Please Note: (Aug 8th, 2016) I just went back through this whole story and re-edited everything, also adding chapter titles. I didn't change anything very big, just a lot of small things, and a few medium-sized ones. If you've already read everything so far, there's no reason you'd have to go back and read everything again if you don't want to. There's no changes in the actual past events that happened, so you wouldn't need to do that to understand future chapters at all. If you're interested though, I do think the story's a lot more polished now. (I did first start writing this story, like, maybe three years ago or something, so it really did need the attention).
Dig A Hole And Climb... Part 1: ~ INSPIRATION ~
They'd managed to find food stores in a nearby staff lounge. Opportunely, the room and the food stores within had been left entirely untouched by everything. Kaylee'd made hot coffee while River'd gotten together a bunch of the foodstuffs and basically piled it in the center of the table as a feast forum. Kaylee was looking at the food as she carried the coffee back over to the table. She felt her appetite start to recover, for which she was grateful.
Maybe it was the happy memory of the one and only other feast they'd had together, the one right before they'd left Inara's shuttle... She sat down and closed her eyes, scenting the coffee before taking a sip. It felt so warm an relaxing going down. She took another sip and opened her eyes as River brought a box of cookies she'd just gotten from a higher shelf over and sat down next to her, offering her a hopeful, optimistic smile, and a cookie.
"Hey, you." Kaylee greeted, taking the cookie gratefully and returning a tired if also optimistic smile. "Thanks." She thanked.
"Hi." River answered. "You're welcome... Is it too much, do you think?" She asked, sounding a little confused like she got sometimes.
"The food?" Kaylee asked gently.
River nodded.
Kaylee shook her head. "No. My apatite's coming back, believe it or not. The coffee's helping... Besides, I think it's probably about time we treated ourselves to another feast, don't you?"
River sighed. "A happy agreement then." She sounded very relieved as she took up her cup and drank her coffee, clearly enjoying it too... Kaylee had figured that out about River long before now: that what mood she was in, what she felt in any given moment, could often times be strongly dependent on what those around um's mood and feelings were. And it made all kinds of sense, because River was just so... open with herself allot of the time, to everyone around her, and maybe even those that were far away. And, to Kaylee herself now, much more so... because they were in love. It was a heavy thing to know, in a way... But Kaylee knew it wasn't a one-way street in the least either. She might not feel things in the same ways River did, but how River felt? What her mood was? Those things affected her very strongly too. It was that way for everyone, really, to one extent or another, she supposed. No one lived their lives by themselves. No one could be unaffected by the people around them. It could just hit River harder than it would most people sometimes...
They just sort of spent a while drinking coffee and gazing into each other's eyes then. It was very enjoyable, and comforting for both of them, Kaylee was finding. She liked gazing into River's eyes. It had quickly become a favorite pastime of hers, in fact.
"So, um, think we can find a working bathtub around here somewhere too?" Kaylee finally asked, a small smile coming to her lips as she snaked on some trail mix with dried fruit in it. She had a weakness for fruit, of any kind, very much she did.
River looked pensive. "Like a treasure hunt, you mean?" She asked, meeting Kaylee's eyes again and smiling at the thought.
Kaylee giggled. "Would be like that, wouldn't it?" She smiled.
"Material wealth can be a weighty thing, but, if you know how, and the tub is big enough... You can float in a bath." River told her, sounding nothing like a sage at all. She sounded more like the dreamy girl Kaylee remembered herself as being sometimes back home on Isis, and it warmed her heart.
She chuckled a little. "I think you might have let me in on one of the secrets of life, you know?"
River giggled. "It's only a secret if you're thick in the head." She tapped her own head above her ear.
Kaylee laughed. "I'm glad we aren't that then."
An hour later, River was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her while Kaylee fiddled with the weather control station's comm system, trying to get it to pick up Inara's signal so they could check on her before they headed out. The system wasn't being cooperative, so she'd started a diagnostic and was chatting with River while she watched its progress.
