DISCLAIMER: Like I own any of this ......sheesh
Notes: Thanks for the nice reviews ...They make me poke at my stubborn muse.
SEMANTICS
Jens Gotsche was having kind of a bad day. It hadn't started out bad. He and the rest of his crew had sneaked onto the Firefly alright, with no sign of the crew knowing what business was up...as usual for him, Bane and Katey. They had pulled the jig a hundred times, no reason for thinking this ship would turn out to be different. They had waited patiently until the noise aboard had started to die down, lying low as usual ....they had gotten through the vents in no time. Everything running all sweet and fine according to plan....which was exactly the reason why- thinking back on the job- Jens could not quite figure out when and were things had started to go so very wrong. And goin´south with baffling speed they sure were.
Thinking back on it, Jens figured that the moment their plan was seriously starting to go downhill might have been the moment they had decided on that exact ship....or maybe when he realised that he had been spending almost half an hour on the attempt to pry open the vent- exit without the gorram´thing budging even an inch, only to find out that his companions weren't doing much better at their ends.....or maybe the moment when he heard the distinctive metallic sound of a gun being cocked.
" Havin´some trouble there, mate?"
The picture that greeted Jens when he looked up was not a pretty one. A tall, bulky man stood a few feet away from the vent- exit, holding what had to be the biggest gun ever seen, pointed squarely at his head. The expression on his face was grim and it got a whole lot grumpier when another, much smaller person tried to catch a peek of Jens and his activities around his broad back. The girl was wearing a nightgown. Wide, dark eyes took up most of her face as she arched her brows, smiling at the man with an almost triumphant smirk.
"See I told you ....no getting out for them. Did I do a good job?"
"Won't make me give you a gorram´gun !" the man muttered to himself, his eyes not leaving Jens for a single second.
From the marauder's perspective, lying flat on his belly in the vent at about knee-level, the angry man with the gun looked about twenty feet tall....looming above him like an avenging angel. Even taking into account his perspective, Jens was sure that the grumpy one was still pretty damn tall.....
" Spoilsport!" the girl said, crossing her arms in front of her chest while she shot the man a petulant look that turned into a playful pout.
"If you really thought I'd hand you a weapon.....that sanity thing ain´t workin´out all that good for ya´ after all..." he said, still looking straight at Jens with a dismal expression, the barrel of the gun pointed at his face nice and steady. Jens knew better than to move ...the grumpy giant looked as though he had loose trigger-finger and apparently the girl seemed to aggravate him just so much. If that thing went off....he'd be short one head.
"He's the leader...." The girl said with nod in his direction, after a moment of staring at him through the grating of the vent in an eerie, almost creepy kind of way that Jens did not like much.
"How's that sanity working out for me now?"
"You sure you secured those other exits just as well?"
"On my life...."
"If y ´all wondrin´what I'm doin´here ....I could try to explain...." Jens whispered, feverishly thinking of some way .....any way...to talk his way out of his current situation. But then again...there really was no way of explaining – apart from the obvious, now was there?
He could try to reach for his own piece, but the sheer size of the gun that was being aimed at him and the expression on his captor's face told him that might be a very unhealthy idea. He could feel the sweat beading on his brows, forehead and lip.
"Shut your trap!" the giant barked dismissively.
"Now ...River, why don't you go get Mal, while I make sure our friend here stays where he is?" he said with an impatient sneer at Jens.
Malcolm Reynolds had the strangest dream. It involved River Tam hovering over him, blocking his vision completely with the unending masses of dark brown hair that fell over her shoulders like a shiny waterfall. She was talking excitedly at him with that soft voice of hers – which sounded quite pleasant if she wasn't screaming and raving like a madwoman, mind you.
She was talking and talking on and on, delighted with herself like a kid at her own birthday party; smiling and talking away while waving her small hands animatedly to emphasize certain points. As to what she was going on about, Mal really had no clue. He didn't quite catch the gist of her tale, indeed he understood not a word. But in his dream it didn't faze him much....in fact he was more fascinated by the carefree nature this River was exhibiting in his dream. It was all very well until she started poking at him and telling him to wake up already.
" Captain.....Captain, are you awake?" she asked, poking him in the ribs once more as though she was determined to push her finger through his flesh and out the other side of him.
Where did such a tiny girl get so much so much strength, really?
"Are you awake, Captain Reynolds?"
"I am now!" Mal grumbled, jerking upright the second he realized that River was not a figment of his imagination, but that she was indeed standing in front of him in an old fashioned white linen nightgown that would have done his grandma proud.
"You wanna tell me what you are doing here, all alone .....when god fearin´folks are trying for their well earned sleep? Where's your brother?"
"In his bed." River answered unperturbed in a conversationally tone of voice, as though that was the obvious answer, but completely irrelevant. "Jayne however is up in the kitchen, pointing a gun at the boss of the marauders who were trying to take over this ship and probably planning on murdering us in our sleep."
