Mari opened her eyes, not quite sure what she would see once they focused in the low light. She shook the cobwebs from her brain, trying to remember what had happened. She remembered sitting in the courthouse, hot and uncomfortable. The weight of her restraints chafing at her wrists and ankles. The Judge had been late, the lawyers talking uncomfortably among themselves. The court had grown restless, a dull murmuring rising as there was no one to call order. And then the gunfire had begun. She winced as she remembered the blow to the back of her head. Remembered falling forward heavily onto the table, bound hands unable to break her fall. Remembered being bundled up in slim arms and colorful silk before everything went dark.
"Mari?" A hand ran a cool cloth over her forehead in the darkness, the voice wavering as it called her name. Hesitant and familiar.
"Su? Oh god, I'm dead, aren't I?" She groaned, certainly feeling the part as a hand pressed a tender spot by her eyebrow. The answering laugh was watery, and Mari looked up to see her first mate hovering over her. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words just wouldn't come.
"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Su's voice ripped raw from her throat as she threw herself on her friend, clinging to the woman as she sobbed into her neck. "I thought you were dead, you stupid bitch!" Mari's hand found the back of her head, stroking Su's long hair as she soothed the woman. Letting her cry out the worst of her fear into her borrowed shirt.
"I'm sorry." It was all Mari could manage, whispering it over and over like a prayer in Su's dark hair. "I am so very, very sorry." Su sniffed heavily, sitting up to look her friend in the eyes, hands resting on her shoulders. Clinging to her captain as if she was afraid the woman would vanish if she let go.
"Room for one more?" A knock sounded in the doorway, Kouji ducking his head as he slipped into the small room. Mari finally looked around her, recognizing Serenity's small med bay. "Hey, Cap." He smiled at her, scooping her hand up in his as he sat opposite Su.
"Hey yourself." Mari smiled weakly, squeezing his hand. "Do I even want to ask?"
"Probably not, Boss." Kouji smirked quietly.
"Yeah, pretty sure we ran clean down your 'do not' list and made up a few new ones along the way." Mari smiled as laughter broke through Su's tears, happy to see the woman smiling.
"What now? And for Christ's sake, will you let me sit up?" Mari shifted uncomfortably. She had spent weeks on her back, and it was the last place she wanted to be now. Kouji's hand supported her as Su clicked the bed up into a sitting position, steadying her as the movement made her head spin.
"Now we wait." Su huffed, sitting back and crossing her arms in front of her. "Jet and Faye are en-route to drop off Genrou in Blue Heaven with Swanso. He's going to give the ol' boy and overhaul, change the profile enough that he don't get tagged right on sight. Ed's already re-hacked the VIN, so a scan shouldn't turn anything up either. Gonna have to refit the inside, but we got time for that."
"Genrou? You got him back?" Mari couldn't help the grin that split her sore face. So what if everything inside the rust bucket was gone? She could regrow the plants. Redecorate the empty metal spaces until they felt full again. As long as she had a ship to call home, and a crew to fill it, all would be right in the 'verse.
"We're going to owe the Bebop a pretty penny, though." Kouji scowled. "That ship wasn't cheap." Mari snorted, sitting back against a pillow as the laughter overtook her. Su and Kouji just blinked at her, eyes flickering between the hysterical captain and each other.
"You aren't the only one who squirrels away money, mei mei. I have almost a million stashed away in Genrou's nav consoles."
"You... you what?" Su sputtered.
"What do you think I was always doing up in there? If Genrou needed that much maintenance, he wouldn't have even been able to lift off, let alone be space worthy." She narrowed her eyes at her. "Besides, why would I be up in there when I could have just let you do it?"
"I thought... oh, you evil..." She dissolved into laughter with her captain, tears streaming down her cheeks as she grabbed at her sides, trying to ease the ache in her ribs as both of the women lost it. Kouji just watched the two silently, face placid as he waited for them to calm.
"And what happens next?" he asked, once the moment had passed, gaze falling to his lap. "Once you have your ship back? Do I just wait around until the next time you want to throw it all away?" Both Mari and Su blinked up at him, unsure of what to say. "Because I can't do that again. I'm not going to sit around and wait for you two to snap a second time – it damn near killed me this time!" Mari's hand found his, pulling him to her as her arms encircled his shoulders, her head burying itself in his neck.
"No more, Kouji. I promise. I left that woman there on Tharsis, buried with the rest of my past." she whispered, her words for him alone. "I'm done running from it, and I'm done fighting it. I just want to live now." She felt Su's arms enfold them both, the three sitting in an awkward huddle in the dim light of the med bay. "We just want to be free." She whispered, feeling his arms tighten around them both. A small, broken family in the vastness of space. She pulled away, looking at both Su and Kouji in turn. "I can promise you a bed. The food will come soon as I can grow it. And we all take care of each other. No one goes alone. No one gets left behind. It's not much, but it's the best I can do."
"I'll take it." Kouji smiled.
"Me too." Su echoed. "Someone's going to have to teach you to be a proper outlaw now. You were never much good at it."
"Well, you've certainly looked better." Simon muttered, looking over the stitches on Mari's eyebrow holding the bruised flesh closed. "They could have been a bit more careful with you." His voice took on a distant tone as he talked more to her eyebrow than her, caught up in his work.
"I've had worse." She smiled weakly, sitting impatiently on the chair, eager to finally get out of the med bay.
Simon had insisted she stay for the past few days, just so he could keep an eye on her. Not that she could escape to anywhere, with the constant parade of people coming and going. Su and Kouji took a large amount of persuasion, only leaving after they were all but carried out once their captain came around. After that, Serenity's curious crew couldn't help but poke their heads in time to time. 'Just to check', they had said. Inara had just left her moments ago, the two women talking of days past over tea when Simon had shooed her out so he could give Mari the all clear, and she was eager to return to her company.
