Firefly

Chapter 2

"Follow me, please." He began walking and yet Kate didn't move an inch. He had used the word again. Please. No one used that word when talking to her. She didn't understand him.

"Over here." He waved her over then pulled something down from the wall that was the size of a bed. When he did it the wall behind him lit up. Kate walked up to him since she was curious.

"This is medical," he said in case she'd forgotten, which she hadn't. There really wasn't all that much to this place. "Hop up and lie down for me. Let's get a look at you." She didn't move. "Please, it won't hurt, I promise." Except he didn't wait for her. He picked her up and sat her down on the bed. "Lie down." This time he didn't say please so she did as she was told and lay down on her back.

"First things first. Let's verify if you're tagged." Kate watched as he reached across her, pressed some panels, then he pulled something down out of the wall above her. She watched him detach something and slowly ran it down her body from head to toe then back again. "Your owner's a fool. He didn't tag you. You're a slave, aren't you?"

"Yes, my parents sold me to him." Kate answered him without looking at him.

"Thought as much. My name is Richard Castle. You can call me Rick. Not master or some other demeaning name. What's yours?"

"Kate." It was all he needed to know.

"Well, Kate, let's find out what kind of shape you're in." Rick reached across her and pressed another series of panels.

Rick slowly drew the device across her again only much more slowly. "Let's see, no skull fractures and I see no brain damage. Your cute nose is still in perfect shape." That had Kate smiling.

"I take it you find it painful to eat on one side of your mouth," Rick mentioned after he saw what was on the scanner.

"Yes." Kate lifted her hand to touch that side of her mouth.

"Don't move, please." Rick pushed her arm back down.

"Sorry." Kate noticed that he used that word again.

"Rule number two, never say that you're sorry. It's a sign of weakness and where we're going weakness is something you dare not show."

"Sorry," Kate told him again then realized she'd said sorry. "Sorry." It came out so easily that she couldn't help herself. She was all set to say sorry again but chose to just lie there quietly instead.

"Good girl." Rick was happy. "Looks like your jaw's been broken once. It's healed but not properly. We'll have to fix both of those." Rick kept pulling it down her body.

"Neck looks good. That's good. Lungs look good. Oh, my. You've had four broken ribs on your left side and two on your right. None of them have healed properly. We'll have to fix that as well." Rick kept going.

"The kidney on your left side shows signs of bruising. We can fix that easily. Let's see what else there is." Rick kept pulling.

"Pelvis is good as is your spinal column. …Looks like you've been raped a few times. In both. Your old master, I presume?" She didn't say anything. She didn't have to. It was staring him right in the face.

"Before we start, why were you lying on the floor?" Rick asked her.

"I failed. I dropped it and it broke so my master hit me and stormed off," Kate said.

"Did he now? More likely you got run over and had it ripped from your hands. It broke then the fool hit you for it." Rick saw the look that came over her face. "I know that place well. It's a bit chaotic in the best of times. But have it your way. You dropped it. …Now let's start with that tooth before you lose any more weight." Rick opened a panel over her head on the wall and pulled something out.

"This is going to hurt for a bit but it will pass. Now open your mouth wide for me." Rick waited until she'd done what he asked of her then pressed the needle into her mouth. He heard her grunt from the pain.

"Sorry," Rick apologized since he really didn't want to hurt her. "Great, now you've got me doing it." He had violated his own rule. Kate smiled timidly. He was handsome, being kind to her, and he was funny.

"Just for that I'm going to hope the pain shot I just gave you doesn't work. Now open wide so I can fix that tooth." Rick waited until she opened her mouth, pressed his device into the back of her mouth, and pressed it onto her tooth.

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"All done. Now we need to get to work on that jaw of yours." Rick put his device away and took out another one.

"This isn't supposed to hurt but it is going to feel weird so try and hold still or we'll have to do this all over again," Rick warned her.

Kate found that he wasn't lying. It felt like it should hurt but it didn't and yes, it felt really weird. Until he finally took it away.

"There, done with your jaw. Doing your ribs is going to take more time. It's going to feel the same, just takes longer so don't move." Rick put it on her chest and held it there for a moment.

"While that works I'm going to take some blood and see if he's done anything to you." Rick got out a fresh syringe.

"Don't like needles, I see." Rick saw her open her eyes wide as he got it out. "I'll be as kind as I can." Yet Kate moved when he got the needle a little too close.

"Stop moving or we'll have to fix your ribs all over again," Rick chided her.

"Sorry." Kate cringed because she'd done it again. She was so used to saying sorry.

Kate watched him take an amazingly small amount then transferred her blood into a tiny tube that he put into the wall. "Interesting," Rick noted as he read the display.

"Looks perfect to me." Rick opened another storage cabinet and removed a large beaker filled with a blue liquid that actually sparkled inside the blue. However, he needed a new syringe and something to bind her upper arm.

