Title: Explanations
Series: Crazy's rescue mission
Author: Sevangel
Disclaimer: Not mine
Rating: PG-13
FYI: This story is also coming to an end. Probably only a chapter more (for the birth of the Washburn baby) and maybe an epilogue. I've got a couple new fic ideas but I refuse to start any more stories until I finish at least a good amount of the ones I have going on right now. Thankfully, New day, this, Heart of Gold, and let it flow are within their last five chapters.
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"What can I do to help?" Kaylee asks Amber and Connie as they fix breakfast.
"If you can set the table, that would be great." Amber replies, nodding her head to the pile of plates and silverware sitting on the counter. "There's also coffee and juice if you want to carry that too."
"Okay." Kaylee grabs the plates and carries them to the large table across the room. She ain't ever seen a table this big and is amazed why a man who lives by himself most of the time would need this much space. She smiles cheerfully at Mal's ma and the man whose house they're stayin' in when she sees them sitting down talking quietly at the table.
"You're Kaylee, right?" Thelma asks.
"Yeah." Kaylee replies. "How'd you know?"
"Mal mentioned you in one of his letters." Thelma says. "You know where he is?"
"No." Kaylee replies. "Cap'n keeps to himself when he gets in one of his broody moods. Bout the only ones he'll talk to are Zoe or Nara, and with Nara, that's mostly just them yellin' at each other. He ain't gonna come in till he's good and ready."
"Talkin' bout me, little Kaylee?"
Kaylee spins around with a bright and perky smile on her face. "Sure am, cap'n."
"Whatcha wanna go and do that for?" Mal asks.
Kaylee shrugs and leans up to kiss his cheek. "Cause I love my cap'n."
Mal just rolls his eyes and takes a seat at the table.
"I'm gonna go help get breakfast on the table then I'll get the rest of the crew." Kaylee says.
Mal drums his fingers on the table, refusing to look up at his mother.
"Malcolm, stop that." Thelma orders.
"Sorry ma." Mal mutters.
"Son, I still want to know what's going on." Paul says.
"Ain't discussin' none of it till everyone else is here." Mal replies.
As he says it, the McGiggins group wanders in, Cole and John carrying the children in. They sit down at the opposite end of the table that Mal is sitting on, the children between the two men.
"There ain't no need to look so antsy." Mal comments.
"After what we saw yesterday, I believe there is." Cole glares back. "In fact, you haven't given us one reason to trust you not to hurt us…"
"I don't kill children." Mal interrupts angrily.
"But you will kill anyone else?" Paul asks. "Cause that's what it seems like."
"I do what I gotta do to survive." Mal replies. "Nothin' more, nothin' less."
"Sir?"
Mal turns around to see Zoe and Wash approaching, Zoe's hand resting on her swollen belly. "Zo, you alright?" Mal jumps to his feet, worry covering every line of his body. "You ain't bout to…it's too gorram early, still gotta…"
"I'm fine, sir." Zoe interrupts with a small smile. "I was just worried on you."
"Fine." Mal replies. "Always am."
Zoe just gives him a look and sits down. "Thelma."
"Zoe." Thelma smiles softly at her.
"You two know each other, wifey?" Wash asks, plopping down onto the chair next to Zoe.
"Met right after the war." Zoe replies. "Stopped by here for a bit goin' out to look for work. Mal found that heap of junk we live on a few weeks later."
"Serenity ain't a heap of junk." Kaylee sets a large basket of biscuits on the table and looks at Zoe with a hurt look. "She's a beauty."
"Now, Kaylee, I love Serenity as much as you." Mal replies. "But she ain't actually considered a beauty."
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." A soft voice says. The table turns to look at the dark haired girl being carried in by the big merc.
"Huh?" Kaylee looks at River with a confused expression.
"You find Serenity attractive because you understand her and how she runs." River clarifies. "Most people don't which is why they see her as junk instead of the beauty that you see."
"I don't understand how she works but I still see her as beauty." Mal says. "How do you explain that, little assassin?"
"A man in love doesn't see the flaws of his intended." River replies. "Also, you're strange."
Kaylee giggles at the affronted look Mal's face.
"Don't think you should be callin' people strange, little girl." Mal growls.
"Mei-mei, are you harassing the captain?" Simon steps into the dining room, Book and Inara right behind him.
"Yes." River replies, smiling at her brother.
"Jayne, can you please set her down?" Simon asks. "I need to examine her knee."
Jayne sets River on her feet, his big hand bracing her back.
Simon squats down and pulls up the bottom of her skirt. "It's bruising but that's actually a good thing." He comments. "That's mean it's healing. Does it hurt?"
