52) I Just Want To Catch You If I Can

She never thought she'd go from bein' so happy to bein' so scared. Not without someone shootin' at her anyway. Or something else just as bad. At least Serenity was still runnin'. She wasn't sure she could stand a repeat of Simon's first birthday on Serenity.

River'd worked her usual magic with the cortex, done somethin' that'd confound the hospital ship's cortex for a while anyway. Rick had been a big help there. He was gettin' as good as she was in the engine room. He might not come up with shortcuts, but he was damn good at hearing when somethin' was about to go wrong. He knew Serenity's engines like he knew River's voice.

She had to wonder 'bout those two. She'd never've guessed River would like such a big rough hún dàn like Rick. Or that Rick would like River enough back. The two of them sparkin' on each other was sweet (even if Rick did really hate that word) to see. Even Simon had to admit that Rick was bein' real respectful of River an' if River had a problem with Rick the big man would know it.

She'd've thought Simon'd have a huge problem with it. A big rough guy like Rick, with a shine job and more knives than Jayne had guns? She half expected Simon to have a whole caboodle of kittens, complete with the flippy hiss and ultimatums that usually went along with Simon's objections. But her sweetie had just looked up when Kaylee had pointed out how Rick was lookin' at River and smiled. He'd been happy for his sister; glad someone saw the same thing he did about his mèi mei. Most men would find her intimidating, or annoying. Would want to compete with her and get irritated when she bested them. Rick liked her just fine the way she was. Thought River was shiny. Kaylee didn't care how much Rick didn't like the word. It was just the sweetest thing.

Sometimes she'd rather things just go wrong from the get-go. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed and the day keeps on that way. Stub your toe, bang your hip, burn the coffee and scorch the toast, and have the fuses and plugs pop out 'cause they're tired of workin' proper.

Didn't seem fair (or right, considering Zoë'd already lost Wash) of the 'verse to have such a good thing as Baby Emma comin' into the world followed with Zoë bein' hurt 'cause of it. 'Course the Cap'n'd say there's no such thing as fair an' what in their history and the name of Book's dear an' fluffy lord made her think there was.

And Zoë was worried about what would happen at the hospital ship. They all knew someone was hunting them. But River couldn't see why yet. Couldn't see who beyond a vague 'they' and 'them'. And if she couldn't see it, that meant they couldn't prepare. Couldn't pull the storm shutters acrosst the windows and batten down the hatches against the dust storm that would scour skin from the body.

Simon wasn't quite fussing yet, but Kaylee could see his hands move, his mouth'd twitch some like he wanted to say somethin' and he was biting it back. When Simon got scared or real worried, he could be real sarcastic. At least he knew it. Her sweetie was such a sweetie...but she guessed even the best men could have a not nice side sometimes. And if bein' worried and scared wasn't a good reason to be not as nice as usual she didn't know what was.

"Docking," Carolyn's voice came over the comms and Kaylee looked at Jack.

"We'll get Emma all settled in her basket," Kaylee promised. Jack went to grab the big basket they were using as Emma's crib. It was deep enough that a pillow filled the bottom with eight inches of height left over and that left plenty of room for Emma and her bedding. "You just go get fixed up," She gently took the baby from Zoë's arms.

"Zoë, we'll need you to lie flat for this," Simon seemed glad of something to do. Kaylee knew too well how that felt. They had that in common, that need to be doing something, to be useful. Fear and nervous energy could be worked off, or ignored, if they were doing something they knew how to do. "Mal and I will take you onto the hospital ship."

"That a good idea," Zoë's eyes widened.

"I'm fairly certain it's not, even if River and I don't have any warrants outstanding," Simon smiled. "But someone needs to explain what's going on and, no offense Zoë, I really don't think you or Mal have the medical vocabulary required for a succinct explanation."

"True," Zoë was looking pretty faded, all that warm chocolate skin had a greyish undertone to it now.

"We all set," Mal had that look on his face Kaylee hated. As much as she hated anything. More it made her sad that Mal got to feelin' like that. Like the entire 'verse was against them and he was hangin' onto his temper an' smarts by his fingernails and the skin of his teeth.

