walking out again. Loki was also a confusing presence as he shadowed Clint and Mal through the halls. None of them had seen him coming in, after all.
"Niska's dead?" Zoe asked by way of greeting.
"Niska's dead," Mal confirmed. "Loki killed him."
"Thank you," Wash said sincerely to the tall figure who had followed Clint and Mal aboard the shuttle.
Loki nodded.
"Doc'll re-attach your ear when we get back to Serenity," Zoe said to Mal, and handed over the hanky that had the chopped off ear wrapped up in it. "Til then, we got all these meds you didn't sell today."
"Thanks for reminding me. Wash, take us home."
"Gladly, Captain."
~oOo~
"We are not alone!" yelled a man in a big fur coat and a top hat. "Forget what you think you know! Forget what your mother told you when she tucked you in at night! Forget the lies of our oppressive, cabalistic allied government! Behind this curtain is the very secret they do not want you to see!"
"I see that freak-show attractions and enthusiastic sprookers didn't die out when we hit the stars," Clint noted to River quietly – the only person who knew that he'd been on Earth-That-Was and could make that comparison.
"If he truly had a secret the Alliance wanted kept secret, he would be shut down," River agreed.
"The most astounding scientific discovery in the history of humanity!" the showman continued earnestly. "Proof of alien life!"
"It's a deformed foetus," Clint pronounced absently. He didn't even have to go in to see. Freak-show aliens were always deformed foetuses. Not to say he didn't believe in alien life. Hell, he'd fought aliens in the streets of New York. "Probably upside-down as well to make it harder to recognise for what it is. But there are still chumps in the 'verse who will pay to see it."
"Or pay to have five minutes alone in a dark quiet space," River quipped, and pointed to where she could see her brother paying twelve bits for entry.
Kaylee was on his arm.
Since the incident where he'd accidentally gotten married, the doctor had been trying to make some romantic inroads with the bubbly mechanic. It was all a bit amusing really, since Kaylee was absolutely set that – attractive as the doctor was – he was married. Alright so they'd dropped his wife off with her other husband, but...
"Come on," Clint suggested to River. "Let's get some ice cream and head to the post office."
The post office was the whole reason they were on this space station. Mal had gotten a wave from a guy called Amnon, said he was holding post for them.
Clint blinked in shock at what they found on their search. "Ice cream hanging from a bit of string?" he asked rhetorically. "Just... no."
"There are plastic cups," River pointed out.
Clint nodded. "Hey Puhn Yoh," he called over the counter to the man running the ice cream stall – once it was his turn of course, there was a bit of a line (but there always was when there was ice cream). "I'll have a double, mint and chocolate, in one of your plastic bowls please. Jean, what about you?"
"Same, please," River answered with a smile.
"Make it two," Clint said, and paid the man when they had two plastic bowls of ice cream with two plastic spoons.
"Not trying the ice planets?" Shepherd Book asked from behind them, amusement in his voice as he bought and paid for a vanilla ice planet.
"I'd take a bite and the rest would fall on the floor, I just know it would," Clint answered resolutely, and dug into his chocolate scoop of ice cream.
Book chuckled at them, and demonstrated how to properly eat an ice planet as they walked back to the post office.
"Small one's for Cobb," Amnon announced as their little party of three re-joined the others
"I got mail?" Jayne asked, surprised but pleased as he ducked around to pick up a decent-sized package. It was, however, clearly the 'small one', being as the 'big one' was even bigger than the cryo-box Simon had brought River aboard Serenity in.
"Might we all want to step a few paces back before he opens that?" Book suggested as Jayne picked up the box and shook it.
"Ha ha," Jayne snapped back. "It's from my mother," he informed the priest.
"So, do aliens live among us?" Inara asked Kaylee with a smile.
"Yeah," Kaylee answered, "and one of 'em's a doctor."
River giggled as she ate another spoonful of ice cream.
"What kind of foetus was it?" Clint asked. "Cow? Horse? Sheep? Goat?"
"Got it right the first time," Kaylee informed him with a crooked smile.
"My dear boy," Jayne read aloud from his letter – slowly and with some deliberation. Either he wasn't used to reading, or his mother wasn't used to writing. Possibly both. "I hope you are well, and that you get this soon in your trav-els. Travels." The word probably didn't all fit on the same line. "Thank you for the credits you for-war-ded as Mattie is still sick with the damp lung."
