Joss is Boss
As the feds shuffled off of Serenity, back on board their own complex, they were followed by the stares of Zoe, Wash, Book, Jayne and Mal, and the glares of Kaylee, Inara and Nova (the former annoyed at Banning's continued insulting of Serenity, and the latter two seemingly enraged about the comments regarding whores that had been bandied around).
As the last Alliance drone sealed the airlock behind himself, Nova's petulant scowl dissolved into a look of pure relief, and she let her knees give way, sinking to the floor with the sheet puffing up around her. She half laughed, half sobbed, before, looking up at Inara.
"I'm sorry about that thing where I said Companions are stuck up, glorified fuckbuddies." She said, grinning apologetically. "I got a bit carried away."
Inara grinned back, a little mischievously.
"I'm sorry I said unlicensed whores are little more than cheap, degraded sex dolls who shame womankind."
The two women giggled, as Inara helped Nova to her feet.
"Kiss and make up?" Nova offered, holding the sheet with one hand, and offering embrace with the other. Inara leaned forwards, accepting the embrace, as they kissed each other on the cheek, before heading up the steps together and turning aside from each other as their errands parted them.
Jayne stared after them for a minute, surprising no-one as he grunted
"I'll be in my bunk," and headed off in that direction.
He descended the ladder into his bunk, and swore at the sight of his possessions scattered and strewn indiscriminately about. He picked the hat off the bed and made to return it to its place atop the gun rack before pausing suddenly, remembering why it had been moved in the first place. He reached out and flicked the hidden switch, causing the door to swing outwards, and Kaige, who had been leaning against the door, to tumble out onto his bunk, blinking in the light and deeply breathing the fresher air. For a moment, they stared at each other, then Kaige caught the smirk on Jayne's face, and realised she was on his bed, and that they were alone.
"Eww!" she cried, and pushed past him, hurrying up the ladder.
In the corridor, she found Nova, sat on the floor, tying her bootlaces. Why, Kaige didn't know, but before she got a chance to ask, Nova leaped up and embraced her tightly. Recovering from the initial shock, Kaige returned the hug, grinning as the younger girl breathed
"We made it! Kaige, we made it off Allen."
Into her neck. They stayed for a moment, wrapped tightly in each others arms, before being interrupted by Taariq, and Inara. The two girls took it in turn to hug Taarig, their relief flooding off them in waves, causing Inara and a newly appeared Jayne to stand awkwardly to one side, waiting for them to realise that they were blocking the throughway.
Arm in arm, the three teenagers returned to the cargo bay, followed by the companion and the mercenary, to watch the mule being lowered to hull level. Shepherd Book threw back the tarpaulin and, blinking owlishly in the light, Taban and Simon climbed out and stretched. Almost immediately Taban hurried to her cohorts, and there was more hugging, as Simon turned to Book.
"River?" he asked. The preacher smiled.
"Kaylee and Zoë are letting her out now. In fact…" he trailed off, looking behind Simon, who turned abruptly to see his sister, streaked with grease and oil, gracefully preceding the two other women down the stairs. She smiled at Simon, but then regarded the hugging newcomers closely.
"Not out of the woods yet." She told them, when they realised they were being watched. She shook her head. "Miles to go." She then leaped forward, tapping Nova on the arm. "You're It!" she declared, and fled.
"You better run, little girl!" Yelled Nova, gleefully, bounding after her. "You're going down! You're going down like a purplebelly in a bar brawl!"
In the following minutes, chaos reigned, with first the rest of the newly acquired girls, then Wash, and one by one, the rest of the crew joined in the noisy, energetic game. Eventually, Wash was pounding up the stairs in pursuit of Nova, who was evading him completely, before she tripped, staggering and righting herself, glancing back at Wash, who leaped, arm outstretched to tag her. She grabbed the railing with both hands, pulling her legs up out of the way as he skid along the floor on his belly. However, she had misjudged his distanced, and pulled herself to far. Her eyes met for an instance with Wash's, as – mouth open in an "Oh!" of surprise – she toppled over the railing backwards towards the cargo bay floor far below.
The crew watched in horror as she fell, then in surprise as she somehow turned in midair, somersaulting impossibly to land on her feet, staggering forward to her knees as Simon rushed towards her in anticipation of injury. Grabbing his hand, she righted herself, heart pounding. Looking around at her colleagues, whose expressions telegraphed variations of "why is it always you? why is it always you to draw attention?" she frowned, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
"Where's Ebony?"
In the dark and warm, Ebony woke, disorientated.
Wash and Zoë walked onto the bridge, wrenches in hand.
Slightly panicked, Ebony gained her bearings, and banged hard on the wall in front of her, causing Wash to jump back in shock.
Some while later, Ebony scrambled out of the hole onto the bridge and got shakily to her feet, shielding her eyes from the light and thanking Zoë and Wash for letting her out, before going in search of her friends.