Copper for a Kiss by Lady Cleo

All Disclaimers' Apply

Chapter Ten: Sedona

2518 Late April to Early May…

"Will there be anything else, Mr. and Mrs. Brandon," the young bell boy inquired as he set the two duffels by the door.

"No," Jayne answered. Turning around he dug into his pockets and fished out a couple credits, tossing them to the kid. The boy's face lit up for a second as he bowed to them both and backed out of the double doors.

"Ya'd think he'd never seen a lousy tip before." Turning around, Jayne made a beeline for the full stocked bar, pulling down a bottle of disgustingly rich, old brandy. Picking up a glass, Jayne glanced across the room and poured himself a shot, gaze lingered on the sole reason he could afford to be drinking Caesar's own personal stock in a high class suite glazing out across one of the richest independent planets. 'Course she was also the reason there was a warrant with his name flashing across the cortex, but he wasn't going to go into that.

Taking a quick swig of the red poison, Jayne set the glass down and ambled over to where River stood gazing out across the landscape. He grinned, trying to forget for a second what had happened on Triumph, trying to pretend they were still just casual- very touchy - partners. Wrapping his arms about her waist he pulled her against his chest, his head dropping down to rest on her head. "What ya lookin' at?"

River frowned, "It's not home-"

Jayne frowned, "What are you talkin' bout, we ain't got no home? Don't need no home." Releasing her, the mercenary crossed the room to the duffels. "Leastways not for long," he muttered to himself as he reached down and pulled open his own duffel.

River frowned, her heart jumped for a second in fear and her hands dropped. It wasn't right, things weren't moving in the right direction. He wasn't acting right. He should've still been mad, not confident and sure of- of something.

Jayne reached into the bag and pulled out a small piece of paper.

The needles flashed before her eyes. River shrieked. Jayne jumped, crossing the room in two strides he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to his chest as his fingers soothed down her hair. "What the hell are ya freakin' out about?"

"The eye pricks with numbers- "

Jayne snorted, "You gonna look me in the eyes and tell me that ya honestly think I'd still turn you in after everything we've been through? Weren't you the one who was telling me that I wouldn't get rid of ya until I was old and grey, well, I' ain't exactly young but I sure the hell ain't grey."

Sniffling into his chest, River fought to push him away. "You want to get rid of me, I can hear it, can hear your thoughts. Think that the silence will send the girl running, but it won't. I won't, won't go sane."

"You don't know what the hell you're saying, girl." Tightening his grip on her, Jayne groaned as her elbow connected with his stomach, "Gorram it, will you stop squirming, girl." Knocking her feet from beneath her, Jayne pushed the girl to the floor, pinning her in place. "I ain't trying to make ya do anything, all I'm tryin' ta do is help you. You turning 'sane' don't mean I'm gonna kick you to the curb, just means you'll be able ta make decisions better. If'n you want to stay crazy, that's fine by me." River's form suddenly went limp against his. Releasing her, Jayne climbed back up to his feet, staring down at the small form. Turning away, the mercenary started for the doors.

"No, wait."

Jayne paused, his back still facing her. "If'n you're so set on me takin' this damned marriage thing seriously, ya gotta stop actin' like a spoiled child." Turning back around Jayne watched as River slowly pulled herself up.

Crossing the room, River wrapped her arms gently around his waist and pressed her face against his chest. "Emotions trickle down the back of my throat, clog the process- don't mean to act like a child. Don't think like one, don't want to be seen as one, but sometimes the control- the control slips away and muddles the words."

Pulling her head back, River stared back into his eyes. "I'm confused, confused by all the twittering in my head." Shaking her head, she tightened her grip on his waist. "It's a problem-"

"A problem with a damn cure." Reaching up Jayne ruffled the long locks of brown. "A cure this quack Monty found might be able ta help with. Stop thinkin' with that little heart of yours and start usin' them brains again. If'n this quack can help cure ya, than you can start saying what ya want to, start doin' what you want ta without having everything get twisted around all them other thoughts that ain't yours."

