A/N: Credit for the chappie belongs to my 'Ghost Writer', 24K, who reminded me that the chapter was almost done and dang it, she needed her firefly fix. Enjoy.

Walk Among Ghosts

Part 6: Bump in the Night

Zoë looked back at Jayne, who was cowering behind the bar and being very careful not to touch anything with his fingers except the spot on the side of his head where a very dark bruise was forming. She noted that the bruise was rather oddly patterned and nearly perfectly circular. Oddly enough, she guessed it was about shot glass sized across. She tore her eyes away from it as Mal slipped past her and moved out of the kitchen. She had no doubts that the captain was heading back to the study with a bottle of scotch that was worth a fortune and enough shot glasses for all of them. "Come on, Jayne," she held the door open for the mercenary and was further amused as he scuttled quickly out of the kitchen. Sometimes she wondered where his brains were.

Jayne, on the other hand, was feeling like the castle itself was out to get him. Perhaps he was right, in part. Or not. Fact of the matter, he was seriously beginning to realize that there was – something strange happening here. Unlike the Reavers, this something was intangible and there was no way to fight something you couldn't reach out and grab. But he had the proof that it could fight you. He was rubbing it, in fact. His jumbled thoughts even managed to take into consideration the odd temperature of the air eddies raising bumps on his arms. Cold currents that never seemed to end.

Mal was whistling as he entered the study, much to Simon's and Inara's surprise. Kaylee spotted the bottle and brightened considerably. "Hey, there! Captain. Looks like you hit a jackpot." The beaming cheer was back in her countenance and voice. The good doctor settled down next to her looking like her good mood eased several years worth of worry from his soul.

"I did. But not without some serious help." He set the shots out and opened the bottle. By the time he finished pouring both Zoë and Jayne had entered the room. "There are some issues I need to address," Mal said as he turned towards his second with a glass in hand. Zoë's face was set, but not military hard. He offered her the shot and she took it, but Mal didn't confront her with the minor deception to keep them at the castle. Instead he offered the following shots to Simon, then Kaylee, 'Nara, Jayne, and a sleepy River. He picked up the last glass and settled into a chair. He took a swig of the scotch and hummed. "Ah, this is fine booze!"

Jayne knew he was off the hook, being that Mal handed him a glass over throwing it at him. He followed Mal's example into a seat and took an experimental sip of the scotch. It wasn't bad. Actually it was quite good. He leaned back and tried to tune out the throb from the purple-black bruise peaking out from his hairline.

"So, you had 'issues' Mal?" came 'Nara's voice from the region of the fireplace.

"Um--" Mal was aware that most eyes, except Jayne's and River's, were focused his direction. He ignored them, relaxing into the plush chair and closing his eyes. "I guess I do. But then, when have I not? It's late, my temper is frayed, and my judgement is not top shape either. I admit, though, I didn't want to stay planetside any longer than was necessary."

Inara looked over at Zoë and twirled the shot glass with its untouched amber liquor. The dark skinned woman looked away, choosing to focus on the hallway again. "It's about three in the afternoon, local time. And while I cannot contest that your temper and judgement might not be in top shape, the impression is that you've reached some sort of – percept – about what is going on here." Mal opened his eyes and looked at her. The companion raised an eyebrow and sipped at the scotch finally. "Um, this is good," She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice nor the thought in her head. Mal just nodded in agreement and closed his eyes again.

Kaylee held Simon's hand and drank the liquor slowly. She had little experience with the expensive stuff, really. Perhaps by savoring it she could discover why it was 'good' but so far she'd only determined that it was overpriced.

River put her glass down after dipping her finger in it and tasting the scotch, "People died here."

The silence in the room deepened like the castle was holding its breath. Mal then said, "Figured as much. Given how I 'found' the scotch, anyway. And the bit about the victims wanting revenge you sprouted back at the gate. Supposin' that we are meant to be the tools of that revenge, we need to figure out how and why."

"You mean, you really think that--" Kaylee started.

"This place is haunted." Zoë's voice came from the door. "Really, Mal?"

The captain and father figure of the Serenity crew looked over at his second, "From what I've seen, Zoë, it is undeniable." Zoë glanced at him, clearly not believing this was happening. "Hey, I'm not the one staring out at the hall waiting for a troop of soldiers to come breaking in." That pulled her away from the door and back to the shot she'd left on the end table. "Deny all you want," Mal continued, "but I got 'Nara, River, Kaylee, and Jayne all telling me about strange stuff. Stuff I've seen with my own eyes, mind you. And you, Doc. What do you think?"

Simon looked at his half empty shot and rolled the glass slowly between his palms for a bit before responding, "Kaylee told me the truth. She experienced – something. I'd be willing to bet that if we did some searching that evidence would turn up to support what she saw."

"Which was what, exactly?" Zoë asked.

Kaylee hated being grilled by folks with an attitude, but seein' as Zoë was family-like… "Well, I don't know how exactly, but back there in the dining room I saw - like I was there, mind you - a dinner party. I could smell the food, hear the music and the people talking and eating… It was so real. Everything seemed fine, until the very end. The servants brought in desserts. Loads and loads of them. Huge platters. But there was one dish that was covered. It was placed at the head of the table, in front of this old woman. When it was opened there was a young woman's head inside a fancy gel mold, with fruit adoring her hair. I got the impression that the folks knew her, just by the shocked reactions and screams."

Zoë drained her shot glass.

"Psychometry. You experienced a very powerful psychic impression, Kaylee. It should be reproducible," Inara said. "Although I'm not sure of the value in doing so."

