Disclaimer: All I own is Mei-Lin and the plots that revolve around her.
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Chapter Three
Everything around her was hot. It was a searing heat that made the hairs on her arms feel as though they were catching fire. She couldn't find her parents. Everywhere she looked, all she saw was a wall of flames and smoke. The smoke was stinging at her eyes, making her tear up and rendering her temporarily blind. Where were her mama and baba? Where were they? Screaming their names at the top of her lungs, she took a huge breath of smoke as she did so, causing her to cough wildly and fall to the ground with how much her body was shaking with her coughs.
When she looked up again, all she saw were two pairs of blue-gloved hands grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her up to her feet. She could not see their faces, but that did not make her feel much better. If she could see their faces, then maybe she could know whether or not they were trustworthy.
"Where…" she coughed harshly and almost gagged as more smoke went into her lungs. "Where are Mama and Baba?" she finally managed to ask as she looked up into the smoke, trying to see the faces of her rescuers.
"They are not here."
The voice was cold and unforgiving. It made her shiver and whimper in fear. She did not put up a fight as they guided her out of the fire and simply went along with them. There was no point in her struggling. If Mama and Baba weren't here…then maybe they were outside. Were they? Oh, please Buddha, let them be outside!
Smoke continued to blind her until they were in the streets of the city. As soon as she could open her eyes without tears filling them, she began looking for her parents. Mama and Baba had to be here. They had to be! But there was no sign of them. Tears filled her eyes that weren't caused by smoke. No…no, no, no, no! Opening her mouth, all that came out was a blood curdling scream. She didn't even realize that the men with blue hands were leading her away from the streets and towards a shuttle.
"Mama! Baba!"
Her voice faded away as she was dragged into the shuttle and she fell to the ground, curling up in a corner, sobbing uncontrollably.
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Mei-Lin woke up with a start, launching out of her bed and gasping wildly. She had not dreamed about the day she had lost her parents since she had been taken away by the men with blue hands. Gasping harshly as she clutched her blankets close to her body, Mei-Lin began to shake all over, crying softly to herself. Her tears were hot, like they had been the day when she had lost her parents. Reaching up hastily, she began wiping her eyes fiercely. She had sworn to herself to never give in to the weakness of grief again. They had done their best to work that out of her.
They always did that sort of thing. She had been in Their care for nearly four years before she managed to get out, and she had seen things. She had seen other victims of Their cruelty. Knowing that…it did not make her feel any calmer. Instead, her shaking had increased a great deal. Mei-Lin reached up to push her hair back, but her hand didn't make it all the way there. Standing up hastily, she pulled the long coat that Roy Taylor had given her and opened the door to her guest room on the ship.
Everyone else was either asleep or at various jobs at this point. If Mei-Lin's internal clock was right, then this was sometime in the middle of the night. She should have the ship to herself for most of the next few hours. That was exactly what she needed right now. Thankfully, if she was very silent, then no one would be able to notice her and get angry at her. That was the last thing that Mei-Lin wanted, was people getting angry. Though, she thought with a smirk and a roll of her eyes, she wouldn't have difficulty being too quiet.
Serenity was very silent, except for the rattling of the engine in the distance, and that suited Mei-Lin just fine as she slowly paced through the ship's halls and cargo bay. It didn't make sense to her why she was having these dreams again. She had forced all that behind her when she woke up in the hold of a slave ship, confused and dazed, six months ago. Before was all she had allowed herself to think of then. No thoughts of Them and that place. That was simply not to be permitted, even if no one else knew about it. So why was she now having the dreams again? No answer presented itself, so Mei-Lin kept walking.
She found that her feet had led her to the cockpit when she looked up and saw the stars through the window. It was an awe-inspiring sight that made her breath catch in her throat. Mei-Lin had never seen the stars like this, as she had grown up on Ariel and had little memory of the space journeys she had taken before this point. Seeing all that open space before her…it was a very humbling thing. Moving towards the co-pilot's seat and sitting down with her eyes still on the window, Mei-Lin couldn't help but stare.