"You got sick family?" Clint asked Jayne, a bit surprised. A family that had produced someone as healthy as Jayne, he'd figured wouldn't have any sort of chronic sickness in it.
"Yeah," Jayne answered. "Should be able to afford the medicine Mattie needs now. It ain't cheap stuff." Then he coughed and resumed his reading. "I made you the enclo- ooh! Enclosed!" he yelped quietly, and enthusiastically dug into the package.
A two-toned orange hat with a pom-pom on top and ear-flaps – clearly hand-knitted even if Jayne hadn't just read out that his mother had made it for him – was brought out. Jayne took a moment to admire the hat before he put it on and continued reading.
"- the enclosed to keep you warm on your... travels. Hope to hear from you soon, love, your mother," he finished with a happy smile. "How's it sit?" he asked Kaylee. "Pretty cunning, doncha think?" he pressed.
"I think it's... the sweetest hat ever," Kaylee answered with a smile.
"A man walks down the street in that hat," Wash added, nodding and pointing to Jaynes hat as he looked around them all. "People know he's not afraid of anything."
"Damn straight!" Jayne agreed proudly.
"Well," Mal said as he and Zoe made to lift the lid off the large crate that had been sent to the two of them. "Let's hope we get some funny hats too."
There was another box inside the crate, and opening it up revealed a person, all neatly folded up to be buried.
"What did y'all order a dead guy for?" Jayne asked.
"Didn't," Mal answered solemnly. "It doesn't make any kind of sense. Zoe?"
"I got nothing," she answered. "But it's definitely Tracey."
"You know this guy?" Wash asked as Mal nodded in agreement.
"Is it a warning of some kind?" Inara asked, very worried – and with reason. They had just come off of dealing with Niska very recently, and he wasn't the only enemy that Serenity's crew had in the verse.
"Listen, Mal, you gotta get this out of my station," Amnon said with a gesture to the crate and its contents.
"Uh..."
"No, no, no, no," Amnon continued nervously. "Human transport through the postal system is very, very illegal. If anyone even knows I took a corpse in, I'll lose my franchise," he explained.
"Well who sent it?" Mal asked as he and Zoe shifted the lid back in place to hide the disturbing discovery.
"I don't know, there's no return," Amnon answered.
"How long has it been here?" Zoe asked.
"Near a week, that's why I waved you," Amnon replied. "This can't stay here," he emphasised in a desperate whisper.
"He don't smell," Jayne noted.
"I know," Mal agreed. "Been decently preserved."
"Or he's playing possum," Clint suggested and stepped up with a knife.
"What do you think you're doing?" Zoe asked dangerously.
"Been dead over a week? He won't bleed," Clint answered, and shifted the lid back off again. He made a tiny cut on the back of the man's hand. Bright red blood blossomed there. Clint looked up at Amnon. "Well, you didn't move a corpse. He's warm even," he offered, then noticed that the faker was holding something. He pried it out and passed it up to Zoe before he pulled the lid back on top of the guy.
"How do ya fake bein' dead so well you can stash yerself in a coffin f'r a week and not die?" Jayne asked.
"Drugs," River answered simply. "Specific cocktail. Not difficult, or even expensive."
They listened as a recording left by the man explained that he'd fallen in with the wrong crowd, and he was asking for them to carry him to his family home to be buried there.
"So he's not dead, he's pretending to be, and we're the ones going to suffer for it when this wrong crowd he's fallen into comes lookin' for him," Mal said unhappily.
"He still can't stay here!" Amnon insisted.
"Yeah," Mal agreed. "You need your deniability to be able to stay in business. I get it. Zoe, let's get him to the ship. We'll deal with Tracey's 'wrong crowd' when they catch up with us," he decided.
"JARVIS, see what you can find on this guy?" Clint requested into his comm unit. He'd had to rebuild it after it got fried while he was being electrocuted by Niska, but he still never left the ship without it.
"Of course Sir," the AI agreed.
It took a few minutes to get back to the ship with the crate – and the man inside it – and by that time, JARVIS had found something.
"Well?" Mal enquired as he, Zoe, Wash, Jayne and Clint all trekked up towards the bridge. Didn't want to be having this particular conversation in the open cargo bay.
"Mr Tracey is smuggling organs," JARVIS explained. "For a Lieutenant Womack, a deeply unpleasant Alliance agent, and he wants them back. The original deal was to replace the smuggled organs with his own on Ariel, but there was a better offer, which was killed rather violently by Womack. The man has gone to rather incredible lengths to make sure his side-job, if it can be called that – has gone unnoticed by any federal officer not directly under him, and now..."
