Chapter 7

She woke several hours later and smiled at the protein bar and glass of water that sat on her desk, the note beside it reading 'Feel better!' in Kaylee's distinctive hand. Judging by the quiet of the ship, she'd slept her way through the day—not really a surprise, considering how large of an area she'd affected earlier. She winced. I should really be more careful. She stretched and got up, pulling on her robe before leaving her small dorm and heading to the galley.

The Captain sat at the table, shoulders stiff and face shadowed. She joined him there, calmly waiting for him to speak.

He cleared his throat and finished his tea with a gulp, speaking angrily to the table. "You know, I get a mite bit tetchy when people aren't open about who they are to me and mine, 'specially if we're toting you around the black. Ain't good for business, all this underhandedness."

Rose snorted at that, then laughed outright when a look of indignation ran across the captain's face. "Right. 'Cause you're been so open and honest yourself, Captain. 'Course those last three stops were honest business, and Serenity didn't have anythin' to do with the alerts that popped up the instant we broke orbit."

The cold look on Mal's face broke through her amusement.

"How exactly do you know about those alerts? 'Cause I have to warn you, this ship ain't exactly friendly territory for Alliance."

She shrugged. "'S a good thing I'm not Alliance then."

The captain narrowed his eyes. "And how exactly am I supposed to believe that?"

"Dunno. I can give you all my papers, but unless you want to hand me over to the Alliance for cataloging, there isn't much I can give to prove to you other than my word."

"Cataloging? What, exactly, do you mean? And I'm bein' real patient here, so I'd suggest you not waste my time and get to the point."

With a deep sigh, Rose dropped her nonchalant attitude and straightened up. Mal stiffened as her posture switched, and she realized it would read as military to an obvious veteran such as himself. She winced.

"This won't be somethin' you'll have an easy time believing, Captain Reynolds."

It was apparently the Captain's turn to snort. "Miss Tyler—if that is your real name—I've been travelling around the black for years. I seen plenty not many folks would believe."

"Not like this, Captain Reynolds." Rose picked up a steak knife lying on the table and pulled her sleeve up as the Captain reached for his gun and then grabbed for her arm.

"Whoa, wait up there, missy! What do you think you're doin'?"

"If you'd give me a moment, Captain, I'll show you why I'm not too friendly with the Alliance."

A quick swipe of the blade brought blood bubbling out of her skin as Mal shouted and grabbed the knife from her.

"What the diyù do you think you're doing? We've already got our own personal crazy on board here, we ain't got no need for another one!"

Rose let out a breath thick with exasperation and held up her arm. The golden light that suddenly streamed from the blood cut off the Captain's rant, and his mouth fell open as each drop pulled itself back into the cut, the light fading as her skin sealed itself shut.

The silence in the galley was deafening.

Captain Reynold's jaw worked for a long moment, air pushing itself out of his mouth in a tangled attempt at coherence.

Blue eyes met brown as the gold faded out of them, and his words finally broke through silence. "That ain't canny."

Rose rolled her eyes and snagged the knife from the Captain's loose grasp, taking it over to the sink to wash the blood away.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"It's Reynolds—hey!"

Rose snickered as his voice rose in annoyance, snagged a mug of tea for herself and settling back down at the table. "You see why I want to stay away from the Alliance? They'd like me plenty, but I doubt the feelings would be mutual."

"You ain't far off in that. Greedy húndàns would give almost anything to get their hands on you. Tell me one thing, Miss Tyler. Do they know about you? We're already on mighty precarious footing with the Alliance. I ain't sure this ship could handle being filled with the Alliance's most wanted."

"Like you don't have 'em on board already."

Within a moment, Rose saw that that had been the wrong thing to say. Mal's face closed off, and his hand rested deliberately on the pistol at his side.

"I reckon you'd better be mighty careful right about now, Miss Tyler. I don't take well to people threatening my crew."

Wincing, Rose acknowledged the warning. "You're right, Captain. And it wasn't a threat, just an observation." Staring at the steaming tea in her mug, Rose sighed, and to Mal it seemed like a switch had been flipped. The teasing enigma from before had vanished, leaving a girl who looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"I'm not from around here, Captain. The Alliance won't have any clue of my existence, because to them I don't exist." She looked up at Mal, and their eyes locked. "I'm from Earth."

"Ain't possible. Earth's gone, Miss Tyler." He stopped as she shook her head.

"I was there the day the Earth died, Captain Reynolds, and it's not for a long time yet. You might not believe me, but Earth's where I'm from. London, actually."

Her eyes drifted to the stars outside the windows, and something about her told Mal she wasn't lying. Whatever it was sure wasn't his brain, though. What she'd said registered then, and Mal took a hard look at her. "Now wait just a gorram minute. 'Not for a long time yet'? What the hell are you on about?"

