Chapter Two
The Waking World

"Be near!"

River!

This was the last thing that Cira was left with, the command ringing in her ears as she was forcefully ejected from the dream. There was a quick, sinking feeling and Cira could almost swear that she felt herself lie down into her prone body, as if coming back from a trip—she woke up an instantly, covered in sweat and feeling chill. Her chest heaved up and down, gulping for air like a falling person grasping for purchase.

"Hey baby, up for a mornin' rut?" Cira closed her eyes, and fought down the urge to vomit, as well as fought the pounding that felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to the soft meats behind her eyes. Wouldn't have this problem if you didn't get pissed out of your head every week or so, she thought to herself, brutally brought back to reality by the massive hangover and the groping paws of whatever sorry excuse for a man she had taken to bed the night before.

"Get out of my bed. Then get out of my quarters."

"Aw, now that weren't the tune you was singin' last night, no si-"

She had leaned over, and reached under the bed, feeling along the bottom of the mattress. There was a specially crafted clutch that held a small (but ever-so-serviceable) .38 snub-nosed revolver. Sure wasn't intimidating to look at the thing, being a 'snubbie' as it were: had next to no barrel, and could hardly be more than 5 inches long. Sucker packed one mean punch though, and it was nice and easy to conceal.

"I said, get the gorram hell out of my quarters, you stinkin' drift-trash," the woman growled, her strangely pale hair spreading softly across her pillow—with the man beside her trying to play with it like an oaf. She didn't open her eyes when she pointed the gun out at him—specifically because she didn't want to know what piece of goushi she had managed to drag up from the dredges of the 'verse this time. She held it to his gut, hoping he'd not be fool enough to under-estimate how effective the cute little gun was: effective enough to tear six nasty holes in his personal places, surely. Mostly, she hoped he wouldn't cause her a fuss because she didn't feel like cleaning it up.

"You a crazy sonuvabitch whore!" Of course, this was followed by some other choice expletives, which Cira largely ignored. The man crawled out of bed so fast that he nearly tripped, and hastily pulled on his clothes. There was the dull, barely noticeable padding sound of something falling out of the man's pocket, but he didn't seem to notice as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Dropped his wallet, Cira thought. Not that she'd pick it up. Stupid hundanprobably didn't have half a platinum to his name, let alone in his cheap synthetic wallet made to look like actual cow leather. And even if he did, she weren't a low-grade whore.

She might have been a lot of things.
But that weren't one of them.

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Malcolm Reynolds spun on his heel, and drew his gun as he turned—he didn't know what he could have been expecting, and he wasn't surprised to find that he was aiming at nothing. There was no one behind him, except for River, who was sitting on the floor where she had been for the past couple of hours.

"What is it?" Wash asked sleepily from his seat. "What the gui do you think you're doing?" He became more serious when he realized that Mal had drawn his gun.

"Nothing… s'nothing." But was it nothing? He slowly holstered his gun. "Coulda swore someone was standing there just a tick ago. Must be fallin' asleep."

"No, not falling asleep. Waking up." River offered gently. "There was someone standing there. She knows you, but you don't know her."

Mal was settling back down now. He had started to drift off for a second, and his tired mind had played tricks on him, thinking about Jayne and Ariel, and on a happier note: all the money they now had to spend. Might as well humor the girl though. "Right, and so how might this Miss know me then?"

"Serenity, the Battle of."

A strong visual change came over the captain, and he reached a hand out to steady himself, gripping the back of Wash's chair. His knees felt weak at once, and he didn't know what it was—of course Serenity was a tetchy subject for him any day, but to hear the girl speak of it like… like she actually knew about it, that was a sight disturbing.

"You all right Cap?"

"Yeah. M'good." Mal watched as River set her head back against the wall she was leaning against, and closed her eyes. The frail thing began to hum, and it seemed to grate against and soothe his nerves at the same time.

"Why don't you go get some rest? We'll be docking at Gianna in a few hours."

"Yeah. Sounds good." Mal left the bridge and headed towards his bunk, and the sound of River's humming followed him all the way there, and into his short, vague dreams.

Chinese-English Translations.
Pronunciation refers to how it has been pronounced by the actors on the show.

goushi: pronounce 'go-suh', meaning shit or dog excrement.
hundan: pronounced 'hwoon dahn', meaning bastard or jerk.
gui: pronounced 'guay', meaning hell.