A/N: Yay for still having readers/reviewers, although quite honestly I think at this point I'd keep going regardless, because I can't help myself :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 6
Some might find life confining vessel-side, but River was thrilled by the freedom of travelling unencumbered through the black. She found enough room inside when she needed it. The cargo bay was currently her stage as she lifted her feet until she was practically end pointed, and showed off all her best ballet skills for whatever audience she might have. Eyes were on her, River knew, but never minded here. Serenity was safety and calm. Crew were family already, even after so short a stay. Two weeks and she knew she belonged, something she scarcely ever felt in the place that ought to be called home.
Spinning one last pirouette, River ended with a bow, facing the two onlookers, who applauded her talents.
"That was so shiny!" Kaylee declared. "Boy, I wish I could do that."
"You are a very skilled dancer, River," agreed Inara, "and with a natural grace to be envied by anyone."
"She thanks you," said River, bowing low one more time, the hem of her dress in her hand. "Mechanic is kind, but Companion is too modest. She has skills too."
If anyone else had said it, Inara might have taken offence, or at the very least assumed that her more sexual talents were being complimented. With River she was sure she meant precisely what she said and responded accordingly.
"A Companion is trained in various forms of dance," she confirmed, "but I'm afraid I didn't have your raw talent to work with."
"I ain't got talent for nothin' but engines," Kaylee sighed. "Not sayin' I ain't altogether glad to be good at anythin', but I'd give my left leg to be able to dance like that," she declared, leaning heavily on the catwalk railing.
"I think, mei mei, that if you gave your left leg you would have more problems than you do now when it comes to the art of dancing," said Inara with a smile. "Come on, come down here with me," she urged Kaylee then, her hand held out to her. "If River has the time to spare, I'm sure she will be kind enough to teach you a few things, and I can lend a hand as well."
River glanced from Inara to Kaylee, staring strangely a moment before a grin broke out across her face. "She does not wish to be the elegant swan. She wishes for a fairytale - a prince, a partner, a mate."
"I am glad to see I'm not the only one to notice," said Inara, smiling still. "Perhaps, Kaylee, you would rather learn to dance as couples do at a ball than to learn ballet?"
"Could ya teach me that?" she asked the other two. "I mean, I don't know if or when I'd ever get to use it, but I'd sure love to know how, just in case some fanciful fella should ever ask me."
River and Inara shared a knowing look and a little light laughter that could not be helped. No-one wished to make Kaylee feel foolish, but it wasn't as if they couldn't all guess who she had a mind to impress with her dancing skills.
Though River and Simon were siblings, it was often hard to remember it. Whilst she seemed to have adapted to the life of an outlaw with veritable ease, Simon was still very much a starched shirt, for lack of a better term. He retained an air of fancifulness that River had no urge to keep a hold on. Maybe that was a part of what Kaylee liked about him. In any case, if she wished to learn to dance, the other ladies had no objections to assisting.
From up above, Jayne stood in the shadows a minute, watching the scene. He was pleased enough to see River lookin' so gorram happy. Sure had been long enough in coming. At the house where he had been her bodyguard, she never did seem to feel all the way comfortable, almost as if she was waiting for something bad to happen. Out in the black, they all felt that way, and it was for the best too. Trouble lurked everywhere and Jayne knew it better than most. He weren't sorry that River had learnt it fast and Simon just the same. Still, aboard Serenity, the danger was less. Far as Jayne could tell, he could trust the Captain and his crew not to turn on 'em. For a while, he had been less sure about the Preacher, and even now Jayne weren't a hundred percent certain that everythin' about him was quite what it seemed. Still, he believed the old man weren't the type to turn 'em all into the Feds nor nothin'. For Jayne, that was enough for now.
Sure as he was that his little woman was properly distracted with her new girly friends, Jayne crept back amongst the shadows and disappeared. He moved quick and definite toward the infirmary, just a little surprised to find Simon weren't there. Muttering in Chinese, he tried the doc's quarters next, stopping himself a moment before he bust in. He was supposed to have learned some manners, and Jayne proved he wasn't so poor a student when he knocked, though he didn't actually wait for the 'come in' before he opened the door.
"Jayne," said Simon, looking up quickly from his book. "Is everything alright? Is River..?"
"Little woman's doin' just fine," Jayne assured, closing the door behind himself. "For now in any case. She's down in the cargo bay, tryin' to teach little Kaylee some fancy dancin' moves. Never saw women look so giddy over kicking their legs around," he said, rolling his eyes, though he was smiling anyway.
"So long as they're happy," said Simon, thinking mostly of River.
After all she had gone through, he was glad to know she was finding any joy in their current situation. Simon often wished he could be so lucky, though he doubted dance lessons in the cargo bay would help his mood.
"Fact of the matter is, doc, you and me needs to be havin' a talk," said Jayne, sitting down on the only chair in the room.
Simon pulled himself up to sit on the edge of the bed opposite, placing his book to one side.
"You seem very serious," he said with a frown. "Should I be worried?"
"Wish I knew," Jayne sighed. "I ain't altogether sure I should be tellin' you this, and believe me I don't like that I gotta, but I'm in over my head, Simon, I don't mind tellin' ya."