The engineer looked over at the companion. Simon replied, "Once was enough, I think." Jayne relaxed, realizing that the Doc wasn't going to kill him now. Simon took another drink from his glass leaving a small measure behind, "Establishing that something did happen here, and unraveling what it was are two different things. Unless we can help River sort through what she's picking up on like we did on Miranda, leaving would be dangerous."

Mal refilled his shot and settled back in the chair, "Point taken, Doc. But I don't like it."

"I don't either," River stated before she got to her feet. "It's not so bad when there's only one of them but when there's so many…" she gestured with her arms indicating that there was an unseen crowd in the room with them. "And so much despair." Inara crossed over to the distressed woman and placed her arms around her. River responded by clutching the companion and putting her face in the mass of curls.

There was a span of silence.

Mal cleared his throat. "Well, I'm thinking that the barred door back in the antechamber is a mite suspicious. And I'm guessing there should be some hidden passages, because you just can't have a proper castle without them. When you made the sweep, did you find any other stairs? Any way up into the three standing towers or down into the cellar? Servant quarters?" He looked to Zoë and Jayne who were both shaking their heads, "No? See, here, there has to be more than what you checked out then." Jayne was looking pale again. "Not that it's a problem, no. We'll do a complete search in the morning, from top to bottom. Kaylee, I'd like you and the Doc to go back to the ship and grab all the captures we got there. Anything odd, we'll want to document. Make sure the cargo is stored, get any other meds you need and lock Serenity up. If you want you can do it tonight."

"I locked the ship, Mal," Jayne offered.

"How about we set off now, that way we'll be back by dark," Kaylee said, "And can we take Jayne too? Just in case." Mal nodded and the three of them left the room.

Inara said, "I'll take River up to a room. I think both of us could use a siesta." Neither Mal nor Zoë protested as the two women left the room as well.

Zoë looked at Mal once they were alone. "You could have pulled me aside, Zoë. I know River as well as you do." She hung her head and moved over to sit in a chair near his.

"I realize that, now. I'm sorry Mal."

He looked over at his oldest friend, his constant companion and family. "Zoë, I know you're hurting still. You blame me, rightly so. I carry that weight, and I do miss him. I miss them both." Zoë wasn't sure if it was the liquor or Mal's words but she felt tears in her eyes. She swallowed thickly and picked up her shot glass. Mal smirked at her and refilled it. She let the sharp pain settle where her heart used to live and looked at the amber liquid. "I'm the sorry one, Zoë," Mal stated. "I can't even ask for you to forgive me, on account of the fact that I don't deserve it." She shook her head, not sure if she was meaning 'no I don't forgive you' or 'no, you do deserve it'. Her throat was too constricted for her voice to move past it, so she drank instead.

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Jayne was counting his blessings. He was still alive, which was good because he seriously thought that when he left the castle, Simon was gonna kill him. Instead he discovered that Kaylee wasn't angered, Simon was fine, and that so trip to Serenity passed without incident. They hid what they were told to hide, the collected what they'd come to get, locked the ship up nice and tight, and headed back, with the mule, to the castle. Dinner had passed with pleasantness, seeing as Mal and Zoë were both smashed by the time Kaylee rustled up some food. Then they all retired to bedrooms to sleep. He'd slept well, considering the place was haunted. Now, though, he was awake and it was still dark. He never woke up in the middle of the night. He rubbed his face and rolled over. His bladder protested, painfully. Cursing under his breath he got up and pulled on a shirt but didn't bother with his pants. Likely no one else was up anyhow.

He padded down the plushy carpeted hall toward the single bathroom that they'd discovered in the place, not thinking that someone might spot him in his slouchy socks and dingy boxers, scratching sleepily where he felt the need to. Reaching the door with his eyes still slightly closed he extended his hand toward the knob.

Unknown to Jayne, Mal was in the process of using the facilities. His pants were down around his ankles as he sat, still slightly drunk, on the toilet. The slight 'plonk' was far more metallic sounding then it should've been, but Mal was not paying any attention.

Sleepy Jayne heard the 'plonk' too, but also ignored it. Had they looked they would have seen the hinge pin sliding back into place, but not catching the half of the hinge attached to the door. But both men were occupied in other matters, so several seconds later there was an ominous creaking and the door swayed, caught only on the latch…

Neither Mal nor Jayne caught the not-so-insignificant hints that something was not quite right. Neither could ignore the door when it teetered and fell, however. Jayne couldn't because it fell on him, whacking him quite hard in the face. "Oopht!" was about the only surprised sound he could manage as the seemingly solid and heavy wooden door flattened him to the opposite wall. He knew that his nose was bleeding, and that very soon he'd need to take a piss.

And Mal couldn't because suddenly he had much less privacy for what he was doing. "What the--" came the captain's voice.

"Mal! Thisth place is stryin' to kill me!" Jayne was weakly attempting to lift the door, but was unable to budge it due to the weight of the thing, "Gorram ish! Whath is sthis made of, lead?"

Meanwhile, Mal collected his wits, tried not to snicker, and was slowly doing up is buttons, quite sure that Jayne couldn't see anything. It was rather amusing, if not a trifle annoying that the castle's residents seemed set on picking on Jayne. "I think that's a standard hollow wood door, Jayne. Here, let me help you." He moved over and lifted the door easy as could be off the mercenary.

"I thinch my snose is broshen, Mal." Jayne was clutching his nose, and yes, there was some small measure of blood there.

Mal set the door against the wall, snagged a washcloth from the shelf inside the restroom, and gave it to Jayne, "That might be. I'll get the Doc." And before Jayne could protest Mal walked off toward the bedroom Simon was sharing with Kaylee. Jayne decided that he'd take a piss and then hide in his room and do it fast before Mal walked in and needed to laser the image of the ship's doctor and the ship's mechanic doing more than sleepin'.