"One of the homesteads around here would probably be the best bet, I think." Kaylee ventured. They'd been discussing what their plans could be once Inara was safely under the open sky again. Neither of them mentioning the possibility of rescue, or their shipmates' fates, because it still wasn't anything either of them could do anything about. "Do you think it'll be worth it though for us to set Inara and company up there, then go back for the shuttle? Bet I can scrounge up enough spare parts in the market stores I can fix it up, then we could just fly back here?" She offered, as she read a line of the slowly scrolling text before her.
River hummed, her head tilted back resting on the wall she was sitting against. Kaylee could see her out of the corner of her eye and it made her smile. "We could visit Lola on the way back, and see how she's doing?" She offered. "Do you think she might try to build a family?"
"It is what rabbits are known for." Kaylee reasoned.
"But Lola could be a rabbit rebel. We could have been a good influence on her." River countered, laughing. "That's funny to think about, isn't it?"
Kaylee giggled. "Surely is."
"I think it's a good plan though." River complemented. "I think I'd like life on a farm, now that I'm no longer considered sisterly and have a pretty wife to take baths and go dancing with, I mean..." She mused playfully, but in a very heartfelt sorta way.
Kaylee giggled again. "You know? Strangely enough? I think I'd like it too." Kaylee had to admit. "Much as my younger self would be outright horrified to hear me say those words."
"Have you been talking with her about it then?" River asked, yawning adorably. She was clearly getting tired. They both were, if Kaylee were being honest with herself. Saying it had been a long day thus far? Well, that just didn't do justice to it, now did it?
"Who? Younger me?" Kaylee asked as the screen showed her what she'd wanted to see. The diagnostic was done, and the troubleshooting program, which she'd had to reinitialize and tweak a few times, had found and corrected the problem. The comm line to the antenna it had been trying to source for the transmission wasn't connected anymore, so the troubleshooting program had rerouted the signal to another antenna and was now sending a hail.
"I think our younger selves have houses in our heads. I don't always understand the things mine tell me though..." River admitted, sounding a little lost in contemplation. "It used to make me sad sometimes, but I think I understand them more now, because of you..." She trailed off. "I can talk to the me I was when we first met just fine though, I'll have you know, and she's happier now also..."
Kaylee had canceled the hail and crouched down on the floor with her wife. She saw tears running down River's cheeks and she moved in to gently wipe them away.
River turned to her and smiled. "You're magic, you know? You really... You really are." River told her.
Kaylee felt tears of her own threaten and she chased them away, smiling too as she cupped River's chin and stroked her hair, gazing into her eyes. Eyes that told her such impossible, wondrous things sometimes. Kaylee swallowed on the strong emotions she felt. She felt pulled at, like gravity, towards this woman. Like more than gravity. She moved in and kissed her, and River kissed her back, and the comm system chimed and they parted, blinking back to their senses.
"Hello? Is someone there? Kaylee? River? Is that... Was that you?" They heard Inara's familiar, halfway desperate sounding voice fill the room.
Kaylee stood and pressed the key to open two-way contact. Inara's face came on the screen as River stood with her and wiped her face of residual tears. "It's us. We're here, Inara." Kaylee told her.
The relief on Inara's face was a profound thing. She cursed in Chinese and sighed. "Am I ever glad to see you. Please... Please tell me you're close by?" She pleased.
"We are." River confirmed, apparently brought back to a state of purposeful clarity again by Inara's distress. Kaylee could relate. She was feeling that purposeful clarity too... along with maybe a little guilt for her having wanted that bath so much when they'd needed to be hurrying more. "We're in the city, at the weather control station... We're here for you, don't be scared?" Her words were soft and sure and comforting and Kaylee could see on Inara's that they helped matters.
"We're going to head right over to you." Kaylee added, promising to herself that she'd make this right, whatever was wrong. "Is... is anything the matter?" She asked, already knowing that the answer would be yes.
Inara didn't speak a moment. "...Things are bad, Kaylee. Very bad..." She admitted. "Wo de linghun cong ta de beishang xintong..." She lamented softly.
"Daniel Paxton?" River prompted gently, her voice full of compassion. "...He won't come back to you... will he?"
