~
"An assassin" Jayne repeated thoughtfully, he was now sat next to Ida on his bed. He wondered if she was telling the truth or just bragging.
"You pretty young to be killing people for a living" He said guessing her to be in her early twenties.
"There is a difference between just shooting someone down and assassinating someone - I'm an artist" She told him.
"I'm sorry; I'm a butcher you're the professional. So how did you get into it?"
He was honestly curious; he could tell that her brain was ticking away behind her eyes. Her face was young but shown subtle experience to it, yet even so he wondered how a young woman had gotten into a life of killing.
"I don't know if I want to talk about this any more, I wish I hadn't said as much as I have. I normally don't tell people what I do; I try not to tell anyone anything actually".
"So I bet you could kill a man with your bare hands" He asked changing the subject and looking over her body once more.
She smiled and turning towards him she lifted her legs and wrapped them around Jayne's waist. He gave a laugh and felt her squeeze her legs; he cried out in pain and fell off the bed. Her legs were crusting him and as he flailed on the floor like a fish Ida eased off the pressure and sat straddled over his waist.
"What the." He managed to say taking deep breaths; all though it was painful he had to admit that he had been turn on, being crushed to death by a woman's legs held a certain appeal to him.
"Relax, I was showing you that it's not just my hands you should worry about" Ida said arching her left eyebrow.
He was still a little winded but Jayne was a large man. He moved surprisingly fast, grabbing her and pushing her down to the floor and he straddled her waist. She gave a shriek of surprised laughter.
He pinned her good arm down at the side of her head, not that she resisted and they began to kiss. It wasn't making love or even having sex it was more animalistic then that but it wasn't detached of emotions altogether. For the first time in his life Jayne felt actually real feelings for a woman, he didn't perhaps know what these feeling were or how to articulate them but he felt them none the less . And Ida saw in Jayne a version of herself; both were loners, killers and knew that sometimes sex was just sex.
After a few rounds of sex they laid sweating and exhausted in Jayne's bed, he watched her face intently as she caught her breath back. When they were both still she looked over at him watching her and felt the need to share something with him. Because in her line of work the next job could be her last, after this would she ever meet up with another 'Jayne'. She laid flat on her back and stared up at the ceiling and then opening and closing her mouth a few times she spoke.
"Do you really want to know how I got to be an assassin?" She asked him, he felt as if he could feel a wall coming down between them and answered yes. So Ida began to tell him her story.
"My parents Vivian and Kyle Cross were both assassins, they met each other through work fell in love and got married. I grew up aboard our ship - The Horizon, the Black bird was one of its two shuttles. They would fly from job to job and I grew up thinking that it was all normal, from the age of ten they started to teach me. They wanted me to be able to protect myself but I wanted to be part of the family business. My parents had other plans, they had saved up a lot of money and they were going to do one more job that would set us up for life"
She paused and Jayne had a feeling that that the reason for referring to her parents in past tense was going to be given next. He stroked her hair and her soft cheek and she carried on with her tale.
"But things didn't go as planned. They were hired by someone to destroy an Alliance Ship; it was full of soldiers and scientists - people who designed and used weapons of Mass Destruction. They blew up the ship killing about fifty people, but that's when everything fell apart. The Alliance weren't stupid and had the funds to find out my parent's names, they became fugitives. Using friends they could trust and putting out false information they were able to get me to the safety of a moon, I was sixteen when they left me at the nunnery. I was to pretend that I was a novice in training to become a nun, they told me that they would return with the means for all of us to escapes from the Alliance once and for all".
"But they never came back" Jayne stated softly and thinking it's not the first or last story he'll hear about a broken family because of the Alliance.
"The Alliance hunted them down, they didn't know or care about me but they made a big show of my parents. They were dragged around and put on display. Tortured but always leaving enough breath in them to be paraded in front of people who would pass on the word what the Alliance would do to their enemies and finally they were executed in public. I found out from witnesses and from word of mouth what happen to them."
She took in a deep breath and rolled around to face him.