Wash didn't notice the girl entering his little sanctuary until she sat down in the co-pilot's seat. She looked a little confused and dazed, and her eyes were read and blotchy from what could only be tears, but at least she wasn't cowering in fear. Unlike when River first came onto Serenity, this girl seemed to be in control of most of her faculties. Wash wondered if that was really the case or if she was simply a lot better at hiding what was wrong with her. Well…she was a mute, after all. And so far, they didn't know if there was anything really wrong with her, apart from the mute bit. That was for Simon to find out anyway, not Wash. Smiling to himself as the girl continued staring out at the Black surrounding them, Wash cleared his throat to alert her to his presence.
"Really is somethin', ain't it?" he asked with a smile when she turned to look at him in surprise. "You don't see nothin' like that on those fancy Core planets, I'll wager."
She shook her head in answer to that and smiled back at him weakly before looking back at the stars. There was a moment's silence, though it was far from an uncomfortable one. Apparently his earlier kindness towards the girl had earned Wash a place on Mei-Lin's list of people she trusted. After pausing for a second, Mei-Lin pulled out some paper and a pencil and wrote a hasty question.
IS IT ALWAYS THIS PRETTY?
"I sure think so," Wash replied with a shrug. "Some people don't care so much. They go mad with how empty the Black is."
Like the Reavers…Wash shuddered at that thought and forced himself to think of something else. He did not want to be remembering that time on Miranda. It had been bad enough while they were in the thick of it, and he knew for a fact that at least Kaylee still suffered from nightmares about it. No…he'd focus on something else rather than on the memories.
Mei-Lin seemed to know what he meant and also shuddered, her eyes going distant and her lips turning down in a frown. Going mad from the emptiness…
They were responsible for that, weren't They? Everything bad that Mei-Lin had ever encountered was somehow linked back to Them. It didn't matter what it was, she was certain that those who were responsible for whatever had happened to her after the men with blue hands took her away were also the ones responsible for every bad thing. Shaking all over as the memory of her nightmare clawed at the edge of her thoughts, Mei-Lin forced herself to focus on the window. She wasn't going to think about it.
Wash glanced over at Mei-Lin and frowned to himself. She looked like someone having an internal argument about something. It wasn't any of his business, so he wouldn't be asking about it, but he had to admit that he was curious. Anything that could tell them something about their newest passenger would be welcome. Simon would want to know as much as he could to start putting together how it was she lost her voice, after all.
"You okay?" he asked gently, one hand idly tracing the ridges on the back of his toy stegosaurus.
Mei-Lin shrugged noncommittally and made a gesture that Wash interpreted as meaning "I'm fine." He didn't believe it, of course, but if she didn't want to tell him, Wash wasn't about to do any pushing. That was the doctor's job, after all. Wash continued to fiddle with the toy dinosaur and his actions eventually caught Mei-Lin's eyes. Turning to look at the plastic dinosaur curiously, the girl stood up and walked over to kneel down next to the console, her eyes fixed on the toys.
"What's up?" Wash asked as he watched Mei-Lin's movements with a bemused expression.
The pencil and paper were once more produced and Wash soon found the reply to his question resting on the console.
NEVER HAD MANY TOYS. TOO LITTLE MONEY. THEN CAME THE OPERA, AND I WAS TOO OLD FOR THEM.
Wash blinked a little at that. So…he now knew one thing about Mei-Lin. She had not been born to a wealthy family like Simon and River's. Not that there was much question about that to begin with. Wealthy folk didn't exactly like having a kid working in something like the opera. Too many riff raff and what not. Smiling reassuringly at Mei-Lin, he handed her the toy stegosaurus.
"Well I never really grew outta havin' toys, so you can borrow 'em," he said with a grin.
Mei-Lin's eyes grew wide in wonder as she accepted the offering and stared at the toy as though she had never seen one before. Smiling up at Wash, she padded back to the co-pilot's seat with her new friend in hand and returned to observing the stars, though now and then she would pull out the dinosaur to let it "walk" along the console. She looked like such a little kid right then that Wash had to smile.