River gulped down a soft breath and pressed her face into his chest, her body slightly trembling at the vision of needles that filled the blocks of her memories.

"Look," Jayne whispered, "I know it ain't easy for you ta face all them fears. But you ain't gonna be alone. I ain't ever willingly left your side, and I ain't plannin' on startin' today."

-

Simon stepped off the elevator and into the brightly lit hallway. The familiar faces nodded with solemn greetings as he moved down the sterilized hallway towards the unfamiliar room. Stepping over the threshold, he paused at the sight that greeted him.

Gabriel Tam lay stretched out on the white bed, his monitors beeping in a slow and steady rhythm. A vacated chair sat close to the bed, obviously having been placed there for his mother. But Regan Tam was nowhere in sight.

Walking silently over to the bedside, Simon starred down at the familiar face. Gabriel Tam's hair had gone almost completely gray since Simon had last seen him; the old man's face looked worn and tired, strained as he slept fitfully on the bed.

"Dr. Tam," a familiar voice greeted from the doorway.

Simon turned around to greet the aging man in the doorway, "Dr. Chamberlain." Stepping forward, Simon held out his hand to the other man, "I assume that my father is under your care."

"Yes. We're sorry to call you back from your sabbatical with such ill tidings, but your father suffered a minor heart attack three days ago. He does not appear to be recovering and he has yet to wake." Walking forward, the older doctor grabbed a nearby chart. "I've been taking care of your father's medical problems for the last thirty years, Simon, and I've never seen a healthier man. But, in the past year his health has deteriorated under the stress of your- your family situation."

Simon frowned, "My mother is under the impression that he's dying-"

Chamberlain ran a hand under his chin and walked over to Simon, handing him the charts. "Look and see for yourself, son. We can't quite describe it, but his heart seems to be failing. Unless we can pinpoint the cause- and soon," Chamberlain didn't finish his sentence, letting Simon make the final deductions. "There's a private specialist on Sedona, a man with quiet and ability to solve he unsolvable, much like yourself. I've been in contact with him and he's agreed to look over your father's chart." Patting the younger man on the shoulder, Chamberlain turned for the door, "Your mother's been keeping a constant vigil by your father's beside, but we sent her home a few hours ago to get some rest. Why don't you go home and talk to her, Simon, give her a little bit of comfort."

"Who is this specialist?" Simon called out, making the other man pause.

"Holden. Doctor Tom Holden."

-

The white building towered overhead, splendid arches of white steel decoratively protruding from branches of the building. "Don't look like no hospital." Jayne scrunched his forehead, checking over the numbers on the small paper and comparing them to the ones welded onto the side of the building. River stood at his side, clinging sharply to his arm.

Just near the front doors, a green courtyard bloomed with blue and white flowered bushes, shady trees branching out over benches. "Makes me think of them old rest homes for dyin' rich people."

River nodded sharply, "No good." Turning on her heels she started away from the building and back towards the hotel.

Jayne reached back, grabbing her elbow and pulling the smaller girl to a halt. "Hey now, ya promised that you'd go along. We hiked all through them shops ta get here, might as well see if'n this quack can help- unless you're thinking they're gonna turn us in."

River frowned, half tempted to lie and tell him that she was suspecting such a thing. Instead she let him drag her towards the building. Jayne pushed the glass doors open and stepped into the waiting room. The atmosphere was quiet and had the same sterilized smell of a hospital. A young woman sat in one of the chairs, holding tightly to the hand of a pale child.

Jayne rolled his neck and grimaced, his grip tightened on River's trembling hand and he pulled her forward to the nurse's window.

"Can I help you," the young woman behind the counter questioned with a smile.

"Friend of mine was supposed ta have made an appointment with the doc a few days ago, under the name Captain Monty," Jayne explained. Shifting uneasily to rest his free hand on the weapon at side, Jayne glanced around the room again as the nurse fiddled with her papers.

Her smile brightened tenfold, "Ah, Captain Monty's friend. We were expecting you." Standing up she moved over to the door and opened it, motioning for Jayne and River to step through. "Follow me."

