A Voice Calling From The Dark... Part 1: ~ INARA ~

"Kaylee! Oh, Kaylee, yes, it's me, I'm here. Ganxie suoyou cengjing shi fu, are you all right? Is Serenity...?"

"No, no we ain't on Serenity, sorry to have to say..." Kaylee managed to find the words to reply. "We're in your shuttle as a matter of fact, River and me. We got caught out on our shopping trip when the Reavers came." She told her, her voice sounding delicate and thoughtful. "Wasn't time to get back. Last we saw Serenity, she was breaking through the clouds in our rearview, us heading in for a hard landing." As she spoke, it almost felt like if she said these things too loud she might wake up and find she'd still been dreaming. Inara. She wanted to whoop for joy, Inara was really alive...

"That sounds terrible. You're both alright, I hope?" Inara asked, concerned.

Kaylee looked over to the bed and saw River sitting up, blinking the sleep from her eyes.

Their eyes met.

"We're fine." Kaylee replied, her voice unconsciously warming a little with the affection River so easily seemed to bring out in her now a days. "River got us down safe. I had some cracked ribs to begin with, but I'm fine now." I had a good doctor, she thought to herself.

"I'm relieved... but... what... What about Mal, and the others? They didn't come back for you? You haven't had news?" Inara questioned. It was clear she was worried about everyone, but, Kaylee thought, probably the captain in particular, if she was to guess. What it was between Mal and Inara was fair on hard to guess at exactly, but it weren't hard to guess there definitely was something.

"No... No news. Haven't heard a peep." Kaylee answered as River came over to her and wrapped them in a bed sheet to keep them warm, sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Oh, I see..." Inara replied.

"Inara, where are you anyways?" Kaylee asked softly.

"She's under the mountain." River answered for her. "Keeps her safe."

"She's... right." Inara replied back. "River? How could you...?" Her voice trailed off though, the question left incomplete.

"...The wind whispers secrets to her." Kaylee replied when River simply laid her head on her shoulder and closed her eyes sleepily. "That's all I can figure. What does that mean exactly though: under a mountain?"

"...Poor James, the governor. As it turns out, he had a bunker built inside the mountain under his home, for emergencies. Though he wasn't so considerate as to have them built for the other residences in his colony, I'm afraid." Inara explained, only somewhat bitterly. "I'm down here with him, his family, and a couple of his staff. The bunker has kept us safe enough, but, you see... when the Reavers couldn't get in, I believe they blockaded the door somehow so that we couldn't get out either."

"...Oh, well... I mean that's terrible and all, but at least you're alive, right?" Kaylee replied, trying to look on the positive side. Despite River's statements on the subject, facts being what they were, she hadn't really held out much hope that Inara could somehow still be alive out there. So, obviously, she thought the fact that she'd been proven wrong was a cause to be very cheerful. "How long do you think you can hold out? And you have any way a knowing if the Reavers are still lingering about? We're a fair ways off out a town, but I imagine we could hike back if we had to. Try an dig you out."

"I'm sure we'd all be very grateful for that, Kaylee... Thank you." Inara said with soft, sincere gratitude. "And, as it turns out, yes. The bunker is connected to a number of outside vid-feeds, covering the town from above and, closer in, in some of the public areas as well. We've been keeping watch and some of the Reavers apparently did get left behind after the initial attack somehow, but we haven't seen much of them for almost a week now. It's hard to say what to make of it."

Probably, they're gone now cause most of them been left dirtside came to visit us, Kaylee thought ruefully of the recent attack River had defended them against. She didn't say as much out loud, though. "Sounds almost like that right honorable mayor a yours thought Reavers might pay this place a visit ahead a time, don't it...?" Kaylee observed instead. It wasn't as though even Inara, shipmate and friend that she was, would likely believe that adorable but kinda mad seeming River Tam all by herself killed that many of those... things, people, whatever Reavers were. That, and she really wasn't sure it was such a good idea to let that fact get out, regardless. She felt she could almost certainly trust Inara to keep it to herself, but it sounded like Inara might not be the only one listening. And, if it did get out somehows, especially considering what happened on Ariel that time, it might end up being dangerous to River someday. Well, if they ever got back up to space again that was... Which wasn't necessarily a sure thing, she acknowledged. Sure, the captain and the others'd come back for them if they could, but who's to say they still, um, could?

"That thought had occurred to me as well." Inara replied. "I asked him about it once, but he told me he'd thought Reavers were just a spacer's tale, like a lot of people from the inner colonies do, and that this bunker of his was merely an insurance measure against natural disasters or possible civil unrest. Which, I admit, might make sense I suppose. If you're paranoid." She supplied. "In any case, he seemed... quite beside himself. And it wasn't as though pursuing the matter would do much good to anyone. So I thought I'd let it lie. Stephen, James's man servant, wasn't so forgiving however. He didn't believe his employer's excuse, and... his family had been out there, so, well... I'm sure you can imagine..."

"What happened?" Kaylee asked as River moved to lay her head down in her lap, wrap herself up in a kind of ball to fit on the couch, and close her eyes.

"At first, Stephen wanted to kill him... or beat him until he confessed, at the least. I talked him out of that, but only because I reminded him that the man's children would be watching... Still, it was an... uneasy peace. The tension only seemed to build between them. And James, poor James, well, he wasn't doing well besides that. He started to became anxious, and rather more paranoid. It all came to a head a couple days ago, in fact. James said something... distasteful, and completely tactless, and Stephen... snapped. Stephen's a fairly big man, bigger than James, surely, but James was, well, he must have been nearly insane by that point, I'm afraid. He managed to hit Stephen over the head with the base of the nearby bust of his late wife. Stephen was dazed and James rolled him away and got on top of him, meaning to strike him again. Kill him, I think. I grabbed his arm and stopped him before he could, but he pushed me away and turned on me, as though he meant to do me in as well. I had my gun, so... I shot him." Inara told her story.