".After that I didn't hesitate about becoming an assassin. I made arrangements; I found that my parents had left funds for me at the nunnery and with friends. They had dumped the Horizon to try and mask their trail; I found it and brought back The Black Bird because it was the right size for one and started on my way. It was hard at first; I went through my parents contacts but no one wanted to take a risk on a then sixteen year old. But five years later and I've made a name for myself and now I'm one of the best in the business."
She paused and looked his face over and gave a weak smile.
"So what about you what's your story?" She asked him
"Me, I don't have one to tell. I'm a mercenary, Mal hired me and here I am".
They were laying looking at each other, they both had the knowledge that they were alike and that made them peaceful and at ease. They also knew that this wasn't a long term love affair; it was just simply two people with something in common sharing some time together.
~ Back in the dining room area the others sat eating their evening meal, except for Inara, Shepard and River who where dining on board Inara'a shuttle. Simon had been thinking for a while now, he had gone in search of Ida but couldn't find her. Mal assured him that everything was fine but still Simon worried on.
He bided his time until every one had finished their meal's, when they all when done he coughed to draw their attention.
"I would like to discuss our guess, Ida" He stated a little unsure of himself now all eyes were upon him.
"What, her wound worse off then you thought?" Mal asked.
"No that's not it at all I just wanted to talk about how she came to be aboard Serenity".
"How you mean Simon?" Kay Lee asked and because it was her he felt shy and lowered his eyes to the table and was uncertain of how to continue.
"You mean you want to talk about Reavers? their not really good dinner conversation" Zoe told him.
"It's not that I want to talk about the Reavers but yes they do have something to do with what I want to discuss. I just wanted to talk about how Ida managed to fight off Reavers who clearly are vicious and she only comes away from the fight with a minor wound. Also that this all happened when Serenity was close at hand, well it just worries me."
"You think she planned it all to get aboard Serenity?" Mal asked a part of him started to think the idea over with interest.
"But for what reason?" He asked Simon.
"Well simply put: for River and I" Simon said, watching the faces of the others he could see them all thinking it over and was inwardly relieved they hadn't laugh him off straight away.
"You think she was hired by the Alliance 'School' to track the two of you down and bring you back?" The Captain asked whilst thinking through in his head all the things Ida Cross had said.
"Maybe, its plausible isn't it? Maybe I'm being rash and just jumping to conclusions but still." He said letting the sentence hang in the air as he question himself again on whether or not he was over re-acting.
"It's plausible but I've talked with her too, she seemed to be telling the truth. Also if she wanted to take you and River she could have done that by now".
But then his mind starting wondering, the part of his brain he used for thinking up plans and strategies for survival.
"She could have faked the attack" He stated to the room and as the others looked at him to explain, he looked off into the distance and went through how he would have done it if he was Ida Cross.
"First she releases a trace amount of radiation, knowing that we would be suspicious if there was none. Then she gets a partner to damage her ship with a grappling hook like Reavers use and to fire on the outer Hull for good measure or buys a ship that was already damaged. Then she turns off her controls and fires at her engine so either it fits in with her story or so we can't hack into any personal files or both. She injuries herself in the shoulder.could she have done that" Mal asked Simon.
"I think so.yes" Simon said nodding, his uncertainties becoming fact in his mind.
"And so now she waits for us to come along, probably got a file on everyone of us and knows that we would be interested in any leftovers. We bring her aboard and because she's barely conscious and her story seems credibly we don't question her to much, but she's been awake for some time now. She could have held me hostage when I went to see her, trading me for you and your sister. Or maybe even booby trapping the ship so later on she would have a distraction, whilst bombs go of she gets you and River and high tails it"
"In what, her ship ain't flyable yet Captain" Kay Lee said.
"That fits in with the binding her time and setting traps aboard Serenity. She waits and when her ship is ready she causes her distraction and carries off the Doc and his sister to her Cruiser and flies home to the Alliance".
The others sat and thought about this, Mal himself wasn't even sure, it was just a theory. Ida Cross might not have lied at all but they had the idea implanted in their brains and the uneasiness that they carried from being not on the right side of the law didn't help.
"So what now?" Simon asked.
