A blast from the past
Evelyn was glad she had momentarily gotten rid of Malcolm's questions, even if it was just enough to catch her breath and think of a good way to go around the truth. She wasn't even remotely ready to disclose the whole truth to him. She was also happy to see Angel of all people, of seeing the young teenager turned into a young man that 'rescued them' from reality, even if for a little while. She took it as a sign of better times ahead. Maybe her regular paranoia was unfounded; maybe this wasn't a trap; maybe it was just a job in her old home.
"Are you alright?" Angel asked her after noticing Evey wasn't paying attention to what he was saying as they drove around. He had offered to wait for them at the hospital and to call his mom also so they could go to Nüying's shop-Evey hadn't heard any of it though. All she could think of was how Ariel looked exactly the same as the last time she had been there, when Lloyd was still alive, when she had a bright future ahead of her, when Cole was safe. But now they had no home, no future and her past was suddenly crashing and burning what was left of her present. She couldn't be Evelyn and V-they were two very different people and she had buried her old self when Lou had died. "Yes, I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking her head and pursing her lips together giving him an apologetic smile. "I hadn't been here in too long. It looks exactly the same. Well, except for you being all tall and an officer," she quipped, bumping playfully the bloke's arm with her own just as he was turning to park by St. Michael's.
Evelyn got off the car and stopped for a moment, taking in the facade of the hospital-some parts of it brand new but the cracks from the explosion it suffered could be seen here and there. Honestly all she wanted to do was see a friendly face-another one other than Angel who had been too young to see what was really happening. Holding her breath for a moment and then breathing out slowly through her lips, she pulled herself together before feeling Cole's hand in hers. She needed to calm her heart. Captain Anderson had always been kind to them. They hadn't been flagged upon entering the city otherwise Angel would've said something. They were okay. They were safe. "I'll go to the shop later okay? I'll bring the cookies your mum likes so much," Evey said before seeing Angel go.
Announcing herself at the frontdesk she was asked to stay put for a moment before they were allowed to get inside and head to the Captain's office. The older man looked tired and his hair was practically all grey even though he was barely pushing 50. It would've been a good look on him if not for his very sad eyes. "It's been way too long," he whispered softly to Eve before holding her tight, as if she were his long lost daughter-and in some ways it felt as if she was for the both of them. After that long hug though they both cleared their throats to keep tears at bay. "I've been busy," she almost repeated their wire call before the Capt picked up Cole in his arms as if he was 4 years younger-Cole loved it and hugged him tight around his neck telling him all about how he was going to build ships now and that engines were brilliant. "That's his new word,"
After a while of catching up, Dean gave Evey a more sober look-they had a serious conversation pending and Cole couldn't be a part of it. "Baby, you're going to stay here playing while the Capt and I talk some boring grown up stuff, okay? You stay here. You don't go anywhere or talk to anyone, okay?" The kid nodded and Dean assured her that the little one was safe there. With a short nod she followed him inside his late wife's office.
Mal had decided to compartmentalize. Actually, no, he didn't make a conscious decision, he just went with it. He rode in the mule and made a mental note of how to get to that other hospital while getting to St. Mary's with Inara and Simon. He kissed Inara goodbye at the front door. It was a cold kiss, forced pleasantries when all he truly wanted to do was to make sense of it all. He wanted to drag them back to the ship, get them the frack out of this gorram planet (leave Badger stranded here too, that'd be a cheerful thought) and just listen to their excuses. Because they would all have goddamn excuses. Inara would need to explain why she never said she was dying and how she forgot to mention her goddamn father was part of the Alliance. Simon would have some explaining to do about covering Inara's illness. Zoey knew about Inara's father and said squat. Evelyn... He didn't even want to go there.
But he had to approach this in small pieces or else he was going to have a nervous breakdown and he did not do that. He really needed Book here. Book would cut through everyone's shit and get some real answers. He needed answers but he honestly didn't know what were the right questions, not yet anyway.
"Whatcha wanna do Cap?" Kaylee asked him once he made it back to the mule alone-Simon would stay with Inara for a few hours at least. Mal breathed out, dropping his shoulders a bit. "We go pick Miss V, gotcha." He really loved the little mechanic and it wasn't just because she reminded him of Louise-she saw right through him and she didn't give unsolicited advice even though she was clearly dying to do so. "Spill," he almost coughed out as he sat a little steadier on the passenger's seat-gosh he loathed this gorram planet.
