Chapter 3: Swans and Saviours
The rain thunders on the windows of the bar. Mal settles his glass on the table in front of him and watches Jayne and Kaylee, playing Wash and Zoë at pool. Kaylee leans over to make her shot and Jayne smacks her on the behind.
"Do you mind? You'll mess up my shot," she says pretending to be offended.
Jayne just grins and slings an arm around her shoulder when she comes back to stand against the wall having missed the shot anyway.
Wash lines up his shot carefully.
"Come on little man just hit the ball!"
Wash fumbles and misses, then stands up glaring at Jayne.
Bester is somewhere over the other side of the bar, deep in conversation with a woman. Mal just hopes he won't have to shoo her out of the engine room later on. River sits between Mal and Inara, watching the game as well. Simon was sulking back on Serenity. He was really starting to piss Mal off. Surely Kaylee had forgiven him by now. And if she hadn't, then well she'd better. He wasn't going to put up with Simon like this all the way to Persephone.
Inara sips on her small pink drink. Mal wrinkles his nose. What is that stuff she drinks?
River turns herself and swings her legs over his lap and rests her head against his shoulder. Mal starts in surprise. "River…"
"Very comfortable," she murmurs nestling her head a little deeper against his neck.
Inara smiles.
River sniffs his neck. The others at the pool table have noticed this by now and are standing and watching. Jayne has an undisguised smirk on his face. Kaylee is smiling at him like she thinks its cute or something. River's hair is tickling his face. "I like you. You smell like Serenity. You're a rock to cling on to, won't get swept away here."
"Uhh good." Mal looks weakly to Zoë. Where was Simon when you needed him? Oh yes sulking. This made all this Kaylee's fault.
"Kaylee."
She hands Jayne the pool cue and walks over. "River sweetie I don't think the cap'n appreciates you doing…"
"He likes it."
Inara sniggers and Mal glares at her. River nuzzles her face against his neck a bit more.
He doesn't see the woman Bester's with looking over at him and River with intent in her eyes.
Kaylee and River continue to walk around the area surrounding the docks in the pouring rain. Mal, Jayne, Zoë and Wash are getting on with the job; meeting the contact and stowing the goods back on Serenity. Book is shopping for supplies; Inara is with a client, and Simon stayed on Serenity, with some lame excuse about organising the infirmary.
Bester is getting himself settled in. Kaylee tries not to think about any possible conversations taking place on the ship. Yes she wants Simon to be jealous. But she doesn't want him hearing how she came on to the ship in quite the detail she knows Bester would use. She pulls her hood further round her face and vows to tell him when she gets back. She knows she owes him an apology, for once, and he has suffered enough.
She and River have trailed about the town staring in shop windows at pretty clothes they can never afford to buy, and are now dawdling home along a path that runs beside a wide river.
River leans over the low wall that separates the path from the river. "Like me," she says, staring hard at the raindrops hitting its surface.
Kaylee blinks rainwater from her eyes and nods.
"I was named for the water," River says and throws her head back so the rain hits her face.
Two white swans go sailing lazily up the river catching their attention. Both girls lean forward over the wall.
"Ain't they beautiful?" Kaylee says happily.
River nods and points to one. "A cob. Male. Jayne."
Kaylee stifles a giggle behind her hand. "You're comparing Jayne to a swan?"
"Cob. Jayne Cobb. Under the surface always working hard. Stronger than they look. Can kill you with their wings. Beautiful." River sighs. "Can swim and fly. Escape."
"Uh huh."
River realises that Kaylee doesn't understand. She leans back over the wall. "Happy swans. Mr and Mrs. Cob and Penn," she whispers at the swans. "Cob and Penn. Means I'm a Penn. And swans mate for life."
"We'd better get back River," Kaylee says as the rain gets heavier.
They start walking again.
"Do you love my brother?"
It's so out of the blue that Kaylee stops and stares at her. "Shenme?"
"Do you love him?"
"I…I don't know…I mean…" Kaylee blushes.
"Will you look after him?"
"Why?" Kaylee frowns in confusion at the younger girl. "Simon can take care of himself."
River pushes back her hair which hangs in rat's tails round her face. "He's going to drown. Whatever happens isn't your fault." River wishes she could tell her more. "I'm going for a swim. Behind the dam."
Kaylee feels the crack of the rifle butt then nothing but black.
Jayne finds her laying in the mud.
"Kaylee? Kaylee, Kaylee." He drops to his knees and pulls her head into his lap. There's blood running from a cut on the back of her head. She's got a lump the size of an egg there. He leans over her, trying to feel if she's breathing. He holds his face close to her mouth. There is the faintest whisper of breath on his cheek. He clumsily finds the pulse in her neck. She needs the doc.
"Goushi buru, hitting a girl," he mutters under his breath, pushing a wet strand of hair off her pale face. "You're gonna pay. Kaylee, please hold on."
He scoops her up in his arms and sets off for the ship at a run.
Jayne doesn't leave Kaylee's side much to Simon's irritation as he tries to treat her. Mal too is hovering around the edges of the room, and Simon doesn't have the heart to order them to leave. The looks of sheer worry on their faces are enough to let them stay.
Only the beeping of the monitors breaks the tense silence of the three men in the room.
Outside Inara sits, twisting a cushion from the sofa between her hands. Zoë is pacing up and down. Wash is watching through a window, a stegosaurus in his hands, and repeating, "Come on Kaylee. Wake up. You can have my stegosaurus."
Book is holding his bible to his chest and every so often he looks heavenward, his eyes shut in silent prayer.
Jayne takes one of Kaylee's small hands in his big ones as he sits on the stool to her left side. She seems so little. He remembers crouching, unseen, behind the tiny window when that hwoon dahn fed shot her, and he feels a bit sick. His stomach is rolling. What if she doesn't wake up? What will he do? When he first came aboard Serenity the others trusted him as far as they could throw him, which was not at all. But Kaylee just said "Hi" with the sunniest smile and treated him nice. She stopped him getting lost that first day, showed him his bunk, pointed out her fairy lights with girlish glee, then took him to the dining room and sat him down with a cup of tea. No one except his mother fussed over him that much.
Kaylee please don't die. I swear to God and Buddha and whoever else is up there that I will make them pay. I'll give up all my guns, not Vera though, to let her live. Please don't die Kaylee.
River has been over every inch of her room with her fingers. It's a factory. She can smell the oil in the air. No point screaming. She knew they would hit Kaylee. She's sorry she couldn't tell her. Poor Kaylee.
River lays spread eagled on the floor. The porcupine hunters are coming. The real ones, who wear gloves to handle her; make her quills stand on end. Not the one who manages to stroke her quills flat with his bare hands.
"Needles and pins."
She wouldn't go back. She'd fire her quills out of her body, dress them in red. Her red tin soldier will come. And he'll lead an army to free her. He will part them like the sea of Israel and carry her so her feet don't get wet.
She rolls herself into a little ball on the floor. They will come.
Translation Notes
Shenme? - What?
Goushi buru - lowest of the low
Hwoon dahn – son of a bitch