~ Ida had left Jayne sleeping like a baby in his bed and had dressed and set off. She wanted to catch up with the Captain and find out when The Black Bird was going to be ready and see if she could help in anyway.
She was also interested in exploring the Ship, she had been living on her vessel alone for a few months now and although it wasn't a planet she was still pleased that she wasn't looking at the same set of walls.
She was on a gang-plank heading to what she guessed was the cockpit where she hoped to find the Captain or a member of his crew when she heard talking coming from behind a slightly open door.
She knocked on the door and heard a woman's voice call 'enter'. She walked through the door and found that she was in a shuttle, slightly smaller then her Cruiser. The shuttle was more a boudoir then a ship, she could smell incense, there were a lot of beads hanging from the doorway and cushions and fabric were hanging and covering practically every surface.
Once in the main room of the shuttle she saw the Shepard - Book and woman sat by a table eating, she felt her stomach groan - she hadn't eaten in a day or two. With the skill she had learnt from her parents she suppressed the urge to eat, just as she had been blocking out the pain emendating from her shoulder.
They looked up at her and Book stood up smiling, the woman who was breathtakingly beautiful looked for a second slightly on edge but then covered it well and raising she came over to introduce herself.
"I'm Inara and you must be Ida Cross our guest"
"That's right, please to meet you" she said shaking the eloquent woman's hand. She knew at once that Inara was a companion; there was no disguising the breed and training of sophistication that she embodied.
"I hadn't meant to interrupt your meal; I was looking for the Captain"
"I believe he is with the other crew members in the kitchen area" Book said.
Ida was about to say goodbye and go in search of the Captain once more when River who had been lying in Inara's bed hidden by covers and cushions sat up and looked wearily at the three standing.
Shepard went at once towards the bed and stood between River and Ida, smiling he began to explain.
"This is another crew mate, I'm afraid she was so tired she felt the need to rest"
Inara widen her eyes and wished that she had had the chance to speak first, sometimes saying little or nothing at all is better then giving too much information.
Ida didn't really care about the crew of Serenity she wanted to get off the ship and on her way; she was expected in five days by a client. But saying that she was at once suspicious, why had the Shepard moved to shield the girl and why state something so obvious it would have been normal for them to introduce the girl but they hadn't needed to explain her situation.
"Oh well sometimes it's better to rest then to go about your work impaired" Ida said. She could tell that Shepard was pleased that she didn't pry any further and she was once again about to take her leave when River who was clearly awake and watching the new arrival with interest spoke.
"I'm Simon sisters, Simon said hide, so I hide, Simon said, Simon said".
When she had said she was Simon's sister she had spoken directly to Ida but then she had climbed out of the bed and started to sway around the room uttering the rest of the sentence to the room at large.
Ida wasn't blind and could tell at once that there was something wrong with the girl, the Doctors sister.'The Doctor's sister' she thought and then something changed about her.
Inara and Shepard watched the calm and beautiful face turn red with rage and her lips pouting in an effort not to scream. She looked with frustration at the pair and stormed out of Inara's shuttle.
They watched slightly startled, once they had heard River speak they had held their breath. Would this stranger ask question after question or was she really who she said she once? They hadn't expected her to turn away in anger, Inara told Shepard to stay with the girl while she went after Ida.
Inara had trouble keeping up with the woman, but she did her best and arrived almost behind her into the dining room.
~
The other's who had just finished discussing what to do about Ida Cross was surprised when she exploded into the room, with a startled looking Inara on her heels.
"I want off this ship NOW" Ida said practically roaring the last word.
It did run through Mal's and Zoe's minds that this could be the start of her plan of distraction but there was something honest about her outrage.
"Whoa now, just calm down. What's the matter why the sudden need to jump ship?" Mal asked.
"Look I want off now, being around certain members of your crew might be dangerous for my health" Ida yelled. She had calmed down a little from her initial shock but she was still angry and annoyed more with herself at this point then the crew of Serenity, after all she had gotten herself into this mess.
"What members?" Mal asked puzzled, had she realized that they smuggled items that were stolen, had she seen Jayne and knew him as a gun totting desperado?
