A/N:No, I dont own Firefly/Serenity of Gunslinger Girl
Yes, it took a while again, but hey, I heit my deadline of before the month ends at least!
And finally a big BIG thank you to my reviewers from the last chapter:
JackMatrix: Dont worry, you'll get plenty of crossover in this part of the story... and yea, I do need to do that too eventually, heh. Why must you give me more distracting ideas lol?
Word Adict 620: glad to know your enjoying, and here it is, haha
VizeerLord: Why thank you sir, and here you go.
Not to sound beggy, but those are what keep me the most motivated to keep working towards an update,. every single one I get makes me wanna run to my computer and get typing. All 26 of you following, and 21 who favorited me are awesome, thanks guys!
"I'm not made of porcelain Triela" Hillshire gripes to his cyborg daughter as she forcibly helps him down the hallway "Where are we going anyways? Doc said I still need to rest."
Triela huffs, easily defeats his feeble attempt to stand on his own and replies "Common room for dinner."
"I can eat in the infirmary." Hillshire replies plainly as the pair hobbles along at the wounded mans pace.
The twintailed girl shifts her gaze to look at Victor and replies "Too much time in the same room will drive anyone crazy. This is for your own good."
Vic suppresses the urge to roll his eyes, more for fear of Trielas ire than any urge to maintain his usual demeanor and replies "I'm not hungry, and Simon said I cant eat anything heavy for a week yet."
Triela again rebuffs the wounded, and now slightly shaking mans attempt to turn back to the infirmary as she replies "An IV drip of nutrient slurry has been keeping you alive for weeks now, I dont like being lied to." the cyborg pauses, turns her head again to lock eyes with her mule-headed stick in the mud of a father and adds "And I made soup." before pulling him through the threshold to the common room where Rico is happily and rapidly spooning soup from the bowl before her into her mouth next to Henrietta, who is pensively eying her smaller, less filled bowl. Mal is nervously glancing back and forth between the book sitting next to the big soup kettle, the one that can feed the whole crew, and a book labeled '1001 ways to cook spam', propped open to a specific page next to the kettle; bowl and spoon loosely dangling in his left hand.
"You... cooked?" Hillshire asks, his train of thought totally derailed.
Treila nods, a satisfied grin splitting her face "Enough for everyone." Henrieta moves a small spoonful to her mouth, smiles as she swallows and swiftly matches her sisters ravenous pace. Mal takes a step away from the kettle nervously "Cheesy bacon and broccoli soup!" she proudly announces, gesturing towards the kettle with her free hand.
Rico tilts her head as she look up from her bowl "Shouldn't it be 'fake-cheesy dehydrated-broccoli bacon-substitute soup' Triela?" Mal backs away from the soup and begins fixing himself a sandwich.
Victor deflates as he lets Triela deposit him in a chair before going to fix two bowls of 'soup' "On the mend then Vic?" the captain asks as he sits down in the chair next to the recovering handler turned mercenary, leaving the seat between the black haired man and the other two cyborgs open.
"Doc... Doctor Tam says at least two more weeks of light duty." victor corrects himself as Triela sits on his other side with a pair of bowls, and slides one to Hillshire.
Mal nods as he chews on his 'safe' meal, and replies "On the good painkillers?"
Victor shakes his head, swallows a spoonful of soup, suppresses a grimace and replies "Simon says my liver may be in slight shock, so no, I'm level headed and hurting."
"Gorram good pity." Mal answers as Triela happily tears into her soup at the same speed as the other cyborgs "Mind if I bounce an idea off ya then?" Hillshire shrugs, so Mal continues "Got a job offer. Rescue some bounty hunters locked-up on a lie of a power play by a wanna-be Border World Baron."
Victor nods, swallows another bite, face shifting away from the grimace a bit, and asks "Who's the lead?"
"Old friend, Londinium Police Detective that left the force on account of the corruption." Mal answers.
"You trust him?" Hillshire asks.
Mal shrugs "Like the brother I never had."
Triela swallows her bite and asks "Wheres the job at?"
