DR: Argh, sorry for the delay. I'm having trouble keeping track of the days... Plus sleeping in real late...
Chapter 20: The Dangers of Being Attractive
Serenity eased down through the outer atmosphere of the moon, leaving Thunderchild in high orbit. From within the cockpit Mal smiled lightly as he watched the horizon move up to meet them.
"Now, you're not going to threaten to crash us again, are you Wash?"
Wash laughed easily. "No Mal. Had enough of a crash back on that moon." Neither man mentioned that they were referring to the same moon on which Wash had died, but they both knew.
"Well, I'd best go pry Kaylee off the doc before we head out to help Monty out." He looked at Wash directly. "Once we're down, warm up the mule."
"Be with ya in just a few minutes Mal." Wash replied, then looked over his shoulder, a smile on his face. "And if you're looking for Kaylee, she's with Inara."
Mal shook his head. "Likely having her hair done again…" he commented as he turned around.
Down in Inara's shuttle Kaylee was not having her hair done. In fat, she was brushing Inara's out of the older woman's face. Inara herself was curled up in her bed, hands folded over her stomach and blankets pulled up tight around her.
"Uuggghhh…" she tried to say something, but all that come out was a groan.
"Easy there 'Nara." Kaylee said soothingly. "It'll pass in a couple of days."
"I want this over now!" Inara's words came out sharp and clear. The flare in her eyes faded almost as quickly as it had sprung up. "Sorry Kaylee. I shouldn't snap at you…"
Kaylee just laughed lightly. "Trust me, I understand."
Inara just sighed again as she returned her attention to trying to banish the discomfort she felt.
"Kaylee? You'd best not be…" Mal's voice trailed off when he took in the situation within the shuttle. "'Nara… you alright?"
"No I'm not bloody alright Mal!" Inara snapped, having no time for another verbal sparring match.
"You don't look it. Has the doc been in?"
"Been and gone." Inara spat out. "Sorry Kaylee." She whispered contritely.
"It's okay." She responded before looking back at Mal. "I'll be out in a minute Capt'n."
"Would someone mind telling me what's going on here?" Mal questioned.
"You really want to know Mal? Really?" Inara sat up a bit to glare at him. "Fine! I'm PMS'ing!"
"Oh. OHH…" Mal took two steps back instinctively. A confused look creased his face. "You never seemed to before…"
"It was the drug Mal. That gorram drug!" Mal felt a smile twitch at the corner of his mouth at Inara's foul word usage. "That drug suppressed the whole cycle, stopped me from feeling it at all. But now that I'm not a junkie anymore, it's come back with a vengeance."
"Okay…" Mal backed up another pace. "Well, anyway… Kaylee, we'll be on the ground soon, and I need you to come along to see about helping Monty with his parts."
"Sure thing." Kaylee smiled sweetly. Nodding, Mal backed out of the shuttle.
Inara sighed in frustration and self-annoyance as she let her head drop back onto the pillow. She knew that she'd been too harsh on him, but her hormones were all out of whack, giving her seriously powerful and deep mood swings.
"Now, you just rest and take it easy 'Nara." Kaylee told her gently. Standing up she smiled down at Inara. "It'll all be okay. You'll see."
X-X-X-X-X-X
Mal smiled as he watched Monty yelling at his crew. He was the same as ever, though after their mutual encounter with Yo-Saf-Bridge, when he'd shaved off his beard, he'd lacked his defining feature. Mal smirked when he saw that clearly Monty was trying to grow a new one.
Wash gunned the mule's engine a little, and they rolled up to stop just behind Monty's imposing figure. Hearing the engine, Monty turned about. When his eyes landed on Mal, the scowl he was wearing faded, to be replaced with a grin.
"Malcolm Reynolds... come here!" He growled, wrapping him up in a back slapped hug. "Fancy seeing you here on this dirtball of a moon."
"I was just passing through Monty, when I heard you had yourself in a bit of a pickle." Mal chuckled before sweeping his hand towards the trailer that was attached to the Mule. "I picked up what you needed to keep on flying."
"You're a life saver Mal." Monty clapped him on the shoulders, and then turned to look at the trailer. "And... well hello there." His smile widened when he saw Kaylee. "You bring angels too Mal?"
Mal sighed. "That's Kaylee, my mechanic." Mal looked sternly at the larger man, clearly sending a message to 'back off'.
"Relax Mal, I ain't going to steal your woman." Monty replied easily, grinning at what he thought was Mal's actions in defending what was his.
Mal rolled his eyes. "Kaylee, show these hun-da's how to install that thing. Wash..." He nodded towards some of Monty's crew. Wash understood with a nod.
"Monty, she ain't mine." Mal turned back to Monty. "She's married to my doc."
"Hey, no offence Mal." Monty backed up a bit, hands raised.
Mal waved him off. "Anyway, how did you get mixed up in this new movement Monty? I always thought you were smarter than that."
Monty looked at him sadly. "Mal, what rock have you been hiding under this last year? Things have gone from bad to worse. Everything's falling apart at the seams Mal, and the Feds are only making things worse by locking up innocent people. The real scum get away all the time now. Things on the rim are worse then they were during the war. Even the feds on the outer worlds are getting disillusioned."