"Look I know that the Doctor and his sister are being tracked by the Alliance as well as by trackers and bounty-hunters so you'll understand why I don't want to stick around" She said this in a more normal tone, she had reined in her emotions now.
It seemed that at once the crew of Serenity where all on one side of the room and Ida was on the other. Mal drew his gun from it'd holster and Zoe followed suite. Ida was with out a gun she had a stash aboard The Black Bird but being assassin anything could be a weapon, but she didn't want to kill them after they had saved her life, plus she was out numbered five to one.
Just then Jayne walked in from the door behind her, seeing the two guns pointed at the woman who he had just slept with made him see red. He drew his own gun and pointed it at Mal, looking confused.
"What are you doing" asked Kay Lee who was hiding slightly behind Wash.
"Why are you all pointing guns at Ida? She's a friend of mine and I take displeasure in pointing guns at you but I will until you all see sense" Jayne said.
"Look your friend here seems to know a lot about Simon and River and because of the circumstances of her arrival here, I thought it would be better if we where safe instead of sorry" Mal told him.
"How do you know about them?" Jayne asked Ida.
"Look Jayne knows so I might as well tell you if it'll mean I can get off this ship. I'm an assassin, I have several contacts that I meet to discuss business offers. I was offered the job of bringing them in" Ida explained looking briefly at Simon before turning her gaze back to Mal.
Mal considered this new information and lowered his gun, Zoe did the same but the pair didn't holster their weapons. Jayne watched and put his gun down as well and sat down at the table. He poured himself a cup of coffee and looked up at the others who still stood, they all looked at him.
"What?" He said.
Mal shook his head at how stupid or layback Jayne was behaving but then again Jayne only cared about himself; money and now it seemed Ida Cross.
"So how do we know your not after the good Doctor hear and his sister" Mal asked.
"For one I would have taken out the Doctor when I came to and then hid him some place while I got the sister. You may not trust me Captain but you can trust the fact that if I was working right now I would have gotten them and been long gone".
Mal had a feeling that she was telling the truth about that. He holstered his gun, Zoe did the same.
"You're going to believe her?" Simon asked Mal stunned.
"Relax will you I know that the Alliance want you badly, so you must have done something to piss them off and Jayne can vouch that I'm not on the best of terms with the Alliance. If your against them then I'm your ally not your enemy" Ida told Simon.
"True, she probably dislikes the Alliance more then all of us put together" Jayne said slamming his big booted feet up on to the table.
"In that case please to have you on board" Mal told her with a grin.
"Thanks for all the hospitality but I just want to get on the Black Bird and fly on".
"Well the thing is" Kay Lee said raising her hand as if back in the one room school house she had attended back home "the thing is your Cruiser, The Black Bird well it ain't fixed yet"
"Is it capable of flying?" Ida asked looking at the pretty but dirty looking girl in front of her.
"No, it will be but right now it's just an expensive piece of."
"Lovely technology" Wash said butting in.
He had a habit of wanting to keep on the right side of people especially when they obviously have lots of money, it didn't matter to him too much what questionable actions were done to obtain it (within reason).
"Look as much as I hate the Alliance and would love to give them a fight, I don't want to be on board Serenity when they board looking for the Doc and the girl. They may want them alive but I'm pretty sure they won't care if any one of you gets caught in the cross fire"
"Relax; Alliance ain't anywhere near us. You can't go any where for now, so why don't you just sit tight for a day or two until Kay Lee here fixes your ship" Mal said using his calm and reassuring voice.
~
Meanwhile a few planets over a small Alliance ship that was a scout for a larger vessel began to come across some interesting data.
The Commander of the ship looked over the records and logs he had been given by a subordinate and smiled to himself; he might just get a promotion for this.
A firefly vessel was last seen pasting Outpost 9, not an Alliance Post the Commander thought but still they had always given reliable information in the past. He didn't know much about the people that were wanted; just that they were last seen on a firefly class vessel, fugitives and wanted alive. He also knew that they were wanted by someone/s high up in the chain of command. Of course it could turn out that the Firefly vessel was of no interest but it wouldn't hurt to give them the once over.
'Yes' he thought to his self, 'this just might be the break I'm looking for'.
