Author's Note: Okay, I know this is short, and I'll tell you why that is. Because action (as in fighting, sheesh) is coming up, I hate writing action, and I can't find a way around it. Nor do I know specifically how it's going to go. And I know it'll take me forever, so I'm posting this to tide whoever's reading this over. I hope you like it, short as it may be.
Thanks for the feedback, too. :-)
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"Much obliged." Mal said into the vid camera on the bridge, where he stood with Buffy. It was 11:30 in the morning, and outside the ship was the bustle of Eavesdown Docks.
"It's always a pleasure accommodating you and yours, Mal," The tiny bit eccentric Mr. Universe said from his compound, throwing a grin Buffy's way, "especially when they're as comely as the new, 'Miss Dawn Rosen-Giles LaVelle.' How do you find such pretty out there on the border?" He then called over his shoulder to his bot, "But of course, you're the prettiest in all the lands, Lenore."
Buffy visibly shuddered for personal reasons, and couldn't even make a Poe joke. And she was thinking she should've stuck to a simpler alias.
"Yeah, well," Mal cleared his throat, wanting to end this, "we gotta be off..."
"Don't we all? Busy, busy, busy, never a moment to rest." Mr. Universe sighed. "Vigilance does have its price. Keep your eyes open and your mind free, my friend." He advised, ending their communication with a wink.
"Seems like a guy with one phobia too many." She said to her captain, once the screen was blank. "Or just a stir-crazy, pervert hermit."
"Man can skitter from his own shadow and have tiny, robot younglings, long as he keeps his end." Mal removed the now "legit" ident card from the nav computer's reader, which Mr. Universe hacked into to upload the data. "He owed us for a thing, so this was an even trade of services. Had mine since I first took Serenity to air, and Alliance ain't never gotten wise." He handed it over. "Means if Badger meets you and sees all's in order? He won't have cause to alert the Feds."
She followed in step with him down the corridor, pocketing the ident card. They had a stash of blanks from which hers came--black market wholesale, Jayne said. "Just so I'm totally clear, the last time you took a job from...Badger," She would've chosen "Jackal," but whatever, "he set you up."
"Last twice, in actual fact." Mal amended. "First time we had some competition, but the job was real enough. Second was more your standard, out'n'out ambush."
"Uh huh. And before you went to the ambush, you dropped him miles from anywhere, as payback for screwing you over that first time." She said, as they turned to go down the stairs to the cargo bay, her moving behind.
"I was annoyed a touch." He said, looking at the largeness of his bay and never ever getting tired of it. One the middle landing, before the last staircase to the floor, he turned to look at her. "And it was funny."
They walked down the final staircase. "Which probably pissed him off, which means he'll probably kill you as soon as--" Buffy was about to finish.
"Which's why you're playin' a part." He reminded, completing the descent to the bay floor. "If ya can't handle it, best tell me now."
"I didn't say that." Buffy frowned, slightly offended. "I was only after clarity. Of back-story."
"And?"
"I'm crystal. Sir."
He nodded at her, and she joined Jayne in the center of the bay, as the mercenary loaded his sniper rifle. Seeing her, he removed a blade from his belt.
"Have a dislike of knives, too?" Was his way of offering her the weapon, even though he still had his doubts, elbow-breaker or no.
"Nope." Unsheathing it from the protective holder, she felt the considerable weight in her hand. "Kinda...big, isn't it?" Unnecessarily so.
"I like 'big.'"
She didn't say a word.
When Mal entered the common area, River was on the couch, Simon arguing with her. Noticing the captain's entrance, she approached him with a determined look he wasn't used to. He might have taken a step back. Might have. He'd never cop to it if questioned.
"I can chase the weasel's family from the burrow before its bristles rise." River informed, as if that was supposed to mean something to him. "I'm going with her," She added, angry at herself when she saw that it meant nothing.
"Persephone's Core, girl, you know that. Wrong person's eye rests on ya too long, and hurt won't trail far behind, I expect." He didn't know if logic would get through to her, but it was all he had. "And Jayne's already--"
"He'll be loud and stupid." She interrupted, dismissing the agreed upon plan. "If he doesn't come into the burrow too, it's going to eat us all anyway--can't adapt to change." Her gaze was knowing. Since Early, he'd thought about this but pushed it aside because of the danger; he wasn't desperate enough yet. "But we'll float...like mice with wings. Promise." She smiled like a little girl about to have her way.
"River, no. Absolutely not." Simon objected when Mal's opportunity passed, beginning to sound like a broken record. His sister mouthed his words as he said them, mocking his standard response. "It's just...the risk is much too...and you..." 'Need protection,' he thought, producing a glower from her. "There's no reason you have to leave the ship. Buffy will be fine, mei-mei."
"Why wouldn't she be?" Kaylee asked concernedly, her eyes finding River as she came down the steps beside the infirmary, in front of Zoe.
"I'm going." River said again, looking back at Kaylee. "You can take care of me later, Simon. It's okay." She turned to Mal. "Right, Captain?"
She didn't wait for an affirmative; she just went into the cargo bay. Kaylee followed after, repeating her question, "Why wouldn't she be? Plan's flawless. Ain't it?"
Simon was silently pleading with Mal. But the ex-sergeant had to agree that not having Jayne walk through the door with he and Zoe would make Badger edgy. River proved to him that she could focus when it became absolutely necessary, and provided she was as capable as she claimed, changing the plan could only help.
"It's her choice." He spoke to his medic, holding his hands up. "Your sister's her own person, Doctor. A little disordered, won't deny that, but sometimes I can't help thinkin' maybe it's us that're the crazy ones." His hands found Simon's shoulders. "Wouldn't concern myself if I were you--said she's just gonna float."
"Like a mouse. With wings." Simon said unhappily, wondering that only seemed to bother him.
