CHAPTER THREE

Adonis was a backwater little moon, nestled in the innermost part of the border worlds. It was better off than a lot of the border worlds—a lot more trees and lakes than dusty deserts.

Jayne's mama lived on the outskirts of a small town, on a decent-sized farm with a nice little stream in the back. Several huge dogs came lumbering over to greet them as they made their way down the well-worn path toward the house.

The house itself was small and wooden, but it had little friendly touches—ruffled curtains hanging from the windows, a birdbath in the front yard, a porch swing, a flower garden—that made it look very homey, which Kaylee was very quick to point out.

"Aww! Ain't it sweet? There's even birds on this world! Did you grow up here, Jayne?"

"Mostly," Jayne said. He looked more relaxed than Mal had seen him in a good long time, and kept his hand on one of the dogs as they neared the door. It burst open before they reached it, and Jayne's mother was upon them. She pulled Jayne into a hug first, but made her rounds on all of them, spouting words of welcome.

She turned on Mal after she finished greeting Zoe. "And you must be Malcolm Reynolds!" She pulled back from Mal, and he finally got a good look at her. She was younger than he had expected—must've had Jayne pretty young—with brown-and-gray hair and a sturdy build. She had Jayne's blue eyes, but hers had a lot of laugh lines to them. Her hands, when she placed them on Mal's face, were rough and calloused. Hands of a working woman. "I can't tell you how grateful I am, you givin' my Jayne work. And look at you!" She had whirled to Kaylee now, and laid her hand on Kaylee's stomach. "A wee one on the way! Oh, bless your little heart, child, ridin' around on a great big ship in that condition!" She faced Simon. "And you must be the lucky husband?" She turned from Simon to River. "Well, ain't you a cutie!"

"Crazy, more like," Jayne muttered.

"Jayne Cobb! That ain't no way to treat guests!"

"Ma, she ain't—"

Mal cut Jayne off with a sharp look and smiled politely. "Thank you kindly for havin' us to your home, Mrs…Cobb, is it, or is that changed now?"

Jayne's mother waved her hand dismissively. "I'll spare you that trouble, darlin'. You can just call me Rose. Now, tell me your names, and come in, come in! Got fresh pies made; bet you could use a sit-down…"

She heard their names as they went into the small house, and then kept up a steady stream of dialogue as she led them towards the kitchen. "Mattie!" she called between breaths. "Your brother and his guests is here!"

A skinny little teenager came from somewhere in the back of the house. He looked, Mal thought with some amusement, how Jayne might have half a lifetime ago. He hid behind the brown hair that dangled over his eyes, and he was gangly and awkward, though Mal doubted whether Jayne had ever looked self-conscious. And this kid, after getting an enthusiastic greeting from Jayne—which included a fierce headlock—was most self-conscious, mostly when he saw the gals. He seemed almost horrified when Kaylee greeted him energetically, shaking his hand.

By the time the afternoon wore on, the kid had relaxed a little around most of them, though he was still shy around the women. Not Kaylee so much, but the fact that she was married and pregnant might've made her a bit less threatening in the mind of a young boy.

Jayne's mother was a fine hostess, and made even finer pies. She was also one of the most forthright people Mal had ever met, much to Jayne's frustration and the rest of the crew's amusement. She regaled them with tales of Jayne's childhood, and how many times he'd landed himself in trouble with the sheriff, who also happened to be her new husband. "Don't know what we woulda done, if Tom hadn't been so…understandin'," Rose said, looking at Jayne with a mixture of fondness and exasperation, while she stirred a big pot of stew at the stove. "Most troublesome child I ever did see, this one. Thought maybe he'd stay around and settle down with a nice girl, but didn't have no luck with that." Her expression turned a bit wistful. "Don't know why you still ain't settled down, Jayne, 'specially with such fine women on your boat."

Jayne choked on his drink, while the rest of the crew offered snorts of disbelief or flat out laughter. Mal clapped Jayne on the back. "Yeah, Jayne. Why ain't you settled with one of our fine women?"

Even Zoe gave a small rare chuckle of her own. "Don't think he's quite up for handlin' us, ma'am," she told Rose.

"You seem a sensible woman," Rose said, turning from her cooking with a wooden spoon still in hand.

"We all like to think so," Mal said. "Which is why she steers clear of your boy here. No offense intended, just takes a special kinda lady to handle Jayne."

Rose sighed. "Don't I know it." She turned her regard on River. "What about this lovely young lady? You seem a xin gan."

"She's eighteen, and—" Simon began in disbelief, while Jayne managed to sputter, "Sweetheart?" with a look of horror on his face.

Rose waved her spoon dismissively, interrupting them both. "Age ain't no matter. There was sixteen years between Jayne's pa and me."

"I ain't havin' nothing to do with the moon-brained xiong-tsan sha-shou here," Jayne snapped out quickly.

