This couldn't be right. She was far too young. She was far too…womanly. "What happened to the other mechanic? You know, the genius one?" Wash wanted to know as he followed Mal down the hallway.
He'd just come across a girl cheerfully painting a flower border around the cupboards in the pantry. She'd introduced herself as Kaitlyn, or Kelly, or somesuch pink and fluffy name. She'd also declared herself ship's mechanic. At that point in the conversation, Wash excused himself, and in the recently established pattern of what to do when something unexpected happens, he went running for Mal.
"Bester couldn't fix my ship. Kaylee did. Presto, new genius mechanic." Mal said, and went back to attempting to return a particularly feisty chicken to its cage. "Gorram bird. Got half a mind to eat you myself!"
Zoë strolled by, calmly took the chicken from Mal and placed it in its cage, all the while glaring at Wash. "I like her." She said. Mal grinned. Wash fled.
He had calmed down a little by that evening, and he wandered into the kitchen to scrounge for dinner. Kaylee was there, droplets of paint in her hair, putting a radish rosette on what appeared to be a plateful of canned beans.
"You've never been on a ship before, have you?" Wash asked her, opening his own can of beans and not bothering to dump them on to a plate.
"Nope!" Kaylee beamed at him. "Never been off planet before."
"Ah." Wash said. He'd been momentarily distracted by her smile. "Never had any formal training either, I suppose?"
Kaylee took a dainty nibble of her beans. "Not a whit." She spat out a husk in disgust. "Machines just…talk to me, is all."
"Is that so…" Wash said, taking another mouthful of beans. He intended to humor her. Well, she had fixed Serenity, and he was grateful for that. It would be interesting to see how she fared out in the back.
Kaylee took to space like a duck to water. She had none of the usual anxieties Wash saw among greenhorns, and she fell into her duties like she'd been born a mechanic. Well, perhaps she had been born a mechanic, Wash mused. That would be one explanation.
The entire crew's disposition improved with the addition of Kaylee. Mal got jollier, and Zoë even laughed a dinner one night. As for Wash, he finally felt confident enough to unpack all his dinosaurs. He'd be staying on Serenity for a while.