"See there? Rest easy now." Mal smiled, leaving him to walk beside Zoë into the cargo bay.
The war vets stood a few feet removed from the trio of females--Kaylee, Buffy, and River--catching each other up on the altered scenario. When the girlfriends kissed and exchanged words of comfort and assurances, the psychic's eyes closed like their feelings were drifting over her. There was also an understanding between Buffy and River that Mal couldn't quite figure.
"You sure it's wise, sir? Trusting River to this?" Zoe asked, looking on with him.
"Well, you know, I looked hard, but none of the places in the middle are really that attractive." He said, and she very nearly smirked. "She may be broke, but coddlin' ain't what she needs. She could use a little trust." His voice lowered. "I gotta know, Zoe. Cause if she can be a benefit, and she's willing? Mind reader's a nice advantage to have."
"And if she gets caught?"
Mal frowned. "We're...there'll be..." He couldn't come up with a good reply. "Try to think positive." Now she smirked. "What about you? Never seen you accept someone fast as you have Buffy. Hell, it took six months 'fore your hand stopped going to your holster every time Wash entered a room."
"She has my respect. She was an asset back on Dakota, she follows orders, she's been good for Kaylee, and she hasn't tried to kill anyone. And whatever her past is, it's not seeming to interfere with us." Zoe corrected, and explained why. "After today, if she comes through, and we all survive? She might get my trust."
"But still--" He wasn't letting go of his "Wash" example.
"Different circumstance, sir." She foresaw his counter, addressed it, and moved on. "You think Book'll find what he's looking for this time?"
"Guess we'll know if we survive." Mal quipped her own words back at his first mate, though he hoped Book was unsuccessful.
The preacher still intended to leave, and had been out and about for hours now, likely spending time with his fellow preachers and trying to learn whether or not there was some poor, lost border community in need of one. Then he would be gone, too. Same as Inara, like they were never here.
Wash was just now returning with supplies aboard their new, hover-mule, bought easily from the Lassiter profits. Once they convinced Fanty and Mingo to fence it. Mal had begun going to them on Beaumonde for work, something that was sure to be another aggravation for Badger, as he and the twins were competitors. Mal would've gone to them again, but the arrangement was that they contacted him when there was work to be had, which there wasn't.
So instead he had to go beg Badger for scraps. Or, typically when in this position he would. Perhaps though, the tide could change for the better. Depending upon Buffy and River. His gut told him it was wise, even if everything else didn't.
He and Zoe went to her husband, their faces expectant. "There's a guy watching the docks." Wash confirmed for them. "And I can't be a hundred percent sure, but I coulda sworn somebody was watching the whole time. Everywhere I went." He pulled down the back of his collar, exposing his neck. "Are they standing up? 'Cause they feel like they're standing up." His wife rubbed his back comfortingly. "I promise never to complain about staying with the ship again...that deeply unsettled even the nerves of the All Mighty."
Everyone else in the bay had gathered around them, and Mal spoke to Kaylee, who held her girlfriend close. "I know I said otherwise, but that's why I couldn't have you two off shopping, dong ma?" His eyes shifted to Buffy. "She'da been spotted comin' off this boat, and blown any shot at surprise."
"Oh yeah," The pilot remembered, talking to Buffy, "I didn't know what to buy exactly, so I went for 'functional' and 'unisex.'" He spoke of the clothes he'd purchased for her. "Hope it's all, uh," Cough, "...appropriate." Embarrassed, he didn't know how to finish that.
Had to do with being male.
She smiled at him. "Thanks, Wash."
"Jayne, you're with me and Zoe." Mal told his mercenary, who was plainly thrown by this new wrinkle in the setup, but said nothing. And to his secret weapons, "We hafta sneak you and River past the--"
Hearing the "R-word" moved Jayne to speech. "We're takin' her?"
"She's taking herself." River clarified for him. "And the ones underneath." Then she stared impatiently at Kaylee.
Kaylee, nor anyone else, could work out what she expected, so Buffy took a stab. "Is there a hatch or," She tapped her foot on the floor, "some way out down there?"
The mechanic had what in Sunnydale would've been called a "duh" moment, and then fetched the keypad that sat on the crate at her side, careful not to tangle anybody up in its wire. Wash caught on too, and reversed the Mule. Pushing a button, Kaylee opened the first set of "belly doors," then the second, showing the few feet between the ground and Serenity. The sounds of Persephone were loud.
River wasted no time in sitting and swinging her legs over the side. "Count down from nine-hundred."
Simon came into the bay just in time to see her dropping down. Buffy copied her, but not before saying, "Be back soon," to a worried Kaylee, and telling her to close up once she was flat to the ground.
"Good plan," Mal said quietly, newly confident. Then to his crew, "C'mon, let's give Badger's man something to look at while they get clear." He, Jayne, and Zoe started for the ramp. "And one'a you better be counting."
"Why for?" Jayne asked, still short a card or two.
"Because when zero strikes," His captain said, "that's when River wants us to make a path toward our destination." Beat. "I think."
Hushed grumble, "Girl's givin' orders?"
That left mechanic, doctor and pilot by themselves, and for the first time, Kaylee understood what Simon and Wash felt every time the person they loved stepped foot off the boat. Not that what she felt for Buffy was the same--certainly not in Simon's case--but three weeks of dates at the dining table and kissing and holding were getting her closer. Unfortunately, sex wasn't any closer, however.
As soon as it looked like it was about to happen, Buffy got scared or cold feet or something. One second they'd be all over each other and then it would stop. Shyness wasn't the cause, inexperience wasn't the cause, lack of wanting either...whatever the cause, Buffy didn't trust her with it. She kept waiting for her to, but as much as Buffy opened up, she hadn't yet let go. And that hurt more and more.