Leading the two down the white hallway the nurse approached an unmarked door and pushed it open, revealing a small examination room. "Dr. Holden will be with you in just a moment. Please, make yourself as comfortable as possible." That said, the young woman departed, quietly closing the door behind her.

River clung tightly to Jayne's hand, her breathing hitching erratically as her eyes darted from corner to corner. Jayne turned his head down to her, "You ain't suspecting anything, are ya?"

The smaller girl slowly shook her head, "All's clear- just- just-" Gulping down a breath she leaned forward and pressed her face against Jayne's arm. "Things are coming forward, things that I don't like, needles bring back the-" Shuddering she shifted forward, wrapping her arms around his waist she clung to him. "Promise you won't leave, promise won't leave me with the needles."

Jayne snorted, "Told ya a thousand times, I ain't going nowhere."

A quiet knock disturbed the two. The door swung open admitting a middle aged man dressed in a white lab coat. He smiled at the two, closing the door behind him. "You must be the young couple Captain Monty informed me of. I'm Doctor Holden-"

Shifting River to his side, Jayne faced the other man. "Ain't no easy way ta say this, doc. If Monty trusts ya, than suppose I ought ta, but I've been backstabbed by more than I'd like ta-"

"You have nothing to worry about," Holden interrupted. Walking over to one of the tables, the man leaned against it. "If it makes you more comfortable, I can tell you that I worked on an Alliance Medical Frigate for three years. The reason Monty still trusts me, is that having learned to loathe my former employer, I spent many more years in the trenches, aiding Captain Monty and the Brown Coat cause. I am no friend to the Alliance, and never will be again, not after what I've seen. I can't give much more than my word on that. But, I can assure you that so long as you're here- your lives, your secrets, they're all safe with me."

Jayne grimaced, still unable to take the word of a stranger he glanced down at River. She in turn glanced up at him and slowly nodded. "Here's the deal doc, my name's Jayne Cobb and this here is my- my wife," Jayne explained. "I found her in the morgue of a Core hospital. The way she tells it, is that she'd just escaped some sorta government facility where they were messing with her brain." Holden nodded his face a blank mask.

"Feds have been chasing after us ever since. She's- well she's a damned genius who's had her brain fried ta little bits. Most the times she acts mighty crazy, like she feels every damn thing that comes her way. But she's got her sane moments too. She's – well, she feels what others feel if ya catch my drift. She can sorta- well, she's got an ability to read minds."

Holden's eyebrow hiked into his hairline. "Did she have this ability before?"

"No," River answered. "Always felt things, knew things, but never heard things. Didn't know all the details before. Now- now it all comes in waves. Only the rain washes it away with silence."

"The rain?"

"That'd be me," Jayne supplied.

Holden nodded, turning around he opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of latex gloves, slipping them on. "You can understand her?"

Jayne nodded, "Most the time, just got ta make connections that ain't too obvious."

Turning back around Holden approached the pair slowly, making eye contact with River. "Would you mind if I just examined your head?"

River hesitated for a second, stepping slightly away from Jayne, she gave her consent with a brief nod as her grip tightened on Jayne.

Holden ran his hands softly over River's head, feeling along the skull gently. "Generally in the studies I've done, these types of events are caused by two things," Holden explained. "First, there could be a trauma to the head. Physical or emotional, it's generally caused by a fall or a emotional abuse. Or, these things can be caused by a deliberate alteration of the brain for scientific purposes, or- other reasons."

Holden pulled his hands off of River's head and stepped back, "I can't be positive, but, there's a vague feeling of a small scar on the top of the head. It's not a trauma scar, but, rather it feel like a precise incision scar. Probably almost healed to perfection, which fits the profile-"

"What do ya mean by that?"

Holden turned back to the counter and pulled out the cortex screen attached to the wall. Directing the pair to the screen, he pulled up an image of the human brain. "Keep in mind that I'm making a speculation based on my knowledge of the Alliance and its procedures. An incision in this section of the skull would be almost perfectly aligned to remove the amygdale."

"The wha?"

