San Diego Serenade: Chapter 2
Mal sits on the floor, too tired to even haul his battered body onto the bench. He spits a mouthful of blood away. His face is swollen to the size of a potato where they have pulled out one of his back molars. All the time he screamed and they didn't react at all. He wants to pass out with the pain. But he makes himself stay conscious. He has to wait for him to come back.
"Inara…" he groans softly, feeling like his jawbone is going to explode. Greyness swims at the edge of his vision. "God help me…"
He spits more blood and shifts his weight gently. His hand throbs where they pulled out three fingernails. "Inara why haven't you come? I…I love you…" he bites off a short sharp laugh. Maybe if he gave in to insanity they would leave him alone. But they'd still taken Simon. Who hadn't moved or said a word since last night.
The glass opens and Simon is bodily thrown back into the cell. He lands on his hands and knees.
Today is the day that they touch Simon.
He is shirtless and his body is covered in burns and cuts and barely appearing bruises. Along his arm his veins are enlarged and in the crook of his elbow blood leaks from puncture marks. His right eye is swollen nearly shut and is a vivid purple black. Two of his fingers are twisted unnaturally and he is missing seven fingernails. Mal winces. And realises he can't look much better.
"Simon?"
"Two by two hands of blue. Two by two hands of blue." Simon's voice is barely audible through split lips.
"What?" Mal feels a shiver race down his spine.
Simon starts to laugh and lays on the floor. "Two by two…hands of blue." He laughs again.
Mal wonders if they've burnt out his mind. The brilliant doctor is gone, replaced by a babbling madman.
"Two by…two…hands…of…blue." His voice is a whisper. A scratchy grating undertone from a throat destroyed by screaming. He would have screamed. He would have bitten his own lip until it bleed, he would have closed his eyes and willed himself to someplace else, but he would end up screaming. Mal knew. He'd taken his mind to his beloved Serenity. But he was dragged back and then he screamed.
He'd said it to Simon the first time they came for him – "You fight them y'hear? And if you can't then you be someplace else!" – Simon had nodded. Mal knew he would have tried to hold on.
Simon stares at the ceiling and laughs. It is the laugh of someone who doesn't know what they are laughing at or why, but finds everything so hilariously funny that they laugh anyway. The laugh of a madman.
"I can smell strawberries," Simon says and passes out.
Mal is glad of the silence. Then feels horrible for thinking that. He feels tears welling in his eyes and his cheek starts to throb incessantly. He wants to cry again, but he won't give those bastards the satisfaction. He is going to die. He knows it for sure now. He will die. Either in this cell or on their metal table. And it will probably be screaming.
He realises that Simon has been too quiet, even for someone unconscious. He turns to look at the younger man.
"Simon?"
He crawls across the floor slowly and looks down at the doctor. "SIMON!"
The doc ain't moving. Not one iota. And he ain't breathing. Oh god he ain't breathing. Mal tries to remember what he needs to do. He was sure he had learnt something in the war. Okay he has to breathe into his lungs. Mal pulls a face. He's not sure he can remember how. He pinches Simon's nose and takes a deep breath. He breathes deeply into Simon's lungs. Nothing. He thumps Simon in the chest.
"Come on!"
He does a few chest compressions and feels something crack. Mal winces. Then thumps Simon again.
"Wake up you ben zhou hundan!"
The door opens behind him.
Inara reaches down and picks up her clothes. They were just men. They could die just like men. But it doesn't make her feel better, just dirtier. She'd cried the whole time. Acting like a common whore and seducing the man who owns this facility didn't guarantee that Mal or Simon was still alive. But it did make one evil man dead. And it meant that she had been able to kill the other two when he pressed his panic button. She retrieves the syringe from the neck of one man and shudders. Their clinical blue latex gloves shine dully in the light. She refills the syringe after she dresses, and hopes that she won't have to use it on Mal or Simon if the reaver stories are true. She prays that they are just stories. Because she will kill them if she has to. She won't see either of them become like that.
