I havent said it before so I'll say it now, big thanks to my beta, any random capitalisations, misspellings or gramatical stuff ups are all mine and have been added since she did her stuff.
In Sunshine and Shadow part 3
There were good smells coming from the galley and Mal and Jayne just had to go investigate. They found some kind of spicy meat dish with vegetables, a pile of dumplings fragrant with herbs, keeping warm and what looked remarkably like fruit salad in the refrigeration unit.
"Hot damn!" Jayne went for a bowl only to receive a slap over the knuckles from a wooden spoon wielded by Kaylee, clumps of dumpling mix in her hair and a smut of sauce on her nose.
"You just go polish Vera now, or even better change your shirt. This is a proper sit down meal and we're gonna eat it together." Snapped Kaylee, a touch sweaty and harassed.
"We gotta dress all spiffy just to eat?"
"You heard the lady." Mal gave a significant nod toward the crew quarters. Jayne stumped of grumbling meanly under his breath.
Mal gave Kaylee a thoughtful look, "On that subject darlin' you might wanna look in a mirror." Kaylee checked her reflection in a saucepan lid. With a squeal of horror she disappeared in the same direction as Jayne calling "Don't let anybody start on the food till we're all here!" over her shoulder.
Mal waited until the mechanic was out of sight then dunked his pinkie in the sauce.
"He, zhou ma he!" He automatically stuck his finger in his mouth to cool the burning. The happy look of a man tasting real food after living on too much reconstituted protein spread across his face.
"Malcolm Reynolds shame on you."
He jumped like a guilty child and with a shamefaced grin turned to face Inara. There had been a laugh in her voice, a tone that was becoming more and more common with her and that did him a world of good to hear.
It was no surprise that Inara, as ever, looked like heaven on legs. However the vengeful killer that Mal had met that afternoon was standing behind her and she was surprising.
Mal realised that he hadn't looked at her properly. She'd been covered in dirt and wearing hardwearing, dull clothes and a ridiculous hat. Now she shined.
She wasn't really pretty and definitely not beautiful but in that dress she caught the eye. Chestnut hair in a chignon with jade sticks holding it in place, unremarkable features other than a fine pair of green eyes, good skin enhanced by a little makeup and a tall wiry figure made quietly feminine by the cut of the dress. It was all very subtle and understated and confusing to the male mind. Would she welcome a compliment or take offence?
She was considering him, head on one side like a bird.
"This is my celebration, of sorts. Johnny Diamond brought me this dress."
"I remember you sayin'…he was the fella… I understand… I reckon." Mal took a deep breath. "You look very fine." He said gravely.
She gave him a small nod and Mal felt like he's passed some kind of test.
A buzz came over the intercom, it was Zoe.
"Owain just arrived Captain."
Mal pressed the button which allowed him to be heard all over the ship.
"Dinner is on the table people, if y'all plan eating this evening get yourselves to the Galley. There will not be leftovers; I repeat there will not be leftovers."
uuuuuuuuuu
Harry Bigelow's two pals Jeremiah Scott and Rueben Leech were having a wake. Left to their own devices they had gravitated back to the bar.
They'd had Bigelow's funeral, almost before he'd got cold. There had been enough in his pockets to pay for a gravedigger and a wooden cross, but not to pay a Shepard to say the right and proper words or to buy a coffin. Harry Bigelow had returned to the earth wrapped in a bed sheet that Jeremiah had stolen off a washing line.
The last of the coin in Harry's pockets had gone towards sending his personal effects back to his family. They were poor folks who would be grateful for the guns, boots and cheap pocket watch as things that could be used, worn or sold. There were also a few letters and pictures that went into the package. Jeremiah and Rueben had made up the postage out of their own pockets and now they were sullen.
They drank beer and spoke their bitter vengfull minds.
uuuuuuuuuuuuu
Dinner was going well. Real food made for a party atmosphere and Kaylee had broken out the hooch. The regular crew were laughing a lot, people were getting teased and tall tales were being told. Owain was right in the thick of things. He flirted with Kaylee which Simon took surprisingly well and shot admiring glances at Inara. Even Zoë was more like her old self.