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Mal woke up rather suddenly, his body alert, but his mind still fuzzy. Something told him that he should have woken up sooner, but his head was too sleepy to make much sense of that idle thought. He didn't hear anything beyond the usual creaking and rattling sounds Serenity made while flying, so it couldn't have been a sound that woke him up. Or maybe it was, he corrected himself sluggishly as he heard laughter. Wasn't Kaylee. No…it was Wash. What in the gorram hell was that hun dahn laughing about at this hour?
Rising out of bed with a groan as a few of his joints creaked in protest, Mal rubbed his eyes to banish the bleariness of sleep from his vision. It didn't work quite as well as he would have liked, and his body was still stiff, but Mal did his best to ignore all that. Old wounds always bothered him, whether they were from the war or from the more recent battle at Mr. Universe's complex, and he wasn't in the mood to let a few aches slow him down. After pulling on a shirt and his boots, Mal made his way up the ladder leading to his bunk and turned towards the bridge. Wash was there, all right. But apparently he wasn't alone, as he was looking at someone in the co-pilot's seat.
With only a short pause to pop the crick out of his back, Mal made his way up to the bridge to find Mei-Lin sitting down across from Wash, smiling shyly at the pilot as he told her one of his many wild stories. This one appeared to be about how Wash and Zoë got married, though Mal's braid was still a little foggy from his sleep being interrupted. As soon as Mei-Lin heard Mal's footsteps, she gave a violent start and hastily stood up, looking ready to dart out if she needed to. Wash gave the girl a confused look before spotting Mal as well.
"Oh…mornin', Cap'n," he greeted with a slight salute. "I was just makin' our guest feel a little more at home."
"Did you have t'do it so loud it woke me up?" Mal asked in a tone similar to a whining child who wanted five more minutes of sleep before waking up for school.
Mei-Lin ducked her head at this and flushed guiltily. She didn't want to be the one responsible for making the captain displeased with Wash. The funny pilot was so nice to her, and he knew such nice stories. They were almost as nice as the stories of the operas that Mei-Lin used to sing.
Seeing the look of guilt on the mute girl's face, Mal sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. "I ain't mad none," he assured her. "Don't look like I just caught you at somethin' really bad."
She flushed even more and stared fixedly at her hands, not wanting to meet his gaze. It had been bad enough when she got Them mad. When They got angry, it meant that she would be punished with longer "sessions" with the doctors. Thankfully the captain didn't seem the sort to do something like that, but it did not make her want to meet his eyes anymore.
Sighing in defeat, Mal looked over at Wash. "How close we to Regina?" he asked, his voice still groggy.
"We still got about 72 hours, but we ain't veering off-course," Wash replied with a nod. "No need ta get your suspenders in a twist just yet."
"It's the yet that worries me," Mal grumbled. "Just keep us flying and let me know if I should start worryin'."
"Can do, Cap'n," Wash called over his shoulder as Mal walked off. "Don't worry 'bout him," he added, smiling at Mei-Lin. "He's just jealous that I don't tell him stories."
Mei-Lin actually smiled at that, not the half-hearted one that she had shown him before. This was a large smile with her eyes bright and her shoulders shaking with what would have no doubt been laughter if she still had a voice. Wash felt more than a little accomplished at this and grinned back.
"Just sit back and enjoy the ride, Linnie," he said with a wink at her before pausing. "Linnie. That suits you, don't you think?"
She made a face at the new nickname that involved her nose wrinkling and sticking out her tongue at him. Apparently she did not agree that it suited her, but Wash didn't mind. He thought it fit her and she couldn't exactly say no to him calling her that.
"Well," he said with a satisfied sigh. "Linnie, this looks like it'll be a good day, huh?"
Rolling her eyes at the nickname, Mei-Lin sighed with the air of a martyr and sat back in her chair. She might as well just live with it if he wasn't going to stop calling her that.