Zoe slammed the heel of her hand against the communication button in the cargo hold. "We got him, Wash!"
The satisfied smile on her face evolved to a down right grin. Jayne and Simon huffed by, lugging the Captain on a stretcher. Mal was shouting, flopping around like a fish on the beach.
"Stop treating me like a cow to slaughter!"
"He's being a bit dramatic, don't you think?" River asked Zoe as she followed the men. "I like cows and drama. Mixing them together is just wrong."
Zoe stifled her laughter and fell in step with the parade to the infirmary.
"She told me to shut up!" Mal continued, pointing accusingly at Zoe, "And you! Givin orders like a gorram Lieutenant with new recruits. To me!" He thumped his chest. "Watch it with those scissors, doc, I've grown attached to that leg!"
Simon ignored the fussing and cut the decrepit suit from him.
Zoe raised her eyebrows at Mal but Jayne jumped in with his own accusations.
"Well, you're welcome Captain. Always glad to save a life after a days hard scavenging." He sat on the rolling stool, arms crossed in self-righteousness. He bout fell off the stool when River stroked his head and rested her fingers on his neck.
"He doesn't want Simon to tell him the leg is going to fall off. So he keeps talking." River stroked Jayne's fuzzy cheek with the back of her knuckles, then gazed at her fingers as if Jayne's stubble might have begun growing there. "He is grateful for thrilling heroics."
"I'm able to speak for myself, thank you very much!" Mal yelled loud enough to rattle instruments on the tray when Simon lifted the bandage on his thigh. Through clenched teeth he said, "I'm obliged and grateful, Jayne. Now, stop your cry-babyin. It's disturbing the doc."
Simon rolled his eyes.
"Just weave me up." Mal's head flopped back.
"Yes, sir." Simon winked at River who shook her head, more disgusted by Mal's carrying on than the bloody bandage.
"His brain is trying to escape. Might want to see to that." River left the room. Theatrics was exhausting when there was no reality to it. Laughter was better – it energized. She missed Kaylee….
---oooo---
"Kaylee?" Wash signaled her. Nodding at the Shepherd who came to share the good news.
"Ya got him?" Kaylee was breathless, like she was working on something and talking at the same time.
"I can hear him caterwauling all the way up here." Wash cackled. "Simon is at this moment, telling him what a lousy patient he is." Actually, Simon shouted a few other words than those while Wash spun around in his chair, glad to hear them fussing like spoiled children. If Mal was screeching and complaining - he was doing fine.
"Is anyone there with ya?" Her voice was quiet, like she wanted to whisper but knew the mic wouldn't pick it up.
"Shepherd's here. Why?" Wash shared a frown with the Preacher.
"Oh. Good." Her voice perked up.
"What you need Kaylee?" Shepherd Book asked.
"You know what the balance pin looks like?"
"I do." Book looked away from Wash to the stars, like he expected he'd need to concentrate on Kaylee's words.
"The pins are in the storage locker in the engine room, marked proper. And the circuit boards are in the bag with my hair thingie looped around the knot. Now, listen…." She stilled from whatever she'd been working on. Her voice came across the speaker clear. "In my room, on the shelf behind my dress, is a green book with a couple envelopes stickin out. Don't worry bout those. On page … seventy-three or seventy-five is a diagram that will show you how to install the board. The instructions for the balance pin follows them pages. Jayne'll have to help you cause Wash'll need to monitor the heat. Ya gotta remember to remove the board, install the pin, install the new board. Make sure nothing but auxiliary atmo is going or you'll fry the board and there's only the one. Also, when you reset the balance, you need to give the panel a little nudge to the left –I fitted it from parts. There's resistance lurking underneath. If you don't get a green light – the panel is bound to be the problem, not your installation."
"Kaylee? Why aren't you going to be doing this?" Wash waved the Shepherd to silence.
They waited a considerable time for her answer.
"I didn't really lie." Kaylee sniffled, then forced energy in her voice. "You tell the Cap'n that for me, Wash, kay?"
"Kay-leeeee?" Wash leaned forward.
"There are two suits but this one has been chewed up by a rat or something." Kaylee shoved the words out fast as light.
Wash sagged into the chair, relieved, "Jayne will just bring a good suit to you Kaylee."
"There's more." She sighed.
"I knew she was going to say that!" Wash growled at his dinosaurs.
"There's a skinny fissure runnin two feet or so from the main engine support to the rivets at the aft plating. I foamed it with sealant when I came aboard, then when the Cap'n zonked out. I foamed it again when he left. I'm outta foam now. We both know if that door opens again whole pod's gonna pop." Kaylee spoke slowly, so the words had time to sink in.
