Title: Old Friends, Fresh Wounds (The Good Ole Days)
Series: Bad Blood
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: looks around confused yup, no piles of money for anyone to take me to court over.
Authors Note: Holy crap! This thing is huge. It's my longest chapter, and I think it's the longest I've gone between chapters as well. I thought about finding a place in the middle so I could cut it in half and just make it two chapters, but it didn't feel right doing that, so instead you get a monster chapter. It's weighing in at about 12,626, that's a lot of words. So many words I ended up having to cut it in half just to post it (thankfully I had a good scene break about 6,560 into it so the chapter is pretty much half and half on two posts)
I'll have a different authors note on the next chapter, I have a short story to share about a scene in this part but I don't want to ruin it.
I'd also like to thank mik109, nutmeg610, Lady Cleo, earthwhatwere (on LJ), and bugchicklv for letting me reference their stories in the last chapter (even though I totally didn't ask). Thanks guys :)
mik109 again totally saved my life by being my beta. She is a god.
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"And this one needs your initial here…and here….and on the last page about half way down." A tall and very thin man said as he pointed to the dotted lines on each page.
"Okay…wait." The man seated in the chair held up both of his hands, one holding his pen to keep from signing anything. "What am I signing?" He asked looking at the younger man next to him.
"Didn't you read it?"
"In the two seconds since you handed it to me? No, I hadn't quite got around to it." He shot back sarcastically.
"You've had this all week." The younger man stated, tapping his finger on the pages that were still spread out on the desk.
"I…what?"
"It's been on your desk all week."
The older man nodded as he stood up and grabbed a hold of a leather bound folder that lay on the desk in front of him. "Goodnight."
"What?" The younger man stared after him as he began to make his way down the hall. He grabbed the papers off of the desk as quickly as he could and began chasing after. "You…you can't leave yet." The younger man squawked as he followed closely behind, papers clutched tightly in his hands.
The older man strode down the hall, ignoring the younger man's wailing. "Goodnight, Richard." He shot over his shoulder with a winning smile as he pushed through the large double doors and out onto the crowded city street.
Richard spun back around and began marching back towards the office they had just come from, all the while muttering about how the world was going to the dogs thanks to the entirely too lax rule.
Richard pinched the bridge of his nose as he made his way back into the large office he had just left. He slapped the papers he had been clutching onto the desk top and slumped back into the large leather chair his boss had just vacated.
"Richard."
The younger man darted out of the chair at the sound of the voice. "You nearly scared me to death."
"Where is he?"
Richard rolled his eyes and waved a dismissive hand at the door to the office. "He left Jesse, probably going home."
"What?" The huge man asked angrily as he hurried over to the window hoping he would still be able to see the man in question. "You're supposed to get me before he leaves."
Richard glared up at Jesse, and not for the first time since they had begun working together. "He just left…and don't even think about telling me I should have stopped him, Jesse. You know how he is."
Jesse hit his fist against the windows sill lightly, still glaring out at the street where there was no sign of their boss. "Yeah, I know how he is."
While the two in the office were arguing, the man in question was currently more than halfway home. As he walked along, he began to really think about his life; something that was becoming frighteningly more common for him to be doing.
He hadn't started as much, born on a crappy planet halfway out in the 'Verse he found himself drawn to the black. The second he could jump aboard a ship he did it, and he never once looked back.
He had worked his pi gu off in the years that followed, moving from one ship to another always searching for the bigger and better deal until one day he had found it. He had himself a ship, a good enough crew, and a decent enough amount of space to do business in.
He shook his head as he pushed open his front door. Those were the days he looked back on fondly; those were the days he still wished for when he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, when he could just fly for days on end and go nowhere and everywhere all at once.
Instead he was here, living in a large house at the edge of Bristol on an overpopulated rock halfway out in the 'Verse. Somehow, he felt, he had gone backwards. He left his dismal life of doing bookwork for days on end to end up…doing bookwork for days on end. The 'Verse really was a funny ol' place.