"He'll be happy to take back the parts and leave Tracey to rot for the double-cross," Mal finished unhappily. "Tracey never was too bright."
"What do we do?" Zoe asked.
"Well, we've got options," Mal mused. "We can take Tracey to his folks on Saint Alban's, hope we make it before this Womack guy catches up, or we can sit tight until he shows up lookin' for 'im."
"And then?" Wash pressed.
"Well, then we got more options. Hand over Tracey and hope Womack will let us go on our merry, or get into a gunfight with the law."
"Should I report that, at this very moment, Lieutenant Womack is threatening Mr Amnon?" JARVIS enquired.
"Guess he'll be here in a few minutes then," Mal said with a sigh. "Amnon's only going to be able to keep going if he sends them our way."
"You might want to put your cunning hat away where it won't likely get caught in the crossfire," Clint suggested to Jayne.
"Yeah," the man agreed.
"Arm up subtle like," Mal ordered as Jayne headed down to his bunk. "No need to be antagonistic from the get-go. After all, this man has gone to a great deal of trouble to make sure his extra-curricular organ-dealing has gone unnoticed until now."
"He's also eight sectors out of his jurisdiction," JARVIS offered.
"No one around here's gonna miss him then," Mal said with a smirk. "We're getting the idiot home."
Wormak and his two flunkies were welcomed aboard – and the cargo bay doors, and the airlock doors, closed behind them.
They were politely spaced not a full ten minutes later, and a course was plotted for Saint Alban's.
~oOo~
Clint had set up a small archery range in the cargo hold and was enjoying a bit of time with his favourite weapon. Just him, the bow, the arrow, the target... and River running around setting up more targets in odd places for him to shoot at from wherever he stood when he went to retrieve the arrow's he'd shot into the last target.
Well, that's what he was doing until Mal called everybody else down there too. Inara had a job for them. Or rather, her friend Nandi did.
It was going to be a bit of charity on their part since there wouldn't be much paying.
"Those who had a mind are welcome to join," Zoe explained for Mal – he'd apparently explained it all to her before everybody else got word of it. "Those who prefer to stay on the ship are welcome to do that too."
"Hmm," Jayne hummed, drawing everybody's attention. He even raised his hand, fingers twitching. "I don't see much benefit in gettin' involved in a stranger's business without an up-front price negotiated," he said.
"These people need assistance," Shepherd Book said softly. "The benefit wouldn't necessarily be for you."
"That's what I'm sayin'," Jayne replied.
"It's not like we're hurting for cash," Clint pointed out.
"This is more in line with delivering Tracey to his folks and spacin' some bent feds," Mal joined in.
"No one's going to force you to go, Jayne," Zoe added. "As has been stated, this job is strictly speculative."
"Good. Don't know these folks, don't much care to," Jayne said.
"They're whores," Mal offered frankly.
"I'm in," Jayne stated, abruptly changing his tune.
"So you won't be watching the ship then?" Clint asked with a smirk.
"Wash, plot a course," Mal instructed as he fought a smile of his own in amusement at Clint's jibe – and that was the signal to disperse.
"Does she get a gun for this venture?" River asked Clint when it was just them left, a hopeful smile on her face.
"If you want one, then of course you do," he answered her.
"From Hawkeye's collection?"
Clint chuckled. "Well, unless you have a collection of guns you're not telling anybody about, or you can persuade Jayne to share with you..." he answered with a smile.
River shook her head, and the two of them packed up the targets Clint had been shooting at then headed up to his bunk to pick which weapons River would get to use.
A couple of hours later and Wash announced that they were landing.
Clint saw the shiny building in the distance and promptly turned back into the cargo bay.
"Hey, where are you going?" Kaylee asked.
"To park us closer," Clint answered over his shoulder. "They've got a pregnant woman there right? If the situation gets bad, it might be an idea to have the slightly advanced medical room more than a click away."
"Oh... right..." both Kaylee and Wash said softly.
Wash hurried back up to the bridge after Clint to help with the hop.
"Might as well save the walkin' then," Mal said, and headed back up the ramp into the cargo bay. The rest of the crew followed him, and soon enough Serenity was set down with the cargo bay doors less than ten metres from the shiny building's back entrance.
