Title: Very Weighty 'Xaminations
author: Jmaria
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Joss made em, I just play with them.
Summary: A stowaway finds herself in Serenity's cargo hold. Questioning and threatening ensue.

Very Weighty 'Xaminations

"Are you sure this is gonna work, Mal?" Wash asked, nervously glancing down at the list of prepared interrogation questions the Captain had picked. Before today, Wash hadn't even known half of this junk and he was pretty sure Mal hadn't either.

"Can ya just can it? Damn girl said she's from the gorram past, Wash. Everybody's just on-board with that?"

"Far be it for me to speak reason, but could it be the girl is just simply out of her mind?" Inara asked.

"Great, now everybody thinks I'm a nut job. Here I thought high school was hell, but no, turns out that the future is even hellier. I'm here to take your dumb pop quiz," Dawn snapped from the doorway, anger and hurt and a thousand different emotions running across her youthful and overly open face.

"Just sit on down, and we can get to it," Mal shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Karma is such a bitch," Dawn grumbled, thinking that this was almost exactly like hell - being stuck in a spaceship with pop quizzes all the live-long day.

"Let's start with politics, those are always fun," Mal grumbled. "Maybe there was a war, where'd it take place?"

"Now what year would this be, and are all your questions gonna be this dumb, dumb ass?" Dawn asked sweetly

"Oh, she's so quaint, Mal, I say we keep her," Wash laughed.

"Perhaps I can give you a general description and you can match it to the stupid questions on your list. Quick rundown of 2005, until October 17th, which was the night I'm assuming I slipped through time and space because of Andrew. Right, um, politics were boring and Republicians held the majority in Congress and the House of Representives in the U.S.. Star Wars episode III came out in May, I know because Andrew dragged me to see it three times, wailed like a baby when Darth Vader appeared and bitched on about how it wasn't up to parr with the original trilogy. The guy who played Gilligan passed away. U.S. armed troops were still in Iraq trying to build a democracy. Verified and do I get a gold sticker, teach?" Dawn snapped, taking a deep breath.

"We don't need a test, not anymore anyway," Shepherd Book said, his head bent over what looked like a palm-pilot thing.

"'Xactly what are you sayin', preacher-man?" Mal demanded.

"You see, I've found you in the Ancient history section, Miss Summers."

"Zany question, but it's the obits, isn't it?" Dawn's voice shook, but her eyes remained steady.

"Afraid so," Book said gently, showing the captain the record. Before him sat a dead person, but then it weren't the first time.

"Before - I want to know what they say I died of, if there was a body and when I -" Dawn choked out, the last bit of hope of getting home she had fading away.

Clearly, the girl was off her axle, which was why the doc had doped her again. Damn girl didn't seem to care, and Mal wasn't ready to consider the guilt his mind was ponderin' this very second. Everyone sat around the table, as they had the day before when the girl had been tryin' to explain how she got on Serenity.

"Finger idents match, so does the photo," Simon pointed out.

"Gettin' those things ain't as hard as you seem ta think, doc," Jayne pointed out, their collective minds all slipping to the job on Ariel.

"Having idents that are over five hundred years old aren't as easy to get as newer ones, though," Book added.

"I didn't find any evidence of a surgical procedures, so I -"

"Just believe her? Keen to believe cuz she's pretty and your sister says she's real don't make a whole lotta sway for me, Doc," Mal snapped.

"Labeling her as another Saffron or whatever the hell her name is doesn't hold a lot of sway of your opinion either, Captain," Simon said hotly.

"Maybe we should figure out what to do with her, find her a planet to put her on," Inara interjected.

Now the whole room was looking at the Companion oddly. Only a few hours ago, the woman was clamoring to help and heal this girl, and now she's was making disparaging remarks and all but demanding to get the girl off the boat.

"Perhaps you'll care to tell us what you know, Inara?" Book asked, leaning forward on the table.

"Question, you know something about this little stowaway, 'Nara?" Wash asked, confusion in his eyes.

"Really, what could I know? She claims to be from the past!"

"That's a stallin' tactic, 'Nara," Mal countered, his face livid with anger.

"Until - until she said her name, I didn't know who she was," Inara sighed, looking away.

"Veering off the course, Inara, Why don't you tell us what you know?"

'Xpression crossed her face that Mal'd never seen before, but Inara started talkin' anyway.

"Years ago, back before humans left Earth-that-was, the Companion Guild wasn't known as that and didn't even practice half the things we do now. Zealous historians and girls of extraordinary skill ran a group known in select circles as the Watchers Council."

"Ah, how the mighty slipped inta whorin' -"

"Before this gets into a Mal-Inara-whore-off, can we let her finish the story?" Wash cut Mal's tirade off.

"Course, let her go on about how the brilliant folk adapted."

"Dawn Summers was a key member of this society, helped bring new blood and a fresh change to the organization. Eventually, over the years the group had to adapt again, and from what I know it had a lot to do with this girl's death."

Fear, confusion, and bewilderment crossed all of the faces sitting around the table, well, except for Jayne's. God only knew what was going through the man's head, and most of they time they really didn't want to know.

"Here's the part I can't seem ta wrap my head 'round, Inara," Mal said crossing his arms. "If this girl's dead how in the Sam Hell'd she end up on my boat?"

"Just as she said, through a portal created by her blood," Book answered, sighing heavily as he studied the shocked expression on Inara's face. "Knew a monk on Hera who believed in the old teachings, spoke often of a brotherhood that was nearly wiped out at the start of the second millennium on Earth-that-was. Lived to tell the tales of this order who'd done the impossible. Made the purest energy in the 'verse into a flesh and blood creature. Never really believed a word he said, until the girl in there mentioned being the Key."

"Oh."

Possibilities clouded River's head, swarmed in and out and she heard the pained cries, saw the girl crying and left to bleed. Quick, make it quick, let it flow, let it end. Running, she was always running and sacrificing. Sisters do that for each other.

"Tell me what happened to them, to my family and friends," Dawn said tearfully from the doorway, burrowed in the borrowed sweater Zoe had gotten for her and scaring the crap out of the crew.

"Um, lamby-toes, is that my sweater?" Wash asked, focusing on the least important detail.

"Very nice, pick now to ignore my shock and grief, joker," Dawn snapped.

"When did I become the bad guy, that's Jayne's job!"

"'Xcuse me, I'm sorry to wound your pride, but I just found out that I'm dead and five hundred years in the future, buddy."

"You shouldn't be walking around, the drug could kick in at any moment and -" Simon started to say, but Dawn's eyes were starting to roll back into her head.

"Zany hats, we should all wear -"and then she hit the ground hard.