Simon's first instinct was to lead Kaylee into the infirmary and help her into the exam chair, but he quickly realized that that was not going to be an option. The chair was as soft as a cement block covered in leather, and her injuries simply wouldn't allow her to lay on it for any length of time—certainly not long enough to deliver her child.
He couldn't try a C-Section, either—the baby had started its way down the birth canal, and he knew it was best to try and have the baby come naturally. If a problem arose with the baby, however, then he would be ready to make the first incision to help it along.
His mind mentally listed all of the suitable places he could attempt to lay Kaylee while she suffered through another contraction. Simon couldn't bear the thought of her suffering any more than she already had, and hoped the captain's "chat" with his tamade hundan of a father was causing him as much grief as the man had put Kaylee through.
There were very few options. "We may have to deliver this baby while she's standing upright," he told Inara.
"Is that possible?" the woman asked, surprised.
"It's certainly not ideal, but it can be done. Help me get her to the infirmary."
The two began leading Kaylee towards the back of the ship, taking slow and careful steps. They managed to get into the passenger lounge before Kaylee could no longer walk under all the pain. "I'll have to get some of my things," he told Inara as he gently set Kaylee on the foot of the sofa.
"Everything hurts so much," whimpered Kaylee.
"Just breathe, Kaylee. Like we were been practicing before…" Simon trailed as he realized where that statement would lead him. He ducked inside his infirmary, filling a clean exam-bed sheet with all sorts of tools and medicines he would need. He took the bundle, as well as a few extra sheets, out to the passenger lounge and laid it out on the floor, being mindful not to let anything fall out or off of the sheet.
"Okay, bao bei," he said gently, draping an extra sheet on top of the sofa arm she was leaning against. Inara stayed close, in case there was any need for assistance. "The next time you have a contraction, I need you to push…"
Four pairs of eyes stared at the bleeding pile of go-se lying on the floor of their cargo bay. Thankfully, the man was not whining or protesting—in fact, it seemed like he was listening for something…
A cry came out from the passenger dorms, and the man's face lit up like a Christmas tree. An evil-looking smile washed over his pain-contorted face. "Soon…" he said, half to himself.
"Soon that little girl's gonna be a momma," said Mal flatly. "And your son a daddy. You ain't no part of that equation."
"I don't expect…" the man began, but Mal cut him off.
"No, I'm fair sure you don't. Couldn't begin to understand the fun in torturing girls, even if I was of a mind to try."
Another cry echoed through the Firefly's halls, and this time it was followed by another voice telling Kaylee to push.
"That child is the end result of my life's work," Gabriel said simply. "So will every child my children create. There's always the chance…"
This time River spoke. "No more. You stirred the soup and got burned. No more soup for you." She punctuated this with a swift kick to Gabriel's injured legs.
"Y'know, something, Mal?" Jayne said, having been unnaturally silent during the whole exchange. Mal knew it was because he was worried about Kaylee and the baby—they all were—but this had settled hard on him. Jayne liked girls, as a matter of course—anyone who would treat them in the way this hundan had needed to be spaced, and no questions asked, as far as he was concerned. "Think it might be time for some of that "keelhaulin'" you mentioned once.
Zoe's eyes flashed between the fei oo on the floor, the mercenary and her captain. "Keelhaulin'?" she asked pointedly. There was a story behind this, she just knew it.
"Came up in conversation once," said Jayne. "That's all."
"Uh-huh," she replied, in a that's-not-all-there-is-to-this-story-is-there tone of voice. Ignoring it for the moment, she asked, "How does this "keelhaulin'" thing work?"
"Good, Kaylee," said Simon, sitting on the floor just slightly underneath his wife. "I can see the head!" he cried, his voice full of excitement.
Kaylee herself felt nearly spent. She wished she could sit down, but her backside was just so sore. Simon couldn't give her a pain block, on account of the baby, (the type of meds in one could hurt the baby, he said) so she just gritted her teeth and tried to make the best of it. She panted, trying to work the pain out through that method, and had on several occasions nearly broken Inara's hands from gripping them so hard.
"I know this hurts, but you're doing great," soothed Simon. "I need you to give me just one more push, okay? One more and this will be over."
Kaylee nodded, being too tired to even speak.
She felt it come on again, even stronger than the last, and she took a deep breath and pushed with all her might.
"That's it…that's it…there!" A small, sharp wail came sounding out of the tiny little person that had just entered the 'verse.
"It's a girl!" cried Inara, her face filled with joy.
Just then there was a loud thud, and a click, and the sound of the outer airlock door being opened. There was a ear-piercing scream, and then silence.
"Must say, Jayne, I like this idea." Zoe's compliment was enough to make the big man smile just a little.
The concept of "keelhaulin'" was not unlike spacing. Toss the body into the airlock, open the outer hatch doors, and watch as the spacee floats off to their bone-chilling and blood-dripping demise. This particular round had been somewhat amusing to watch, seeing as it had been decided that the hundan would be floating to his demise completely stark-naked.
"You didn't see her in there," Mal had said, a dark look crossing his face. "Damn near froze her into an ice cube and took her clothes to make sure she would. Weren't no blankets on that bed she was on, either."
Of course, Gabriel had protested, claiming that he was too valuable to simply "toss out with the trash," to use his own phrase. "At least let me die with some dignity," he cried when he realized what the crew was about to do to him.
"Like the dignity you gave our little Kaylee?" Mal countered, effectively silencing the man. "Now, take off those pretty fits before I let Jayne take them off."
Jayne was holding a bowie knife he called "Binky" in his hands, keeping it in Gabriel's line of sight. An evil-looking grin flashed over the man's face.
