Title: Girls Night Out
Author: FireflyFan
Rating: Between PG-13 and R
Summary: The ladies have some late night drunken fun of their own.
Disclaimer: The Firefly universe belongs to genius of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Keep Flying.
Notes: I read a plot bunny somewhere and this formed into my mind. Non beta'd, if you would want to beta future parts email me.
The three day break on Persephone could be seen in two different perspectives. One, it could lead to trouble. For the crew of Serenity had some enemies on the planet, as well as the Alliance presence that made for some interesting situations. Second, it meant for some time off. Not enough time to get land crazy, but enough time to allow the crew to remember why they did live on the Firefly transport ship.
Serenity was going to land in a fairly large city, where they had the ability to blend into the crowd of locals. New Beijing was a close mirror image to the original city back on Earth-that-was, but yet different with many large skyscrapers and a diverse population.
Inara had decided when they left Borros not schedule any appointments on this little vacation. She decided her time spent on this more civilized world was to relax and to have some good natured fun. Good natured in the meaning that there would hopefully be a lot of alcohol, harmless flirting, as well as some time spent with the other women of Serenity. Ever since she met Mal, she had thought long and hard about her profession. Sometimes when she was with a client, putting on the faux smiles and conversation, she really wanted someone else to be sitting across from her. A certain captain with gorgeous blue eyes and a boyish grin. Inara really wasn't that different from the crew of Serenity, except her status was due to education, not her heritage.
Having some time off on a larger planet was a luxury, since there were more places to get into manageable trouble and have fun. Inara thought of having a night of just the girls, it reminded her of when she had a night off back in her academy days. Now all she had to do was corner Zoe, Kaylee, and River and tell them her idea.
River would be the hardest, no doubt, since Simon would probably want to go too. The latest round of medication had been working wonders on the girl, and she seemed "normal" much of the time. Whatever normal could be defined as. She evened helped with the latest small job on Serenity. The Tam siblings certainly had a knack for crime.
Kaylee would have been ecstatic to go, but ever since the invasion of the bounty hunter, she became more withdrawn and her face didn't smile as much as before. Inara knew it would be good for her to leave the ship, to realize there was danger everywhere, she just had to watch out for herself. Maybe she could teach Kaylee some defense moves she had learned at the academy.
Zoe would probably want to go out, since she has had to take care of the men when they come back drunk. Plus, she was just fun to hang out with. She offered a lot of knowledge that couldn't be learned at a school or from books and Inara liked that. Plus, Zoe would probably share some dirty secrets and funny stories from Mal's past and Inara could tease him about it later.
Inara decided to ask Zoe first to go, since then she could help persuade Simon to allow River to go, as well as Kaylee.
Inara found Zoe in the kitchen drinking some green tea and reading a piece of paper.
"Hello Zoe, how are you today?" Inara asked politely.
"Fine, you?" Zoe said.
"I'm all right. What are you reading?"
"Oh, it's a list of items we have to pick up on Persephone. It seems that, for the very first time, we may able to get everything on the list thanks to the drug heist."
"I thought all the money went to pay that hwun dan, Niska" Inara said
"We still had a lot of the drugs even after that fun on his skyplex…. I really could get use to bein' rich." Zoe said after adding a few items to the list she knew they would be able to purchase.
"I'm glad I found you in such high spirits then. I would like to know if you would like to have a girls night out when we land on Persephone. Would you be interested or do you already have plans?" Inara asked, hoping she didn't. She really did want to get to know Zoe better.
"Haven't had fun like that since before the war." Zoe reminisced "It does sound like fun, bein' away from all the men. I would love to go!" She said happily.
"Great, now you can help me persuade Simon to allow River to go as well as get Kaylee out of her bedroom." Inara said excitedly.
*
"I don't know Inara…." Simon stalled.
"She would be well taken care of. She needs to have some fun. Be a normal girl." Inara said.
"I agree with Inara, Simon. River needs to be around other people, like us women." Zoe cut in, hoping to change Simon's mind. She really did like River, and felt for the girl as well. The Alliance could do horrible things, and River was proof of that.
"If you watch her, as well as watch for Alliance. I'll give you a comm link if you need me. You are right Zoe, she is getting better. I just have to except it." Simon reasoned. His leg had been getting better, but the dull ache was still there. He hadn't spoken to Kaylee since that night. He didn't think he could make it into her room, and she rarely came out so he was between a rock and a hard place. But, he didn't know what to say to her anyway. He genuinely liked her. She was gorgeous, inside and out.
"She will be okay, I promise." Inara said.
Just then River appeared from her hiding place outside the infirmary doors. She ran and hugged her brother.
"Thank you Simon!" she said with much joy. "I will be careful."