As Monty went on, Mal nodded at all the right places, but he kept an eye on Kaylee and the men around her. So far they had only looked. Maybe knowing that their captain was within sight was keeping them in line.
Then he saw one mans hand drift close to her waist.
"Excuse me Monty." Mal said as he walked over. Kaylee was working on the part, and was nearly inside the ship. The man Mal had noted was the closest to her, and screened from Wash's sight by his fellows. His hand had almost reached Kaylee's rear when Mal gripped it tightly at the wrist.
"You had gorram better keep that to yourself." Mal told him firmly, gripped the offending wrist a little more. "I promised her Father that I'd look after her like I would my own sister."
The man, unshaven and with narrow eyes, glared back at him. He started to reach for his waist, but then Mal drew back his coat to rest his hand on his gun. The crewman backed down.
Kaylee, unaware of what had happened, backed up a bit and looked over her shoulder. "Almost done capt'n. Just need to align the regulators and this will run again."
"Good. Make it fast mei mei." Mal answered, continuing to watch Monty's crew. After a beaming smile, Kaylee slipped inside the hull.
Monty came storming over, glaring at the crewman Mal held. "I've told you before to keep your dirty hands to yourself you bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-ro!" He spoke harshly. "I'm not going to tell you again. Get your gear and get off my ship."
The man faced Montye Ge. "Ah, come on, it was just a little fun..."
Monty cut him off with a fist to the gut; Mal released the man's arm as he saw Monty's arm move. "I know your kind of 'fun'. It makes me sick!" He all but bellowed. "Now get your sorry, perverted carcass off my ship!"
As the whipped man crawled away, Monty turned to face Mal, his expression apologetic. "I'm sorry Mal, but this is what I have to put up with. Only the scum are left. The good ones either pulled out and hid, or got picked up by the Feds."
Mal nodded slowly, keeping his eye on the hatch that Kaylee had used. After a minute she stepped out again, a smudge of grease on her forehead and a smile on her lips. "All done!" She announced happily. She faced Monty. "Just keep the pressure in the coolant tubes down and the exchanger won't seize up again."
Monty nodded, then turned to bellow at his crew. "Well what you're standing around for, you blooming maggots? Get this ship ready to lift!"
As the crew scurried about Monty faced Mal once more. "Thanks for the help Mal." He stuck out his meaty hand. "See you on Hera?"
"Don't know yet." Mal answered as he clasped Monty's hand. "We'll see which way the wind blows."
X-X-X-X-X-X
Half an hour later, Mal sighed as he watched Kaylee browse through the stacks of components that filled the one workshop that the town boosted. A lot behind the building contained a half dozen old and falling apart shuttles, while the parts contained in the covered area in front looked like they had been salvaged from the desert plains out of town.
He looked around the quiet streets. Most of the towns' folk were either working in the fields or resting their homes. Few were out and about. Even Wash was not in sight, having dashed into another small store, saying that he saw something that little Kyle would like.
"Kaylee, Serenity can't be falling apart already. You and River assured me that she was better then new."
"She will captain. Have a little faith. Can never have too many spare parts though... oh!" Her hand snapped out and yanked a clear tube filled what looked like yellow granules out of the pile. Her face fell though when she turned it over. "It's cracked." She laid the broken synchroniser back.
Mal smiled as he shook his head. Kaylee was a true gem. Most young women were obsessed with clothes, makeup and jewellery. The little gasp she'd just emitted was normally used in regard to something unbearably cute, fuzzy and girlish. But with Kaylee, it was over engine parts.
"Kaylee..." He began, stepping forwards.
A very familiar click and whine stopped him in his tracks.
Freezing, he slowly looked over his shoulder, then down at the gun the thuggish man behind him held. More sounds of weapons being primed from in front of him made him look, to see Kaylee trembling between three more thugs. Seeing her with a shotgun at the small of her back, Mal made no move to resist when one thug withdrew his pistol. That thug then pulled on his shoulder to turn him around, and with a jerk of the rifle, the other gestured for him to step back to the street. The dying whine of a skiff's engines resounded from there.
Stepping out from the workshop area, Mal grimaced slightly when he saw one slighter thug tearing the wires from the mule, ensuring it wouldn't be running for a while. As Kaylee was pushed up besides him that he focused on the skiff itself. Large and armoured, with oversized engines, it was clearly a military model. But the men that surrounded them were clearly not Alliance personal. These were clearly gangsters and criminal thugs. Question was, who did they work for?
The answer came as an old, small of statue man stepped out of the skiff. The afternoon sunlight gleamed off his glasses and his bald head, while his lined face looked up at Mal with a soft smile, but with reptilian eyes.
"Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng..." Mal breathed
"We meet again, Mister Reynolds." Adelei Niska said in his soft, grandfatherly voice that was without a trace of warmth.
O'Neill: Aw crap...
Inara: Mal!
Dom: Mamma Mia!
DR: (*looks at Domminic Santini strangely*) When did you get here? (*Spys Airwolf sat on the ground outside*) Okay... don't answer.