She smiled sadly at him. "I'm really not from around here, Captain. Time or place."

Mal dropped his head to his hands with a groan. "I already told you, the position of ship loony's been filled already. It's filled mighty well, too. Fēishēn hóurs, no wonder you and River get along so well."

At this, Rose sighed. She stood and closed her eyes, concentration radiating from every line of her body. The Captain stared at her and jumped as her eyes flew open, golden light streaming from them. A slightly mocking smile curved her lips as she stared at him, and then Mal was left staring at an empty galley as she snapped out of existence.

A memory plowed into him then, his brain taking him back to the dusty lot where he'd first seen Serenity. The rotund salesman was busy extolling the virtues of the different pieces of pìhuà he was trying to sell Mal when a young blonde walked around the corner of the nearest shuttle, tugging on his arm with a smug smile. He smiled back at her in confusion, not knowing her but more than willing to follow a smile like that for the moment.

The salesman's spiel continued, but Mal ignored him as she pointed off in the distance to the most gorgeous ship he'd ever seen. His breath caught as he stared at it, his mind filling with all the future a ship like that could hold. The salesman's voice faded into the background. "Son? I say, son, are you listening?"

The memory released him, his hands grabbing for his head as he tried to hold it in one piece. A pair of worried brown eyes looked down at him, no longer golden. Rose met his glare and proffered the medicine in her hand, smiling tentatively as he grabbed it.

"Sorry about the headache. I don't have all that much experience traveling linear timelines, and it's always a bit iffy as to the effect it'll have on people."

Mal swallowed the pills she'd given him after making sure they were from the infirmary and looked back up at her after a second. "What the diyù was that?"

"That was your memories re-arranging. I hadn't been there before, now I was—your brain needed a bit to process that." She coughed as his glare intensified. "Right. Um, well... " She looked down at the table, staring as if the answers to the universe could be found in the woodgrain.

She took a deep breath and spoke. "What's the one thing that defines a person's life? The time spent, day after day, week after week, year after year—it all piles up in one direction, each tomorrow shifting into today and then yesterday." She glanced up at him again. "That's not how my life works. Not anymore, at least."

Mal frowned. "Anymore? You ain't making much sense, Miss Tyler."

A grim smile pulled at her lips. "No, I really don't make sense. I used to live life like that, y'know, each day after the last. Then I met the Doctor, and my life never made sense again." She smiled softly. "An' I wouldn't have it any other way."

"This Doctor the person you're looking for?"

Rose sighed. "Yeah. An' I've been looking for him for years now."

The Captain gave her a clinical look-over. "You must've been mighty young when you met this Doctor, 'cause you sure don't look like you've had a luxury of years to spend on him."

Brown eyes glinted in amusement. "Oh, I was quite young when I met 'im—just 19—but I'm a hell of a lot older than I look, now."

Mal cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really. And how much older would that be?"

"I've kind of lost track, but I'm somewhere in my late sixties now."

There was another moment of utter silence in the galley while the Captain did his best impression of a fish. Rose grinned, her tongue peeking from behind white teeth.

Mal cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well. If you were able to bottle whatever the hell you're usin', you'd make a pretty penny."

"Oh, I dunno—undiluted sentient time vortex is a rather specialized ingredient, I've found."

There was a happy smirk on Rose's face, and the Captain seemed to be trying to fit her into his worldview with the power of blinking.

A yawn forced itself out of Rose's throat, cutting short whatever else the Captain had been planning to say. He blinked once more before yawning himself.

Rose chuckled. "If you don't mind, Captain, time jumping always leaves me knackered. Am I permitted to go get some sleep, or should I go curl up in a holding cell for the night?"

Mal glanced up at her before focusing. "Right. Well, I can't say I don't have any more questions for you, but I am sure that you ain't Alliance, whatever the hell else you are. Feel free to head back to the dorms—I'll be heading off to my bunk, too. Fúdìmó knows how much sleep I'll get, but I might as well try—we've got a job in the mornin'." He gave her a nod and left the galley, leaving Rose to finish her tea alone.

Later, looking at the mottled planes of the ceiling in her cabin, Rose realized with some surprise that she would most likely actually sleep through the night. The thought made her smile. So much life to live, now, and I can barely even waste it with sleep anymore. No wonder the Doctor never stopped moving—if you ever stopped to think about how much time is stretched out in front of you, it would almost drown you. She yawned as her eyelids grew heavier. I never thought I'd miss having a deadline.

(diyù- hell)

(húndàn- bastard)

(Fēishēn hóur- flying monkey)

(pìhuà- shit)

( Fúdìmó- you guys can look this one up yourselves. ;P)