Two people were a little aloof. River seemed off in a world of her own, she kept frowning as if there was a thought she couldn't quite get a hold of. Al smiled and laughed but as an outsider, not encouraging the sprightly talk or coming up with any tales of her own.
Now the last of the fruit salad had gone down and Mal had surreptitiously undone a button or two.
Not surreptitiously enough though, "Pant's too tight for you Captain?" inquired Kaylee, with a wicked grin. Mal threw a stray dumpling at her.
"I hate to bring the party down but we need to sort out our plans for the morning." Mal looked round the table to ensure he had his crews full attention.
"Zoe, I want you to take the Doctor and Kaylee into town to get whatever supplies were short of. First priority fuel and essentials for the smooth running of my ship, second priority stock up on food, third priority medical supplies." Mal threw a bag of coin over to Zoë.
"That's what we can spare, use it wisely."
"Whitefall is about two weeks out from here. Our passenger," Mal gave a nod to Al, "has improved our finances some but it'll be nice to take on some more paying guests, while you're in town put the word out and let's see what we can drum up. Jayne and I will stay with the ship, see who comes knocking."
"Now our good friend Owain has assured me that we will see no trouble as a result of Al's doings here but I want to be in the air before noonday so y'all get some sleep and show me your bright and eager faces in the morning."
There was a clatter of plates and eating implements onto the counter, people stretching and yawning. Jayne disappeared at speed to his bunk. Simon moved dreamily with an arm round Kaylee, her head on his shoulder. Inara and Al had their heads together talking quietly. They all drifted away, except River. She stood in the doorway, looked at Mal, that intent frown still on her face. She opened her mouth, closed it, made a small noise of frustration then disappeared out of sight in a whirl of skirts, her bare feet making no sound.
Owain pointed a lazy finger after her.
"Who did you say she was now?"
"That my friend is River Tam, the Doc's sister, pretty much our pilot now and a whole bundle of strange talents and… well she's just plain strange but as I said, talented. Mighty talented."
"Is she as pretty as I think she might be, when she ain't scowling that is."
"That she is; she is also barely eighteen, has an overprotective brother and I have a fatherly eye to her, so don't you go getting' any idea's, dong ma?" There was humour in Mal's voice but not a jot in his eyes.
"So… Owain Thomas," Mal tipped a hefty measure of hooch into Owain's mug, "what's this job that takes you to Whitefall?"
"Well now," Owain took a swig from his mug and then paused to let Kaylee's engine moonshine make its both painful and pleasurable way down, "there's something of a range war goin' on that I've bin asked to take a hand in."
"You surprise me, I thought Patience had gotten that rock all buttoned up."
"She did, but being dead these last five months she kinda let things go."
Mal sat up a bit straighter. "Patience dead! When did that happen, I thought the old buzzard was near 'nough immortal?"
"Well she weren't, new fella landed on Whitefall next to seven months ago, calls himself Samson. Man looks around him, gets himself some followers and next you know Patience and her son Louis are filling up holes in the dirt. I'm told this Samson fella got Louis' widow pretty much a prisoner."
"The only one left of Patience's blood is her Grandson," Owain paused for another sip, "an' he's hiding out somewhere with a few folks that won't bow to this Samson, mostly folks who ain't got families for him to threaten."
"Zhou ma! I had a lurkin' kindness for Patience, even though she dun' shot me or tried to every one time we met. She was twisty and crocked but just business like is all." Mal thought for a moment.
"Whose side are you shooting for?" he asked.
Owain pulled a wry face, "The side as can pay me. Mal you know I ain't no angel and I ain't got a moral bone in my body. Samson wants Patience's grandson dead at his feet and he's willing to pay big to get it."
Mal looked at Owain steady and expressionless.