"How come it looks like a frozen dinner pack?" Jayne asked as he stepped out of the cargo bay and looked up at the building.
"Solar sheeting," Kaylee answered. "Cheap power."
Jayne didn't get to say anything else as some of the women came out to greet them.
"Nandi, darling," Inara said as she walked straight up to one of the women who'd come out and hugged her tight.
"It's so good to see you again Mei-Mei," the woman Inara had called Nandi answered.
"You look wonderful," Inara complimented as they separated.
"And you look exactly as you did the day I left. How do you do that out here?"
"Sheer force of will," Mal answered her.
"Nandi, this is Malcolm Reynolds," Inara introduced.
"I appreciate your coming," Nandi said, and offered him her hand to shake.
"Well any friend of Inara's," Mal answered with a slight smile as he shook it. "This is my first mate, Zoe," he continued with a gesture to the woman in question. "I can introduce you to the rest later, they're good folk."
"Can I start gettin' sexed already?" Jayne asked as he walked up to and greeted another of the young women of the establishment.
"Well, that one's kinda horrific," Mal allowed quietly.
"Can we talk business?" Inara suggested.
"Through here," Nandi said with a gesture. "The rest of you, there's food and some liquor in the sideboard of the main room. Please make yourselves at home," she offered over Inara's shoulder, then turned to lead her friend, the captain, and Zoe through to one of the rooms.
"Look, they got boy whores," Kaylee noted softly to Clint as they went inside. "Wonder if they service girl-folk at all?"
"Won't know if you don't ask," Clint pointed out.
"Isn't there a pregnant woman I'm supposed to examine?" Simon asked nervously. He was still so Core.
"You'd really lie with someone being paid for it?" Wash asked Kaylee curiously.
"Well, it's not like anyone else is linin' up to, you know, examine me," she answered.
Clint sighed. "I am sorry about that Kaylee," he said. "I just..."
"It's okay," she assured him. "You explained. You're just not completely over the intimacy issues Loki loaded you down with. You made me feel special for a while anyway."
Clint smiled back.
Jayne disappeared up some stairs with the blonde he'd already taken a shine to.
"You'd be the doctor?" one young woman asked Simon as she led another young woman out – a young woman who was holding her very round middle.
"They can tell by looking at you," Clint informed Simon dryly.
"Yes," Simon agreed with the young woman – and ignored Clint. "This is Petaline?" he asked, looking across to the pregnant girl. He'd gotten some of the poignant details from Inara already.
"Yes Sir," she answered.
"She's feeling a bit weak right now," the first girl supplied.
"Let's get you lying down. We can do that in your room or in the medical bay on the ship..." Simon offered as he moved to offer physical support to Petaline.
Poor old Book was looking at what succour there was for the non-sexual appetites when a couple of the girls approached him, genuinely looking for some spiritual guidance.
"Everybody's got somebody," Kaylee lamented softly. "Someone tell me I'm pretty."
"If I were not married, I would take you in a manly fashion," Wash stated.
"'Cause I'm pretty?" Kaylee pressed.
"'Cause you're pretty," Wash agreed solemnly.
"Ditto, but supplementing 'still screwed over' for 'married'," Clint offered.
"Could approach one of the women here for assistance in getting past such issues," River pointed out.
Clint shrugged. Honestly, there was a fair-sized part of him that wondered if Loki wouldn't show up if he tried that. "Doesn't matter right now," he said instead of voicing that set of concerns. "We have a house to make ready for a fight."
"Not even waitin' on word from the captain?" Kaylee asked, surprised.
"Options are take everybody onto Serenity and run for it or stay and fight it out," River stated. "Not likely to surrender pride by running at this stage."
"Right," Kaylee agreed.
Clint waved over the two young men who were reclining on the couch not ten feet from them. "We are going to need planks of wood, big rocks, and what have you got for water out here?"
"There's an underground well..." one of the two answered, slightly confused. "Pump is old but it works."
"I'll see what I can do about making it something we can use in case the bad guy tries to set the place on fire," Kaylee said firmly. "Just lemme get my tools from Serenity, and then you can show me where."
"Why do you need wood and stone?" the other young man asked as his friend went with Kaylee.
"Cover," Clint answered shortly. "Anything that will slow a bullet down will help stop it from going right through you. Dohn-ma?"
The young man swallowed, nodded, and the construction of the fortifications began. Around them, the other residents caught on to what was starting, and got in on the act as well.
