CHAPTER 7

Angel screeched with laughter as she flew up through the air then plummeted down into waiting hands. She barely breathed she was laughing so hard. A second later, she was soaring again.

River put her hands over her eyes, and peered through her fingers as her daughter was tossed toward the ceiling. "Put her down!"

"Why?" Jayne asked as Angel returned to his grasp and he thrust her back into the air. "She's havin' fun."

And she was. Angel was certain in her one-year-old mind that there was nothing as fun as this. In fact, most of the time Angel spent with Her Friend was fun. Catch the Hand had gotten boring, but Friend had let her sit on his lap while he played the game with the cards that she wasn't supposed to grab and wave around and show the other people with cards, but she did anyway because Friend made funny rumbling noises and poked her in the sides to make her laugh. Or Dino-Bowling off the high-walk which the Tall Lady didn't like them playing. That was fun, too. Angel kept asking her mother if she could keep Friend, but Momma never seemed to understand, and Friend always went the other direction when it was time for naps and beddy. Luckily, Angel always got to see him the next day.

Today, for instance, she got to see Friend during breakfast. Momma had asked the Happy Lady to feed her while she went to the window room and landed the home. Friend came in when she was almost done with her cereal and talked with Happy Lady. Angel hadn't understood most of it, but she did know some words. She understood "job" was what happened when Friend, Tall Lady, and Loud Man went away for a while, and when they came back some of them had to go and see Momma-Mei-Mei Man (she really needed a new name for him) in the white room that smelled funny.

Angel had also heard her name and "be good."

River was worried all that morning. She mostly didn't go out on jobs due to her duties as getaway driver. Since Angel arrived, River hadn't gone out on any jobs at all. This was the first time that River would be going on a job since Angel arrived. The folks they were dealing with on Ares were not the most trustworthy of folk, and Mal wanted his resident Reader on the job to warn of any imminent betrayal. The baby would be staying on Serenity with Kaylee, Inara, and Simon. This did not sit well with the new mother, so she spent the last minutes before the job with her daughter while the Captain and Jayne took down the Mule from it's hanger.

River was swinging Angel around at the end of her arms in a corner of the bay when Jayne called over, "That ain't flyin'."

River cocked her head at him and gave her arms a chance to rest. "Explain."

Jayne took his work gloves off as he walked over to the two girls. He plucked Angel from River's arms, stepped back, and threw the little girl upwards into the air. For a second, Angel hovered before descending back again. River protested, Jayne ignored, and Angel laughed.

River squealed another objection. "You are going to drop her!"

"Not gonna drop her," Jayne protested.

"Going to have brain damage! Shaken Baby Syndrome!"

"I ain't shakin' her. I'm tossin' her."

"Same thing."

Seeing River so agitated, Jayne brought Angel back to rest against his chest for a minute before he handed her back to her mother. Angel made a face and tried to turn back to Jayne, but River held her daughter close. "No more flying without the proper safety equipment. Helmet. Pads. Harness and bungee cord."

"Oh, it ain't that bad."

"She is already stunted. I do not want it to get worse because her brain is shredded."

Jayne frowned, and looked the baby over. "Whatta ya mean? Seems fine to me."

"Angel is one year old, and she has yet to speak," River explained. "All of the manuals I've read say that by one year of age, a baby should be saying simple words. Angel has yet to say anything readily recognizable as a word in either English or Mandarin."

"She ain't stunted," Jayne argued. "She's just waitin' 'til she's got somethin' important to say. Ain'tcha?"

Angel babbled and tried very hard to make a coherent sentence, but her message was lost to the adults. Her little face squished up in annoyance and she shook her head no.

"See?" River panicked. "Even she agrees that she's stunted!"

"If she was stunted then she wouldn't understand the question enough to shake her head."

"Hey, you two!" Mal called over. "We goin' some time today?"

"Stop worryin' so much," Jayne muttered to River. He ran a hand over Angel's head before walking over to the Mule.

