DISCLAIMER: I OWN ZIP …….Joss owns all! Thanks for putting Adam in " Angel" though ……I loved seeing that!!
NOTES: Thanks to all you who read! Thanks for telling me again that you enjoyed WHAT JUST HAPPENED! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!
This is the set up and a little bit of humor! Next up is a little more Mal/ Inara ….and more revelations. PLEASE Y`ALL watch the laste few eps of Angel so that WB will give us at least TV movies !!! PLEASE!!!
Also …as I mentioned before I am not a native speaker, so please forgive me if sometimes a few spelling errors slip by me!! Sorry!!´
Oh and do yourselves a favour and read Neroli´s brilliant story River Delta!!!
To Miss Malfoy …I´d love a beta!! I feel so honoured…as you noticed html is not my thing! Mail me , okay??
Chaos: Michael Turner rocks ..so do the unaired three eps!!!!
Sticks and Stones
„ Badger said this kinda thing would be right up your alley, but my boss wanted to be sure, ya know? Wanted me to talk things over in person, that´s just the kinda person he is, right?
Sure ya understand!"
Malcolm Reynolds took another sip of his drink, nodding towards Badger´s contact, a wiry little man called Rhys. To him the negotiator whom they had met on a dusty little outpost called Sweetwater, looked like a human cross between a hyena, a toad and a weasel. Sweetwater was basically a trading town for miners and consisted mainly of a few ramshackle buildings on both sides of the only street. It was a good place to stay off alliance radar …..but that was about the only positive aspect of their little venture. They had been waiting ten hours before Rhys showed up …and there wasn´t much to around the outpost. As it was they had had no choice but to wait for Badger´s contact to show up and the only place to wait around Sweetwater was the dingy bar they had been hangin´ round for the last few hours. The only bar in a radius of more than two hundred square miles………
If they didn´t need the job so bad, Mal would have just left. Now that he knew about the job, Mal couldn´t help but be intrigued. He had chosen a table from which he could overlook pretty much the whole place, he could see who came and went and still keep an eye on the barkeeper. He turned his attention back to Rhys.
"Sure, I can understand that. A man wants to know whom he trusts with an endeavour like this, much like his money."
Rhys nodded at him, giving Serenity´s captain another once over look.
" Well …..you and your folks sure do come highly recommended. I mean……Badger said you´d be having some experience with this kinda thing, ya know?"
Mal smiled, taking another sip from his drink. Highly recommended….that certainly was a new one! Badger must be desperate! It didn´t surprise Malcolm Reynolds much now that he knew how considerable the amount of money was Rhys´ boss was willing to pay.
"Well …me and my crew have been known to occasionally being party to some redistribution of wealth." He answered.
Badger´s contact gave him a blank stare, the greasy smile that was constantly fixed to his face waning a little. Mal inwardly rolled his eyes.
"Or petty theft…… as some of my associates call it!"
"Oh ….yes. Got a little confused there, ya know? So you can get it?"
Mal nodded again. "Yes, I believe we can acquire the objects your boss likes to get his hands on. If the money´s right I believe we can acquire pretty much anything as long as your boss is willing to pay thirty percent of the fee upfront."
" Not a problem Captain…..but ……if you don´t mind my askin´ once again, just to be on the sure side of things, ya know? You sure you can get by that security system I pointed out to you? It´s a pretty nifty system, ya think the lot of you can handle that?"
Mal let his eyes skim over the room, resting for a moment on Kaylee and River who sat at a small table in a corner. River was wearing an oversized cardigan that hung off one shoulder and a purple skirt that didn´t cover the lower part of her legs. It looked a little weird with the heavy boots she was wearing, but Mal knew that Jayne liked it none the less. It made the girl look like a dishevelled fairy that had gotten confused and dressed in a hurry. Kaylee had abandoned her mechanics suit in favour of a dress with a peculiar flower pattern. The dress made her look younger and she wore her hair up in a neat bun. Mal grinned as he caught the doctor stealing a glance at Kaylee´s legs over the book he was reading a few tables away. The two girls were immersed in a quiet conversation, giggling now and then as though they didn´t have a care in the world.