"Indentured people have it rough cap," Kaylee said simply, her thumb tapping rhythmically over the steering wheel. "How do you even know... Nevermind," he breathed out looking outside the window. "All I'm saying Cap, when I first saw her with her kid... she's nice cap. She shared her food and helped us cook and the way her eyes flickered when she talked about you..." she paused there for a moment, testing the waters before going on. "And now she's trying to find out if this job is a trap." Serenity was Kaylee's life too and she didn't miss a thing that happened on it, even if she didn't talk about it. "I think you should let her explain. I don't think she's bad. I think... I think she's scared. I think we should help them." Kaylee did not mention anything about her cap hugging this lady or how her kid looked way too much like the cap, they had the same eyes, same hair. She was already pushing it with her speech she feared.
"Noted," Mal said as sole answer, going very quiet for the rest of the trip.
Once they made it to the hospital Mal noticed the darkened marks from the molotovs and the shooting he had overheard of dyrin Evelyn's wire. People on this planet clearly didn't care all that much about veterans, regardless of the side they fought for. Once they got out of the mule Kaylee decided to stay behind-she was already uneasy from being away from the ship this long and from giving her captain a talk, she did not want to anger him further.
Walking into the hospital he tried to charm his way in to no avail until he noticed Cole by himself a few meters behind the security checkpoint. "Hey!" he called out with a smile waving at him and the little one noticed who it was. "Dad! Mom's inside with uncle Dean," he said playing silly as his momma had taught him. "Miss, can you let my daddy in? I'm sure uncle Dean won't mind," and used that toothy grin that knew worked on most older people to get Mal inside.
Mal tried very hard to ignore how he felt when he heard Mal call him dad. It had been the elephant in the room ever since he saw the kid's eyes after finding Evelyn again. But surely that was something Evelyn wouldn't keep from him; she had had plenty of time already to tell him about this, right? Right. Nah, Cole couldn't be his... and yet. "Hey kiddo," he breathed out once he passed security, picking him up as captain Anderson had a while back. "You're a very smart cookie, you know that? You got that from your mom," he commented allowing himself to lower his guard with the kid, smiling softly at him. "So where is she?" Cole explained she was talking to the captain about some grown up thing and then told Mal if he wanted a tour through the hospital-Cole hadn't been there in 2 years but he still remembered the important stuff, aka. which of the old folk here had the best candy and shared it. Putting him down again, Cole reached for Mal's hand and pushed the elevator button, taking him upstairs not worrying for a second about how freaked out his mother was going to be when they'd come out of Anderson's office and not find him there.
By the time Evey and Anderson left his office they both looked worse for wear. The amount of information Anderson had shared wasn't easy to process and she was determined to get away from here as quickly as possible but Cole was gone. She started calling out for him desperately while Anderson called for security, the guy explaining Cole's dad came to pick him up and they hadn't left the building. "His fath-?" she furrowed her eyebrows and almost as if in queue the elevator doors opened and there was Cole chewing happily on a red viper candy and holding Mal's hand-and Mal looked oddly happy for once. That was a smile Evelyn hadn't seen in years and it felt... Gosh, she didn't even know how to feel right now with her worlds colliding like this. On one side there was Malcolm smiling like the old days, holding her son's hand and enjoying his company, as she had dreamed of for so, so long and next to her there was the capt to whom she owed so much to and who knew so many things about her, things Mal would never understand.
"Momma! General Plummer gave me candy!" he grinned happily as he let go of Mal's hand and ran towards Eve, who kneeled and held him tight before pulling away from the hug and looking furious, the kid's smile instantly dropping. "Cole I do not care who shows up you do not disappear on me ever again, understood?" she chided the little one who nodded and handed over the candy when she extended her palm to him, shaking her head slowly from side to side.
Huffing loudly and feeling the tension in her shoulders she had no choice but introduce the men to one another and tell Malcolm once again that they'll talk later in the ship, plus she had to see some more things with captain Anderson and Cole before heading back to Serenity. Malcolm was going to retort but something in Anderson's posture made him reconsider-the last thing he needed on his rapsheet was picking up a fight with a Lt. General at a veteran's hospital.
Heading outside he walked back to the mule, looking more troubled than before and this time Kaylee decided not to say anything else, only waved at Evey and Cole as they walked outside the hospital with a rather dashing looking older man.