Mal sets his sandwich down to take a drink and wipe his face as Inara glides into the room and fills a bowl of soup "Bout two weeks out. On a train."
Victor nods at Inara in lieu of a spoken of greeting, before turning back to Mal "Have you worked a train job before?"
The captain casts a sidelong glance at Inara as Rico and Henrietta polish off their bowls and rise to leave before answering "Once."
"Was it a success?" Rico asks as she dumps her bowl in the sink.
Inara smirks as she starts eating "Mosttly."
Mal rolls his eyes "Oh, like you'd'a let us finish a job like that once you knew the specifics."
"I saved your sorry rear end, didnt I?" Inara quips after swallowing her soup.
"If you know how to run a train job, why ask me for feedback?" Victor asks a bit groggily.
Mal shrugs "I ran a heist, this is a tactical takeover to stage a mass break-out."
Triela looks over to the captain from above a steaming spoonful of soup "Weren't you a Browncoat sergeant?"
"Rifleman brigade Tri, you two're the covert ops experts." Mal replies after Rico and Henrietta leave the room.
Victor falls into a fit of coughs, before he very hoarsely replies "And Jayne? Isn't he the military expert?"
Mal suppresses a snort and answers "Applied explosives expert and marksman. Not a tactical mind by any stretch. This's the sort of job you've probably done more times than I care to ask."
Hillshire shrugs "We did detective work if you wanna split hairs, but I'll bite anyways. I take it you plan to bring the others in a bit later?"
"Others?"
"Sandro and Jayne. I'm just one crewman after all." Hillshire answers before taking another bite.
"Actually, none of us ever had a mission on a train." Triela inserts pensively.
Victor glances over at the blond "The location is secondary since Mal has worked on one before, we have the know-how for the mission profile." The girls response is to frown and nod, allowing Victor to turn back to the captain to ask "what is the basic plan."
Mal nods at Kaylee and Simon as they walk in to get their dinners, and answers "Zipcord and cut our way into the cell cars 'bout midway, work to the lead cars to separate the cell cars before the last security checkpoint before the train gets to the prison."
"Assets?" the former handler asks.
"One inside woman, skilled combatant and damn lucky to boot." Mal answers.
Victor pinches the bridge of his nose "Where will she be posted?"
Mal shrugs nonchalantly "Dont rightly know, hope they can tell me if'n we take the job."
"How many cars do we have to work through?" Victor presses, before cutting Mal's reply off to press on with "Do we have a layout of the train?"
The captain works his mouth before answering " Standard 'Liance layout, so it depends on where we drop, and yes... after we dig a bit."
Inara forces a solitary laugh and interjects "More than he had for the last train job."
Mal wheels about to glare at the woman "Hey, that aint the truth and you know it 'Nara." before angrily taking a bite of his rye cold-cut and adding "Was a gorram good plan if I do say so myself. Probably workable as a base for this job with some effort."
Victor lets a coughing snort that was probably supposed to be a laugh escape his mouth, before asking in his still incredibly raspy voice "Payout?"
"Good'nuff to balance out Badgers take on this last job according to Black." Mal answers nonchalantly.
Victor swallows another bite of soup as Jayne enters the room, spots the kettle, grins and fills his own bowl. The german then replies slightly more audibly "May as well take it, since your asking."
"And we need to talk about what exactly Badger gets for the set-up we just worked." Triela interjects.
Mal turns to look at Treila "How so?" his voice teetering on the edge of insult.
"Well, lets see, enough other crews showed to make it clear the job wasnt 'xactly a secret. Enough petty thiefs and thugs to make it clear that it wasnt as clean a job as that hun dan made it too be; and finally, enough professional mercenary ships to make it clear it was far out of what he thinks our league is." Jayne bites out "Half-a-dozen other men in Eavesdown coulda gave us that lead. Aint no reason that she-tou should get a penny of whats ours now."
Triela balks a bit before replying "I... agree with Jayne." sounding a bit shocked. Mal looks over to Victor, who simply nods.
