Meadow was so accustomed to her mother's quiet rants and mumblings that, light sleeper as she was, they never woke her up. But when a long chunk of something soft and silky landed on her face, her eyes opened just a tiny bit.
It was still very early on the ship. No one was up, but River had seemed like she was coming up on a bad day; Meadow was even sleeping in her mother's bed because of the nightmares.
What was on her face felt like hair, and it might have been her own but it just seemed the wrong color and she vaguely remembered tying her hair up before bed. She pulled it away from her face, and when the entire chunk moved with her hand, she sat up in a sudden disgust and realization of where the hair had come from.
Meadow had previously awaken to find her mother doing something rather odd or mildly destructive, never potentially dangerous. River wasn't allowed to touch sharp things, especially when she was in a mood. Meadow watched briefly as she pulled a chunk of her long hair into the air, and with a large kitchen knife, sliced off her hair six inches from her scalp.
In a flash, Meadow was out of bed, one hand grabbing her mother's wrist and the other coming in contact with her elbow, forcing the knife out of her hand and blade first into the door. River wheeled around and moved to jab her daughter in the eyes, but she moved out of the way and brought her knee into her mother's side. River stumbled but managed to connect with Meadow's collar bone, buying herself enough time to retrieve the knife from the door. Meadow grabbed the only thing she could - a fan that doubled as a weapon which Inara had given her two years earlier on her thirteenth birthday - and swore that once she was out of the infirmary, she would start taking more time to practice with the deceptive weapons Companions favored.
>>>>
Meadow knew she was in the infirmary before she opened her eyes. "Renci de Fozu," she muttered as she was suddenly washed over with immense pain.
Someone near her, Simon she suspected, snorted and crossed over to her side. "Merciful indeed. You're lucky to be alive. You've been unconscious almost a full day."
"Mama wouldn't have killed me," she retorted, not nearly as weak as she felt as she forced open her eyes. "And anyway, I have a very think skill. What happened? I don't remember."
"I didn't expect you to wake so soon," he said, clearly skirting the topic. "You'll have to be careful, I had to put four stitches in your scalp."
"I'm not going to freak out if you tell me," she said, frankly. "Why do you think Mama's spent so much time teaching me how to fight?"
Simon regarded her with a look of bewildered horror. "She knew you'd have to protect yourself from her?"
"In general," she corrected. "And I attacked her. It was a reflexive defense - neither of us are going to hold it against the other. So, what happened?"
He looked down at her for a moment then turned away as he said, "I can't be sure of the order of events, but you have a fractured clavicle, three fractured ribs - one of which was compound - you took a blow to the stomach that I had thought might have caused a puncture in your spleen, your pelvic bone is bruised, and of course there is the blow to the head." He took a deep breath and added, "And interspersed in that you dislocated River's shoulder and slashed the blood vessels in her right wrist."
She watched her uncle for a moment then demanded, "But my spleen's fine, correct? I just what to make sure that I'm not bleeding out as we speak?" He suddenly froze then turned and gave his niece a harsh look, to which she smiled sweetly. "Where is Mama?"
"She almost killed you," a small voice came from the doorway. River stood just behind the doorframe, her hair now bobbed and one of her arms bandaged. "She always does bad things, but she doesn't know it until she goes to sleep."
With a dismissive scoff, Meadow said, "Oh, that's just feng le. You're more upset about your hair being cut than putting me in here."
River regarded her daughter for a moment then snapped, "What's feng le is you trying not to hurt her! She taught you better than that!"
"Clearly, you're out of you mind," Meadow said, leaning back onto the exam table and closing her eyes. "What chance did I have of hurting you? The only weapon I had was a fan. You had a butcher's knife."
"River, you had a what?" Simon demanded.
"Fan was knives," River muttered with an eye roll as she moved further into the infirmary and sat down beside her daughter. "Five and first strike. Clear advantage."
"Lot of good it did," her daughter murmured as she hovered on the edge of consciousness. "I had a weapon I haven't mastered yet."
"You will," River thought, gently petting her daughter.
"Damn right I will," she responded.
->->->->
Renci de Fozu: Merciful Buddha
feng le: loopy in the head