"The amygdale. It's an emotional control in your head which lets you decide which emotions to feel. Say you're scared or nervous; the amygdale lets you push back those feeling and focus. If, and I emphasis if, they removed that portion of the brain, well, she would have no control over her emotions." Removing a glove, the doctor scratched at his temple. "More importantly, a couple years back several Alliance doctors published a private report to colleagues about the removal of the amygdale and its possible effects on the brain."

"So you're sayin' that mabye they removed it ta -"

"Make her," River interrupted. "They tried to make her, but she won't be."

Holden frowned, "Keep in mind that I'm only speculating. But, there may be a way to stabilize the emotions with the correct series of medications."

River cringed, slowly backing away from the man. Jayne frowned, "So's how we go about that?"

"We can't, yet." Turning away from the screen, Holden glanced over the odd couple. "We can't make a move until I'm sure that the amygdale is missing. To treat it as such, and have it turn out negative, could be disastrous to both her emotional and mental stability." Glancing over at River he frowned, "We need to be sure of the circumstances before we act."

"Eyes can't see," River whispered, pulling Jayne's attention down to her. "Need the eyes."

"Can't ya just scan her brain or something? See if that there thing is missing?"

"There's our problem," Holden shifted against the desk. "We here on Sedona don't have the equipment to do a full and in-depth brain scan. We're still a fairly new planet. Even if we are wealthy, suppliers are in short demand. I've had the equipment on order for the past two years - through both proper channels and illegal channels."

"What would ya do if'n a customer needed his head scanned?"

"I'd send him to the nearest Core, or call in an Alliance Medical Frigate, something I obviously can't do when you take into account your current standing with the government."

-

Simon pushed open the ornate wood door and stepped into the house. The building was dark, lamps turned off, an eerie silence filled the halls of his childhood. Walking forward, Simon glanced around, half expecting to find his mother hard at work, busily redecorating everything that could be moved to keep her mind off darker matters.

Stepping forward, Simon hit one of the light switches, white light flooding the room and illuminating the house he'd not stepped foot in for the past two years. The wallpaper had been changed and he failed to recognize any of the pieces of furniture, a sign of his mother's turmoil. Climbing the stairs, Simon peered down the hallway at the familiar doors. His mother would be in the bedroom furthest down the hall, the one she'd shared with Gabriel Tam for the pasty thirty years.

Simon paused at the first door; River's name was stretched across a pink wooden plaque, decorated with a ballerina. Smiling gently he pushed on the door handle and stepped into the room. Unlike the rest of the house, this room had been persevered from the mother's flurry of constant changes. Stepping into the room, Simon paused as he noticed the several unwrapped presents that lay on the bed.

"She was supposed to come visit for her birthdays." Simon jumped at the sound of his mother's voice and turned. Regan Tam sat in a rocking chair, hidden by the shadows of the room. "But we always received letters, saying that she was unable to make the journey home because of exams, or her work load was just too heavy to abandon." Regan smiled gently, in her pale hands she held tightly to a silver brush.

Stepping over to the bed, Simon took a seat across from his mother. "Your father- your father was never very close to her. Something you probably noticed," Regan whispered, her eyes dropping away from her sons, falling to rest on a point on the floor. "He had his little boy. Your sister, she was second fiddle to you in his mind. You, you were going to go places. River, despite her mind, was still just a girl." Regan gently stroked the bristles of the brush. "But she, she was my baby."

Simon bowed his own head as Regan continued, "She used to sit here so patiently, letting me comb her hair out. Sometimes I'd take her out of school for the day, she was bored stiff in that little school anyway. We'd go have our girl's days out, spend hours wandering through shops. She always seemed to understand that I just needed her to be close to me, that I wanted her to be my little girl. She always seemed to know what I was thinking-"

A sob suddenly broke the air, and Simon's head snapped up as his mother buried her face in her hands. He reached a hand out to her, but Regan jerked away from his touch, quickly recomposing herself. "You father's dying of guilt-"

"Mother-"

"For once in your life, Simon, listen to an old woman." Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Regan set the brush aside. "You haven't set foot in this house for the past year. Instead you've been tramping around the universe, looking for something that doesn't want to be found."