"Gave my word." Mal replies plainly, that single sentence carrying immense weight.
Inara shakes her head a bit sadly "To the last man it should ever be given to. You of all people should know that Malcolm.
Mal glances between the crewmembers currently surrounding him, before shooting back "Aint the subject we're on right now."
Vic points at Mal with his empty spoon and retorts "I thought we had resolved the initial issue. Badger is the new one."
Mal sags a bit as he swallows his last bite before answering "Meet with Jet on New Canaan in five days then. Jobs on Stonewall just a few days off. We'll be takin' Jets people with us to Whitefall where Jet'll pay us for the hunters want their crew back."
****Broken****
Jayne, for his part, is glad that the mens room at the bar he is currently trying to relax in is empty. After all, the last time he had been in a situation like this, some stranger had commented "damn fine daughter your raisin" as Serenitys 'public relations' officer had been trying to take a piss in-between games of pool. That had been back on Persephone, and, much like right now, there had been time to burn before anything important happened. To make matters worse, this time Jayne wasn't even going to be needed later today. Mal had chose Sandro to accompany him to meet with Jet, and assigned Petra, River and Triela to act as hidden security. Vic was on bedrest, 'Nara off working her own job, 'Etta running sims in the cockpit, Simon and Kaylee off on a date. So, Rico had once again attached herself to Jayne on his journey to the bars.
Which lead back to the mercenaries current conundrum. His pity-fueled attempt to console a sad kid had spiraled massively out of control. Jayne Cobb saw himself as many things, family man in the sense of 'wife and or kids' as a possessive was not one of them. Thats why he preferred whores and one-night-stands to anything steady. That is one of the myriad reasons he hadnt waved home beyond wiring cash for years, as that was a bone of contention Ma would rail on him for countless hours. And now... gorramit Rico had probably won the game of doubles they were in a few minutes ago, he needed to get back out there.
And that was just it, when she was around his mindset shifted, and he wasnt sure what to make of it. It had seemed almost, normal, when Rico announced she was going with him. He hadn't felt all that mad when the captain again ordered 'no titty-bars' with a half-smirk after hearing the kids announcement. He hadnt questioned her turning a 'can I?' into an 'I'm gonna.'
Jayne Cobb is a confused man as he leaves the bathroom. Seconds later he catches a pool cue that had been lobbed his way, barely looking up to catch it. He silently pulls the wad of cash that had been rubber banded to it off its base, counts and pockets it. He tosses the source of his confusion an approving smirk, before letting it shift to a smug one as he pulls his cigar from the ashtray he had left it on and sizes up the target rich environment of a table Rico had left him after breaking the new game they were now in, despite the opposing pairs best efforts after the cyborg currently sporting an ear-splitting grin's best efforts to claim solids on her first shot.
"Good job Tiny." the merc quips before claiming 'solids' as their color and proceeding to sink half of them. And that was the gorram problem, the random strangers quip from a few weeks back hadn't troubled his mind in the way he had expected, nor in any disagreeable manner.
Rico walks over to the patch of wall Jayne had selected as he watches their opponents bicker, point and try to plan their shots. She leans against the wall, directly in the line of his cigars smoke, and crosses her arms under where an early bloomers boobs would be, one hand holding a tumbler with a few ice cubes and filled with an amber liquid, the other holds the bottle of Cola she had filled it with. 'Aw hell, she's copyin me again' Jayne mentally quips before taking a swig from his glass "Tryin ta look older than ya do?"
Rico shakes her head and smirks before replying "Better this way." as she takes a drink. The other team fails on their third shot and Rico scoffs in derision. The barely-teenage marksman proceeds to take four balls out of the equasion in as many shots, blatantly missing on purpose on her last shot. She stalks back to the spot Jayne was waiting at and asks "why hasnt anyone else put down for next round yet?"
Jayne shakes his head sadly "Cuz you dont understand how ta shark Tiny. Yer supposed to look like a handicap bringin' down th'giant normally not let into proper monied games 'round here." he pauses and takes a drink "Not many're stupid enough ta go up against two as good as us at once." Before proceeding to take a few more balls out, and block their opponents shots cleanly in three shots.