Three men for two. A trade off. But life and death don't work that way. And the look that man got in his eyes when she told him who she really was. When she asked where they were, he had laughed. Inara had felt the chills go down her spine even as she sat atop him. She'd hated him in that moment, more than she could hate herself. They had enjoyed what they did to Mal and Simon. So she didn't hurt as much when she killed him. She feels sick as she goes to the door.
Zoë and Jayne are the first ones out of the door their guns held eyes and eyes darting everywhere. The port seems deserted. Reaver attacks drive traders away and not much else comes to a border world like this.
"Two by two hands of blue."
"Will you shut her up?" Jayne snaps to Kaylee.
"Sorry," Kaylee puts her arm around the younger girl. "River sweetie come inside."
River turns wide eyes on the mechanic. "We're too late. We're too late Kaylee. He's dead. Let's go."
"Wh…what?" Kaylee stutters.
"They broke them. You smell of strawberries."
"Hey!" Wash suddenly shouts. "Isn't that a shuttle from Inara's companion house?"
"Inara," Kaylee breathes. "Why is she…?"
Zoë shakes her head and shrugs. "Something damn weird is going on here."
River runs forward and grabs hold of Jayne. She punches him in the chest. "Wake up you ben zhou hundan!" she screams.
"Wey!" Jayne exclaims, "G'off."
River hits him again. "Wake up! Wake up!"
Jayne grabs hold of her wrists and restrains the struggling girl. Her voice is Mal's. Desperate and screaming and destroyed.
Everyone is staring at her. Zoë's expression is unreadable. Kaylee looks ready to cry. Wash looks disturbed, like he would rather be running than standing here at 3 a.m. listening to a girl speak in someone else's voice.
River finally sags against Jayne's chest sobbing brokenly. "Too late. She came too late. Too late. Can't feel them. Broken toys scattered." She looks up into Jayne's eyes. "I told you. I did. I told you Jayne. Martyrs. Died for us. Died for me."
Jayne unconsciously wraps his arms around the girl and holds her close.
"Martyrs," she whispers again. "All martyrs." She turns her eyes on Zoë and Wash. "You knew. You knew their plan. You martyred them. Sold them out for thirty pieces of silver."
"Mal?" he looks up momentarily his eyes barely registering who she is. Then he thumps Simon's chest again. "No Mal stop…" Inara pleads feeling the tears running down her face. She reaches into her pocket for the box.
"Gotta," Mal says hitting the doctor again then leaning down and breathing into his lungs even though the motion makes him want to scream in agony.
Inara drops to her knees on the cell floor. She grabs Mal's forearms. "Please Mal. He's dead."
"No…" Mal stares at her and shakes his head. His face is purple with bruises, one cheek swollen in a huge lump. The skin on his arms is ripped to shreds. "No he can't be." Mal's voice is tiny, like a child's, and distorted round the swelling. "I said we would be okay. I told him. I promised."
The sharp gasping intake of breath startles them both.
"Simon!" Inara leans over him.
He starts coughing and pushes at her weakly thinking she is one of them. Mal starts laughing.
"Its Inara Simon. It's me. You're safe now." She strokes his hair back with feather soft hands.
Mal starts to cry. "You came. You came for us. I thought…I thought we were…"
Inara kisses his forehead. She can't kiss his lips however much she wants to, she won't hurt him more. She presses her lips to his skin hard. "Can you walk?" she asks.
He nods. "Can Simon?"
"Yes." Simon's voice is a suggestion of sound. "Get me up."
Inara helps both men to their feet. Mal retrieves his coat from the bench. He slips it awkwardly on with her help but it suddenly makes him straighten and look more like the captain she knows him to be. Simon leans heavily on her, wavering like he might pass out any second. Inara kisses him gently on the cheek. "Be a brave boy for me okay?" Why she finds herself speaking to Simon like a five year old she isn't sure.
Simon nods, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
Wash and Zoë stare at River their mouths open.
"What does she mean?" Kaylee asks. "What plan?"
They exchange a look. "If Simon got himself taken we weren't to go back for him. He wanted River to be safe," Zoë finally says.
"What?" Kaylee says spluttering in disbelief. "He wouldn't say that!"
"Yes he would." River says in a whisper. "He would and you know it."
Jayne gives her a squeeze. "Your brother is stupid."