"We all gotta eat Owain. Word to the wise, Patience got herself a Sheriff, a man to keep order when she moved into the big house out of town, that'd be bout a year ago. Man is something fast with a gun. Jacob Pepper, everyone calls him Chilli. I knew him back before he settled on Whitefall, was one of us."
"I've heard of him Mal, but whatever he was he ain't that now. Word is he's strung out on booze and drops." Owain stood up shrugging on his long black coat. "War's long over Mal, you know I threw my brown coat away 'long with my crucifix before we did our first job together."
"Uh-yeah," said Mal, looking away, "I'd forgotten."
Mal, being a good host chose to walk his guest off his ship, he'd just slapped the button to open the cargo bay door when River came hurtling into sight screaming like a banshee.
"NOOOOOOOOO!"
Strange thing Mal had noticed, sometimes in a fire fight everything gets real fast, other times everything slows down like syrup pouring out of a jar. This time it all… got… real… slow…
Instinct made him twist and bend, he saw the bullet that surely would have hit him square between the eyes pass over his face and hit Owain in the shoulder, throwing him up and back like he had slow motion springs in his boots. He landed on the deck plates with a long whoosh of expelled air, his coat flying and billowing around him.
A second bullet hit the pneumatics that controlled the cargo bay door, fluid pumped from the severed pipe, out into the night like a lazy heartbeat.
Things started to speed up again, River didn't stop running, in one graceful movement and without slowing down she scooped up one of Owain's guns and fired into the night. There was a yelp and a curse.
"Didn't hit him, stone chip nicked his face." River grinned at Mal her expression somewhere between feral and loopy as she went for cover.
Mal flattened himself against the wall and saw Zoë and Jayne almost slide down the cargo bay stairs, Zoë with her Mare's leg pistol, Jayne with Vera and one of his special multiple choice weapons belts.
"Yelled for them to come when I ran past." explained River
Jayne took up station behind Mal, Zoë hunkered down behind a crate that gave her enough cover to reach out and grab Owain by the collar and drag him out of the line of fire. He left a smudgy trail of blood.
There was more noise from above, Simon and Kaylee looking over the rail, Al still in the green dress but minus the shoes jumped over the rail, hung for a second and dropped onto a crate seemingly unhurt.
"Need a gun I guess." She shouted. Jayne threw her his smallest pistol. She caught it one handed, looked at it, looked at Jayne and said "Gee, thanks!"
Mal had a truly hysterical desire to laugh. "Where are they at?" he called to River.
River who was standing mirror image to Mal her eyes closed called, "They have cover, rocks on either side."
Simon scuttled to Owain's side, putting pressure on the wound. Owain wasn't dead; he was grunting and swearing in Welsh and Chinese with equal violence.
Al looked round then started to run back into the hold, straight at the Mule. She half jumped, half fell into the driving seat her skirts getting in the way. She fired up the mule and shot out of the cargo bay. At the last moment River joined her, stepping onto the mule as it passed, as though it was still as a rock.
Simon started up shouting "River NO!" A bullet tore past him grazing his chin; he fell back pressing his fingers to the wound, looking in surprise at the blood.
"SIMON!" shrieked Kaylee.
"Look for them to break cover people!" yelled Mal
The mule had shot out of the ship at full speed and was now banking hard. Al was driving; River now had both guns, one in each hand firing constantly. One man shot into sight and she cut him down without even looking at him. The other tried to run, cutting across the rear of the ship, so terrified of the girl riding the mule like a chariot that he ran straight into another line of fire.
He was illuminated briefly in the cargo bay lights, his face all staring eyes and panic.
He got five bullets from four different directions.
For a split second Mal could see nothing but River Tam, hair whipping and streaming, face serene, unearthly.
The Mule came to a bumpy halt several yards back from the cargo bay. In the lights they could see Al wiping frantically at the fine silk of her dress, pulling at the fabric, trying to get it away from her belly as a dark stain spread and spread. She was screaming.
"There's blood on my dress, there's blood on my dress! Oh God NO! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"