"He's gonna kill you." Wash breathed. The Shepherd placed his hand on Wash's shoulder, squeezing slightly. Wash nodded and mouthed the word bad.
Kaylee laughed. "There's time for a genius plan. I got atmo for another couple hours and there's no sign of bubblin. I found a torch and some scrap … I might be able to-"
"Boil the damn foam and pop it yourself." Wash leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand.
"Is the Shepherd got the book yet?" Kaylee changed the subject.
"I'm going right now, Kaylee."
"Cap'n gets upset at dawdlin mechanics, Shepherd. Best you remember that." Kaylee teased but the man was already clanging down the stairs toward her bunk.
"Wash?" Kaylee's voice was a harsh whisper.
"Yeah?" Wash twirled one of the dinos by its tail.
"Don't be - I just couldn't figure out how to tell him. He was all bloodied and that knot kept looking worse and he kept dreamin of sorrowful stuff…."
"I know that sound, Kaylee." Wash tossed the dino on the console as Jayne stomped up the stairs. "I'm not mad."
"Tell Kaylee I'm on my way." Jayne waved his large hand at Wash, barely pausing in the doorway.
"Might want to hold off on that for a minute." Wash spun the wheel into a locked position and got to his feet.
"I'll be right back, Kaylee. Don't go flying off anywhere." Wash snapped off her laughter and walked around Jayne. "Come on. You can watch Mal gut me."
Jayne couldn't help it. He grinned, "Really?"
---oooo---
"Kaylee, this is a mighty fine book you've created." Shepherd's voice was steady as a well-tended engine across the squawk box.
"It'll do for learnin. You got any questions?" Kaylee rubbed her eyes. Serenity and her crew needed her, she could bawl and howl later.
"More than a few." His self-mockery was soothing.
"Shoot them at me." Kaylee shouldered the blankets closer. She kept the flashlight pointed at the foam sealing the fissure and the atmo going but she'd turned off the lights and left off the heat. Buying time for a genius plan, she hoped.
"How long have you been working on this?" She could hear him turning pages. "There must be over two hundred pages."
Kaylee had not expecting such a question. "Uh, see, I started the book when Cap'n fussed about me knowing more than he did about his boat. Been working on it for three years now. The envelopes got lists of all I done and what still needs doing."
The first time Mal had locked his jaw and said, "I need that in Captain Dummy Talk" she had been on Serenity six weeks. His anger had scared her. Till she realized he was fearing she was gonna flit off like she come aboard: chasing some pretty boy in tight pants. Couldn't blame him for thinking that or put into words the heartening he wouldn't believe. So she set about it by working on the Captain Dummy Book.
It seemed silly now, but she'd been starving at seventeen. Ready for life to be something besides waiting on work that didn't much come. There had to be more than waiting for crumbs to drift into her lap if she sat still enough and minded her manners. Maybe the crumbs wouldn't drift away if you flew with them…. Mal had given her the means to fly, to take her life, 'stead of waiting on it to notice her. And she weren't sorry, not one blessed day had she been sorry. The book had been her childish notion of giving back some of what he gave her. It would be something giving others the means to keep flying.
The Shepherd's voice interrupted Kaylee's wandering thoughts, scorching her face when he spoke so reverently. "I promise to take care of this precious gift, Kaylee."
"Just take care of Serenity Preacher." Kaylee leaned back against the not very warm, but very ugly engine and waited, patient as she could.
---oooo---
"I'm gonna kill her!" Mal was pushing from the scrawny exam bed, shoving Simon's gun hand away.
"If you don't keep still, Captain, I am going to dope you." Simon set the gun down on the tray, so Mal would see it was handy.
Mal rubbed his eyes but he was still enough for the doc to resume his weaving. The Shepherd, a book under his arm and a circuit board in hand, stuck his head in the infirmary and gestured for Jayne to follow him.
"Whatcha doing with that?" Mal raised his head but didn't move another muscle. Not so long ago, Simon had doped Jayne, landing him on the deck face first and oblivious. Mal wouldn't put it past Simon to do it to him.
"Jayne and I are going to install the port balance pin and board while you come up with a genius plan." Shepherd nodded at everyone.
Like a reluctant schoolboy, Jayne followed the Shepherd. "We are?"
"Got the lesson book right here." Shepherd Book patted the chubby green book under his arm. Mal watched their boots disappear up the stairs through the infirmary window.
"Wash?" Mal sighed and shifted, restless on the excuse for a pillow.
"Right here, Mal."
"Don't leave her alone." Mal closed his eyes.
Simon glanced up at the monitors on the wall. His concern was eased by the readings and he kept working.
Wash brushed his hand across Zoe's before leaving the infirmary.