Perhaps the biggest shock was the use of his real name. Jayne had a tendency to call everyone by anything but their name. River was usually baobei or little woman, sometimes girly or similar. Simon himself was used to 'doc' for the most part, so the fact he just heard his given name from Jayne's lips proved the topic was extremely serious.
"This must be about River," he said, unsure what to think in such a moment. "What is it, Jayne? The only possibilities I can come up with is that you no longer wish to protect my sister-"
"That ain't even it!" he interrupted sharply. "You gorram know how I feel about my little woman. If'n you don't, you're even more fong luh than she comes off sometimes!"
"I'm sorry," said Simon, realising after the fact that he was leaning back and away from Jayne's anger and righting himself accordingly now. "Then my only other guess would be that you think we should leave Serenity."
"Well, then you ain't as smart as I had you down for, doc," said Jayne grumpily.
Honestly, he wished Simon would guess what the problem was so he didn't have to tell him. This weren't no conversation he really wanted to be havin' but so help him somebody had to know, somebody who might understand and be able to help. He just didn't like goin' behind River's back this way, that was all.
"River's come to talkin' in her sleep again," he admitted at last, again using a given name and making a coldness run through Simon that he didn't care for at all. "Ain't the nightmares and all, that I gotten used to, it's them same words, over and over, and by first light I don't even think she knows she did it."
Simon cleared his throat twice before he replied, and even then he wasn't happy with what he was about to say.
"Two by two, hands of blue," he said, a statement not a question when it came to River's mantra.
The way Jayne's eyes widened proved he had it right.
"You met them suited fellas used to come visitin' your Pa, didn't ya?"
Simon nodded. "I never let them into the house if my parents were absent. River would-"
"All but lose her pretty little mind when they come near," Jayne cut in. "I know it. Gives me an uncomfortableness that those folks are on her mind again."
"It doesn't exactly thrill me either," Simon admitted. "But there's little I can do. The drugs that myself and Nancy used to administer in an emergency work well enough to stop River when she's having one of her episodes, but it's just a smoother, it can't fix the harm that's been done," he admitted. "I can't begin to figure out just exactly what has been altered or damaged in River's brain. Trying to figure it out... it might not even be possible."
Jayne knew if Simon had an idea how to help River, he'd be doing it. Weren't no question on that. Fact of the matter was, even the doc with all his fancy educatin' couldn't know for sure what was goin' on in her pretty little head. Hell, even the little woman herself didn't seem sure half o' the time. Jayne knew she was calmer out here in the black than she ever was home on Osiris, but her goin' on repeating words about them hands of blue fellas had him rattled, that he couldn't deny.
"You think maybe they're close by? The folks from that Academy that messed up her brain?"
"I doubt it," said Simon, shaking his head. "The tracking device planted aboard Serenity at Persephone is long gone, and if anyone were within range, I believe the Captain or Wash would know of it by now."
"Mebbe so." Jayne shrugged his broad shoulders. "All I know is I don't like it none. Mebbe River-girl is just havin' nightmares of what come before, but that bein' the case, ain't you got anythin' in your fancy medicines to ease that some?"
"I'd rather not administer any more drugs if I can help it, not unless River asks me herself. It's possible that she is unaware of what she's saying or even what she's dreaming. In those circumstances, it might be better not to tell her."
Jayne nodded his head, knowing Simon had a point. He didn't want to make nothing worse for his baobei, not ever, but he sure didn't think he'd be gettin' no sleep any time soon, not for so long as she was chanting about them creepy ass fellas whilst she dreamed.
"Found you!" River called from the doorway.
Stealthy as she was, neither Jayne nor Simon ever heard it open or noticed her at all until she spoke. If'n she knew what they'd been talkin' on she didn't say so, and the grin on her face was wide as ever it had been.
"Hey there!" said Kaylee from behind her, smiling just the same. "River here's been teaching me dancin', and we was wonderin'..."
She didn't get a chance to say any more as the Captain appeared behind them with an awfully stern look on his face.
"What's all this twitterin' about now?" he asked Kaylee in particular. "Ain't you got work to be doin' to keep this bird in the air, mei mei?"
"I was just..." she began to make excuses but the look on Mal's face told her he needed her to get already. "Kuh-ooh duh lao bao-jurn," she muttered as she went.
"Bai duo, an jing yidian!" he replied, proving he heard her, before painting on a smile and turning to his passengers. "Everything okay here?" he checked.
"All is well inside the belly of the snug-as-a-bug," River told him, nodding happily.
"Well, ain't that just shiny?" he replied, feeling a might dazed by her way of talking - he wondered if it would ever really make sense to him. "Fact of the matter is, we come across a ship, doesn't look too good. Pretty sure we ain't got Reavers nor anythin' so horrifyin'. Could be there are folks aboard in trouble. Might be they abandoned ship."
"When you say in trouble," said Simon, "you mean they may need medical assistance?"
"Could be. Ain't gonna know for sure until we go aboard," Mal confirmed. "Just wanted to let you know what was happenin', so there's no unpleasant surprises," he said with a significant look at River.
"No surprises, no presents," she told him, though her eyes stared off into nothing now, one hand gripping her opposite arm so tight her knuckles began to go white. "Only rattling chains, white noise..." she rambled some, until Jayne's hand on her shoulder brought her back to reality and she looked right at him, lucid as anyone. "Ghosts."
To Be Continued...