Rico heaves a sigh "But its boring to keep missing. And setting up the other team for easy shots is..." she trails off, at a loss for the words needed to complete her train of thought. A moment later she simply bellies up to the table and drains a few more balls, leaving only the 8-ball for the dou to put into a pocket.
Jayne chuckles "Iffin ya wanna cut loose we can just go splits on a table fer the common room."
"Wont fit in the common room an you know it." the girl shoots back.
"Then we'll put it in the cargo bay."
Rico tilts her head to the side in thought before answering "Bad idea, that"
"Says who?"
"Says me, takes up space."
"Whys that matter?"
"Means less space fer cargo. That means less pay."
"So?"
"Part've crews job is to help turn profit."
"Who says yer crew?"
"I do."
"Talk to Mal?"
Rico opens her mouth to reply, shuts it, pouts for a bit, then opens it again only to be cut off by "One'a you wanna finish this farce off so I can get a new drink?" one of the men from the other team cuts in angrily. Jayne grabs his cue, and swiftly does the other team in. Of course, no one is dumb enough to take to the table to challenge the duo.
"Now what?" Rico asks, already calmed down.
Jayne shrugs "Dunno. Try darts maybe?"
The girl pouts again "That will be better?"
"Ehh, probably not." Jayne replies before taking one last long drag from his cigar and plunging it into the ashtray he had claimed along with the pool table.
After a few moments of silence, Rico sets her soda down, walks over to the pool table, plants a hand on a rail and vaults up onto it. After the stray balls cease bouncing around, she shouts out "YOU MEAN THAT NOT A SINGLE ONE OF YOU CAN BEAT A LITTLE GIRL AT POOL?" before throwing her entire half of their take from the day so far down on the table.
Jaynes mind strains as it shoots in three ways aw hell being the first thought, followed immediately by never shoulda taught her pool and finally iffin any of them swing at her when they lose... all three thoughts stretching out in his head to take up the same amount of time. As nearly half the bar rises to her challenge.
****Broken****
To any passerby, they are just three friends out to coffee. Trielas handgun is in the inside pocket of her trenchcoat, which looks more like a hand-me-down than a well used custom garment when contrasted with her fitted t-shirt and jeans. Petras is inside her khaki jacket, which is hanging off the back of her chair. Rivers freshly acquired micro-smg is strapped to her inner thigh, her dresses slit allowing just enough range of motion for her to reach it. Despite the redheads plain blouse/pleated skirt combo giving her the look of the oldest of the trio being true; and the fact that the more conservative garb clearly spoke to a stable, long-term relationship they are not two younger girls asking their more experienced friend for advice on their love lives.
The coffee shop is one directed at the cities college freshmen, high school seniors and drop-out new hires though, so thats what most people passing the trios patio table see. Of course, all three can inconspicuously watch Mal, Sandro and Jet's negotiations as their conversation carries their gazes from side to side. Their triangular seating arrangement lets them observe pedestrian and vehicular traffic from all directions. That and the coffee is good. River had vouched for that. And, maybe the two younger girls, despite their awkwardness did have a desire to be at least somewhere approaching the redheads relationship status. Maybe.
River takes a sip from her latte "Not going to go that well though. I'm crazy and plain."
"No, your not..." Petra heaves a sigh, wondering how the conversation had moved to this point, and frankly, shes at a loss, what she has had literally fallen into her lap "A supermodel, and thats a good thing. Means decent guys wont get scared off cuz your out of their leage. Means you wont have ta deal with the sort of dirtbag that figures he can make a move on a supermodel." she points out a couple about their age walking down the street. Triela's gaze sweeps past the duo... still business as usual at the restaurant across the street. "You look way better than her Riv."
Triela smirks a bit before slipping in "So she wont get any womanizers like Sandro your saying?"
The redhead whips her head around to focus on Triela as she bites back with "He hasnt so much as looked at another girl for a reason not mission related since we started dating."