"Pain is relative." River replies with a shrug.
"Mei-mei." Simon says.
"It hurts." River admits. "But I will be fine. Right now, I am just hungry."
"You ain't the only one." Mal says. "How bout we eat then we can discuss what ever needs discussin'."
"Fine." Paul agrees and looks at Book. "You're a Shepard, correct?"
"Yes." Book agrees.
"Would you like to say the blessing then?" Paul asks.
Mal opens his mouth to protest.
"Not your home." River whispers. "You do not have the authority to object."
Mal grits his teeth but doesn't say anything.
The table bows their heads, all except for Mal who sits back defiantly. After the prayer is over, the large dining room is silent except for the clatter of bowls as items are passed around.
"That was weird." Kaylee comments. "Though you do give a good prayer, Book."
"He doesn't normally pray before meals?" Paul asks.
"Naw, against cap's rules." Kaylee replies. "Book's gotta keep his preachin' to himself."
"Why's that, son?" Thelma asks.
"Shepard's a passenger." Mal replies. "He's welcome to his believes but I ain't havin' them pushed onto my crew. They wanna listenin' to him preach, he's gotta room."
"I didn't raise you that way." Thelma says.
"Things change, ma." Mal replies. "People change."
Paul pokes at his eggs, trying to figure out how the man sitting in front of him developed from the fresh-eyed, faith-having kid he used to be.
"You shouldn't blame yourself." River cocks her head at Paul, a thoughtful look on her face. "While your influence on the kid was large, it didn't turn him into the man he is. That can only be blamed on his life experiences."
"What?" Paul gasps, feeling like she just read his mind.
"And you might have talked him into enlisting, you didn't force him." River adds. "That was a choice he made on his own."
"She's a reader." Mal explains between mouthfuls of the delicious food.
"That's impossible." John protests. "There is no proof that readers even exist and no way to proof that their 'predictions' are nothing more than confidences."
"He's a psychologist." River explains. "A very good one actually and did a thesis on whether the existence of readers is scientifically able to happen."
John's mouth drops open. "How did…"
"She read you." Mal interrupts. "Ain't that right, little assassin?"
"No, actually I read his thesis after it was published." River replies. "It was very well written although some of the things you claim as unable to happen have actually occurred."
"That was published before I graduated from medical school." John says. "Which was almost twelve years ago; you couldn't have been more than 7 or eight."
"I was six, actually." River replies. "It was a reading assignment that Simon was given."
"I remember that now." Simon says. "It was very interesting and theory you had that removing someone's amygdala would change their perceptions and ability to handle emotions is correct."
"How do you know that?" John asks.
"Because I don't have one." River states. "It was removed 624 days ago."
"I have the scans, if you don't believe me." Simon says off John's skeptical look. "They're on the boat."
"Why would somebody remove that portion of her brain?" Cole asks. "What would be the purpose?"
"And it looks like we're gonna be discussin' this long before we was supposed to." Mal says. "Well, doc, you wanna start the story, bout how you're all smart and all? Hell, I'll do it for ya. Doc here is a boy genius. Done graduated from his medical class in the top 3 percent or some other go'se like that. He was a surgeon…"
"Trauma surgeon." River corrects.
"Yeah, what she said." Mal says. "On Osiris. But as gorram smart as he's supposed to be, River here makes him look like an idiot child, I believe were his exact words. Seems she can do just bout anything her little minds sets out to do and do it as easy as we can breathe. Now, they needed somewhere to send her, can't have all that brainpower wastin' away and they had the money, so they sent her to the government. Where she was turned into their gorram lab rat until they fixed her into the perfect assassin. Doc got her out bout eight or nine months ago and they've been livin' with us every since."
"We're supposed to believe she's an assassin?" Paul asks with a bark of laughter. "She's just a girl, Mal."
"Remember hearin' bout the man of ours that bought it at his kid's birthday party?" Mal replies.
"Yes." Paul says. "I actually worked with him."
"I killed him." River looks down at her hands. "Didn't want to but the sacrifice had to be made."
"What?" Paul stands up with a shout. "You killed him?"
"She had no choice." Mal defends. "She didn't do him, they were prepared to take out that entire party; a party full of gorram kids."
"How many people have you killed?" Paul asks, staring at the girl in shock.
River shrugs. "I stopped counting after him. I don't know."
"And it ain't just political threats they sent her after." Mal adds. "Done used her as bait to catch child molesters and the like. She was their gorram puppet and when she tried to say no, they tortured her, ain't that right, little assassin?"
"Yes." River says unemotionally.
"You can't be older than 19." Cole comments.