Rose pointed her spoon at him in admonition. "Jayne!"

"Well, you wouldn't think of her as no sweetheart if'n you'd seen some of what I seen," Jayne muttered. "Got more'n a dozen stitches 'cause of this little 'xin gan.' She's more trouble'n any man can rightly handle."

Jayne's mama looked ready to start beating Jayne over the head with her spoon, and River covered a smile with her hand. Mal caught her eye and winked, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about our girl here, Miss Rose. Takes more'n Jayne to get to her."

"Mm," Rose hummed noncommittally, shooting Jayne a rather hopeless look before turning back to her stew.

River tilted her head to the side, her brow furrowing slightly. "Someone's coming," she said.

"Hear someone at the door? Well, it's nearin' supper. It's about time Tom got home. They're pushin' him hard at work these days, what with—"

But River was shaking her head. "No, it's…" She spun around, her eyes roving, seeing something in her mind that Mal wasn't privy to. He was immediately on alert, his hand going to his gun.

"Trouble?" he murmured.

"Wode tian," River breathed, a stricken, almost panicked look on her face. She whirled around and pinned wild eyes on Mal. "They're here."

Zoe and Jayne both had their weapons out now, and Simon was holding onto Kaylee's arm, looking wary. Mal caught River's arm as she made to leave the room. "River. Who's here?"

"The others," River said, effortlessly twisting her arm out of his grip and leaping out of reach. "Two of my classmates."

Mal processed this information very quickly, pushing aside the questions—such as what the hell two of River's old schoolmates were doing here and how they had found them—and jerking his head at Jayne and Zoe. "Let's go. River, where are they?"

"Coming toward the house," River whispered. She took a deep breath, snapping into the situation at hand, and then she darted for the front door. "No more time!"

"Simon, get Kaylee and Jayne's family out," Mal shouted, striding after River. "Back window, whatever, get them as far away from here as you can! Away from the ship, they might've laid a trap there."

Zoe and Jayne on his heels, he ran after River, leaving Jayne's mama sputtering words of confusion, into the living room, just as the door burst open. Jayne immediately dove behind the couch for cover, while Zoe took position behind the room's only chair.

Mal got a quick glimpse of two people, around about River's age—a blonde girl, shorter than River, and a taller boy with brown hair—before River had engaged both people at once, very nearly in the frame of the front door. Mal rolled to the side and grabbed a thick oak side table, pulling it over for cover. He peered around the side of it, gun tightly in hand, to see that River had her leg wrapped around the boy's, trying to knock his feet out from under him, while the girl had her own arm around River's neck.

In one swift movement, River pulled the boy over, using the momentum to flip backwards over the head of the girl. Then all three were moving so quickly, all kicks and jabs, in one huge tangle, and Mal couldn't get a clear shot, because every time he went to fire, River got in the way—pushed in the way, he quickly saw, and then he realized…they were reading his mind. Had to be, because when Jayne did take a pop at one of them with his gun, River was again shoved in the way. Somehow—it was too quick for Mal to figure out exactly how—it missed River's head. Her arms, however, were pinned over her head momentarily by the boy, and the bullet went in just below her left elbow.

"Hold your fire!" Mal called at River's cry of pain. Zao-gao, what the hell were they supposed to do when the attackers could read their thoughts? Couldn't sneak up on them, couldn't surprise them. It was all happening so fast. Wouldn't be but twenty seconds before it was all over, and what with River injured and there only being one of her, Mal feared the other two would win and kill them all.

Suddenly, all three hesitated, only for an instant, turning in eerie unity to look out the still-open front door. The next second, there was a loud pop and a flash, and River and her two former schoolmates went down in a heap.

"Flash bomb," Mal realized instantly. "We only got a minute. Rope! Jayne, rope, now!" He went over to the pile of bodies and found himself on the wrong end of a gun. The man behind it had to be Tom, given the star pinned to his chest.

"He's okay, Tom." Jayne reappeared and tossed a coil of rope at Mal. "Mal Reynolds, my cap'n. Mal—" Before he got any further, the two young attackers stirred, and then sprang from the ground with surprising swiftness for people who'd just been flash bombed. To Mal's surprise, instead of attacking, they pushed out of the house. Zoe took a shot at them, and Mal thought she might've hit one, but they fled the scene before he could be sure, disappearing around the side of the house so quickly it left his head spinning.

Tom sucked in a deep breath, and said, very calmly, "Good to see you, Jayne. Wanna tell me why my livin' room's shot to hell and just who those gorram kids were?"

Mal was more concerned, for the moment, with why River hadn't woken up the same time the crazed assassins had. Once he got a look at her, sprawled on the floor, he instantly realized why. Besides from the blood coming from her arm, a small, sharp knife protruded from the left side of her chest. "Find the doc, now!"