"An assassin" Jayne repeated thoughtfully, he was now sat next to Ida on his bed. He wondered if she was telling the truth or just bragging.
"You pretty young to be killing people for a living" He said guessing her to be in her early twenties.
"There is a difference between just shooting someone down and assassinating someone - I'm an artist" She told him.
"I'm sorry; I'm a butcher you're the professional. So how did you get into it?"
He was honestly curious; he could tell that her brain was ticking away behind her eyes. Her face was young but shown subtle experience to it, yet even so he wondered how a young woman had gotten into a life of killing.
"I don't know if I want to talk about this any more, I wish I hadn't said as much as I have. I normally don't tell people what I do; I try not to tell anyone anything actually".
"So I bet you could kill a man with your bare hands" He asked changing the subject and looking over her body once more.
She smiled and turning towards him she lifted her legs and wrapped them around Jayne's waist. He gave a laugh and felt her squeeze her legs; he cried out in pain and fell off the bed. Her legs were crusting him and as he flailed on the floor like a fish Ida eased off the pressure and sat straddled over his waist.
"What the." He managed to say taking deep breaths; all though it was painful he had to admit that he had been turn on, being crushed to death by a woman's legs held a certain appeal to him.
"Relax, I was showing you that it's not just my hands you should worry about" Ida said arching her left eyebrow.
He was still a little winded but Jayne was a large man. He moved surprisingly fast, grabbing her and pushing her down to the floor and he straddled her waist. She gave a shriek of surprised laughter.
He pinned her good arm down at the side of her head, not that she resisted and they began to kiss. It wasn't making love or even having sex it was more animalistic then that but it wasn't detached of emotions altogether. For the first time in his life Jayne felt actually real feelings for a woman, he didn't perhaps know what these feeling were or how to articulate them but he felt them none the less . And Ida saw in Jayne a version of herself; both were loners, killers and knew that sometimes sex was just sex.
After a few rounds of sex they laid sweating and exhausted in Jayne's bed, he watched her face intently as she caught her breath back. When they were both still she looked over at him watching her and felt the need to share something with him. Because in her line of work the next job could be her last, after this would she ever meet up with another 'Jayne'. She laid flat on her back and stared up at the ceiling and then opening and closing her mouth a few times she spoke.
"Do you really want to know how I got to be an assassin?" She asked him, he felt as if he could feel a wall coming down between them and answered yes. So Ida began to tell him her story.
"My parents Vivian and Kyle Cross were both assassins, they met each other through work fell in love and got married. I grew up aboard our ship - The Horizon, the Black bird was one of its two shuttles. They would fly from job to job and I grew up thinking that it was all normal, from the age of ten they started to teach me. They wanted me to be able to protect myself but I wanted to be part of the family business. My parents had other plans, they had saved up a lot of money and they were going to do one more job that would set us up for life"
She paused and Jayne had a feeling that that the reason for referring to her parents in past tense was going to be given next. He stroked her hair and her soft cheek and she carried on with her tale.
"But things didn't go as planned. They were hired by someone to destroy an Alliance Ship; it was full of soldiers and scientists - people who designed and used weapons of Mass Destruction. They blew up the ship killing about fifty people, but that's when everything fell apart. The Alliance weren't stupid and had the funds to find out my parent's names, they became fugitives. Using friends they could trust and putting out false information they were able to get me to the safety of a moon, I was sixteen when they left me at the nunnery. I was to pretend that I was a novice in training to become a nun, they told me that they would return with the means for all of us to escapes from the Alliance once and for all".
"But they never came back" Jayne stated softly and thinking it's not the first or last story he'll hear about a broken family because of the Alliance.
"The Alliance hunted them down, they didn't know or care about me but they made a big show of my parents. They were dragged around and put on display. Tortured but always leaving enough breath in them to be paraded in front of people who would pass on the word what the Alliance would do to their enemies and finally they were executed in public. I found out from witnesses and from word of mouth what happen to them."
She took in a deep breath and rolled around to face him.