"She's 18." Simon replies. "Barely that."
Paul's fork drops out of his hand. "You were 15?"
River nods.
"And then she was sent after you and said no." Mal looks at Paul. "Got tortured for what was it, mei-mei?"
"43 days." River replies. "They were prepared to do another operation, finish what they started when Simon rescued me."
"You were really supposed to kill me?" Paul asks in disbelief. "I didn't think you were serious."
"A little over a year ago, you were on Sihnon for business." River replies. "You were staying at a penthouse hotel suite that you own and remained there for two weeks. I entered your hotel suite at exactly 7:28am, as you were showering from your two-mile run. I couldn't do it; I had the knife I was to slit your throat with in my hand but I couldn't do it. I returned to the blue hands and told them the mission had been compromised. They took me back to the academy with the intentions of returning to finish the job when I refused."
The blood drains from Paul's face, Thelma tightens her hand around his, and Connie's gasp of shock echoes through the silent dining room.
"You never said you actually came that close." Mal turns to stare at River. "You just said you wouldn't do it."
River shrugs.
"Why?" Paul whispers.
"Mal was not the only soldier you influenced." River replies. "They believed that by killing you along with others of your stature, it would squash the Independent's morale."
"The war has been over for a long time." Paul says. "Our morale was squashed long ago."
"I know their reasons but I won't pretend to understand how they drew the conclusions that they did." River replies. "All the money and power in the verse and they still act like a dog protecting its bone instead of following through on the platform they presented when the idea of unifying the planets was first theorized."
"You didn't support unification?" Paul asks.
Simon snorts. "No, not at all." He says off everyone's looks. "She used to argue with my parent's friends for hours on the subject until our nanny would force her to go to bed.
"No one body of government should be given that much power." River says heatedly. "There should be a system of checks and balances to ensure that no group becomes corrupted, although it is almost impossible not to become corrupted with that much power at your disposal."
"C'mon, baby girl, let's go walk outside or somethin' for you get yourself all worked up." Jayne laughs at the feral expression on her face.
"There was a stream behind the house." River says, smiling softly. "I would like to see if there are fish."
"There's fish." Paul says. "Snakes too so you better be careful."
River's eyes widen and her arms tighten around Jayne's neck. "Jayne, where's Vera?"
"Hangin' up in our bunk where she's supposed to be." Jayne says. "Why?"
"We must go get her." River says, panic evident in her tone.
"What for?" Jayne asks.
"If we are to come across a snake, you are going to shoot it with her." River says, shuddering at the word 'snake'.
"First off, ain't usin' Vera to shoot no gorram snake, that's overkill." Jayne replies. "Second, you're a better gorram shot than me, why can't you just shoot it?"
"Because she'll be to busy screaming and hiding to do anything." Simon says, laughing openly at his little sister.
"You're tellin' me that genius reader turned government assassin is afraid of a gorram snake?" Mal asks with a bark of laughter.
River glares at him. "I can kill you with my brain." Then she's screeching loudly, swatting at Jayne's hand as it trails up her leg. "That was not funny, Jayne Cobb."
"Sure it were." Jayne replies, laughing so hard her almost drops her.
"First the preacher's hair and now this." Zoe comments with a smile. "Seen you shoot five men without lookin' and yet you're afraid the smallest things."
"Snakes are gross." River wrinkles her nose. "And they slither; I find it repulsive. And Book's hair is chaotic although it does explain why he doesn't see the inconstancies in his symbol."
"C'mon, baby girl, I'll protect you from the big, bad, slitherin' snakes." Jayne hefts her up and starts out of the dining room.
"I would feel better if Vera was to accompany us." River says.
"Who's Vera?" Paul asks Mal.
"Jayne's very favorite gun." Mal explains. "Huge thing, could probably blow a hole in a person size of their head."
"She's so different." John comments. "Yesterday, when she fought that other girl she was so mechanical but with him, she's completely different."
"He brings out the girl." Inara says. "He makes her feel safe, probably the only time she really does is when she's with him."
"She's been through more go'se than any person ever should let alone a girl her age." Mal address the table. "Some of it from us cause we couldn't see that it wasn't her choice. She didn't choose to be made into what she is, it was done to her. So yes, I am willin' to kill to protect her and keep them blue handed hundans away from her.."
"It's okay, Malcolm." Paul interrupts. "I get it. I guess hearing about how she was standing in the next room while I showered, with a knife waiting to kill me but couldn't makes me see her in a different light."
"Good." Mal replies.
"Simon, can you give me whatever information you have on the academy she was in?" Paul questions.
"Why?" Simon asks suspiciously.