River sighed and walked Angel over to Inara who had come down to wish the crew luck. The baby was whining when she handed her over. When Inara asked what was wrong, River answered, "Wants to keep flying, but I do not approve of Jayne's method."

Inara smiled a little. It was quite a surprise when Jayne had taken an interest in Angel. True, it was impossible to ignore the only baby on board. But Jayne was…well, Jayne. One really didn't expect him to get sentimental about things like this, so when he had started picking Angel up and playing with her a month ago, it had come as a surprise. He was asked more than once what happened to the real Jayne Cobb.

And being around Angel more meant that Jayne was socializing more with River. They talked sometimes at the table in the mess or in the common room. From what the rest of the crew overheard, none of the conversations were particularly 'Verse-shattering or deep. Mostly they talked about the next job, a new letter Jayne or River received from Jayne's mother, and of course about Angel. At dinner, they sat on the same side of the table with Angel in her high chair between them. Once, when River reached over to steal the last roll off of Jayne's plate, he made a remark that she was setting a bad example—mostly because he didn't like her stealing his food than an actual concern for the baby's morals. Much to the crew's surprise, River gave the roll back, and explained to Angel that stealing from friends wasn't nice. Jayne was publicly elevated to friend status.

Jayne seemed to be taking that status seriously. He hadn't called River names in a long while. He still didn't use her name often, and occasionally mumbled "Virgin Mary" under his breath, but he had stopped referring to her as "the crazy girl" or "moonbrain."

Inara watched River walk over to the Mule. Jayne reached a hand down and helped her pull herself into the back seat. The mercenary handed her a knife which she stowed in her combat boot in case the fighting got real close and personal. Inara and Angel waved as the four crew members drove off.

"Come on, Angel. The Captain has graciously allowed me to contact a former client to see if I can bring Serenity a job while I'm on sabbatical. You can help me look through the registrar. You're mother tells me that you are very good at helping her decide things. And later we can have a tea party."

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"Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la-doo-tze!"

Mal and Jayne fired again at the clump of rocks three of the five back-stabbing gao yang zhong de gu yang. The other two had taken the cargo and high-tailed it out of there, trusting the remaining members of the gang to take care of the crew. After all, it was three to three—plus the little waif.

Zoë and River were hunkered down behind the Mule while the men were pressed against the side of a rock spire. Zoë got off two shots before sinking back to the ground as another round of bullets passed by where her head had been.

"One one-thousand, two one-thousand…." River counted. Counted the space when no one moved. Counted the time it took for one of the enemy guns to fire. The first was to the left: a Winchester Super X3 Composite rifle. She had to take him out first. The next shot came from the far right. A .38 Special revolver, and in the middle was good old fashioned Colt .45.

River leaned over and told Zoë, "Aim left and middle. Especially left. Leave the one on the right for questioning. Wait 'til I say, then shoot."

Zoë nodded, and signaled to Mal and Jayne.

There was rustling in the gritty dirt when a return volley from the crew didn't come. River waited. They'll get curious first, then worried, then cocky. Have to wait until they feel like they are winning.

One minute passed. Then two. Two point five. "Now."

The three crew members moved clear of their covers and fired. Yelps and the sound of falling came before shots were returned, but now it was only two guns that fired. The rifleman was taken out. A second later, the man with the Colt went down, and the remaining bandit tried to make a run for it. Jayne shot him in the calf.

The crew moved from behind their covers. Mal strode over to the wounded bandit, and kicked the man's pistol away. Mal hauled him into a kneeling position. Jayne went back to the Mule, and got the cord they had used to secure the cargo. He tossed it to Mal. The Captain tied the guy's hands behind his back, and held his own revolver up to the young man's head. "Where the hell'd those partners of yours go with my cargo?"

"I'm not tellin' you a thing." The man spit at Mal.

