Fighting The Hollows... Part 2: ~ PREPARATIONS ~

The next day, Kaylee watched from the bed, not just a little anxiously, as River set up barricades and traps in a very exacting manner. She'd offered to help of course, but River had firmly said no, that it was better if she did it herself because things had to be just so (course, she hadn't used those words exactly, but Kaylee had caught her meaning just fine).

"Tell me again: if Reavers are coming here, why aren't we just getting ourselves elsewhere?" Kaylee asked, her eyes tracking River's movements almost on automatic now, as though just watching her move and do things like she was doing would make her feel better. And it was. Over the last weeks she'd gotten to very much like just watching River do things in fact (there really hadn't been all that much else to do), because she'd discovered there were always so many layers to whatever it was she was doing. Since they'd become... closer, she found she liked it even more, in a way that was entirely unexpected to her, but, after what River had said about Reavers being on their way, that comforting effect only went so far.

"This location is defensible, also our home. I have to protect you, skew the vectors closer to certainty. It's essential." River explained distractedly as she was bending down, the side of her head almost touching the floor as she looked at something she'd just set up from an odd angle.

"But, wouldn't it make more sense not to have to... defend me, and everything? If we just left...?" She offered, unsure of what else to say.

"They have a hole in them... They try to fill it, but they can't. They don't know that, they don't care, but they always know where to look." River explained, getting up and moving something she'd set up slightly to the left.

"What are you saying?" Kaylee asked, having a feeling she already knew, but hoping she was wrong.

River turned and looked to her then, her eyes finding Kaylee's effortlessly, as if River had known just where to look, down to the millimeter. "They always know, Kaylee. Always." She said, looking at her for a few almost timeless moments, then quietly turning back to what she was doing.

"You saying... they'll find us, right? Even... Even if we run?" She asked.

"Can run, but we can't hide. Better to stand and fight and die with nobility, than to cast our fates upon the rocks..." She looked over to Kaylee again. "So Elina Kensington said once... She died, those that followed her too, but we won't... Promise." She said, turning back to her work.

Kaylee watched her work a few more minutes, then got up and found her gun belt, retrieved it from the place she'd been keeping it beside the bed, and put it on, keeping the gun out and on her lap as she went back to sit down and watch River do what she was doing.

to be continued

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