River starts to laugh as Triela, still sporting her impish grin and leaning back in her chair answers "Because your the first girlfriend he's had who can literaly turn his bones to dust if he so much as thinks about cheating on you."
Petra opens her mouth to reply in kind, but realizes she has no real response and shuts it. River starts to pout again, before moving back to the original topic by observing "But she isnt feng-le like me. I can read it"
Triela shuts her eyes and massages them, before asking "Doesnt that put her ahead though? knowing whats going through boys heads?"
Petra resists the urge to smash her head into the table at the sheltered girls remark. That would leave a dent, which would cause people to start asking questions "Boys are easy to understand. They want in your pants. They want to have fun. They want to eat. They want to be the strong one and the one in charge." she pauses, and smirks a bit before adding "Though being able to read minds will make you an absolute goddess in bed probably" setting both girls to blushing for the stupidity of their line of questioning.
"Dont see how that helps me then, I'll always be stronger." Triela quips offhandedly after she begins to recover.
River looks over to the blond "Strength isnt always muscle though."
Petra cracks a grin, and leans back 'to stretch' allowing her to make her own security check of the diner "What she said."
Triela blows a stray strand of hair out of her eyes as she shoots out "That was a cop-out if I've ever heard one" before taking a sip from her plain black coffee.
"So?" Petra answers as Triela spins her napkin before setting her cup down; still all clear. "I literally woke up to Sandro... if I did date before I became a cyborg I cant remember it." she huffs out as she leans forward onto her left elbow, flailing her right arm wildly as her dead drops into her left hand "Can talk all day on holding it together, but actually finding a boy?"
River shrugs and looks over to her tanned companion "Still knows more about love than us, right?"
Triela shakes her head "Asks the reader who's spent years around a Companion, and now her very happily involved brother."
The readers face shifts from a look of sympathetic camaraderie to her patented 'your such a boob' face as she swallows her drink, before she answers "Inara and Mal know more about how to not have a relationship alone than both of us combined. Your using the wrong definition of love if you mean just Inara." she pauses to take another sip, before finishing "And gege is gege. I dont want to know." Triela opens her mouth to retort, but River cuts her off with "Would you want to know Hillshires thoughts on his love life?"
Triela makes a sound akin to a cat being strangled by spaghetti noodles and flushes. "Speaking of Hillshire, hows he doing?" Petra asks as the noise quiets.
The tan girls first reaction is to point out that Petra is changing the subject, but decides to let it slide "Stubborn. Doesnt want help with what he needs his help with. And now that we figured out why our relationship has always been so... hard to describe he's gotten all..."
"Protective?" River offers, now sporting an impish grin before taking a long drink of her moccachino as Trielas face again lights up. "Like a father would be of his 15 year old daughter?"
Triela opens her mouth, but Petra cuts her off, swirling her cafe latte as she interjects "At least Sandro and I would have been in the winning half of the pool if the rest of the Agency were with us."
When Petra takes a drink, River arches an eyebrow, and glances to the side, still all clear across the street "Wouldnt all fit."
Triela however, seems to have temporarily forgotten as she leans across the table to glare at the redhead "How many?" she demands.
Totally unfazed, Petra quips "Oh, all the fratello that were dating or fucking were in on it." before taking another drink.
"How much?" the blond pushes tensely.
Petra opens her mouth to quip back, but Rivers announcement of "Finishing the deal." snaps the two girls back to the job at hand.
Triela heaves a sigh "So now I dont even get to finish my coffee?"
"Its plain black, whats the big deal?" Petra counters, not moving to get up as Mal, Sandro and Jet amble away from their table.
River shoots Petra a funny look before answering "Its a good blend, and their going to a bar, our job is done."
Petra shakes her head in mock sadness as she answers "Still stakeout coffee. They have so many better options here."
Triela takes a big drink of her coffee and leans back in her chair contentedly "Nothin wrong with stakeout food."
Petra lets a very unladylike snort escape her nose before quipping "And you act mad that I had you pegged for ending up callin Vic 'papa' or something like that." she pauses to sip from her drink as River starts to giggle "Only the two of you could actually like that gou-shi."