"Tell your boss we got that covered just fine." He told the other man before shaking his hand, sealing the deal. Mal was pretty sure that the system those two couldn´t break down together probably hadn´t been built yet.
Simon took another sip from his drink. The sour taste made him squeeze his eyes shut. The young doctor was quite sure that he didn´t even want to know what kind of poison he was just forcing his body to ingest.
" Aw, C´mon doc, it´s not that bad!" Jayne said, clapping him on the shoulder several times. The force of Jayne´s well meaning claps almost made Simon spill his drink. The mercenary took of his hat, sat down and put his feet up on the table. He took the doctor´s half empty glass and downed it in one swig.Simon lifted a warning brow at him.
" How can you drink this stuff and actually enjoy it?"
Jayne grinned, shrugging his massive shoulders as he scanned the room. His eyes fixed on River who didn´t seem to notice. She was busy listening to Kaylee.
" I only wish he´d just mellow a lil´bit, ya´ know! We was so close to getting´ better acquainted…..if you know what I mean, but then your brother just goes all stiff…"
Kaylee complained to River, keeping her voice down to make sure that nobody could overhear them. Giving River another frustrated look, Kaylee emptied her glass.
River Tam gave her friend a small smile, tugging a strand of hair behind her ear. She was dimly aware of the Captain and Jayne looking at them across the room.
" My brother likes you, Kaylee." She whispered, finishing her own drink.
" He likes you very much. Simon just isn´t as ….happy….. adapting to this kind of life as I have turned out to be. He hasn´t found his place in this yet. Once he does…things will be different."
Kaylee nodded, catching Mal´s look. She frowned.
" What´s Jayne and the Cap´n looking at us like that for?"
Rive rubbed her forehead, trying to tone out Mal´s impatience that was radiating from the captain like a constant buzzing sound, an annoying background noise that gave her a headache.
" He doesn´t like the conversation he´s in. He just wants to get the job and get out of here."
" I don´t like this place!" Simon told Jayne, watching the mercenary lighting one of his big cigars. His eyes wandered across the room, where Kaylee and River where sitting in a corner, immersed in whispering conversation. Simon couldn´t say why, but something about it bothered him. He risked another look at Jayne who was leaning back in his chair. It still was beyond him why and how his little sister would entertain a relationship to a man like this, but since he couldn´t change it and seeing how the situation wasn´t bound to change in the near future……..
" Does make you nervous sometimes…..seeing the two of them all cosy like that whispering and laughing? For all we know those two could be plotting how to take over the whole universe……."
"And there wouldn´t be a gorram´ thing we could do ´bout it!" Jayne answered, following Simon´s gaze.
" What worries me even more than that is the fact that our womenfolk is the only up´n about ´round here." Jayne told him, still keeping a watchful eye on the door.
" Yes …I noticed that myself."
Jayne´s eyes followed River as she made a beeline for the bar, holding Kaylee´s and her own empty glass in one hand. Mal had been very strict on one thing; no liquor for either Kaylee or River …..so in Sweetwater that didn´t leave many other options. Jayne figured that they had to be drinking that disgustingly sweet juice the populace of Sweetwater extracted from the fruits of the native cactus……once you mixed it with enough water it was even drinkable.
River´s approach turned quite a few miner's heads but she paid it no heed.
" S´cuse me doctor….." Jayne said, putting his cigar out. "Looks like I might have to take care of sumthin……"
River had her back turned and the other thing conveniently toned out for once, so she didn´t notice the hand that was slowly reaching out; thick, hard fingers hovering just inches above the unruly mass of her shimmering, lavender scented hair while she was waiting for the barkeeper to refill their glasses.What she heard was a muffled yelp as another, bigger hand closed around the miner´s wrist like an iron vice.
" I wouldn´t do that if I were you!"
She turned to find Jayne behind her, his hand firmly around another man´s wrist as several other miners drew nearer in order to not miss a thing.
" Will y´all look at that? Big oaf come to save the lil´damsel in distress!" The miner gave a hearty laugh, revealing a mouth in the middle of his bushy black beard that was missing several teeth.