*
Zoe went back to work and River picked up a book her brother had just bought her. That meant that Inara would have to convince Kaylee alone. Normally, Inara would have first gone to Kaylee but she was still so troubled by that bounty hunter that she rarely left her bedroom. In fact, Kaylee had only been in the engine room three times since then. Normally she would be in there most of the day, tinkering around. Now it seemed she would only go in if something was seriously wrong.
Inara knocked on the hatch that went down to Kaylee's room. She noticed that Kaylee's Christmas lights weren't on. In fact, they haven't been on in weeks. Inara waited for a few seconds before rationalizing just to open the hatch and climb the ladder into her room.
Kaylee was asleep in her bed. Her hair was a mess, as was her entire room. Clothing, random tools, and other items covered the carpet. Inara saw that her frilly pink dress was hung up on the wall, looking as it did those many months ago.
Inara sat on the corner of the bed and decided to wake Kaylee up. It simply wasn't healthy for someone to sleep all the time and never leave their room.
"Wake up, mei-mei." Inara said sweetly.
Kaylee moaned a little. She really didn't want to get up. She had nothing to wake up for. Serenity was running all right, she guessed since Inara was trying to wake her up without any panic in her voice. Simon hadn't spoken to her since they had been interrupted by Book the night when she had been tied up in the engine room. Of course, he had been shot, but that really wasn't a good excuse to her. She really needed him a couple of times, for comfort as well as sleeping aids.
Inara wasn't her first visitor during the weeks she decided to sleep the days away. Mal came down twice, sometimes three times a day to make sure she ate and drank, and to convince her everything would be okay. Jayne even came into her room a few times late at night. It became apparent that the mercenary was having trouble sleeping because he had not been able to stop the bounty hunter because he was asleep. They talked about anything and everything. Kaylee rationalized he felt some guilt, as well as regret that he couldn't have used Vera.
"Come on, Kaylee. It's 3:30 in the afternoon! Sweetie, we are setting down on Persephone soon. We are going to have some time off ship. Wouldn't you like that?" Inara asked the somewhat asleep girl.
Kaylee made a sound again, so Inara pressed on.
"You have a lot money that came from the sale of the rest drugs from the hospital heist. Wouldn't you like to go buy yourself something nice? And go out with Zoe, River, and myself for some fun?" Inara included the girls night out idea.
"That would be fun. Getting all dressed up and goin out. Haven't done that for a long time." Kaylee muttered.
"Well, you haven't gotten up at all lately, Kaylee. That bounty hunter is dead. He won't be coming after you anytime soon." Inara tried to tell the girl.
Kaylee sat up and brought her legs close to her body, bringing her blankets with her. She was paler and thinner than Inara remembered. She looked to be a shell of her other self. Inara kept talking.
"We are going to have so much fun! Just us girls. We will go buy ourselves new clothes to wear, and paint the town red. And you ARE coming with us. I didn't schedule any appointments, because I want to have fun with you, Kaylee." Inara exclaimed.
"Okay, I'll go." Kaylee said, sounding defeated and tired.
"Good, because if you had said no I would have drug your ass up anyway." Inara laughed and smiled warmly at the girl.
Kaylee laughed a little and asked, "When are we going?"
"Tonight whenever we land. Which, from what Wash told me, gives you about 3 and a half hours to get yourself together."
*
Mal and Jayne were also preparing for a night off the boat. Book and the healing Simon were staying with the ship, while everyone else went off. Mal, Jayne, and Wash were going to buy supplies and afterward go to a bar, and look for a job as well as some entertainment.
Mal was looking forward to getting off Serenity, even though he did love his ship. Ever since that gorram bounty hunter had gotten on board he had been somewhat adamant about walking around late at night. He was also worried about Kaylee. She had barely walked out of her bunk since that night. The last time he had seen her out of her room, she had been playing jacks with River in the cargo bay. He had thought she was okay, but when she didn't get up the next day, or the next he knew something was wrong. He tired to talk to her about it, but she didn't want to and he couldn't blame her. All he could do was make sure she ate and drank, and had someone to talk to when she was ready.
After he and Jayne had done an inventory of the weapons and bullets, Mal walked on the bridge to find out when they would be landing.
"Wash, whats goin on? What how long til we land?" Mal asked the pilot.
"Nothing much. No Alliance cruisers near, which is good. Nothing on the Cortex either. We should be landing in about 3 hours, 7pm local time. The whole night ahead of us to get into trouble." Wash said in his joking voice.
"Okay, good then. Just let me know when we are going to land." Mal said.
He walked off the bridge and past Kaylee's room. He noticed that hatch was open and he heard Inara's voice from down below as well as the sound of giggling. "Good" he thought. "Maybe her pain was starting to go away."
Sorry to leave you hanging, but what do you think? Constructive criticism appreciated, praises you get a big piece of chocolate cake and strawberries. :) PLEASE REVIEW!