".After that I didn't hesitate about becoming an assassin. I made arrangements; I found that my parents had left funds for me at the nunnery and with friends. They had dumped the Horizon to try and mask their trail; I found it and brought back The Black Bird because it was the right size for one and started on my way. It was hard at first; I went through my parents contacts but no one wanted to take a risk on a then sixteen year old. But five years later and I've made a name for myself and now I'm one of the best in the business."
She paused and looked his face over and gave a weak smile.
"So what about you what's your story?" She asked him
"Me, I don't have one to tell. I'm a mercenary, Mal hired me and here I am".
They were laying looking at each other, they both had the knowledge that they were alike and that made them peaceful and at ease. They also knew that this wasn't a long term love affair; it was just simply two people with something in common sharing some time together.
~ Back in the dining room area the others sat eating their evening meal, except for Inara, Shepard and River who where dining on board Inara'a shuttle. Simon had been thinking for a while now, he had gone in search of Ida but couldn't find her. Mal assured him that everything was fine but still Simon worried on.
He bided his time until every one had finished their meal's, when they all when done he coughed to draw their attention.
"I would like to discuss our guess, Ida" He stated a little unsure of himself now all eyes were upon him.
"What, her wound worse off then you thought?" Mal asked.
"No that's not it at all I just wanted to talk about how she came to be aboard Serenity".
"How you mean Simon?" Kay Lee asked and because it was her he felt shy and lowered his eyes to the table and was uncertain of how to continue.
"You mean you want to talk about Reavers? their not really good dinner conversation" Zoe told him.
"It's not that I want to talk about the Reavers but yes they do have something to do with what I want to discuss. I just wanted to talk about how Ida managed to fight off Reavers who clearly are vicious and she only comes away from the fight with a minor wound. Also that this all happened when Serenity was close at hand, well it just worries me."
"You think she planned it all to get aboard Serenity?" Mal asked a part of him started to think the idea over with interest.
"But for what reason?" He asked Simon.
"Well simply put: for River and I" Simon said, watching the faces of the others he could see them all thinking it over and was inwardly relieved they hadn't laugh him off straight away.
"You think she was hired by the Alliance 'School' to track the two of you down and bring you back?" The Captain asked whilst thinking through in his head all the things Ida Cross had said.
"Maybe, its plausible isn't it? Maybe I'm being rash and just jumping to conclusions but still." He said letting the sentence hang in the air as he question himself again on whether or not he was over re-acting.
"It's plausible but I've talked with her too, she seemed to be telling the truth. Also if she wanted to take you and River she could have done that by now".
But then his mind starting wondering, the part of his brain he used for thinking up plans and strategies for survival.
"She could have faked the attack" He stated to the room and as the others looked at him to explain, he looked off into the distance and went through how he would have done it if he was Ida Cross.
"First she releases a trace amount of radiation, knowing that we would be suspicious if there was none. Then she gets a partner to damage her ship with a grappling hook like Reavers use and to fire on the outer Hull for good measure or buys a ship that was already damaged. Then she turns off her controls and fires at her engine so either it fits in with her story or so we can't hack into any personal files or both. She injuries herself in the shoulder.could she have done that" Mal asked Simon.
"I think so.yes" Simon said nodding, his uncertainties becoming fact in his mind.
"And so now she waits for us to come along, probably got a file on everyone of us and knows that we would be interested in any leftovers. We bring her aboard and because she's barely conscious and her story seems credibly we don't question her to much, but she's been awake for some time now. She could have held me hostage when I went to see her, trading me for you and your sister. Or maybe even booby trapping the ship so later on she would have a distraction, whilst bombs go of she gets you and River and high tails it"
"In what, her ship ain't flyable yet Captain" Kay Lee said.
"That fits in with the binding her time and setting traps aboard Serenity. She waits and when her ship is ready she causes her distraction and carries off the Doc and his sister to her Cruiser and flies home to the Alliance".
The others sat and thought about this, Mal himself wasn't even sure, it was just a theory. Ida Cross might not have lied at all but they had the idea implanted in their brains and the uneasiness that they carried from being not on the right side of the law didn't help.
"So what now?" Simon asked.