"Malcolm here isn't the only one to find the whole thing wrong but unlike him, I have enough connections and resources to see how's behind it all." Paul says with a grin. "Been a good, long while since I've cause some trouble for the Alliance; starting to think it's about that time."
Cole rolls his eyes. "This is why there was an assassin sent after you in the first place."
"Probably." Paul agrees. "But what's the point of having all this money and not doing something useful with it?"
Thelma shakes her head but can't keep the smile of her face.
"Sir, I believe we have something to discuss before we lift off." Mal says, eyeing his mother and Paul suspiciously. "Little Kaylee, why don't you and boy genius here help get things cleaned up before we leave. I plan on being back in the black in an hour."
"So soon?" Thelma asks, a little hurt in her voice.
"Ma, we don't know if they'll send a cruiser here to see if anything happened here." Mal replies. "I trust Kaylee's plan but you never know. It's safer if we leave."
Thelma nods, sad that he's leaving without really staying but knowing and understanding her son's need to be in space.
Paul defiantly kisses Thelma softly on the lips before standing up and following Mal out of the dining room.
Mal walks through the house until they're on the front porch. Then he turns to look at Paul with a raised eyebrow and a scowl. "Got somethin' you should be tellin' me?"
"Boy, don't try to act like her mother instead of the other way around." Paul warns. "What goes on between your mother and me is our business."
"I just wanna make sure you ain't usin' her cause she's convient." Mal replies. "Livin' out here, I know it can get lonely, specially with your wife dyin' a few years ago. And I've seen pictures of your wife and my ma, though I love her to death, ain't nothin' like her. Now, I can understand scratchin' an inch and all, man's got needs…" The rest of Mal's statement is cut off when Paul's fist connects with his jaw.
"You worthless piece of shit." Paul shouts. "I can't believe you would think let alone say…why the gorram hell are you laughing?"
"Took you long enough." Mal tests his jaw, grinning at his mentor. "I thought I was gonna hafta come right out and call her a whore just to get a reaction."
"You were testing me?" Paul asks, clenching his fists.
"Yep." Mal grins. "And you past. Congratulations, she's all yours."
"You're psychotic." Paul comments, grinning back. "Gorram, does this make me miss the old times."
"Me too." Mal agrees. "Too damn bad we had to grow up and become responsible, ain't it?"
"Yep." Paul nods. "Too damn bad."
-
"Ma, you didn't carry on this much when I was goin' off to war." Mal complains, brushing her hands aside. "I'm a grown man and can take care of myself."
River snorts. "With the help of a 6 person crew."
"Is that a snake?" Mal asks, pointing behind her.
River squeals and jumps back. When she realizes he's just teasing her, she lightly kicks him in the back of the head.
"Hey now." Mal growls, rubbing the back of his head.
"You shouldn't tease." River says.
Mal rolls his eyes.
"Well, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but thank you River, for not killing me." Paul says.
River beams up at him. "It was my pleasure…well technically it was my torture but you're welcome."
"C'mon, baby girl, we got some catchin' up to do." Jayne says and then grunts when River elbows him. He takes one look at the three little kids watching them and continues. "On our sleep that is."
Mal once again rolls his eyes. "Just go and I swear you two best not spend another three days straight in your bunk. Chores don't get done on their own."
Jayne just waves and picks River up, running out of the bay with her balanced in his arms.
"Well, sir, you best take good care of my ma or I might just sic River on you." Mal warns. "And that girl don't even hafta look to shoot dead between the eyes."
Paul pulls Thelma closer to his side and kisses her forehead. "I will." He assures him. "And we've been doing some traveling lately so the next time we get out, I'll wave you and maybe we can meet up."
Mal raises an eyebrow, a little shocked that his ma is traveling but nods. "I'd like that."
"And Simon, thanks for the information." Paul says. "I'll be sure to put it to good use."
"That's good to hear." Simon replies. "It was nice to meet all of you even if it wasn't under the best of circumstances."
"You too." Thelma says. "You make sure to keep by boy all healthy; he's accident prone."
"I know." Simon agrees. "It's a little hard to miss."
"I ain't accident prone." Mal protests. "Just sometimes have a little trouble with bein' shot or stabbed."
"Don't worry." Simon assures the somewhat worried looking Thelma. "I've grown prepared for Mal's little 'accidents'."
Mal glares at Simon before stepping forward and gently kissing his mother's forehead. "Bye, ma."
"Bye son." Thelma whispers. "Take care of yourself."
Mal nods and steps back. Then with a set face, he hits the button to close the bay door. "Get us off this rock, Wash." Mal orders over the com once the doors shut. "We've got us some crime to do."
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