Perhaps he was just getting sentimental as the days went by, but the longer he spent behind that desk, the more he wanted some of the adventure of his old life back. As he threw the leather-bound folder he had brought home with him onto the nearest table, he heard the faint sound of a door creaking open behind him.
"Hey, Mook."
Mook froze as soon as the sound of the other man's voice rumbled across the room. He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders before turning to look over his shoulder. "You…"
The 'Verse really was a funny ol' place.
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Zoe stood at the top of the ramp leading out of Serenity staring out at all the expanses of nothing laid out behind them. The dry wind kicked up dirt around the bottom of the ramp, and the sun hung high in the sky making the day unbearably hot.
"Ah, Zoe. Enjoying the spectacular view of… nothingness I see."
She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as the voice cut through the silence of the cargo bay. "Captain, let you out?"
"Let is such a…relative term." He answered with a nonchalant shake of his head.
Zoe made sure to keep her smile from showing, and cringing at the god awful Hawaiian shirt he was wearing over his jumpsuit, when she turned to watch their slightly eccentric pilot make his way towards her.
"Skipping out on the job?" She asked coolly giving him her best stare down, just like she had done the first time they met.
"But only for the very best of reasons." He said, scrunching up his face in the perfect mask of confusion and hurt, which is something she had learned about him since he had gotten the job as pilot. The man could make that face of his do anything. It was a wonder she didn't smile at him more often. "I, my dear second-in-command, am out in search of a bathtub."
"You're searching for a bathtub?"
"That I am."
She raised a single eye brow at that. "And why are you so determined to find a bathtub?"
"Okay, you've caught me. I can admit when I've been caught. I have ulterior motives. Zoe…I don't know how to tell you this, so I'm just going to come right out and say it." He explained seriously as he took her shoulders in his hands, which was cause for concern because he was never this serious.
"You smell." He said simply, looking away from her face and staring at the floor. "It's less than becoming." He looked back up into her face as he continued. "Sure, Mal doesn't mind, but then again our Captain isn't known for being the keenest on things of a personal nature, least of all hygiene…Do you know how long it's been since he last washed that shirt he's wearing today?" Wash asked as Zoe shook her head and began walking away from him.
"C'mon, Zoe, be a rebel! Sneak away and take a bath."
Zoe turned on her heel to glare back at Wash, who had taken up her spot at the top of Serenity's ramp. "You tryin' to get me to leave my post, pilot?"
"Umm..yes?"
"Not followin' the Captain's orders is a form of mutiny." She said seriously as she began to walk slowly back towards Wash.
"You don't always do what the Captain orders." Wash said with a small shrug. "…or maybe you do." He amended as he saw Zoe raise her eyebrow again. "Doesn't matter either way because our dear fearless Captain ordered you to stow the cargo, and as I see it you've done that. Mission completed." He said with a goofy smile before he stood at attention and gave her a sloppy salute. "You are now free to dabble, Miss Alleyne, in the finer points of personal hygiene."
"So, you're searchin' for this tub so I can take a bath? What's in it for you?"
"Me? Oh, you know… the knowledge of a job well done and all that."
"Very noble of you." She said with a nod, the hints of a smile touching the corners of her mouth.
Wash shrugged casually. "Well, I try."
"I don't know about a bathtub, but I heard about some natural springs just on the other side of town."
Wash's eyebrows shot up at the sound of that. "Did you now?" He asked as indifferently as he could muster while being completely thrilled at the thought of natural springs, all things Zoe, and the possible mixing of the two.
"They're supposed to be amazing."
"I like amazing."
"Thought this was to get me to bathe?" She asked as that eyebrow went up again; she seemed to do that a lot around him.
"Oh, it is, but how can I be sure you actually go and make with the bathing unless I too am there?" he asked as innocently as he could, giving her a few sidelong glances.