"I didn't expect so few members of the crew to be taking payment in our trade," Nandi commented to Clint as she held up a plank for him to nail in place.
"Well, we've got a married couple who probably aren't interested in including a third in their fun, a Shepherd took vows of chastity," Clint started, "a doc who desperately needs to unwind but seems completely unable to without there being large amounts of liquor involved, and of course he's busy helping a very pregnant young woman right now."
Nandi smiled. "We're grateful for that too," she said.
Clint smiled tightly back. "Captain is hung up on Inara," he continued, "but is too much of a man and too well-diverted by Inara always going on about how any relationship they have is strictly business to have noticed that she's hung right back..."
"Really?" Nandi asked curiously, an intrigued smile on her face.
Clint nodded. "Of course, she doesn't let that stop her from working, or from enjoying her work I dare say," he added. "Which helps with putting Mal off that she's at all romantically interested in him. My Mei-Mei Jean... well, let's just say she and I have both had some unpleasant experiences in our lives that make us a little more tentative about intimacy, especially with strangers."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Nandi commiserated gently.
"I think Jeanie is more interested in watching the baby being born anyway," Clint offered with a crooked smile. "Which leaves Jayne, who is very enthusiastic, and Kaylee, who's lonely but currently focused on the jobs that need to be done and not even sure if the young men you've got here service women."
Nandi smiled. "We don't really get female customers," she hedged. "But, saying yes or no is up to them, and I don't really see 'em turning the pretty mechanic down."
Clint lifted a hand to his comm unit. "You copy that Kaylee?" he asked.
"I copy," Kaylee answered happily. "Gonna have to wait until after though. Lot of work to do between now and everythin' bein' over."
"Those are nifty little things," Nandi commented with surprise.
Clint smirked back and grabbed a new plank to nail in place.
"Petaline will need a guard," River informed Clint as she came down the hall towards them. "Risk of paternal contribution to the child attempting a kidnapping is high. Should also have a better hiding spot to deliver the baby."
"You volunteering Mei-Mei?" Clint asked her.
"Wishes to see the child born," River answered with a shrug. "Will not be main fighting area, but will still be important. She will protect," she finished with resolve.
Clint smiled at her and reached out.
River stepped easily into his embrace.
Clint kissed her forehead. "No power in the 'verse can stop you," he said fondly.
River smiled up at him, hugged him quickly, then skipped off.
"That looked like intimacy to me," Nandi noted.
"She's my Mei-Mei," Clint answered. "You won't really catch me doing that with anybody else. I mean, Kaylee and I tried for a little while, but..." Clint half-explained, then eye-balled the beautiful woman with her painted red lips and artfully curled hair. "Do you want me in your bed?" he asked, a little incredulously.
Nandi lifted an eyebrow. "Even a woman has needs," she pointed out.
"I understand that," Clint answered with a shake of his head as he turned back to his work. "I guess I'm just wondering why me," he said.
"Like you said, one of the men is married, the captain is hung up on Inara, the doctor is busy, the Shepherd has taken vows that don't let him indulge, and the only other male member of your crew is enjoying company with all the other girls. I might have tried seducing the captain, but if Inara is as hung up on him as he is on her, then... No. I couldn't knowingly do that to my Mei-Mei," Nandi explained.
Clint raised an eyebrow at her. "Touching," he said. "But might I suggest you leave your womanly needs until after we've survived the imminent altercation?"
Nandi nodded in acceptance.
The house was pretty well fortified when Mal returned from meeting the bastard who was determined that Petaline's baby was his, and therefore his property.
"Well, I was going to suggest that we pack everybody up onto Serenity and run for it," Mal said when he saw the changes that had been made to the landscape. "Man like Burgess, you can turn him away once, but he'll keep comin', and won't stop until he gets what he thinks is his. Besides which the math don't add up. We ain't got nearly the fire power he does. Like Nandi said, he keeps his money so he can have all the best toys for playin' cowboy with."
"It took me years to cut this bit of territory out of other men's hands and build this business up from nothing," Nandi informed Mal firmly. "This is my home, my life, and who I am. I was never going to run. Rance Burgess is just a man, and I won't let any man take what's mine," she said fiercely. "I appreciate that you wouldn't have completely cut your losses with us though, just left us completely on the drift," she added.