Rick bound her arm and tapped her arm just at the wrist until he saw a vein. He ripped something open, wiped her arm, then filled the syringe with a lot of the blue stuff until it couldn't hold any more.

"Try not to move or this really will hurt you and that's something I don't want to do." Rick inserted the syringe and pushed the plunger to get the liquid to go into her vein. He was done shortly and pulled out the syringe. "All done for now." He knew it was going to take more than one but was sure he could get her to take them.

Then the device on her chest beeped. "All done with your ribs." Rick put the device that was on her chest away. "Your immune system should fix everything else."

Rick threw away his second used syringe and helped her to stand. "How do you feel?" He watched as she ran her tongue through her mouth, tested her bad tooth, and found that it didn't hurt any longer. Then ran a hand along her jaw to test that.

"Better, I think." However, she was feeling something and wasn't sure just what it was.

"Hungry, perhaps?" Rick then closed the bed back into the wall which turned everything off.

"This way." Rick took her across a few short steps to the kitchen.

"In each cabinet in the wall is a meal. You simply open it." He pressed on the panel then let it pop open. Inside were a number of silver packets. He chose one out at random since that was how they went in then closed the panel.

"Here, this good for you?" It had what was inside it written on the outside.

Kate could read but what it said didn't mean anything to her. "You open this panel and put it inside. Close it and press the panel next to it and wait. In the meantime how about a drink? The glasses are behind this panel." Rick reached past her head, opened a panel in the same way, took out a glass, and closed it.

"Now comes the hard part, choosing what to drink." Rick reached up and pushed the ceiling up just a little then this round thing came down the column to about head height.

Above that panel she saw containers that had writing on each of them. "These are concentrated so you only need a little. Pick one." Rick waited for her to make her choice.

Kate didn't even know what any of them were. All she'd ever had to drink was water. The words on them meant almost nothing so she simply pointed. He put a drop in her glass then pushed it back up into the ceiling. He put the glass on the table, pressed a button, and out came water.

Kate smiled in relief since water looked like it was easy to get. He stopped when it reached the top and set it in front of her. The wall dinged so he opened it and took out her packet.

Then he pulled a drawer open, took out a fork, and handed it to her. "Just rip the top open and Bon Appétit. I'm going to go take a shower so take your time." Rick headed to the back of the ship.

"Shower?" She didn't understand why but the thought of him being naked excited her in ways she couldn't explain. She was used to being raped, not wanting a man. She didn't get any pleasure out of it and yet somehow she thought she might with him.

Instead she looked at her pouch, saw where to rip it open, and did so. The smell instantly hit her and her stomach growled as its emptiness actually hurt. One forkful later and she was moaning at the taste. She didn't know what it was but she loved it. She tried to get the contents of the pouch into her stomach as fast as she could.

Kate even found a way to rip it open and was licking the inside of the empty bag, savoring every taste. It was only after she was done that she realized that she was thirsty. Eating it had made her thirsty so she raised her glass and taste tested it. Her eyes opened wide at the taste; she drank an entire mouthful and felt it work its way down her throat. The taste was simply amazing. She found herself drinking it as fast as she could get it down until her glass was empty.

She sat at the table looking at her empty inside out packet and her now empty glass and she was smiling. Then suddenly a burst of something came out her mouth that sounded terrible, yet she felt better after doing it.

However, now her mind was on Rick being naked in the shower. She walked to the back where he'd said the shower was located. She pressed a hand on the door.

She had suffered through being raped and had hated every second of it. Partly because it hurt and partly because her master was disgusting. And yet she felt a need to be next to him. To touch him and feel him. Her master had kissed her but they were always rough and he had even choked her a few times when he did.

Kate wanted to smother his mouth with hers. Then the door slid open and she saw him standing there dressed in something different.

"Wow, done eating already? You must have been really hungry. Good thing I just bought a lot. Your turn in the shower. I'm going to search for something you can wear. Then I'm going to throw what you're wearing out the airlock."

Kate didn't move. She could smell him and he smelled so very fresh and enticing. She couldn't see any skin but she really wanted to. She wanted to run her hands across his fresh smelling body.

"In you go. Take a shower and get clean. I don't want to be smelling your old master on you so scrub really hard." Rick gently pushed her into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

He wondered just what he could give her to wear that might even come close to fitting her. He found a t-shirt that was likely way too big for her but maybe she could tie it at her waist. Then a pair of his boxers that actually had a string that she could use to pull them tight at her waist followed by a pair of tube socks. They were old and just about had holes in them but they would do for now. He put all of it on the lower bed across from him then went to the bridge and sat down to see how they were progressing.

He was pretty sure that one shot was working but he knew he needed to wait for at least two more shots. By then she would be going out of her mind. Especially after what he had planned for her.