Inara looked to River and nodded. Daniel Paxton was one of Mayor James Paxton's two young children. "He's... He's in a bad way. He fell ill with something two nights ago. His father's death struck both of the children hard, but Daniel most of all. James died... not but a couple hours after we'd last talked." She informed them gravely. "We... had to cut his body into pieces to fit into the... trash chute. It was the only way. We couldn't leave the body to rot. Frita hid the children away from the doing of it as best she could, but Daniel escaped her and saw what Stephen and I were doing. He... didn't take it well. He's barely been talking to any of us since then. And Frita isn't coping well either. She's... Having trouble keeping her spirits up. She gets tired, goes non-responsive at times... I think it's her mind disassociating itself from her circumstances, so she can cope..."
"That's terrible..." Kaylee spoke, thinking what Inara must have been going through all this time and feeling guilty again about the bath, for having taken that break in the meadow, and for generally not pushing herself more. What had she been thinking? River took her hand in hers though and Kaylee instantly felt stronger and reassured. What's past is past, she told herself. Stay in the now and be useful. "And the others? May and Stephen? And you? ...How are you holding up, Inara?"
Inara sighed. "I'm managing, you don't have to worry about me." She gave them a brave, if tired smile. "And Stephen has been a rock though all of this, truly. May... She's worried for her brother, won't leave his side, but... She's got a strong spirit I think. She never seems to lose hope... She inspires me, really she does." Inara admitted softly. She laughed a little. "I told her once, that I want to be like her when I grow up."
"...We'll be there soon, Inara." Kaylee told her softly. "I promise we will."
They'd talked with Inara a while more, but the sun was going down in a couple hours. By the end of it, Kaylee had been heartened to see Inara's spirits much raised. Just knowing that she and River were here, just a little ways away, and even more that the Reavers weren't here anymore, it had to be such... a huge relief for her. Kaylee tried to imagine what it must've been like, waiting all this time. Anything at all could have happened to her and River on their way here, and Inara never would have known if it had. Especially with Reavers about... That kind of worry had to've been a horror...
As things were now, she and River were picking through a warehouse for tools and digging equipment. They'd talked a plan out with Inara, and with Stephen, who'd come over to the screen at one point. She and River were to find equipment and such tonight, get some sleep, get a bath, and then they'd go up to the mayor's mansion on the mountainside and see what they could do. Kaylee had tried insisting that they could start out tonight, but Inara had told her no, and River had told her no too... and it made since, especially as she could tell she'd have trouble staying awake if she kept going like she was much longer. There was no way she woulda lasted going up that mountain. And, really, there was no reason she couldn't have a bath... Thinking about that boy who was sick though, she couldn't shake the crushing weight of it from her, not at all.
...River seemed more confident, if caught up in what she was doing too much, as she rummaged through the supplies next to her: looking at one thing, tossing it aside, choosing another and nodding in satisfaction. It was just her own way of coping, Kaylee knew that, could see it in her, and she didn't try to take that away from her either.
Kaylee'd found a wagon to hook to their hoverbike. They'd use it to transport everything.
On their way here, they'd passed a nice house. River had stopped, having a feeling about it. There's been no dead bodies or fire damage, just a home with family photos. Was a sad sight, those photos, but then... the whole town was that, and they did need a place to sleep tonight. She figured maybe they'd earned it a little too, having given the people of Opal some amount avenging for their deaths. None of it was enough, but it could never be for all the sorrows Opal had seen, so it just was.
Kaylee was mostly just trying to focus on how good it would feel to sleep in a real bed, curled up safe with her wife tonight. It was a simple thing, but it was something she needed a lot, she was able to admit to herself.
In the morning, they'd climb the mountain and dig Inara and her charges free, and hopefully the boy would be alright. Hopefully they all would.
Chinese translations:
"Wo de linghun cong ta de beishang xintong" = "My soul aches from the sorrows of it"
(please note: I'm only getting my Chinese from Google Translate, so I can't guarantee it's accurate at all)
to be continued
and leave a comment for me if you want, I'd love to hear from you