Mal nodded. "Well, that's my kinda stupid," he decided. "And I see you folks have been makin' ready for the only other available course of action that don't involve back-stab-er-y."
"We had help," Nandi said with a fond smile in Clint's direction.
"Hawkeye?" Mal asked.
Clint waved off the attention as much as he could. "I was hardly the only one with a hammer in my hand today," he said.
"Can't think that Burgess would be expectin' much of a fight anyhow," Jayne offered. "Hell, we may even be able to catch him with his drawers low."
"Only women wear drawers, Jayne," Clint said. "Men wear shorts."
"Whatever."
"He'll probably ride in by daylight," Zoe said as she pulled out her mare's leg and checked it. "But I figure... three point watch, four hour shift," she suggested, and smiled at her captain. "Just to be on the safe side."
"Three point, four hour," Wash agreed. "Should do it."
"And we can keep working on the fortifications in that time," Book added with a smile. He'd been helping out with the hammering that day as well.
"We start shootin', he's like to try and burn us out, save his men some sweat and bullets," Mal said.
"Already had a look at the water supply Captain," Kaylee said. "Got it all rigged to go if we're needful of it."
"Good," Mal approved with a nod. "Well -"
"It's starting," River announced with a grin. She grabbed Simon and skipped out of the room.
"Wha-? Oh! It's starting!" Mal yelped, panicked by the very thought. "Where is the girl anyway?"
"Safe," Clint answered, deliberately vaguely. "Jean's her security detail, her little genius mind figured out someone must have been telling Burgess about Petaline's condition and doesn't want anyone but herself, the doc, Nandi and Inara knowing where she's been put."
"There's a mole in this buildin' somewhere?" Jayne asked, incredulous.
Clint nodded gravely. "Thirty pieces of silver is a lot of money to some people," he pointed out.
"We know how much they're bein' paid?" Mal questioned.
Clint shook his head.
"A biblical reference," Book supplied, surprise in his voice. "I didn't know you -"
"Learned to read from it," Clint cut him off. "I'll take first watch," he offered, and stood up, not letting anybody ask him anything further.
Zoe may have recommended a three point watch, but Clint still took the highest ground he could with the best view of the entire surrounding area - and he took his bow and arrows up with him. It wasn't fifteen minutes after he took his watch that he spotted a figure scurrying across the landscape through the shadows towards the building.
He knocked an arrow and let fly. The arrow dropped the figure when they tried to take another step and found they couldn't due to a shaft through the foot pinning them in place.
"I do believe I've found our mole," Clint reported into his comm unit. "Jean, you'll be needed for this interrogation I think. Might want Nandi as well. How's the mother?"
"Not yet dilated enough," River answered. "Doctor Mallard says it will be a long night. Will fetch Nandi and the wounded canary."
"Copy," Clint answered, and waited, still watching the entire surrounds even as he kept half an eye on the person he'd downed until River and Nandi appeared and took the person inside. When his four hours were up, he headed down into Serenity and collected the arrow he'd fired from where River had left it – cleaned – on his side table. Put it back in his quiver, then lay out his weapons for easy re-arming in the morning.
The next day, Clint had the roof for the confrontation that it had been confirmed was coming. It was the highest point available without riding on top of Serenity while she flew over to provide some distraction to the invading force. Kaylee and Wash were aboard already and prepping for take off.
"We got imminent violence!" Clint announced into his comm unit. "Thirty men mounted and armed, as well as a very big gun on the back of that hover craft."
"That gun is going to be our first hurdle," Mal's voice came through the comm.
"How about I jump it early then?" Clint suggested, and picked up his sniper rifle. That distance, there was no way he'd be getting the arrow back in any sort of shape for using again. A bullet would do.
"If you can make it, then take it," Mal advised.
"And I will be damned impressed if you can," Jayne added.
"Hawkeye never misses," River reminded them all. She hadn't been seen since she'd disappeared with the doc last night, but she was wearing her comm.
Clint smirked, brought the rifle up, sighted, fired.
"I am damned impressed," Jayne announced when the man standing at the gun fell from his post with a hole neatly in the centre of his forehead.
The horsemen all reared back a moment in shock. They clearly hadn't expected to be fired upon at all, especially not when they were still that far out.
"Okay folks, we got no shortage of ugly riding down on us, but that don't change the plan," Mal announced to all the women around him holding guns. And the comm link. His comm unit also picked up what Nandi, who was with him, had to say on the matter.