"We're good," Simon nodded as Jack came back with the basket. Kaylee held Emma so Zoë could kiss her goodbye and watched as Mal and Simon wheeled the First Mate towards the cargo bay doors.

She knew River pretty well. She and the Reader had moved past Kaylee's unease about River's skills to the playful friendship they'd shared before Niska's space station and River's demonstration of those skills, after Jubal Early had come hunting River. Kaylee hadn't liked how scared she had been with Early on the ship. Had hated feeling helpless as she was bound and threatened.

River had helped her then. Helped her be brave. Helped her escape and be of use in the plan the younger girl had come up with to free the rest of the crew and send Jubal Early spinning out into the Black without the benefit of a ship. Kaylee was still a little disappointed that he'd been wearing an EVA suit when River and Mal shoved him through the airlock.

Knowing River as well as she did, it was easier for Kaylee to see that the girl was very worried. She'd mentioned in private to the senior members of the crew that they were being hunted. She couldn't quite see by what, nebulous was how she'd described it. Something bad and then something else really bad.

Kaylee really hadn't liked the implications of that. Two separate things after Serenity? And they didn't know why? She could understand the Alliance, a bit at least, they wouldn't like Serenity having kicked over the anthill that was Miranda and the Reavers. She agreed with Mal that the farther from White Sun they were the better. She thought sometimes he was glad Inara was off the ship, they didn't have to go to White Sun for her yearly checkup. Hence (as the Captain would say) why they were taking jobs all the way out on the edges of Red Sun. Even Persephone had been too close to the Core for Mal's comfort.

Not that Kaylee blamed him one bit. Badger had set them up to get boarded, River kidnapped and the rest of them killed. And Badger practically ran Eavesdown. Even a quick on and off jaunt to Persephone had been risky. Though at the time the risk had been judged worth it. Kaylee couldn't help but wonder though, if that trip had been part of what started alla this mess.

River turned and looked at her, and maybe someone else (someone who didn't know River was a Reader) might have thought the girl was interpreting Kaylee's expression. "They follow our trail, looking in all of Mal's favorite hidey holes," She said quietly. Rick glanced over at her, but he didn't comment. Him and River bein' so close, Kaylee guessed he was used to her sayin' stuff like that out of the blue. "But He..." River's mouth twisted in disgust, "He uses money and power...and twists the law to his bidding."

"Who," Kaylee couldn't think of who River meant. The Operative? No, he'd let them go, gotten Serenity fixed up and cleared River and Simon's records. Quietly yeah, but he'd done it. He'd been real upset about Miranda. Kaylee guessed that anybody who'd devoted their whole life to something and then found out it was a lie would go a little bibbledy. It'd be like Book findin' out God was just a little man with a cortex behind a curtain and putting on a show.

River shook her head silently and Rick gave her a worried look. Not one of them looks like Simon used to get when River'd been so bad off like her brain'd been shook out of its pan and she wasn't ever gonna find it. She'd seen that scared, worried and hopeless look on Simon's face often enough to know when someone else had borrowed it. But Rick just gave River a look like he wanted to know how much he should be worryin' since she was worried herself.

River's hands kept movin' over the console, hitting buttons and rerouting inquiries, doin' her darndest to keep the hospital ship's cortex from looking too close at Serenity's. Kaylee knew it wouldn't work forever but every little bit was that much longer keepin' Zoë, Simon and the Cap'n safe from whatever was hunting them.

Kaylee had no doubt that if the Alliance got their hands on Mal or Zoë (or any of Serenity's crew really) they'd be happy to've thrown 'em all in a deep dark prison cell and never let 'em see the light of day again. Just 'cause the Operative had let 'em go didn't mean the rest of the Feds were as like-minded. It seemed more likely that they weren't, even if nothin'd been made public as to who was responsible for the Miranda wave. Much as she wanted things to go right, she was pretty used to them going wrong, really badly wrong.