Gabriel complied, albeit slowly. Once the clothes were in a pile on the cargo bay floor, he was roughly hauled to his feet and dumped in the airlock.
"You like making little girls freeze," Mal said dangerously. "You like burning your wife, and you like seeing innocent people bleed. Well now, we're gonna give you what you seem to enjoy giving to other people."
The inner airlock door slammed shut, and locked with a click. Gabriel's eyes were wide as he realized what was about to happen. Suddenly there was another click, and a whrrr, and then the vacuum of space took him. He floated, conscious for a few minutes, feeling the blood seep out of his ears.
The last thought that raced through Gabriel Tam's mind—other than his anger at being thwarted by his children again-was that it really was extremely cold out here in space.
Inside Serenity, the remaining crew made their way down towards the passenger lounge. There had been a wail going on for a few minutes, and it sounded like there was a little crew member to meet.
As they filed down the stairs, Mal stopped River briefly. "You didn't have to do that, little albatross," he said.
"Did it for Kaylee," she replied simply. "Did it for me, too." She looked at her hand, the impression of the "open airlock" button still visible in her hand.
"Can't argue with that."
Everyone ooohed and ahhhed over the little girl that was snuggled in her father's arms. Her mother was lying on the sofa, completely doped by the pain block she'd been administered but still admiring her daughter.
"She's yours, doc," teased Jayne. "Looks like ya."
"She has Kaylee's nose," said Inara, gently touching her fingertip onto it. The baby smiled.
"She's beautiful," said Zoe, with just the faintest trace of wistfulness in her voice.
"So," Mal said, giving a mock-stern look towards the new parents, "what do we call her?"
"Sarah," said Kaylee groggily. "Her name's Sarah."
It had been nearly a month since Kaylee came back on board Serenity, and she was eager to get back to business as usual in her engine room.
The bruising on her back and legs had been healing nicely, thanks to Simon's expert care, but he still forbade her from going anywhere near the engine room. "You still should be resting from all that trauma," he replied flatly when she'd tried to sneak a look inside. "You suffered quite an ordeal, with the cold and the beatings and the cocktail that bastard shoved into your system."
The captain wasn't being any help, either. "Only thing you need to be doing right now is lookin' to that little one," he'd said when she tried to get him to make Simon see reason. "Don't need you getting any more banged up, little Kaylee."
And that had been the end of that. Kaylee occupied herself with spending more time with Simon and with Sarah, and with doing the occasional odd chore around the ship. She was still wearing Inara's thick, white fluffy robe and her brand-new pair of fuzzy duck slippers—the ones Simon had meant to give Kaylee the day she had been kidnapped.
Still, every so often she could hear a strange whistle or a high-pitched whine or a loud clank coming from her beloved engine room, and every time she tried to walk inside she was stopped before she could even see inside. "Got no need to be dealin' with this here," said Jayne as he steered her towards the kitchen for about the twelfth time that day. "Cap'n and I's got it worked out, dong ma?"
"But…"
"No "buts," y'hear?"
Kaylee sighed loudly as she walked back to the kitchen. She held her hands around her daughter, who was sitting in a contraption of River's making. It was a little harness she'd knitted to hold Sarah in front of either of her parents, much like one of those kangaroo-pouches Kaylee had only read about in Simon's encyclopedia. The device worked surprisingly well, allowing Kaylee to move about the ship and reach for things while still keeping Sarah close.
"Wonder what all the fuss is about," she mused softly. "They's all actin' like I'll die of fright if'n I even do my job."
"I don't think it's fright everyone's worried about," came Inara's reply, floating down from the shuttle entrance. "We've all been, ah, learning about your job while you were gone, mei-mei. I for one can tell you I have new respect for ship mechanics," she added.
Kaylee's face blanched. "Y'all didn't…break her, did ya?"
"Not…exactly…"
Kaylee raced up the steps and stormed through the threshold of her engine room in a take-no-prisoners sort of march. Her jaw dropped as she saw the state of affairs inside.
There were bits of engine strewn everywhere. Wires were crossed and re-crossed in order to make some new creation of engine part work properly. There were parts not even designed for a Firefly that were horribly modified and stuck pell-mell to the engine. Bits of string and tape held other, more worn parts together in hopes of one last push.
But the biggest tragedy of all was the sight of Jayne and the captain, lying covered from head to toe in engine grease, minor burns, and an assortment of bandages, loudly arguing about the placement of a new converter and a corresponding belt.
"What the hell did you do to my engine?! she cried, all thought of rest forgotten.
Both men turned from their argument, each looking a little sheepish. "We fixed it," mumbled Jayne lamely as he began to notice the explosion of mess in the normally less-chaotic room.
"Fixed it?" Kaylee stared at the mess and rolled her eyes. "It's gonna take me two months just to rebuild the engine alone…"
"And that two months hasn't started yet," said Mal forcefully, taking a wrench from out of his mechanic's hands. "For one, an engine room's no place for a baby," he said, his grease-filled fingertip wiggling just out of Sarah's reach. The little girl cooed happily and tried to reach for her Uncle Mal's hand.
"But…"
"No "buts."" He gently shoved her back outside the door's threshold. "Soon as we land, I'm gonna have Serenity looked over and put to rights. By then that husband of yours should have you off bed rest, and then you can play underneath her to your heart's content."
He looked over at the horrific mess he and the rest of the crew had managed to make in their search for their mechanic. "But, if you promise not to touch anything, you might help us figure out where this part and belt go?"
Kaylee sighed. It was going to be a long couple of weeks.