"At first Gabriel tried acting like your sister was dead, but that's hard to do when you take into account her unique personality. She's not someone easily forgotten. Than he tried to rationalize; saying that the fugitive River Tam and his little girl were two different beings. And finally- finally he started to think. He started to question everything you'd ever said to us."

"Father's not the kind of person who questions authority, mother. Are you going to sit there and tell me that-"

"You don't know who your father is, Simon. You've never even attempted to know the man. He's not a stupid or blind man." Regan slowly rose from the chair, moving quietly over to the window she pushed back a curtain. "Given the right information, anyone will start to question what they know, what they've been told-"

"What happened than? Why didn't he call me? Why didn't he reach out to help?"

Regan's head snapped around, "How could he, when you refused to talk to him?" Simon winced at her words, avoiding the piercing pair of brown eyes. Regan turned back to stare down at the dark streets. "Something happened. He began to withdraw from me, was gone more. He stopped coming home for dinner, and would stagger in late at night, exhausted. He wouldn't tell me anything-" Regan trailed.

"The heart attack?"

"That happened about three days ago. I got a call from his office around noon. Apparently he was in a private conference with some prospective clients and suddenly collapsed." Regan turned back around, her brown eyes pleading with her son, "The guilt is killing him, he found out too much about something. We sent her off to that school; that started all the trouble and now - he knows too much about something Simon. It's killing him." Crossing the room, the older woman sank down onto the bed beside her son, "You have to help him, Simon- I can't lose them both, not both your sister and your father. I can't-" she couldn't finish her sentence, breaking down into sobs.

Reaching out gently, Simon wrapped his mother in a soft embrace, cradling the sobbing woman. "It's alright, mother, I'll help him, I promise I'll try and help him."

-

"She's gonna get worse, ain't she," Jayne questioned the other man. They both stood on the balcony of the clinic, watching River chase some of the younger patients around the grassy knoll in front of office.

Doctor Holden turned back to Jayne. "You tell me."

Jayne frowned pensively, "Them ruttin nightmares keep comin' back no matter what I do. They're getting stronger and more frequent. She's losing control more often, havin' fits 'bout the oddest things. Did I tell ya she went through my clothes and slashed all my blue sun shirts a couple of weeks ago." The two men walked silently back into the office.

Holden slipped behind his desk and opened the bottom drawer, pulling out a bottle of brandy he poured two shots, pushing one over to Jayne and downing the other himself. "The problem remains as is. I need the scans. We have to figure out a way to get her safely into and out of a facility that will let me scan her brain. Otherwise, I'm working half blind and trying to calculate meds that I'm not sure will target the source of the problem."

Jayne took the shot glass, downing the liquid before slipping into the seat across from the doctor. "Ain't possible, they're all on core planets. I ain't willing ta risk her like that. Feds would be crawling all over us before I could say- don't take us in," He finished lamely and frowned. Glancing back towards the window, Jayne frowned in thought, "You ever hear of Adelai Niska?"

"No."

"He's a stone cold killer, ain't all cuddly like me." Jayne set the empty shot glass down and leaned forward. "Had me a contact that said he's got a whole mess of medical stuff, likes to study the effects his torture has on the human body and such. He's a sick little bastard."

Holden frowned, "But?"

"He's got the hardware. I'm figuring that maybe, if I pay him enough, he'll do the scans for us. Only problem is, I don't trust the qing wa cao de liu mang. Hell, don't trust anybody much these days, but, like I said, he's a stone cold killer. Probably knife me in the back and keep River ta play with." Jayne stood and wandered back over to the window. "Way I see it, though, we ain't got much choice."

Note: The timeline used is based off of Edgar Governo's Firefly Timeline.

Chinese translations…

"Ye su, ta ma de" means "Hay-soose-mother-of-jumped-up--"

"Jian ta de gui!" means "Like hell!"

"qing wa cao de liu mang" means "frog-humping son of a bitch"