River shot Jayne a warning look who just rolled his eyes at her, letting go of the other man´s wrist. He demonstratively wiped his hand on his pants, shaking his head with a wide grin.
" Naw …….she ain´t got no ruddin´ use for me when it comes to dealin´ with the likes of you! Lil´ lady can ruddin´well take care of herself."
His words elicited another round of laughter from the miners who were eyeing River and even Kaylee over at her table like two tasty morsels.
" That so?"
Jayne shrugged at Simon who had risen from his chair, putting his book down on the table.
"Doesn't mean I´ll have to sit back and watch while you put your gorram´ hands where they sure as hell don't belong, now does it? Even if that means I´ll get a ruddin´ earful ´bout my interferin´ later!" The mercenary added with a smirk while River shot Kaylee an exasperated look.
" Well if that's so …..you gotta see our side of the coin, friend….." another miner spoke up.
" You´ve been hangin´ round our joint all day. We don´t get to see womenfolk like that too often out here."
" Yeah …..can´t see why!" Jayne answered. " See now …we´re both men so I´m gonna say this in a way that y´ all can understand where the gorram´ hell I´m coming from. I wouldn´t let your filthy fingers fondle my gun, so what makes you think I´d let you lay a hand on my girl?"
"Alright …then what ´ bout that one over there?" The first miner said, pointing his dirty finger at Kaylee who was coming towards them with Simon in tow.
"What ´bout me?" she asked, looking at River´s disbelieving face.
"She´s a pretty one! Little more flesh on them bones I´d say!" the second miner cut in as the others nodded in enthusiastic approval.
Jayne arched an eyebrow at them, his face taking on a serious expression.
"You'd all better not even think about laying your filthy paw on that one either, ya hear me?"
"Oh c'mon …..you can't be the boss of all the tail that comes through that door!"
"Gorrammit…they're both with me! So you'd better ruddin´…."
"They're with you? What's that supposed to mean, ha? You really expect us to believe that every piece of tail is yours? You're old enough to be that one's father!"
Simon turned away, trying not to start laughing at Jayne's expression as the bearded miner pointed at River. Even Kaylee had to suppress a laugh.
"Aw…C´mon!" she interceded with a bright smile. "He's not that old!"
"What?" Jayne yelled at her. River patted his arm, holding back a giggle.
"She's right Jayne …you're not old enough to be my father."
"Well you are quite a few years older than her, but more in an older brother kinda way."
"Yeah…." River nodded at Kaylee.
"Excuse me?" Simon asked them with a bewildered expression. "I´ll have you know that your relationship to him is nothing like the relationship we have! Don´t ever say that!"
"Will you just cut it out, gorrammit?"
The miner's just stared at the four of them.
"So if she´s with the old one……"the second minor started.
"Hey!"
"Which one´s with the fancy one?"
"He's with no one!" River said, throwing her hands up with an exasperated look.
"What kind of twisted relationships do you folks have?"
"That's what I'd like to know!" Kaylee mumbled.
"We miss something?" Zoë asked Kaylee with a befuddled smile as she and her husband joined the group.
"Oh …one of them miners was mistaking River for a whore and Jayne set him straight. Then he mistook me for a whore and called Jayne old and I think things went downhill from there!"
"HEY!" They all turned around to Malcolm Reynolds who was looking at them with both brows arched, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"We are leaving NOW!"
"Shiny …..this is just shiny!" Mal yelled as they all trooped back to Serenity.
"Why can´t things ever go smooth? Why do you have to start a ruckus every time we set foot on a planet? Even on this backwater outpost you can´t spend ten hours without causing a riot?"
At least he didn't have to worry about the preacher and Inara who had stayed aboard Serenity.
"Well it wasn't really our fault now, Cap´n!" Kaylee told him with a frown.
"Did we get the job?"
"We got the job!" He turned around to face his crew before they entered the cargo bay, looking at them with a grim expression.
"When I told you all that we needed to keep a low profile after that Niska thing…..were any of you actually listening while my lips were moving?"