Zoe turned so she could stand in front of him. "Are you implying something could be going on between us?" She asked with mock seriousness.
"Me? I wouldn't dream of it….or actually no, I would dream of it. Oh, how I would dream of it…" He said as he stared up at the sky dreamily.
Zoe couldn't help but smile at the daydreaming pilot. "Wash?" She asked, snapping him out of his dreamlike stare at nothing just over her shoulder. "You wanna take a bath?"
"I thought you would never ask."
A flash of lightning ripped across the sky snapping Zoe out of her daze. She looked back out the large window of the training house at the small pool as the rain crashed down into it, causing the once calm surface to ripple uncontrollably.
Zoe took a deep breath and turned away from the window. She wrapped her arms around herself, to help cut down the cold she felt from the draft in the hallways, at least that's what she would tell anyone that bothered to ask.
As she turned the corner to make her way back towards her room she nearly collided with a completely soaked mechanic.
"Zoe. Sorry, didn't see ya there."
Zoe raised an eyebrow at the younger woman. "There a reason you're soaked?"
"Simon." Kaylee grumbled out angrily, glaring at the wall to her side.
"Simon?" Zoe's asked as her other eyebrow rose.
Kaylee sighed and turned towards Zoe. "He's bein' a ning luo pang tun bu." She spat out angrily as Zoe nodded slowly. Kaylee shook her head and slumped down on the nearest seat. "I jus' don't know why he's gotta go an' be like that all the time. Ya know he judges everyone around him but he never takes the time to look in the mirror an' see he's jus' the same as any of us. Why he think's he's still gotta go an' look down on the way we live is…"
"Kaylee!" Zoe cut her off before she could continue her angry tirade. Kaylee looked up at the still stoic woman standing over her, eyes wet from what Zoe could only hope was the rain and not tears, she was worse with tears than anything else not that she would ever willingly admit so. "You've got to realize that the way we grew up is completely different from the way Simon and River grew up. It'll take him time to get used to everything."
"It didn't take River this long to get used to everything."
Zoe shook her head and took a seat next to the sullen mechanic. "Kaylee, look at where she lived before gettin' on the ship. Anything is better than that."
Kaylee shook her head sadly and tried desperately to keep from pouting over her hearts lament, especially to Zoe of all people. She knew the last thing the older woman oughtta be hearin' was about relationship problems given all she'd been through. "I jus' want Simon ta be happy, an' it don't seem like he'll ever be that way on Serenity…or with me." She finished pitifully, staring at the floor.
Zoe shook her head again and took Kaylee's head between her hands, turning it so she could look the girl in the eyes. "Kaylee, Simon loves you." She said in her usual calm and collected voice, emphasizing her point with a gentle shake of the girl's head. "He's just a practical and cautious man. Give him time."
Kaylee snorted at that. "Time… He's always needin' time. Time ta get settled in, time ta fix River, time ta make sure River was really fixed… Time ta not notice me or how good he's got it."
Zoe let go of Kaylee and leaned back against the wall, glancing over to her side to stare out the window she had just been planted in front of. "Ya never know how good ya got it till it ain't there anymore."
Kaylee blinked and turned to stare at the woman next to her. It really was all kinds of wrong to be havin' a conversation like this with Zoe. Ain't been more'n a few months since…well, everything. Zoe'd spent the first two or so months more stoic and quiet than ever before, which was sayin' somethin'. Cap'n had kept tellin' everyone to mind their own business an' let her grieve her own way. Kaylee'd always figured if anyone knew how Zoe grieved it'd be the Cap'n.
Zoe shook her head and turned back to Kaylee. "Simon's a little slow on the uptake, Kaylee. It's just going to take him long'r then most to realize what's right in front of him."
"Didn't take Wash this long." She mumbled out, immediately regretting it.