Rivers giggles escalate to full blown laughter as Trielas face shifts to a tricksters grin as she leans forward to reply "So, you didnt enjoy those long nights stuck in a car with your dear Sandro?"
Part of Petra's mind wants to blush, stutter and be offended at being caught out. But its a small part. Most of her brain is occupied with tuning out Rivers now raucous laughter, gorram readers, as she leans forward to shoot back "Ta ma de, you mentioned sex without blushing or goin all awkward. Thats gotta be a first." This observation is enough to break the younger girls snide demeanor, any reply she had devolves to stuttering as, once again, the baby of the groups face lights up red in embarrassment.
****Broken****
Henriettas face is drawn tight into a mask of concentration, sweat beading on her forehead. Her legs are twitching with nervous energy, her hands rock steady despite the trembling in her arms. She is running the Miranda sim, pulled straight from Serenitys data banks, for the first time. The viewport acting as a giant screen, the telemetry gathered from the flight becoming a perfect simulation as she attempts the landing that killed the last pilot. After almost a minute, a stray railgun round penetrates the ships engine, then a swarm of missiles obliterate it. The viewport flashes back, then returns to transparent, showing the plain docking bay the ship is set down in. "Pushing yourself a bit hard, aren't you?" Inara asks from the spot against the bulkhead she had watched the whole run from.
The drained girl tilts her head back just enough to look at the reader "No, if I'm going to be the pilot I need to be the best possible."
Inara scoffs "So you work yourself ragged running sims?"
"What else was I going to do? Everyone but me had somewhere to be." Henrietta offers as a half-hearted defense.
Inara walks over to sit in the copilots chair "So you dont have any hobbies? Nothing you could do to spend a few hours while you wait for someone to get back?" a dust caked violin case, not touched since she unpacked her things comes to mind and keeps the cyborg silent. After a few minutes, Inara presses "What is it then, Henrietta?"
The girl sighs, pulls her legs to her chest and answers "I... I play the violin."
Inara heaves a sigh "So,. You have a perfectly good relaxing, uplifting way to pass the time, and you do something that will keep you from finding a bit of happiness?"
"But I-"
Inara cuts the cyborg off by pulling up the list of simulations run, almost all of them well outside her current skill level. "Like I said, you do what will keep you sad, or from escaping the toxic mindset the SWA kept you poor girls in."
The cyborg bristles, snaps her head to face the companion "I take it your job went badly?"
Inara glares back at the now out of line girl "It was a non-intimate job. More like spending an afternoon with a widower grandfather, and rather enjoyable. I just think you are being unnecessarily hard on yourself and bullheaded about not letting your life move on." she pauses to take a breath, school her demeanor from one of frustration back into a calm mask before asking "So, if you could play something upbeat for me, to keep the good mood going, it would be nice. I always did like the violin more than the fiddle."
The cyborg blushes, pouts, then retorts "Its the same instrument."
Inara shrugs as both girls calm features slowly become accurate reflections of their mood again "And you will end up playing the fiddle more than the violin if you take crew requests, trust me."
The brunette bristles at the thought of her Amati being abused like a fiddle. Silence reigns as the girl works to control her emotions, before replying "I haven't even touched it since I woke up, I may not be that good."
Inara shrugs "That's alright, I'm sure your quite skilled, if what I've seen from you girls since you woke up is any indicator." The cyborg relents, letting her head drop for a minute before she stands up and makes her way to her room to collect her violin case and make her way to the common room, where Inara is already sitting, a book resting on the table next to her. Henrietta starts by playing a few notes, pouting and setting about tuning her violin. It takes a while, and Inara reads while the girl tunes by ear.
The brunette starts off with a slow song, clearly classical Earth That Was to Inaras trained ear, though she can place neither song or composer. It is a slow song, with an uplifting feel once it gets to the later portion. When Henrietta finishes the song, Inara opens her mouth to compliment the girl, but she almost immediately launches into another song. The reader takes offense at first, but the girls content expression and closed eyes keep her from saying anything.