"Anybody here goes down, you drag 'em to the back and get back to shootin'," the woman said firmly. "Only way to help them is to finish this."
"Wash," Mal called, "we're gonna be properly trading bullets in under two minutes. You clear for take off?"
"Confirmed," Wash answered. "Hawkeye, you might want to duck. We're about to come right over you."
"They're in range of the long barrels," Clint announced. "And consider me part of the roof."
Serenity lifted off the ground.
"Open fire!" Mal ordered as she flew out over the enemy, engines at high burn as Wash kept her low and slow, causing more trouble for the horsemen and even some for the hovercraft.
Carefully picked shot after carefully picked shot, Clint took his targets down systematically. Other shots fired from the lower levels saw more guys falling.
"Jayne? Hawkeye? I lost visual on Burgess!" Mal yelled frantically.
"Same here," Jayne answered.
"Gone around the back," Clint supplied. "Little mole must have found out where Petaline was being hid, and ratted before she was taken down."
"What's the status back there?" Mal asked. Defending that baby was why they were all even on this planet.
"Shiny," River's voice answered.
"Do I detect dark satisfaction in your voice Mei-Mei?" Clint asked.
"Burgess does not seem to appreciate that even a ninety-pound little girl can exert two-hundred pounds of force where it hurts and has no qualms about pointing a gun at his head," River answered.
"Nothing like ballet to teach a girl to kick," Clint said with a chuckle, and shot another man.
"Seems to be the last of 'em," Mal announced a few minutes later.
"JARVIS," Clint said into his comm as he packed up. "Would you please see to the redistribution of Burgess' funds? Leave some for his wife to live on, but split the rest between Serenity's account and Nandi's."
"Certainly Sir," JARVIS agreed.
"Kid got a name?" Mal asked over the comms.
"Petaline has chosen to call her son Jonah," River reported. "Child is healthy and presently feeding."
"Sounds like a plan for all of us," Zoe suggested. "It's been a while since breakfast by now."
"Gotta make sure none of Nandi's people got hurt too bad first," Mal said firmly. "There was some return fire in there after all. Doc, get your supplies together. Hawkeye, you too. Got more'n a few bullet-holes in folk I wager."
There were a few people with holes in them. Extremely painful holes, but nothing life-threatening, thankfully. Simon had to suffer through his patients flirting with him once they were stitched up though. Clint, by dint of not being one to administer any sort of pain medication beyond a glass of something alcoholic, was not so readily flirted with.
Nandi still approached him when his jobs were done.
"Your little sister is quite something," she said as she slid down to sit next to him. "Way Petaline tells it, Jean went from congratulating her on a boy to kicking Burgess into a new octave without even blinking. Terrified the doc when she pulled a gun on the man too. I think even Inara was surprised."
"Well, Mallard's a Buhn Dahn who gets Jean confused with a helpless little girl," Clint told her. "I grant it's the first time Jean's held a gun with purpose, but it sure as Ai Yah Tien Ah isn't the first time she'd ever held a gun."
He'd made sure of that. After all, if River was willing to clean his sword and set up targets for him to shoot arrows at, then she was damned well going to know her way around the more standard weaponry. Her sessions just happened at a different time to Simon's.
"As for Inara's reaction... Well, most of the time she spends with Jean they're in the kitchen watching me cook, or braiding each other's hair," Clint added with a chuckle.
Nandi contemplated that for a little while, then apparently decided to discard the matter in favour of something else. "So..." she said with the beginnings of a seductive smile on her very red-painted lips. "The battle is over now, we've won. Think you can help a girl see about satisfying her needs?" she asked.
Clint blinked at her. Now, here was an attractive woman, a whore granted, ready and willing for some service – and here was him, a healthy male who hadn't been a virgin before Loki had raped him, but who was a paranoid bastard in general and hadn't had intimate relations with even so much as his own hand since. Trauma was a terrible thing for a person's libido.
On the other hand...
Clint heaved a sigh and turned to face the wall across from where he sat. "I suppose I have to get past the trauma some time," he said. Then he looked back at Nandi. "I hope you'll excuse me if I keep a loaded gun on hand though."
"Just as long as you don't shoot me with it," Nandi agreed with a smile as she stood up and, with a sultry smile, started to sashay towards the door – where she paused and threw Clint a 'come hither' look over her shoulders.
Clint pushed himself up from where he'd been sitting, and followed the woman through to her rooms.