Kaylee'd always had a lotta respect for Zoe. To be able ta survive somethin' as awful as the war was bound to change folk an' to see Zoe everyday with Wash, ta see how happy and carefree she could be, kinda gave her hope for the future, and the Cap'n's future too. But after everythin', to see Zoe bounce back from somethin' that Kaylee just knew woulda done her in, weren't a word to describe how much Kaylee respected her after all'a that. An' here she was, rubbin' it in her face.
Weren't any way Kaylee could make this worse, she'd just hafta keep her trap shut an' hope for the planet to go ahead and swallow her up.
Zoe grinned slightly at the mention of Wash. He could always make her smile; it was nice to know he could still do it even when he was gone. "My man was smarter'n most in that area. He wasn't the one that needed figuring out."
Kaylee chanced a glance over to Zoe, hopin' against hope that she weren't angry or sad or nothin'. When she saw the small smile, she brightened slightly. "He told me you wouldn't give 'im the time of day till he shaved."
Zoe's head snapped to her side to give Kaylee a hard stare. "You didn't see him with that thing on his face…." She said stoically. "'Sides I didn't take half as long as some, look at Mal."
Kaylee's grin fell immediately. "Ya got a point."
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Mook stared down the barrel of a rather large gun. "How'd you get in?"
Jayne smirked at the other man. "I knocked on the front door. I just asked real nice, made sure to mention we was old friends, an' they just let me come right in."
"What?"
"Snuck in through the back." Jayne said angrily as he moved forward, gun lowering slightly so it could be aimed at Mook's chest. "Ya might want to find yourself a new security system."
"That's sound advice." Mook nodded slowly. He took a deep breath then huffed out a short chuckle to himself at the odd turn his life had very recently taken. "I figured I'd see you again some day."
Jayne smirked again at the calm tone Mook had taken. "Yeah an' I kinda figured I'da done killed ya by now my own self."
Mook shifted in place, not out of fear, after all he had had guns pointed at him most of his life and after a time it begins to loose its edge. No, he didn't shift out of fear but rather more out of a lack of options. He accepted the fact, long ago, that he would one day meet his old friend again, and not on the friendliest of terms either.
In fact, he pictured this wonderful little reunion would turn out exactly as it was. Well, not exactly like this, he never pictured it would be in the middle of his own home, but it was always at the end of a gun. "I always figured I'd see you again. I just never pictured it would be here."
"Well, I'm full of surprises." Jayne smirked at the smaller man; gun aimed unwavering at his chest.
River leaned around the rather hulkish frame of the angry Mercenary and stared at the man held at gun point. Her brow furrowed for a moment as she stared at him her gaze as unwavering as Jayne's gun.
Mook's eyes flickered from Jayne to River as she peered out from behind him. Mook's eyebrows raised some at the sight of the small girl. "Ain't that the truth." He muttered quietly, attention completely deviated from Jayne.
Jayne couldn't help but glare at Mook as he stared at River. With a deep growl, Jayne moved to stand in front of River once again. "Look, I'm gonna say this once, an' just once. So you better listen, dong ma?"
Mook's eyes shot back to Jayne as the growl in his voice sounded out. "Do I have a choice?" He asked sarcastically, giving Jayne a smirk for all of his intimidating.
"Not unless ya don't mind gettin' dead."
"Fair enough."
Jayne took a large step forward, resting the end of his gun in the middle of Mook's chest. "I ought to kill you Mook."
"Oh c'mon, you're kidding me." Mook sighed staring at Jayne in utter disbelief.
"You tried to kill me Mook."
"No, I didn't."
"The hell you didn't!"
River rolled her eyes at the pair and turned to sit on the large sofa just to the side of her. After all of the growling Jayne had done since he discovered where they were, she was quiet interested in their history. Besides the chance to see Jayne flustered and upset at someone other than Simon, the Captain, or herself was far too good to pass up.
"It's not my fault Brooks was the only guy out here with any power," Mook's finger shot up to silence Jayne's angry retort. "And it sure as hell wasn't my fault he hated you." He finished angrily. With a deep sigh and a shake of his head, Mook looked back up at Jayne's face. "If you wanted to make sure you kept your job, you wouldn'tve gone and had sex with his daughter."
