Chapter Two 'Nothing Ever Goes Simple'

The scene in front of Jayne richly deserved the blistering streak of cursing he'd let out. In fact he was pretty sure that some new curses needed to be invented to accurately describe what the room looked like to him.

A clear contrast to the run-down almost decrepit looking yet harmless structure the room Jayne had opened was in, the room itself was something akin to the devil's playroom. It was obviously where the owner had poured mountains of coin, because every piece of equipment in it was the newest, shiniest version.

It reminded him of the hospital on Ariel, with all the medical equipment and devices. But it also reminded him of Niska's torture room on his space station. The tray nearest to him, after he had stepped inside and closed the door behind him, was covered with about a dozen of tools Niska would like very much. Even Jayne, who had seen some nasty things done to people, did not want to see the wreakage of the person these tools had been used on.

The tray and the instruments were sparkling clean, but a bucket of rags next to the tray revealed that the room had not only been used in the past, but recently. Jayne looked down into the container for a second before moving on. In the corner of the room he sighted the safe the trunk was supposedly in.

"I've found the safe." He spoke into the comm. He received only static in return. He cursed and pulled the now useless piece of metal out of his ear and glared at it. "Gorram sub-par piece of go se." He dropped it onto the floor and ground it into dust with his boot.

He stared at the wall safe. How the gorram hell was he going to get into it now? The thing was a thing of beauty engineering-wise, or at least that's how River had put it. He needed the calculations River had completed just before her 'I'm an Ancient Greek' phase of hers came on. After all, he didn't know how to do advanced trigonometry in his head to get the code of the day.

The sound of a quiet, ragged cough behind him drew his attention. He spun around, his hand snapping to the holster at his hip. At first he couldn't see anything, but then he saw that one panel of the silver wall had something dark oozing out from beneath it. He recognised it instantly as blood, a substance he'd seen far too often in his lifetime.

Taking long strides forward, he walked over to the panel and pried it open with the bowie knife he had stashed in his left boot. When it swung open a small room, about six and a feet high, three feet wide and three feet high.

Attached to the tiny room's ceiling was a pair of shackles. And slumped, hanging beneath them, her wrists caught in them was a young woman. There didn't seem to be a square inch of her that wasn't bruised, bloody or at least spattered in dried blood. Her head hang down and she was so still he was almost sure that she was dead, until at least she groaned painfully.

"Nothing ever goes simple." He grumbled to himself. "Nothng ever goes gorram simple."

She lifted her head and opened her eyes, revealing their emerald depths, looking at him from beneath thick, lowered lashes. Her left eye was marked with a cut just below it and her right eye was surrounded by a yellowing bruise the size of a man's fist.

Jayne stared back at her, his blue eyes wide. He was frozen to the spot and wasn't sure what to do. For the first time he focused on the sound of her breathing, which was ragged and sounding like it hurt her to take each breath.

He looked behind him, back at the safe. And in that instant he looked away he missed the predatory gleam that flashed across her face. Time was running out and he knew it, but he was still stuck on what he should do. Suddenly, he made up his mind.

With ripped, bloody rags that barely covered her, her hair streaked and matted with dried blood and assorted bruises, lacerations and wounds, she was a sorry sight. Half crumpled and hanging from her wrists she still had a way of looking at him that proved that even though she may be physically beaten, she wasn't mentally broken. He groaned and made his decision.

"Where's the key?" He asked her, speaking for the first time. When she stared at him blankly he pointed to the shackles. "The key to the chains. Where is it?"

The girl blinked slowly. She opened her cracked and split lips to answer him. "He's got it with him. Around his neck on a chain."

"He? He who?" He couldn't resist asking. "The one who did this to you?"

Her eyes narrowed, giving him his answer.

"Well, that's not gonna work. I'm gonna have to pick the gorram thing." He grumbled under his breath, barely audible.

"And here I am, fresh out of paperclips." The girl made what she obviously considered a joke, because she laughed lightly, bringing up blood onto her lips.

"Out of what?" He asked, confused.

She shook her head. "Never mind."

Jayne quickly picked the lock on the chains. As soon as they were unlocked they popped open. She fell as soon as she was free, as if her legs couldn't fully support her. He caught her before she hit the cold concrete floor, and realized that the reason she hadn't stood was that her leg was broken. For a second he was able to enjoy the feeling of warm, curvy female in his arms. But then he heard the sound of raised voices outside the room, obviously someone must've noticed the jimmied lock on the outside door.

He cursed under his breath. "How the gorram hell am I supposed to get into that safe in the next two minutes? Mal'll kill me if I come back without that trunk." He set the woman on the ground, but was still holding her up for the most part.

The woman clutched her ribs with one hand. "I can...I can help you." She told him, only momentarily paused by a pained gasp as she took too deep of a breath and sent waves of pain across her ribs and abdomen. "I know the combination."

He shot her a disbelieving look. "Why would you know how to open the safe?"

She gave him a half-smile. "Because...why would they bother shielding the information from someone they were determined not to let out of their sight alive?"

He nodded, seemed logical to him. So he helped her over to the wall safe and let her do her thing. Her fingers flew over the interface with mind-boggling speed, but he wasn't paying any attention. He was too focused on what was going on outside to even notice that she was moving far faster than any human he'd ever seen. He only turned around when he heard the echoing click of the safe's locking mechanism sliding out of place and the door creaking open.

Jayne grabbed the wooden trunk he saw inside, glad to finally have his hands on the object of the mission. The girl grabbed a bag off the bottom of the safe, but it looked like nothing special. She slung it onto her back and grabbed something else. It was a slim and small case and looked rather unremarkable, but she beamed widely when she had it in her hands. She didn't even notice that she reopened her lip by smiling. She squeezed the sides carefully and then set it on the floor. With one well aimed kick she slid it across the floor, it stopped under a metal table in the middle of all the trays with the torture instruments.

"Let's go." She said quickly. "They'll be coming soon and we don't want to be here in two minutes."

He nodded. Then Jayne started to help her towards the door when he realized how much she was going to slow him down by being able to do nothing but limp along. So he swung her up into his arms and headed out without asking her for her permission. She held the trunk in her arms.

Jayne ran out the door, out the side door he'd used to enter and towards the four-wheeler he'd stashed in some bushes nearby. When he finally reached it he gingerly put the woman down on the back, stowed the trunk and climbed aboard the machine himself. He gunned the engine, no longer worried about being detected.

As they sped away with her holding onto him for dear life, an explosive device went off in the warlord's torture chamber. Because of the gas lines running through the house there was a chain reaction that destroyed the entire building.

Jayne could practically feel the girl smile. Mostly because her split lip bled and a drop landed on the back of his neck. But he didn't take any offence, he would've done the same thing.

I've decided to continue writing this, but I'm doubtful that I'll continue posting it. I've gotten no response and I understand, Firefly and Dark Angel fans are rare. I just wrote a story I can't wait to see what happens next in, and hoped someone else would like it too. If not...oh well. I'll just write it for myself.

Please review.