"Could you unbutton your shirt? I want to check your progress, make sure it's closing neatly." She obediently listened, opening the buttons on the too big shirt Book had kindly lent her, revealing an angry red gash down her chest, punctuated by the little red dots left behind from the staples and sutures. It still chilled him to look at it, doctor or no.
"It's not as bad as it looks." she tried to joke with him. To lighten the mood some. "Honest, doc." He tried to smile at her, his stretched lips more of a grimace than anything as he looked up at her.
"You always had a way of understating things." He finally chuckled at her, eyes never leaving his work. "My father said the same thing about your father."
"Did your father ever tell you our folks wanted to match us up?" She looked down at him when she felt his fingers still. She caught the tell-tale traces of a real smile touch his face.
"Once. I think it was mother's idea." He chuckled, looking up at her with a sideways glance.
"Well, what can I say. You're just too wild for me, doc!" She shrugged, batting his hand away from her. "Simon, it's a scar, and its fine. I have the best doctor in the 'verse tending to me. Now for the love of all that's holy can I please leave this gorram med bay?" She shooed him away, watching as he degloved, sighing at her impatience.
"Any problems at all..."
"I'll call you." She flopped back onto the chair, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Fine. Get dressed. I think dinner is almost ready, anyhow." A knock on the door caught their attention, and they both watched as Mal let himself in, ducking through the doors.
"Am I interrupting?" He asked, averting his gaze as Mari buttoned her shirt back up.
"No. We're finishing up now." Simon tucked his tools away neatly, securing them in the overhead cabinet.
"Mind if I have a word with your patient, Doc?"
"That's up to her." Simon gave Mari's a knee a small pat before leaving the two captains alone, following the smells of dinner.
"I was wondering when I would see you." Mari finished closing her last button with a flourish, kicking off the table that had served as her bed for the last three days and standing to meet him. He had been absent the past three days. Not conspicuously so, but she had noticed.
"I was around to be seen. You were just too busy sleeping to notice." He looked at her a long moment before his hand lifted to her shirt, lowering the collar enough to see the top of the scar again, his lips twisting into a strange expression.
"Mal, it's nothing." She yanked her collar back up, suddenly self-conscious.
"You got a mighty strange definition of nothing." The look on his face took the wind out of her, enough so that she had to look away.
"Yeah, well..." She wasn't expecting the arm that reached out, crushing her to his chest as he folded her into his arms, his chin resting on the top of her head. She stood there a moment, letting her eyes fall closed as she felt his chest rise and fall against her cheek, grateful that she was alive to feel it. To stand there in that moment. Her arms lifted to rest on the small of his back, returning his embrace as she accepted his relief. "I owe you and yours, Mal. More than you could know. Especially after what you know about me."
"You don't owe us nothin'. I don't care who you used to be." She could feel his words stir the hair on her head as he spoke, his lips pausing as he spoke to press against her forehead. "Color of your coat don't matter now." She smiled into his shirt, placing her palms on his chest and gently extracting herself from his arms.
"Come on." She smiled up at him. "I'm starving, and I hear a rumor soups on."
"That's what they tell me." He murmured, offering her an elbow she gratefully accepted, leaning gently on him as he led her from the med bay.
The trip to Blue Heaven had seemed almost short. The days aboard Serenity calm and pleasant.
Su had disappeared into the engine room with Kaylee as soon as she was certain Mari wasn't going to keel over unexpectedly on her, the two mechanics buried up to their armpits in wires and grease before anyone could blink. Their singing and laughter was good for morale, the happy noises drifting from the engines and infusing light into the dark corners that had settled while Mari had been sleeping. The visiting captain even found occasion to visit with them, dusting off some of her old prep-school know-how to lend a hand, and scratching little notes and diagrams for Kaylee should the girl ever have a mind to start her own on-board strawberry patch.
Kouji surprised absolutely no one by striking up an easy friendship with Jayne. It was his quiet relationship with River that raised their collective eyebrows. He had infinite patience for the girl, difficult as she could be. Something about his sister, he had said. Mari and Su could believe him, after all the nights they had accidentally woken him, drawing him from his bed as he soothed their nightmares away when they couldn't bear to do it for each other. He was often found being towed about the ship by her, his hand in hers as she dragged him off somewhere, spouting some colorful array of jargon at him.
Mari, surprisingly, found herself passing a large part of her days with the Shepherd. She took an odd comfort in his presence, something that she couldn't quite place. Something deep in the back of his eyes, behind the Bible and the sun soaked stories and the gentle smile. Something they'd always share, but never speak about.
The evenings were full of laughter, the piecemeal crew and their wayward guests gathering around the well-loved table over their food. Trading stories and jokes until they were laughing too hard to eat. Some of the nights found them singing and dancing in the hold, banging on anything they could find to create a beat, the cacophony of hands and feet and voices melding into something joyous as Mari and Inara taught the crew the steps to the dances of society. Other ones found them laying sleepily in the lounge, passing a flask between themselves as they listened to the sounds of space enfolding the ship. Mari even spent a long night awake on the bridge, murmuring in hushed tones with Wash and Zoe about things the only the three of them would ever understand. Whispers of white dresses, the sound of small feet, of rocking chairs swaying on front porches.
But most night were spent alone, the three shipless outlaws staring at their respective ceilings in borrowed beds, some occupied, some not, counting the minutes until they could feel Genrou under their feet again. Finally drifting to sleep imaging the hum of their lost home, lips curled into a smile as they felt it growing closer.
And on those nights, the voyage took forever.
Notes from Mari: I like this one a lot.
Notes from Su: It's ALIVE!
Music: One serious: Shake it Out – Florence and the Machine; and one old-timey: My Blue Heaven – Gene Austin