Jayne rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Weren't like that wasn't consensual." He said offhandedly.
"She was 17 Jayne." Mook stared at the other man with a look that could only be described as bewilderment. "That isn't even legal on some planets."
"It was legal on that one!" Jayne shouted making sure to push the barrel of the gun into Mook's chest painfully.
"Oh, well, I guess that makes it okay then." Mook shouted back as he leaned away from the gun the best he could without stepping back. It might have been a macho guy thing but he refused to the first one to move.
"Yeah, it does." Jayne shot back, making sure to emphasize his point by cocking his gun. "'Sides that don't explain why you did what you did."
"Me? Ya wanna talk about me now?" Mook asked in a mix of frenzied anger and utter confusion. "He threatened to shoot me because of that stunt. Only way I kept the job with him, an' my head, was doing what I did."
"So you take me out back an' shoot me, is that it?" He spat out venomously.
Mook shook his head as the angry edge began to fade from his voice. "I didn't shoot you."
Jayne narrowed his eyes and glared at Mook with the same intensity that he had used in the bar earlier. "You tried!" he growled out.
"No, I didn't. If I'da tried to shoot you, you would have been shot." He explained calmly. "Yeah, sure, I aimed in your general direction…but not at you."
"So then ya just leave me in the middle of nowhere to rot?"
Mook shook his head solemnly, anger completely gone now. "What was I suppose to do. Jayne? You screwed up not me."
"Look!" Jayne yelled angrily, causing Mook to finally shut his trap an' just listen, like he oughta've been doin' this whole time. "That weren't the way the conversation was supposed to go." Jayne continued with just as much menace, though a bit quieter.
"Point of the matter is the only reason I'm here an' you ain't dead is 'cause on this whole ass backwards planet this is the only place that's got a workin' Cortex connection," he stated angrily, gun unmoving. "An' it jus' so happens that I need one a mite more then I need ya dead. Got it?"
Mook stared at Jayne for a long moment before slowly nodding. "Yeah, I got it."
Jayne continued to glare at Mook as he took a small step back. "Good, now where is it?"
River quirked an eyebrow as she watched the two. It wasn't that it was unusual for Jayne to act childish or to overreact to a situation, actually it was a common occurrence when it came to the brutish man. What was unusual was the tension and intensity the whole conversation had held. She had a feeling that the real problem between the two wasn't really because of a hurt ego and sleeping with an almost underage girl.
River quirked her head to the side and bit her bottom lip as she let her eyes wonder around the room and eventually over to a side room, where she presumed the Cortex terminal was. She looked back at the two, who were still attempting to glare one another to death. River rolled her eyes and gracefully stood from her spot on the sofa and moved towards the room.
Jayne noted the sudden movement from the corner of his eye and gestured with his head that Mook should start followin' her. Weren't no way in hell he was about to give Mook even a chance at gettin' him any more off task then he'd already gone and done.
"Smart girl."
"She is."
Mook nodded as he slowly made his way across the large room. "Young, too." He noted as he stared at the tiny girl just in front of him. "But then you always like them young."
Jayne growled at the comment and made sure to jab his gun into Mook's back particularly hard when she wanted him to stop movin'. "Ain't like that."
"Sure, it's not." Mook muttered as he turned to stare at Jayne again. "Wasn't like that with Megan either, was it?"
"She came on to me." Jayne shot back angrily, ignoring River's annoyed stare from just behind Mook. "And she more than knew what she was doing."
Mook shrugged and shook his head. "Hey, when you're right, you're right. That girl had her eye on you the whole time we were doin' business with her pop."
A puzzled look crossed Jayne's face suddenly, as if he had just figured out something terribly important. "How'd he find out about Megan anyhow Mook?"
"He knows about everything Jayne… He probably knows that you're here right now and is secretly plotting a way to kill you all over again as we speak."
