Yeah, you got me. I don't own them any more than I did last chapter... You may wish to turn on: "You Get What You Give" - New Radicalsfor this chapter. :)
They slept in shifts, Simon and Kaylee, like clockwork. Simon would go down to his bunk, passing Kaylee on the way up, sleep for four hours, go back up, Kaylee going down to sleep. Every four hours, like clockwork. Twelve hours into the switch-off, River woke up. She woke up to find her friend Kaylee sitting on the grate across from her, doodling nonsense into a schematic of an engine. At first Kaylee didn't notice that her charge had woken up. Then River gasped and yanked at the chains, which was as good as leaping on top of a fly to kill it. "He's still here! You have to get rid of him!"
"What, sweetie?" Kaylee asked, looking up.
"He's going to take me away!"
"Nobody's going to take you anywhere, sweetie," Kaylee said, putting down the schematic. "Simon and I'll make sure o' that. And if anybody tries, Jayne'll shoot 'em down 'fore they can take ya anywhere."
"Simon. He's in trouble."
"He's right downstairs, sleepin'. Less somebody's hurt, then he's takin' care o' them."
"Did you see his hands? Did you see them?"
Kaylee shook her head. "Nope. Cap'n's the one did the interrogatin', not me."
"He is…" River's voice trailed off.
Hearing someone on the steps behind her, Kaylee turned around. It was Mal. "You wanna come here, Kaylee?"
"I can't leave her…"
"You wanna come here, Kaylee," Mal repeated, except this time it wasn't a question.
Kaylee got up and followed him down the stairs to the galley. Everyone else was already there. Simon looked rumpled and mussed from his recent sleep. Jayne was carrying two guns and cleaning another. Inara looked beautiful as usual. Zoë and Wash were sitting next to each other, his arm draped around her shoulders. Inara motioned to a seat next to her, and Kaylee took it gratefully.
"This is what we've learned," Mal said, leaning on the table. "Our passenger is a spy. He was recruited ten years go by the Starboard Force, which we know from the communications on his disks. His first and only assignment was to kill Falstaff Rizzly. While was goin' bout that, he was taken to a prison on Sihnon and had his memory… well, he calls it 'selective' memory loss."
"He was tortured," Simon said.
"Right you are, Doc. Pieces a' his memory were removed and he was dumped on Wanderlust. Durin' the time he was there, Rizzly found out where he was."
"Why didn't Rizzly just kill him?" Zoë asked.
Mal shrugged. "Guess he wanted to draw out the suspense," he remarked dryly. "Rizzly's been trackin' our spy all the years he's been on Wanderlust, just waitin' fer somebody t' pick him up…"
"So he'd have a target," Jayne muttered.
"Well, Rizzly's got a target now," Wash said. "He said there's no place in the verse we can set down."
"I aim to set down somewhere," Mal said. "I ain't stayin' in the air to be shot out; I ain't gonna lose my boat to this scarred monstrosity."
"What's the plan, sir?" Zoë asked, business as usual.
Mal was thoughtful for a moment. Before he could speak again, Kaylee asked, "Is Miles on our side or theirs?"
"Ours," Mal answered. "He's not a bad guy. He doesn't even remember who tasked him to kill Rizzly; he just remembers that he was. So here's what we're gonna do…" He looked over at Simon. "What's goin' on with the girl?"
Simon shook his head; he had no easy answers. "The drugs I gave her are wearing off. When she's fully awake she's going to be paranoid and psychotic again, capable of anything that we've seen and probably some we haven't."
"You gonna let her run wild t' slice us up?" Jayne demanded.
"No."
"But ya are gonna drug her, right?"
"No." Simon held his hands up as though asking for peace, speaking hurriedly before anyone could question his decision. "I know you all think that's a rash and horrible decision, since we have all seen what she's capable of… but I have a limited supply of drugs, and she doesn't deserve to be drugged all the time. Maybe River can tell us some things we don't already know."
"Like what?" Jayne queried.
"She keeps talkin' bout his hands," Kaylee piped helpfully. "Is there somethin' wrong with his hands, Cap'n?"
Mal said, "No. Not that I can see, least."
"Maybe she's not talkin' bout his hands. Miles, I mean," Kaylee suggested.
"Rizzly has odd hands, if we're lookin' fer somebody with strange hands," Wash put in. "Scarred and whatnot."
"Is there a part of that man that isn't scarred?" Inara asked wryly.
"Well," Wash began, "I've heard tell that his, you know…"
"Here's the plan," Mal interrupted. "We're gonna put down somewhere out o' the way. We're gonna get us a stronghold. We're gonna figure out what exactly it is that Rizzly and his men want."
"What about Miles?" Kaylee asked.
"Miles… he can stay in his bunk fer all I care," Mal replied. "But I think he's gonna help us out s'much as he can."
"Hope he's a good shot," Jayne muttered. "Since we're gonna be cut into cutlets by the PRFO."
"Don't say that," Kaylee said.
"Just speakin' the truth," Jayne answered testily. "Ain't nobody that's ever challenged the PRFO and walked away from it."
"And once we figure out what we've got that Rizzly's men want, we're gonna dump it," Mal continued.
"What about River?" Simon asked.
"What about her?"
"What he means is, Crazy's gonna kill us all fore we can get anywhere's safe," Jayne said, trying to be helpful.
"Keep her locked up," Mal answered simply. "Can't have her runnin' bout, tryin' t' kill my crew."
Simon nodded solemnly.
"Okay, we're - …."
Before Mal could finish his sentence, a scream was heard throughout the galley. "SIMON!"
"River," Simon said, and he and Kaylee ran off.
"That shriekin' she keeps doin'? It's gettin' old," Jayne remarked.
"Jayne, you're talkin' again."
"I'd say that's gettin' a mite old," Zoë said with a mischievous grin.