River smiles weakly. "I know." Tears threaten to spill from her eyes and her lip starts to wobble.
"Why do I have such a disobedient crew?"
At first they all look at River, thinking she is speaking. Doing her strange channelling thing again. She shakes her head staring from Jayne's arms past them all.
They turn to stare at the three people at the bottom of the ramp. Inara wearing very little – a low cut thigh skimming dress in a shocking pinky red colour – the moonlight bouncing off her skin, standing between two very broken men. Mal unaided but battered. He goes to step forward and stumbles. Inara catches him in her free arm and he smiles at her gratefully but stands himself back upright alone. Simon is being pretty much held up by Inara.
"Cap'n! Simon!" Kaylee flings herself towards them but stops short of hugging them. Stares at them with wide frightened eyes. "I thought reavers had you!"
Simon is shivering violently in Inara's embrace. "Kay…" he can't make his mouth form the rest of her name.
"What happened to you?"
Simon reaches forward a bloodied hand as if to touch her face but before it gets there he passes out again. Wash darts forward and helps to catch him.
Jayne releases River and manoeuvres himself under Mal's arm. Mal tries to protest but Jayne cuts him off. "Shut up."
"Infirmary. Now." Zoë orders.
"Mal. He kept me alive. Told me to take my mind somewhere else."
Mal slits his eyes open and looks sideways. He feels blissfully numb. Simon is laid on the main infirmary bed with Kaylee sitting on a stool between them. Her attention though is focused on the doctor.
"Where did you go?"
"Before or after I died?"
"You died?" Kaylee's voice is shocked.
"Yeah." Simon sounds tired. "You know where I went? I went to you."
Mal makes a faux gagging noise. Kaylee whirls the stool. "Cap'n you're awake."
"Will you two stop making goo goo eyes at one another?"
"No," Simon says at the same time as Kaylee does. Then he smiles at Mal. "Thank you for the two broken ribs."
"My pleasure."
Simon yawns widely, his eyes closing momentarily.
Kaylee's hand is gently curled around his wrist, her finger tracing small circles on the inside of it. But she reaches out the other one to Mal and takes his hand. "Glad you're okay," she says lip wobbling.
"Don't you cry!" Mal warns. "I'm a mean old man, not worth crying over."
Kaylee laughs. "Yes cap'n."
"Inara…" Simon murmurs sleepily.
Mal and Kaylee look up at the Companion, who is dressed much more demurely now, who has just entered the infirmary. Inara moves to Simon's side and brushes his hair off his face. "How are you feeling Simon?"
"Jus'…dandy 'Nara…" he murmurs yawning and drifting off again. He lolls his head to smile at Kaylee.
"You smell like strawberries and engine oil," he murmurs as he falls asleep.
Inara moves nearer to Mal. Kaylee lets go of both men's hands and leaps to her feet. "I'll err…just…bye!"
She scampers from the room.
Inara sits on her vacated stool and stares at Mal for a long moment. He stares back.
"Mal…" she breathes and takes his hand. She looks down at the floor. When she looks up again she is crying.
"Don't…" Mal says softly. He squeezes her hand weakly.
"I thought you were dead…I went looking for your bodies. I didn't want the reavers to…" she swallows. "Then I found you and…they set loose reavers Mal. On that town. They knew Simon was there."
Mal curses softly.
She continues. "Ten reavers. They had ten 'tame' reavers so they could..."
"Stop Inara. Doesn't matter. You were the best gorram thing to appear in that doorway."
She smiles weakly at him. He suddenly feels sleepy and lets his eyes drift shut.
"I'll go," she says softly wiping her eyes and standing. "Let you sleep."
Mal's eyes shoot open before he passes out. He grabs her wrist in his hand, hissing between his teeth at the pain the drugs don't suppress. "Inara," he says quietly.
She looks down and their eyes meet. She knows he isn't conveying what a casual observer would see. He never did. Neither of them ever did. But they would rather curse each other and fool around and unintentionally make each other jealous than say what they really and truly meant.
"Stay."
Translation Notes (for both chapters)
Ben zhou hundan - stupid bastard
Wey - hey