"He thinks I'm dead?" Jayne's face scrunched up in confusion once again.
Mook blinked once before giving Jayne his best "are you kidding me" face. "He did…"
"How d'ya know he thought I was dead?" Jayne asked seriously as Mook continued to stare at him as though he'd gone and sprouted another head or some such.
"'Cause that's what I told him." Mook explained slowly, just in case Jayne had been hit one too many times since they'd gone and parted ways. "Jayne that man has a fierce sense of what's right an' wrong when it comes to his dear sweet Lil' Meg."
"First off, she hated bein' called that." Jayne growled out pointing an angry finger at Mook. "An' second, Brooks was a zhu tou zi de yi mian hou."
"No argument from me, but that doesn't change the fact that he'll just as soon kill you as look at you."
Jayne smirked and only just resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm just terrified of that happenin'."
Mook gave Jayne a serious look as he shook his head just slightly. "A smart man would be, but then again you've never been known for your smarts." He said with a shrug. "Hell knowing you, ya probably just went around town without a care in the world before makin' your way here."
Jayne gave him a small shrug and an unimpressed shake of his head.
"You are the luckiest gorram idiot I've ever known, Jayne!" Mook shouted, glaring at Jayne for all he was worth. Jayne narrowed his eyes angrily, though Mook took no notice of it and threw his hands up in the air and stomped over to a table nearby. "How the hell you made it this far being a wanted man and all is just…"
"I'm wanted?" Jayne said, cutting Mook off. He took a moment to stare at Mook, as though he was sizing him up for somethin' unseemly, face scrunched up in thought. "How much am I wanted for?" He asked, this time unable to ignore the glare River was shooting him over Mook's shoulder. "What?"
Mook shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Not just you...her too." He said with a nod of his head towards River.
"Her?" He glared down at River, who had come to stand next to him as Mook had moved over to the table. "You're still wanted? Thought the Alliance dropped the charges..."
"Not the Alliance." Mook said, cutting off Jayne, as he picked up a wanted sign from the table and scanned it for the name of the people that wanted to collect the pair. "Says an anonymous party wants..."
Jayne cut Mook off by ripping the wanted sign out of his hands. Jayne's eyes scanned the paper in his hands, a low growl following the last line he read. "You're still ruttin' wanted!" His eyes snapped up to glare at River again.
River quirked an eyebrow at the fuming man next to her. "What? I didn't know."
Jayne's glare softened as he continued to stare at River. "You're worth more'n me." He muttered unhappily. River's other eyebrow rose in thought and nodded slightly, before she gave Jayne a simple "yes and" type of face. "Don't seem right... I'm bigger'n you." He said just a little sadder than he had any right to be given the current conversation. River shook her head and gave him a half smile, really a smirk if it could be called anything.
Mook sighed at the two and shook his head. "Yeah well, you're both wanted... Worth quite a pretty penny, especially if someone collected on both. So I recommend you two stay out of trouble." He said before shooting Jayne a look. "Think you can handle that?"
Jayne sneered at Mook. "Where's the gorram Cortex connection?" He barked out, handing the wanted poster over to River.
Mook pointed towards the back of the room, just behind Jayne. "Over there…." He said. "Help yourself." He added with fake cheer.
"Right." Jayne said with an angry smirk before he handed River his gun. He turned to the small girl as her hands brushed against his. "Watch him." He said seriously, refusing to let go of the gun before she nodded her understanding.
Mook snorted and shook his head in disbelief. "Where am I gonna go? It's my house."
River kept the gun aimed at Mook even though her eyes were glued to Jayne's retreating form.
Mook looked between the two slightly confused. "So," he started, moving to stand next to River.
River lifted the gun higher, aiming it at Mook's head, stopping him in his tracks. "I can kill you with my eyes closed." She said simply, finally turning back towards him.
Mook rose his hands up in surrender. "Gottchya."