:-:-:

There had been no obvious traps around Serenity, and so they boarded the ship and locked it up while Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and Kaylee scoured it for unobvious traps. Jayne's family had also been brought aboard, just in case the assassins made another pass at their house, though Mal had his doubts to that.

"They didn't try to kill none of the rest of us," Mal pointed out to Zoe. "Didn't do nothin' but stab River and take off."

"Think they was just after killin' her?" Zoe murmured.

"Don't know. If that's the case, I can't conjure a reason why they didn't stay to make sure the job was finished."

Explaining things to Jayne's ma and brother, not to mention Sheriff Tom, had been a difficult feat at best. Mal left out great chunks of it, not bothering to explain about River's stay at the Academy, only telling them that she must have angered someone enough that they sent hit men after her.

Tom eyed him shrewdly. "I saw the way that little girl of yours was fightin', 'fore I threw that grenade. She was fightin' like them. Hell, boy, I'm a lawman; I weren't born yesterday. You can keep your secrets, so long as they don't hurt my family none."

"We had no ruttin' idea they was comin', Tom," Jayne said, coming up behind Mal. "You know I'd never've brought that sorta trouble round to my ma."

Jayne's mother rolled her eyes. "I been dealin' with the sorta trouble you bring round for years, boy, and it's been damn close to that."

"We'll have to leave," Mal said. "Don't think they'll come back to your place if we're gone." He couldn't guarantee it, and knew if they did go back, Jayne's family wouldn't stand a chance. Still, it did seem they'd just come after River. "We're headin' out soon as we check nothing's tampered with."

"Oh, yeah—Kaylee's found trouble," Jayne told Mal. "Engine room."

"It's a mess, Captain," Kaylee told him a few minutes later, as Mal stood in the engine room, trying to see what she was pointing out. Half of her head obscured by the wires she was fiddling with. "They muddled with the primary flux line, and cut the secon—"

"Kaylee, just tell me—"

"They was settin' the ship up to stall out," Kaylee said quickly. "It was on a timer. Don't know why, but we woulda been stuck in space; I ain't got spare pieces for the parts they futzed with. They did it clever, Captain. I almost missed it. Think most people would've missed it."

Clenching his jaw tightly, he straightened. "Keep lookin', Kaylee. I don't care if it takes all night, we ain't goin' nowhere till it's safe."

He stormed back to the infirmary, where Simon was pulling off a pair of bloody gloves, his expression as near unreadable as ever. Mal stepped into the room and looked at River. She was as white as the sheet covering her, and had an I.V. running into her uninjured arm. "How is she?"

"She's all right," Simon said shortly. "Overall, the injury's not nearly as bad as it could have been—the knife missed anything vital. Honestly, the bullet wound in her arm is worse. She needed a few stitches, but she'll heal." He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "There's something else. That knife was poisoned."

Mal looked at him quickly. "Poisoned."

"It took me a while to find traces of it, but it's definitely on the knife." Simon unfolded his arms and rested his palms behind him, on the counter. "They weren't trying to kill her. The toxin on the knife causes extreme weakness and fatigue. I can flush some of it out of her system, but she won't be fully recovered for about a week. It has to be administered directly into the bloodstream, through some sort of cut or broken skin."

Mal drew a deep breath. "They were aimin' to stop the ship in space and leave River weak enough that she couldn't fight back."

Simon looked at him grimly. "Whatever they wanted, they wanted her alive."

:-:-:

It was a long night for everyone, but by the time dawn had come, Mal was reasonably certain nothing else on his boat had been tampered with. Reasonably sure enough to prepare to leave, at least. They bid Jayne's family farewell, which included Jayne claiming his pile of money from Tom, much to Kaylee's disgust. "How can you think of money at a time like this, Jayne?"

Afterwards, they all met just outside the infirmary, except for River, who was still out cold.

"Zoe, take us off this world and set course for Osiris," Mal ordered.

"Thought you said we wasn't takin' that job," Jayne said, eyes narrowed in confusion.

"We ain't takin' the job," Mal said. "Seems that the Alliance attacked one of my crew and sabotaged my boat, and I wanna know why. Zoe, I want you to contact that kid who told us about the job—name of Mathews, posted on Osiris. Tell him I wanna have a word with that Parliament member of his who was so keen on makin' amends with River. She won't talk, then you tell him we'll make a special appearance on Osiris, and it won't be a friendly social call, dong ma?"

"Yes, sir." Zoe headed up the stairs, and Mal turned to Kaylee. "I know you're tired, darlin', but I want you in the engine room, just to make sure nothin' suspicious happens on take-off."

Despite her red eyes and the exhausted slump of her shoulders, Kaylee managed a smile. "Sure thing, Captain."

"Doctor, let me know when your sister wakes up. Maybe she'll know somethin' that we don't." Mal strode toward the stairs. "I want answers."