After a few songs the younger girl sits down as she continues to play, and the songs begin to stray from the vague 'something upbeat' Inara had requested to whatever the girl feels like playing. A while after that, it becomes obvious to Inara that Henrietta is simply stringing notes together, playing from the heart. Mal is the first crewman to enter the common room, he pauses, listening to the music, before selecting the seat next to Inara and quipping "I really could get used to this."
Henrietta blushes a bit, but the song continues unabated, though it does begin to climb from the melancholy reprieve it had been in ever so slightly. "She really is a prodigy, a shame we wont get to hear her classical playing very often, with what the crew will be requesting." the companion pauses, a playful grin on her face "In fact, I'm surprised you didnt ask what was wrong with her fiddle."
Mal leans back, mock hurt etched on his face as the tune brightens even further "Hey, havin been a soldier doesnt mean I'm uncultured."
The companions grin grow as she shrugs and quips "You do clean up nice when you want to I suppose. My statement still stands though."
Mal leans back, a content look crossing his face as he admits "I like a good fiddle or guitar tune as much as the next man, but this is still nice."
For a few minutes nothing but music can be heard, until Henreitta asks during a lull in her tune "So, the job is a go?"
Mal, who had almost been dozing, cracks an eye open an and answers "Yea, but we wont take off for a few days yet, and the trip is gonna be a slow one so that we show up at the right time. Dont pay it no mind for now."
Henrietta nods a bit, and goes fully back into playing her violin, the world again seeming to melt away for her after a while. Inara is about to open her mouth to say something, but is cut off by Jayne barking out "Gorramit girl, my left! Not Yours! Gonna break the thing at this rate!"
Mal sighs and pushes himself up and moans out "Aw ruttin hell. What now?" as Henriettas playing tails off in confusion. The trio make their way to the cargo bay to see Jayne and Rico carrying a pool table that looks like it had been recently been looted from some dive bar, Jayne holding up the back of it and walking forward, Rico walking backwards and holding up her end with one hand, the other pulling an eye open as she blows the merc a raspberry.
"Did they..." Inara wonders aloud
"Rico wouldnt" Henrietta responds, violin and bow hanging loosely at her sides
"Jayne would." Inara inserts, as she turns to look at Henrietta.
"He aint that dumb, otherwise I wouldnta hired'im." Mal cuts the banter off before shouting down from the walkway "Mind to explain why you two got a pool table looks stolen?"
Rico turns around to grin up at Mal and announce "Cause I won Cap'n, more for us to do on long trips now!"
The girl bumps into a support pillar as she continues to beam up at him. Jayne curses under his breath at her as Mal asks "Won what."
Jayne scoffs "Gorram near every game'a'pool after she made a swipe at the masculinity of every man in the bar fer not bein able to beat the two of us in doubles. Owner gave us the table after she damn near put him on the street when he agreed to double'r'nothin" a grin stretching across his face as he finishes, and the dou sets the table down near the weight bench.
Rico half skips away from the table after setting her cue case down on top of it as she adds "And I know it takes up space so I'll make sure to work extra hard so that we dont loose any money on jobs Captain." she pauses, before looking up at Mal with what most would call 'puppy eyes' though Henrietta knew just mean trouble as she adds "Oh, and I would really like it if you let me stay on as crew captain Reynolds sir."
Mal opens his mouth to reply, then shuts it. 'why do I need another gun hand' crosses it and is discarded. 'Why do I want a kid' crosses it and is discarded. 'You'll be nothing but trouble' is discarded just as fast, and he finally answers "Same cut as Jayne gets now. Aint startin you high an bustin you back to a reasonable rate for gruntwork an a gunhand, like I did him. Bein fair right off."
Rico lights up, and bolts up the stairs to tackle-glomp Mal to the ground as she exclaims "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
And thats it for this update. Next time: Another Train Job! More Medical Magic! Tow of the Girls get a Crush and get Crushed! Coming... soonish, sooner with each review, those are my rocket fuel after all, and are much appreciated.