They'd bought themselves a couple of hours with River's little trick of masking Serenity's ident code. And River was buying them more time as she added more and more layers to the firewalls. But there was only so long it would work. River called it a house of cards and when the Alliance affiliated Hospital ship's security protocols and scanners began to break through, they'd see that house of cards come tumblin' down.

Carolyn was at the navigator's station, monitoring all the Hospital ship's incoming waves, Alliance updates, memos and stuff that made Kaylee's eyes cross to think of it. Carolyn didn't seem to mind. Though she took the mug of tea Jack brought her gratefully. Kaylee wrapped her arm around Jack's skinny shoulders, the girl had gotten taller, but she was still slender as a willow branch. "It'll be all right," It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't all the truth either and the look Jack gave her told Kaylee the younger girl knew it too. "Mostly all right?" Kaylee hazarded.

Jack kinda smirked and shook her head, "Kinda gettin' used to things goin' wrong you know?"

"I was just thinkin' the same," Kaylee agreed.

And like that had been some sort of prompt, Carolyn cursed, "Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ."

River's head snapped around and with a few more keystrokes whatever it was that had the blonde pilot swearing was on River's screen. Kaylee's heart sank as she saw Mal's face blazoned across the screen along with the familiar wording of an arrest warrant. River shook her head, "We have maybe twenty minutes, at the most, half an hour, before the ship receives this. That's all I can delay." She looked at Kaylee, "Our comms won't work on their ship, too much shielding. I have to go in and get them."

"When you get back, we'll be feet up and ready to fly," Kaylee promised. "Jack c'mon with me." With Rick an' Carolyn on the bridge Jack would be of more help in the engine room.

Mal didn't know what to expect when they brought his oldest and best friend onto the hospital boat. Sirens or alarms clanging, someone screaming 'Independent Scum' or those nasty sonic weapons trained on the three of them.

What he hadn't expected had been a balding, genial doctor who'd taken one look at Zoë's greyish face and immediately called for a trauma team. Simon explained what the trouble was, that he knew she was bleeding, but he couldn't isolate the source without the right equipment. Zoë'd gotten loaded into a scanning bed and tilted up and down until Mal was pretty sure that if she wasn't unconscious, she'd be dizzy and reeling.

Once they started looking at the pictures or scans or whatever it was, they were looking at, Simon pointed out the issue as quickly as if he'd been the one to punch the hole into Zoë's belly. And he'd insisted on scrubbing up and supervising the surgery.

That hadn't endeared him to the hospital folk, but Simon hadn't cared, "She is my patient. I'm a trauma surgeon as well as a general practitioner and she has been under my care since we discovered she was pregnant. You are not keeping me out of that operating room."

Put that way nobody had cared to argue. Simon could be gorram intimidating when he was dealin' with folk not so smart or skilled as him. That he knew what he was talking about and had been the one to spot the bleed argued for his skill.

Mal wasn't exactly comfortable bein' left in the waiting room, but Simon had explained that Zoë needed this surgery, or she'd die. And he didn't trust anyone else to do it right. Not that Mal blamed him one bit.

A good couple of hours passed while Mal paced. He'd been doing that a lot since Zoë went into labor, might need to look into getting a new pair of boots, or re-soling the ones he had. He'd either wear out the leather or the floor.

"She's in recovery," Simon came out, stripping off rubber gloves and paper gown and mask, absently tossing them into the recycler wall slots for each item. "She'll need a day or two, but she'll be good as new afterwards."

"That's a relief," Mal sighed. "When can we take her home?"

"She just waking up and moving her at all would be incredibly dangerous at this point," Simon shook his head. "The soonest we could move her with minimal risk would be twelve hours. And I'd prefer twenty-four to be truthful."

Mal looked past his ship's doctor and shook his head, "I don't think we've got twelve hours." He pointed at the slip of a Core lady headed towards them with an intent look upon her face.

"Found you," She smiled at her brother briefly before looking at Mal. "Mal, there's a BOLO for you and Zoë. And right on its heels was a warrant for your arrest. Zoë's too. Breaking and entering a nobleman's home and assaulting him on Persephone."