Mal cocked his gun to show his seriousness. River walked up to her captain's side, and tilted her head to the side as she looked at, into, through the grimy man that knelt before her. Mal looked at his little witch and hoped that she was Reading the location of where the bandits had taken their cargo. River smiled at the man, stepping forward, and waved the captain back a few feet. Mal frowned, but backed off like asked.

"I know what you're afraid of," she told the man.

"Jian ta de gui!"

"Ni gai si," River said, ignoring his outburst. "And I know how you do not wish to die. How you are afraid to die."

The bandit licked his lips and watched as the pretty girl who looked about as dangerous a pixie knelt in front of him. She leaned her face in close to meet his muddy brown eyes. When she spoke again it was quiet enough that her crew members couldn't hear, but he understood every word perfectly.

"You heard it once in a bar. Guy talk. Telling stories to fright one another; see who's the bigger man. Urban legend, rural legend." She scooted closer so that she rested between his spread knees, her hands coming to rest on his thighs. The bandit moaned a little as she pushed down on his bullet wound. "You liked being tied up. You thought, this is a story to go home and imagine over and over. You licked your lips when the story started, and she had him tied to a bed."

The girl went up on her knees so that she had a small height advantage. She used it to bend over him, her hair falling in a curtain to hide them from the men and woman at her back. "She had that poor son of a bitch tied down, worked up, jerked off, sucked on—got him so excited his little pricker was a steel beam pointing toward the ceiling."

He whimpered, knowing what came next. River pulled the long knife Jayne gave her out of her boot. She ran the edge up the inside of one of the man's thighs, ran the point down the other, and reversed her path.

"Then whap! Pulled a knife and sliced it off, balls and all." River laid the edge of the blade against the side of his groin and pressed it in with a roll of her hips. Her free hand moved up his thigh to play with the buttons on his crotch. "She cut both femoral arteries, too. Did you know you can bleed to death in approximately twenty minutes when one of those arteries is cut? With both severed, one would expect that time to be cut in half."

"God, please don't," the man begged. "Wo de ma, oh, God, oh please! Don't let her!"

Mal stepped up to try and get River to back off. He couldn't tell what she was saying, but they didn't need him so scared he couldn't think straight. River held her hand up to stop the Captain's approach.

"Shhhhh…" River murmured, placing the hand she'd stilled Mal with on the bandit's cheek. "They're not going to stop me. It's not their fault that you are where you are now. It is your fault. You and your friends. You took our cargo without paying for it. That's theft. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and you broke it. Tell us where your partners went."

The bandit whined and tried to scoot away from her.

"Don't squirm!" She leaned in harder on the knife.

"Shit! Jesus! Please! They—they went th-that…." He pointed off into a little valley.

"That way?" River asked. He nodded. "Mouth of the valley. A little cave?"

"Yes. Yes. Please don't."

River slipped the knife back into her boot, and stood. She bent at the waist and kissed the bandit's cheek. "Good boy." Rivers reached out and snapped his neck, letting his body fall to the ground and raise a fine cloud of dust.

"There is a cave at the mouth of the valley," she said over her shoulder as she brushed off her knees. "Ali Baba's cave, filled with treasure. More than just what they stole from us. Busy thieving bees." She stepped back from the body and turned around to face her three crew members.

Zoë was stone faced to cover her discomfort at River's interrogation technique. Or perhaps it was what she did with her informant afterwards. Not that she disagreed with the killing, and not that she hadn't seen much worse, but it was so coldhearted coming from the girl.

Jayne's mouth was open a bit as he stared at her. In his mind the statue of the Virgin Mary from a Catholic church he'd gone to once just jumped down from her pedestal, took off that long, white robe to reveal a pair of black shorts, flowered shirt, and combat boots, and proceeded to kick the asses of all the sinners in the 'Verse.