~ Ida had left Jayne sleeping like a baby in his bed and had dressed and set off. She wanted to catch up with the Captain and find out when The Black Bird was going to be ready and see if she could help in anyway.
She was also interested in exploring the Ship, she had been living on her vessel alone for a few months now and although it wasn't a planet she was still pleased that she wasn't looking at the same set of walls.
She was on a gang-plank heading to what she guessed was the cockpit where she hoped to find the Captain or a member of his crew when she heard talking coming from behind a slightly open door.
She knocked on the door and heard a woman's voice call 'enter'. She walked through the door and found that she was in a shuttle, slightly smaller then her Cruiser. The shuttle was more a boudoir then a ship, she could smell incense, there were a lot of beads hanging from the doorway and cushions and fabric were hanging and covering practically every surface.
Once in the main room of the shuttle she saw the Shepard - Book and woman sat by a table eating, she felt her stomach groan - she hadn't eaten in a day or two. With the skill she had learnt from her parents she suppressed the urge to eat, just as she had been blocking out the pain emendating from her shoulder.
They looked up at her and Book stood up smiling, the woman who was breathtakingly beautiful looked for a second slightly on edge but then covered it well and raising she came over to introduce herself.
"I'm Inara and you must be Ida Cross our guest"
"That's right, please to meet you" she said shaking the eloquent woman's hand. She knew at once that Inara was a companion; there was no disguising the breed and training of sophistication that she embodied.
"I hadn't meant to interrupt your meal; I was looking for the Captain"
"I believe he is with the other crew members in the kitchen area" Book said.
Ida was about to say goodbye and go in search of the Captain once more when River who had been lying in Inara's bed hidden by covers and cushions sat up and looked wearily at the three standing.
Shepard went at once towards the bed and stood between River and Ida, smiling he began to explain.
"This is another crew mate, I'm afraid she was so tired she felt the need to rest"
Inara widen her eyes and wished that she had had the chance to speak first, sometimes saying little or nothing at all is better then giving too much information.
Ida didn't really care about the crew of Serenity she wanted to get off the ship and on her way; she was expected in five days by a client. But saying that she was at once suspicious, why had the Shepard moved to shield the girl and why state something so obvious it would have been normal for them to introduce the girl but they hadn't needed to explain her situation.
"Oh well sometimes it's better to rest then to go about your work impaired" Ida said. She could tell that Shepard was pleased that she didn't pry any further and she was once again about to take her leave when River who was clearly awake and watching the new arrival with interest spoke.
"I'm Simon sisters, Simon said hide, so I hide, Simon said, Simon said".
When she had said she was Simon's sister she had spoken directly to Ida but then she had climbed out of the bed and started to sway around the room uttering the rest of the sentence to the room at large.
Ida wasn't blind and could tell at once that there was something wrong with the girl, the Doctors sister.'The Doctor's sister' she thought and then something changed about her.
Inara and Shepard watched the calm and beautiful face turn red with rage and her lips pouting in an effort not to scream. She looked with frustration at the pair and stormed out of Inara's shuttle.
They watched slightly startled, once they had heard River speak they had held their breath. Would this stranger ask question after question or was she really who she said she once? They hadn't expected her to turn away in anger, Inara told Shepard to stay with the girl while she went after Ida.
Inara had trouble keeping up with the woman, but she did her best and arrived almost behind her into the dining room.
~
The other's who had just finished discussing what to do about Ida Cross was surprised when she exploded into the room, with a startled looking Inara on her heels.
"I want off this ship NOW" Ida said practically roaring the last word.
It did run through Mal's and Zoe's minds that this could be the start of her plan of distraction but there was something honest about her outrage.
"Whoa now, just calm down. What's the matter why the sudden need to jump ship?" Mal asked.
"Look I want off now, being around certain members of your crew might be dangerous for my health" Ida yelled. She had calmed down a little from her initial shock but she was still angry and annoyed more with herself at this point then the crew of Serenity, after all she had gotten herself into this mess.
"What members?" Mal asked puzzled, had she realized that they smuggled items that were stolen, had she seen Jayne and knew him as a gun totting desperado?