Finding her had been a stroke of luck. He hadn't gone there looking for anyone. It was purely accidental. It was just his luck that she was pretty though skinny and he was betting her breasts could use a little fat, but he could fix that by feeding her.

"So where are we?" Rick activated all of his screens and took a look.

Kate meanwhile slowly took off what she was wearing and let it fall to the floor. It took her a moment to figure out the controls but she got the water to start. Then she found the control knob that changed the temperature that actually showed what it was on a readout. She guessed this was where Rick left it so she didn't change it but checked it before stepping in.

She found the shampoo and something to wash with and was soon scrubbing herself. Then her fingers finally found her core and a mere touch had her sucking in a breath. It also had her using her fingers to stroke herself. She'd never done this before but it felt so very good that she couldn't stop. It was feeling better and better then her finger touched something that had her screaming. It flooded her system with a feeling she'd never felt before. It took her a moment to recover. She didn't know what it was but she loved the feeling of it. It took some work but she got her legs back under her nice and strong before finishing to wash herself.

She saw the word DRY so she pressed it and suddenly there was air hitting her everywhere. Including where forced air hadn't ever gone before. Then just as she was just about dry it stopped.

Now she had a new problem. What to wear? He wanted to throw the only clothes she had out his airlock. She didn't think they were that bad but she opened the door and didn't see him.

She did, however, see some clothes laid out on one of the beds. She tried to put them on but they were way too big for her. At least the shorts had a drawstring so she could keep them on. As for the t-shirt she wasn't certain just what to do until she found that if she pulled the bottom of it over to one side she could put a sort of knot in it. Next came the socks that were so big and long they reached her knees.

Now that she was dressed she went looking for him but stopped at the bump in the middle of the cargo bay way back just in front of the bunk beds. Kneeling down she found it was as hard as the floor so what it was doing there didn't make any sense to her. And he hadn't said anything about it.

Looking far forward she saw him sitting his his chair. That had her bypassing everything else, including the kitchen, and sitting down in her chair.

"Feeling better now?" Rick asked her. She had showered and he had heard a muffled scream and could only guess what that had been. Though it fit in perfectly with the shot he had given her.

"Yes." She felt amazing actually. "My master is going to kill both of us when he finds us." Kate figured she was dead.

"Perhaps but I'm betting he isn't concerned if you come back at all." Kate thought he was nuts. Why would he ever think that?

"You were forced to break something and he was angry, right?" Kate nodded, not that Rick even looked at her. "Then he struck you and stormed off, didn't he?" Rick surmised that was what he'd done since she had been left lying on the floor, sniffling from being hit hard.

Kate nodded. "He was supposedly your master and owned you because he had bought you from someone. But if he wanted to keep you he would have tagged you somehow, but he didn't. Oh he'll curse you for going missing and he might actually go looking for you. Though when he doesn't find you he'll curse you again but that'll be the end of it. He'll complain to anyone who listens that he paid good money for you and this is what he gets. She runs away. He'll complain that he should never have bought you in the first place." Rick could see it happening.

Kate wasn't so sure but he sounded sure so he might be right.

"Where are we going?" Kate's voice quavered a little; she was still nervous.

"There's an old space station that used to be part of the war against the Alliance long ago. The Browns built it to be part of their main base. The Alliance never did find it, not that it mattered. They won the battle anyway. It's just on the fringe between here and the outer rim which is where we'll be going. Out on the rim are planets and establishments that the Alliance cares nothing about. Out there are a few miners scraping out a living.

"Their primary problem is getting what they mine to a processing plant farther into the known area of space. If you can get in, which is usually the easy part, you can load up what he's worked so hard at mining. He'll pay for someone to take his load out to a processing plant. Then that plant will pay for the ore you deliver," Rick explained.

"Why can't they do it themselves?" It was their ore and they mined it out of the ground. So load it up and deliver it.

"Pirates. All of them are mostly leftovers from the war. They use leftover military stuff that the Browns abandoned. They're more than willing to let the miner bust his back to mine the ore. They like to prey on cargo ships that try and get it from the mine to a planet with a processor on it."

Kate sucked in a breath. The man that had picked her up was about to try and get both of them killed.

"Relax, this cargo ship is heavily armed. In addition to the rail guns I have two banks of missiles that swing out from the side. The fore missile wings are shorter than the longer ones at the aft of the ship. Besides I'm a lot faster than a normal cargo ship.

"It might get hairy but we'll make it and it'll be a good pay day." Rick was looking forward to earning that amount of money.

"So what's at the station before this mine?" Kate wasn't used to asking questions. Her master didn't want her to speak unless she was spoken to.

"Clothes and two more things for you. Pretty sure you would like to wear something that would actually fit you."

She clapped both hands over her mouth and stared at the back of his head. He was going to buy her clothes!? Just who was this man? No one had ever been this nice to her before.