Jayne sat down at Cortex panel angrily, silently hoping River could find a reason to deck Mook. He punched a few keys and was prompted for a password.
"Mook, I need the password." Jayne growled out as he turned to glare back at his old buddy. Jayne froze in spot when he noticed Mook flashing River his very best grin. The gorram bastard was flirtin' with his…crazy person. That's it, he really was gonna shoot Mook.
"Mook! The gorram things locked." Jayne shouted out, finally getting Mook's attention.
"Oh, right. Password. I guess I'll be changing it after today anyhow." Mook muttered to himself. "Password's Lydia." He looked back over at River and gave her another smile. "It's my mom's name." He explained. "Unlike some people, I don't name things that I use to kill people after the important people in my life." He said turning to stare at Jayne.
Jayne glared all he was worth towards Mook. He always made fun of the idea of namin' a gun or a knife after somethin', or someone, important. Don't matter what he thought though, never kept Jayne from namin' his things whatever the good gorram he wanted. In a job like his, you had to trust your life to somethin' and if'n you wanted it to work right you had to treat it with respect. Ya can't just go an' slap jus' any name on a gun, weren't dignified in the least.
Mook shook his head and turned back to River. "How'dya know the lunkhead anyhow?" He asked before he raised his hand to keep her from answering. "Wait, let me guess. You work together right?"
River nodded, moving the gun so it was no longer pointed at Mook. "Co-workers."
Mook grinned to himself. "He's your muscle. An' that would make you what? The brains of the operation?"
River gave him a smile. "Pilot, though the odds of successfully completing a job would most likely rise if I were the brains."
"And you'd get more jobs. Well, that's not necessarily true." He said with a small shake of his head. "I know I'd rather deal with an attractive woman than a man any day, but you know not everyone can handle a strong woman." He flashed her another brilliant smile.
River couldn't help the small, intrigued smile that crept onto her face. He was certainly an interesting man if nothing else.
Mook shook his head and kept right on smiling. "So, a pilot huh? What do you fly?"
"Midbulk transport," she said almost dreamily, catching herself before she listed off the classcode and engine specifications. "A Firefly."
Mook nodded, giving River a knowing smile. "You must be good. You don't see many pilots that talk about their ships like that unless they own them. You must really love her."
River shrugged. "It's the only place I've ever belonged. Everything makes sense there." She answered as the smile found its way back to her face. "It's all numbers and equations, like math. It's constant, soothing." She explained, happy to go on and on about something she loved without being cut off or ignored, like she would be had it been Jayne she was talking to and not Mook.
"No matter how complicated the equation there will always be a right answer and it will never be different, regardless of how many times it is done, and when you find the answer… It's like everything else falls away. It just makes sense." She finished with another dreamy smile.
Mook nodded slowly. "You're a very interesting woman, River Tam."
She was giving Mook one of those "you're an idiot but in a cute way" kind of looks. Jayne knew them well enough, after all he had seen her give Wash them more'n once, her brother and Mal too, but there weren't no reason to be givin' him those looks.
Not him, not Mook. The bastard had tried to kill him. She should be givin' him the cold shoulder not smiling back at him and makin' with the cozitudes of small talk.
Jayne turned back to the screen in front of him with an angry scowl, glaring as the Cortex finally flashed on. "'Bout ruttin' time." He growled under his breath as he began to angrily punch in the code to wave Serenity.
River's eyes flickered over to Jayne as she felt the tension in the room grow even more. "He's angry." She commented offhandedly.
When it came to Jayne one never needed to state his current mood, anyone could tell my simply looking at him. But River had learned that saying things out loud made them more true and often times gave them a validity that couldn't be attained otherwise, though she assumed it was most likely something that pertained only to her.
She had spent so much time feeling and knowing things that weren't her own that stating the obvious had been the only way she could keep track of herself, and even then she still got lost. Things were better now though, she still felt and knew things the others didn't but most often the only person in her head now was her. Something the Captain had been mixed about, which made Simon sputter in annoyance.