"Look I know that the Doctor and his sister are being tracked by the Alliance as well as by trackers and bounty-hunters so you'll understand why I don't want to stick around" She said this in a more normal tone, she had reined in her emotions now.
It seemed that at once the crew of Serenity where all on one side of the room and Ida was on the other. Mal drew his gun from it'd holster and Zoe followed suite. Ida was with out a gun she had a stash aboard The Black Bird but being assassin anything could be a weapon, but she didn't want to kill them after they had saved her life, plus she was out numbered five to one.
Just then Jayne walked in from the door behind her, seeing the two guns pointed at the woman who he had just slept with made him see red. He drew his own gun and pointed it at Mal, looking confused.
"What are you doing" asked Kay Lee who was hiding slightly behind Wash.
"Why are you all pointing guns at Ida? She's a friend of mine and I take displeasure in pointing guns at you but I will until you all see sense" Jayne said.
"Look your friend here seems to know a lot about Simon and River and because of the circumstances of her arrival here, I thought it would be better if we where safe instead of sorry" Mal told him.
"How do you know about them?" Jayne asked Ida.
"Look Jayne knows so I might as well tell you if it'll mean I can get off this ship. I'm an assassin, I have several contacts that I meet to discuss business offers. I was offered the job of bringing them in" Ida explained looking briefly at Simon before turning her gaze back to Mal.
Mal considered this new information and lowered his gun, Zoe did the same but the pair didn't holster their weapons. Jayne watched and put his gun down as well and sat down at the table. He poured himself a cup of coffee and looked up at the others who still stood, they all looked at him.
"What?" He said.
Mal shook his head at how stupid or layback Jayne was behaving but then again Jayne only cared about himself; money and now it seemed Ida Cross.
"So how do we know your not after the good Doctor hear and his sister" Mal asked.
"For one I would have taken out the Doctor when I came to and then hid him some place while I got the sister. You may not trust me Captain but you can trust the fact that if I was working right now I would have gotten them and been long gone".
Mal had a feeling that she was telling the truth about that. He holstered his gun, Zoe did the same.
"You're going to believe her?" Simon asked Mal stunned.
"Relax will you I know that the Alliance want you badly, so you must have done something to piss them off and Jayne can vouch that I'm not on the best of terms with the Alliance. If your against them then I'm your ally not your enemy" Ida told Simon.
"True, she probably dislikes the Alliance more then all of us put together" Jayne said slamming his big booted feet up on to the table.
"In that case please to have you on board" Mal told her with a grin.
"Thanks for all the hospitality but I just want to get on the Black Bird and fly on".
"Well the thing is" Kay Lee said raising her hand as if back in the one room school house she had attended back home "the thing is your Cruiser, The Black Bird well it ain't fixed yet"
"Is it capable of flying?" Ida asked looking at the pretty but dirty looking girl in front of her.
"No, it will be but right now it's just an expensive piece of."
"Lovely technology" Wash said butting in.
He had a habit of wanting to keep on the right side of people especially when they obviously have lots of money, it didn't matter to him too much what questionable actions were done to obtain it (within reason).
"Look as much as I hate the Alliance and would love to give them a fight, I don't want to be on board Serenity when they board looking for the Doc and the girl. They may want them alive but I'm pretty sure they won't care if any one of you gets caught in the cross fire"
"Relax; Alliance ain't anywhere near us. You can't go any where for now, so why don't you just sit tight for a day or two until Kay Lee here fixes your ship" Mal said using his calm and reassuring voice.
~
Meanwhile a few planets over a small Alliance ship that was a scout for a larger vessel began to come across some interesting data.
The Commander of the ship looked over the records and logs he had been given by a subordinate and smiled to himself; he might just get a promotion for this.
A firefly vessel was last seen pasting Outpost 9, not an Alliance Post the Commander thought but still they had always given reliable information in the past. He didn't know much about the people that were wanted; just that they were last seen on a firefly class vessel, fugitives and wanted alive. He also knew that they were wanted by someone/s high up in the chain of command. Of course it could turn out that the Firefly vessel was of no interest but it wouldn't hurt to give them the once over.
'Yes' he thought to his self, 'this just might be the break I'm looking for'.