"Well, I mean, it's too bad and all, but it hardly sounds like the man gave you much choice." Kaylee put in.

"No, he really didn't. I did try to shoot to wound though." Inara explained.

"That was kind." Kaylee assessed, thinking she herself wouldn't have been inclined to take chances in a situation like that. But then she wasn't quite as talented with a gun as was Inara, so she probably wouldna had the luxury of as much of a choice in a situation like that anyways. She stroked River's hair then and thought again how grateful she was to have River with her. How grateful she was to her for saving their lives the other night.

"Perhaps, and perhaps not. He's in a bad state, Kaylee. I don't think he'll survive past the next day or two." Inara explained. "Perhaps if Simon or another doctor were here... but of course, there's little chance of that, I suppose..."

"Yeah, suppose not... Um, so, and the others down there with you? They doing all right? You all have enough supplies to last a while?" She asked. "How long do you think?"

"Oh, the bunker's well enough supplied, have no fear on that account. There's enough food to last all of us years, and fresh water from an underground well." Inara told them.

"And the others with you? Who all is that by the way?" Kaylee questioned.

"Well, Stephen I already mentioned." Inara replied. "He had a bad headache from the blow he received, but he's doing fine. Then there's James's children, May and Daniel. Ten and Twelve. And the household cook, Frita, who's not doing that well with being trapped underground. She's got a fear of enclosed spaces. Not a bad case, but still, I think she's only managed to keep herself together for the children's sake. She's... a brave woman."

"Braver than her employer, that's for sure." Kaylee agreed.

"True, but, then... in this case, his fear seems to have kept us alive, so I don't suppose I really have fair cause to complain, do I?" Inara told her with her usual equanimity.

"Well, when you put it like that..." Kaylee saw her point.

"Kaylee..." Inara spoke softly.

"Yeah?"

"It's... just really good to hear your voice, you know?" Inara said.

"Yeah... Yours too." Kaylee told her back. "Listen, the shuttle's a lost cause unless I can get replacement parts, but don't you worry. Me an River, we'll pack up our things and get ourselves over to you, soon as we can. Dig you out, whatever it takes, okay? I promise."

"...Thank you Kaylee... That means a lot." Inara told her.

"Hey, what're shipmates for?" Kaylee replied, fighting back a yawn. She really did need to get back to sleep, she considered. River had thoroughly worn her out earlier in bed before they'd got around finally to sleeping, and that was after a day of digging graves. But darned if she was gonna let on to Inara that she was so tired just yet. "You know, River said you'd be alive. Said you were tied to this life by strings we'd made. That those strings were stronger than most, an harder to break... You think there's anything to that?"

"...It would be nice to think so, wouldn't it? It's a beautiful thought, in any case..." Inara admitted softly.

"I know, isn't it?" Kaylee said back just as softly. "Inara... Can I tell you something?"

"Of course, Kaylee. You can tell me anything, you know that. What is it? Nothing bad, I hope?" Inara asked carefully.

"No, it's happy news in fact..." She said looking down fondly on River's peacefully sleeping face resting on her lap, and thinking how beautiful she looked like this. How beautiful they'd been together when they'd... made love. How beautiful it was, just being with her like this now even. Or just walking together in the forest. She knew now for dead sure, uncertain though the future might be, that she didn't ever want it to be any other way. "Me an River, we're sort of a couple now." If they got out of this, she was even sort of thinking she'd ask River to marry her, honestly. After all, when it came to the choice of having someone to love or not having them, it was a pretty darn easy choice, specially where River was concerned.

"Well, that's certainly a surprise..." Inara spoke, clearly joyful at the news. "I thought, well, you know, it seemed you had eyes for her brother." She observed, her spirits seeming to be much lifted by the news. "That must be quite a story." She offered, clearly curious.

"Yeah, you could say that. And I guess I did sort of have a crush on Simon, but... well, things change." Kaylee explained helplessly.

"So true. But you're right, that is very happy news, isn't it?" Inara laughed cheerfully a little. "So? How'd it happen? You have to tell me all about it."

"I will, but later, alright? Right now, sad to say, I need my sleep." Kaylee confessed with a yawn she couldn't hold back any longer.

"Oh, of course." Inara conceded. "I didn't realize."

"It's fine. More than fine. It's... It's amazing is what. I'm just, I'm so grateful, you know? Juts... call back in the morning sometime, we'll talk more then. Alight?"

"I will. I promise... Good night, Kaylee. And, I'm happy for you. Very much so."

"Thanks... Night Inara." Kaylee replied, hanging up the comm. "River? Hey, come on, sweetie. Gotta get up and back to bed."

River yawned and sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes again. "What'd I miss?" She asked tiredly.

"We gotta go dig Inara an some other fold outa a hole later." Kaylee supplied.

"Oh... That makes sense then." River replied, yawning again and moving in to kiss her, which surprised Kaylee of course, but in a good way. She laughed though when the kiss ended. "Enough of that now, I'm too tired for that sort of thing."

"You're way too pretty, it's not fair." River said a little discontentedly, yawning again and getting up, managing to walk back to bed and sort of falling back in when she got there.

Kaylee laughed again, very charmed by River's very cute and endearing antics. She got up and, yawning again too, wrapped the sheet around herself and followed her girlfriend back to bed, getting in and sort of wrestling River back under the covers with her.

They snuggled up together and both promptly fell back to sleep.

Chinese translations for this chapter:

"Ganxie suoyou cengjing shi fu" = "Thank all the Buddhas that ever were"

(please note: I'm only getting my Chinese from Google Translate, so I can't guarantee it's accurate at all)

to be continued

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