"She can't hear people's thoughts anymore?"
River smiled at the Captain. "Not can't, choose not to." She explained with a soft grin.
Mal nodded slowly. "Okay." He said hesitantly as he tried to keep from sighing too loudly.
"Okay?" Simon asked. "It's better than okay, it's wonderful mei mei." He said turning towards his sister with a bright smile.
"Yeah, sure. It's all manners of dandy for her." Mal said waving a hand towards River. "Must be nice to be the only one up there, don't make it anything more'n okay." He finished as he stood up from his chair in the mess and turned towards the bridge.
"Captain…" Simon said warningly.
"Look Doc, I love your mei mei like she was my own." Mal stopped for a moment and glanced back over at River. "When she's not bein' all crazy." He amended, receiving a small smile and a roll of her eyes from River, before turning to make his way back to the bridge. "But I've come to rely on her to keep me an' the rest of us from gettin' shot. Seems to me her not hearin' what folks are thinkin's bound to hinder that.
Mal stopped and turned back around to face Simon as soon as he made it to the bridge. "Don't make much sense for me to keep her about if she ain't earnin' her keep." He said seriously before flashing the flustered doctor a cocky grin.
Simon's mouth fell open as he watched the Captain shut the door to the bridge, for only god knows what reason. That man couldn't be serious. He spun back around to stare at his sister, mouth still open, as she simply smiled back. "You… I…" he sputtered for a moment before shaking his head. "That man is insane." He muttered as he left the room.
River roused from her reminiscence as Mook nodded and looked over at Jayne, who seemed to be taking said anger out on his keyboard. "Yeah, well, it's Jayne. He's always angry about something."
River and Mook stood next to each other, staring over at an oblivious Jayne. "He's not all he seems." River said as she tilted her head and looked back over at Jayne.
Mook nodded again. "He's smarter than most give him credit for." He said turning back to River. "In a profession like his, being dumb gets you dead real quick… Better to be smart and act dumb," He said with a grin. "Helps lull people into a false sense of security around you." He explained seriously as River turned back towards him. "That way later in life you can stab them in the back for loads of money, which is kind of Jayne's specialty."
River shook her head and quirked an eyebrow. "That's not what happened to you."
Mook froze for a moment and just stared at the girl as she looked at Jayne. She was doing something, something more than just looking at him though he wasn't certain what, and Mook would be lying if it wasn't a little disconcerting.
"He trusted you. You broke that part of him." She said, ignoring the look she was getting from Mook.
"No one's perfect." He muttered, still staring at her.
River shook her head again, ignoring Mook completely now. "Won't let anyone in now… First cut's the deepest."
Mook blinked and looked back over to Jayne as an all too familiar feeling crept over him. He felt like he did over 15 years ago, when he left Jayne in the middle of the desert. He'd been lying to everyone, including himself, for over 15 gorram years, and it took all of five minutes with this little slip of a girl for him to admit it.
"Can't blame that all on me. It's how men like him live. They screw up on a job; they get dead or left behind." He said defensively, trying to ignore the dropping feeling that had begun in his stomach. Jayne had been the best at what he was hired to do, and he had been with Mook for longer than anyone else had. What they'd had was as close to an actual friendship as Mook had ever allowed himself.
Mook shook his head and turned away from Jayne to stare at the wall, hell anywhere that wasn't Jayne or the girl next to him. "He's lucky he just got left behind." Even as the words left his mouth, Mook knew it was a lie. Didn't matter how much he screwed up; Jayne'd deserved better than what Mook gave him.
"Peas in a pod. Both left broken in the end."
Mook stared at the girl, long and hard, as though that would help him to better understand her. He had a hunch that no amount of staring would help him understand her, no matter how long said staring lasted. He was desperately searching her face, trying to decide who exactly she was talking about, him and Jayne or her and Jayne.
TBC in the next part which will be up in a few days.