"But we ain't-"

"Atherton Wing does not care about the truth," She interrupted him. "He cares only about power and revenge. Inara is beyond his reach. But we are not."

"Gǒu niáng yǎng de-" Mal cursed but he didn't have time to really get in the swing of it before River interrupted pointedly.

"We have twenty minutes," River told him. "That's the longest I could delay the hospital ship getting the information. Kaylee's got the boat ready to go. The false ident is holding but that won't matter if that warrant gets through. They've seen your face. Even with me trying to scrub the cameras, that doesn't work on human memory. Look to hear the tromp of their boots at any moment."

"We can't leave Zoë," Mal shook his head.

"Quick," Simon put his hand on Mal's elbow. "Recovery room. They're private and we can discuss the options, or lack thereof," He added with a look at this sister's expression.

"Bought us some time," River explained as they gathered around Zoë's bed. "But not much."

Zoë was groggy but her eyes got focused and hard when she heard what was happening, "They're not just after River, not anymore," She realized. "They'd be happy to have all of us. If they got a reason."

"Not too concerned with our state of being either," River agreed. Mal gave her a confused look and she clarified. "They don't care if we're dead or alive. The warrant is an excuse. Convenient. They might not know exactly who you are but there's enough unrest that just being a Browncoat would be enough with that warrant. The Operative did his best but with a ready made excuse like this...they want to punish us. All of us, but they'll settle for the two of you. The Browncoats. Make an example of you; hold you up and scare the rest."

"I ain't leavin' you," Mal shook his head, keeping Zoë's hand in his.

"I can take care of myself," His oldest friend argued of course. Of all the times for her to decide to not follow him.

"You've stayed with me through worse," He persisted.

River had turned away from the discussion to do something genius and witchlike to the cortex on the wall while Zoë shook her head weakly, "If you stay, they'll get Emma. Please. Go."

"Don't ask me to leave you Zoë," He really couldn't think of what he'd do without her.

"I ain't askin'. Mal, you have to go."

He never could stand up to her when she got that tone. That 'I'm humoring you sir because you're a higher-ranking officer but I ain't so sure that you're a superior officer, so do what I'm tellin' you before I lose my patience and make you do it' tone that more than implied she'd be happy to knock him upside his brainpan and scramble his grey matter like eggs.

"Zoë," Simon drew her gaze. "Remember what we discussed during your pregnancy. What to expect once she was born. You're going to need it."

"Put a tell-tale in the system," River came back to the bed. "It'll let me know when you're released." She stared at Zoë, "This is important. Wherever they take you, it's going to be bad. I'll do my best to track any Alliance traffic from this ship but…"

"It's gonna take some time before you can come and get me. Just make sure you don't forget." Zoë nodded. She half smiled, "It's cold out there and I don' wanna get left."

"Exactly," River nodded. "Don't worry about Emma. We'll take care of her. Take care of yourself." She tugged on Mal's coat, "We must leave. Now."

When River talked like that there was only one thing to do. Run.

Author's Note: So in the comics the Alliance is after Serenity and the crew because of Miranda. I always thought that the Operative, disillusioned as he was with the Alliance government, would have made sure no one came after them. Especially as the Operative had mentioned that the Parliament had 'a hundred men like me' and I doubt any of them would be any happier with what the Parliament had done no matter how unforgiving the Parliament might be. Now is the Alliance happy with Mal and co? Uh, no, so sure, if they break the law and get caught, throw them in jail and toss away the key. But they still need a ready excuse.

So I decided to bring back another loose end from the series. Mal really should have killed Atherton Wing when he had a chance. It serves the same purpose as having the Feds after them for Miranda and it seemed more likely.

Chinese Translations:

hún dàn (bastard) (individual who has at least two biological fathers and one biological mother - bastard / scoundrel / bastard / hoodlum / wretch)

mèi mei (little sister)

Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ. (Fuck everyone in the universe to death.)

Gǒu niáng yǎng de (son of a bitch (lit. "raised by a dog mother"))