"Zoe?" Mal's voice was fading.
"Yes, sir?" She moved closer, watching the Captain's face relax toward sleep.
"It's your turn to come up with the plan." He whispered.
"Of course, sir." Zoe glanced at Simon who shrugged.
"He's lost a lot of blood." The doctor said, "No skull fracture, just concussed. He'll be fine in a couple days."
"Don't got a couple days doc." Mal's slurred words drifted to a snore.
"He's right." Zoe sighed.
"We'll just have to come up with something then." Simon turned off the weaver and clipped the dangling threads. "Kaylee's got faith in everyone on this boat. Don't imagine you'll let her down."
Zoe nodded, "Let me know when he wakes up." She went to talk with Wash and figure out what they had to work with.
Simon cleaned up his infirmary, observing the Captain twitching against exhausted sleep. Dimming the lights, Simon left the restless man. It was time for River's next med and she was probably hiding. It was easier to get River to come out when Kaylee looked for his sister. Kaylee could convince River the med was just some thing to hurry up and take before the next game.
Simon glared at River's empty room. "I couldn't have been a little nicer?" He sank to River's bed. "I am a boob."
River popped from her closet. "Ha! Found you!"
Simon jumped up, hugging his sister as she danced from her hiding spot to him. River's smile was worth being a boob for.
---oooo---
Shepherd Book was elbow deep in wiring and Serenity's innards. The circuit board – once they'd found it - slid out without effort. It had been simple to disconnect. The balance pin itself, had popped into place with ease. Replacing the circuit board was not going as well.
"Have you read this?" Jayne was squatting beside the Preacher, snickering.
"Some." Book sighed, trailing wires across his palm, trying to remember which color was assigned to which port on the board.
"Listen to this," Jayne read slowly, announcing each word with a breath gobbled here and there without regard for the punctuation. "Standing on the balls of your naked feet, place your left palm, fingers toward the bridge, on the housing while you rest your right hand on the center support. When Serenity is humming like a satisfied woman, you can feel the rhythm all the way up your spine. The hairs on the back of your head should rise up like the morning after and your knees should tingle as your toes curl into the deck like they can't help keeping pace with her…. When her rhythm is off, the vibrations will create shivers up to your elbow, throbbing with the energy. Your lower belly will tighten to the point of pain and your ears will feel warm, the heat will travel down to…." Jayne choked on his laughter. "It gets sweatier with each page. Mal ever reads this he's gonna need-"
"Give me that book!" The Preacher snatched it from Jayne. "I need to see the diagram on the board."
"Need me a cold shower." Jayne groaned and wiped sweat from his forehead. "Best be careful, you might be facin more temptation than ya can handle."
"Kaylee was just trying to put her understanding of Serenity's workings into words the Captain would understand." Book plugged in two of the six wire leads.
"Well, if he can't understand it, I sure can! Never knew mechanicin was a sexin vocation." Jayne slapped the Preacher on the shoulder. "She's been out here in the black for three years. For all her gorram cheeriness and entertaining River – she ain't no kid. Mal might notice that someday."
Book frowned and plugged in the third wire. "Maybe."
"If he ever reads this he'll notice." Jayne snorted.
Book sighed and looked up at Jayne intending to chastise him, but didn't. Jayne wasn't mocking Kaylee or the Captain. He was just enjoying the fact he understood this nature of the 'verse - without someone talking down to him or 'explaining' it. The Shepherd went back to work, asking the Lord to forgive him for being surprised by Jayne yet again….
Jayne reached over and plugged the last two wires in, "She draws the blue goes here and the orange there. 'The board is never marked right.' It says – she underlined never, must be important huh?"
"Must be." The Shepherd flipped a couple pages and studied on what Kaylee wrote. "All right, let's figure out how to slide it back in and reset before Wash comes down here again. That man nags without mercy."
Jayne leaned back against the engine, pondering on something. Book didn't rush him. The big man would come out with his thoughts when he felt like it, or not.
Jayne rubbed his jaw. "She meant Mal to find this book after she was boxed up dead. Don't reckon that's right. Do you?"
The Preacher's head snapped up.
"Ha! You already thought of it." Jayne leaned forward, his whisper indicating he was willing to conspire some genius mischief. "Whatcha gonna do?"
"Nothing." Book looked away.
"Nothin?" Jayne sank to his ass, clearly disappointed.
"Nothing that the Good Lord doesn't lead me to." Book drawled out, then laughed as Jayne's grin reignited.
"Can I watch the Good Lord's leadin?" Jayne elbowed the Preacher.
"Anyone can, Jayne. Anyone can." The Shepherd laughed and they returned to studying Kaylee's book.