Title: You were the wind and I the sea

Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)/Firefly

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Sara Teasdale

Warnings: spoilers for The Great Game; takes place half a year after Serenity

Pairings: implied Sherlock/John; Simon/Kaylee; post-Zoe/Wash

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 430

Point of view: third

Prompt: Sherlock (BBC)/Firefly, Sherlock + or / John, and Serenity's crew, Mal had no idea his latest cargo was smuggling one man's heart across the 'verse. This was déjà vu all over again.

Watson's quiet, keeps to himself, and saves Mal's life dockside, halfway to their destination.

"You're a gorram doctor?" Mal demands, while Watson shoves his shirt into the wound, grabs Mal's gun, and shoots the dirty bastards who ambushed them.

"Stay still, Captain," Watson tells him, barely looking up and still getting the ringleader between the eyes.

Zoe and Jayne show up then and Watson barks out orders, but Mal decides it's a nice time to black out.

0o0

Watson is a model passenger. The Tams could learn from him. Simon asks him questions over supper, and Watson answers civilly, drawing more from Simon than Mal thinks he realizes.

Jayne asks about the shooting. That, Watson neatly avoids, and Jayne ends up talking for ten minutes about his childhood home. By the time he catches on, supper is over and Watson thanks them all for the food, departing silently.

River watches him go. "What is it?" Simon asks, Kaylee leaning forward, all of them waiting.

River smiles and says, "His heart's big enough for everyone, and he'll keep it safe 'til they're together and two become one again."

Mal looks at Zoe, then back to River. "So, he's not a threat, then?"

Pushing back from the table, River shakes her head. "Not to us," she says, rising to her feet and spinning in place. "Not ever, unless we hurt his heart."

She stops suddenly, glancing around covertly before whispering, "Wanna hear a secret?"

"Yeah," Kaylee murmurs, leaning in.

River looks around one more time before telling them, "His heart couldn't be burnt, because it was never his alone."

Mal has no idea what that means. Going by their expressions, no one knows. Not that that's close to bein' new.

River dances her way out of the room. Mal shakes his head and leans back in his chair.

"At least we got another doc," Jayne says. "One that can even shoot."

Simon gives him a polite glare and sternly rises to his feet, following his sister. Kaylee's at his heels, taking his hand and murmuring something.

"What do you think?" Mal asks Zoe.

She ponders for a moment, rubbing a hand gently across her swelling belly. "I want to trust him," she finally says, slowly, like it's a confession. "And I believe River might have the right of it." She meets Mal's eyes. "He is a dangerous man, but not to us. At least, not at the moment."

"Yeah," Mal says. "That's what I think, too."

Hopefully, nothing else will go wrong before they reach Watson's destination.

(Knowing their luck, not gorram likely.)