Mal shook his head. He'd gone all speechless when River pulled out that knife and started grazing that man with it. Just when he thought he got a pin on River's abilities and her willingness to use them, she turned around and threw him another curve. Girl may just have it in her to go all the way with a torture if'n she ever has a need to. He really did not want to be around on that day.

He cleared his throat. "Little Albatross, I don't think ya had to kill him like that."

"You were going to shoot him," she said. "Where is the difference in my method of disposal and yours? Either way he is dead. And my way has less clean-up. He can be returned to his family to be buried with his face intact."

Jayne nodded, fighting some kind of weird double vision when he looked at River.

"Sir?" Zoë spoke up. She mentally shook off the mind-torture, and focused on the job. "We should go and get our cargo. We'll probably have room to take some of whatever else is in that cave, too."

Mal closed his eyes, and scratched his forehead. He nodded. "Back on the Mule. Let's go get our ore."

Zoë climbed into the driver's seat. Mal came around to the front passenger seat, and resettled his duster as he sat. Jayne climbed in back and watched River hop up. It occurred to him after a second that he should have helped her up again. When Zoë started the Mule up, River pulled on her goggles, and stared off into the landscape.

Jayne kept looking at her funny. River glanced over. He switched his eyes to another focus. The wind was too loud as they flew through the valley for her to talk to him without Mal or Zoë hearing. She wanted to talk to him, too. He wasn't scared—creepified, yes, but not scared. His mind was all jumbled, though. Hard to read. He was starting to give her a headache.

The rest of the job went quickly. They parked the Mule away from the mouth of the cave so that the bandits wouldn't hear them coming. Mal, Jayne, and Zoë went to the cave, fired off a total of seven shots, and went to get the cargo along with a few bonuses. River stayed with the Mule once she assured the crew that there were only two men in the cave. After the cargo was reloaded, they headed back to Serenity to find a new buyer for the copper ore. Zoë suggested the new Whitefall contact, Dukes. He was less likely to take a shot at Mal.

As soon as the Mule landed in the cargo bay, River jumped down and headed for the bridge. She didn't want to be around Zoë or Mal's discomfort over what she had done to get the location of the cave, and Jayne's confusion was giving her a headache. On the bridge, she paged Inara to ask if she'd bring Angel up to her while she prepped for take off.

Inara entered the cock pit with Angel on her hip and found River curled up in the pilot's chair. "Sweetie, what's wrong? Did something happen on the job today? Is everyone alright?" She looked back down the hall, fearing for Mal.

"He's fine," River reassured her. "We got double crossed again. Duplicitous buyers connived to take the ore and dispose of the bringers. They were shot. Captain was grazed. He's cranky now."

"I bet he is," Inara chuckled.

River held her hands out for the baby, and Angel leaned down to switch embraces. Once Angel was in River's arms, Inara went to see how badly Mal got hurt this time, and where he was planning on selling the ore now. River settled back in the comfy seat, and hugged her daughter tightly. She forced a smile for the girl. "Hello, Angel. Did you miss me?"

Angel babbled about all that she had done that day with Very Pretty Lady in the Red Room. River listened with only half an ear. Her mind was still back on the job. She had scared them again. She was morbid and creepifying, and the Captain obviously did mind it. She was just trying to help. And it worked. The man wouldn't have ratted out his partners for anything less than a horrific death. Guns didn't scare him—they provided a quick death. To have his genitalia cut off while unable to stop it, that he was afraid of. It made sense to use that fear against him. And you never leave a torture victim alive. The Captain should know that from his time with Niska. If the little man had let Mal stay dead, he would not have been beaten and threatened.

While Angel continued to chatter at her, River kissed her head. She took a breath, and set her feet back on the floor. At the Captain's word that the Mule was up, and the doors were closed, River fired the ship up, and headed back into the Black.

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Da-shiong bao-jah-shr duh la-doo-tze -explosivediarrhea of an elephant

gao yang zhong de gu yang – motherless goats of all motherless goats

jian ta de gui—like hell

ni gai si—you deserve death