18) I Feel Like The Window Closes Oh So Quick

They made it back to the ship, both of them carrying bags of food and another bag full of baby supplies. The crates were gone from the front of the boat and Mal had apparently taken delivery of their next shipment. He and Jack were hurrying around while Carolyn and Inara helped Zoë up the stairs. Riddick guessed that Simon would have something to say about how much Zoë was allowed to do.

Mal looked up as they came up the ramp and handed his check off sheet to Jack, "How'd we do?"

"Rick found cloth diapers and bottles," River said as proudly as if he'd found gold. "And we are well provisioned for the next few weeks."

"Go on put everything up in the galley," The Captain ordered fondly. "Kaylee should be back soon with the parts."

Easy enough, a quick trip upstairs, a very pale Zoë sitting at the table and Inara making her tea. "I'll put those away Rick," Carolyn took the bags.

"These are for Zoë," Riddick handed off the bag of baby stuff. "I'm headed back to the bay, give Kaylee a hand with the parts."

River dropped the bags on the table and immediately turned, running out of the room. That could not be good. Overhead he heard the drum of rain on the hull and the faint sound of a scuffle coming from the bay. How she had heard it… think about that later.

Despite River having a slight head start they both reached the bay doors at the same time. Mal stood at the bottom of the ramp. Simon was sprawled on the now muddy ground and Riddick could smell the blood from some wound he couldn't see.

Kaylee was clutching one bag of parts, the other Riddick guessed Simon had been carrying, because it was in the mud at the base of the cargo ramp. A man a little taller than the pretty mechanic had his arm around her throat in a choke hold, a knife in his other hand, the point pressed to her ribs.

Riddick growled low in his throat as River held up her hand to keep him from rushing down the ramp. Strictly speaking, Kaylee wasn't his responsibility, but the girl was sweet, and she looked freakin' terrified. And he didn't like that one gorram bit. Mal was trying to talk the man down, "C'mon now Bester, you can't blame her for my decision."

"If this pòxié hadn't—" The man shouted.

"Hadn't what," Mal interrupted him. "Repaired my boat so we could work? Done what you couldn't?"

River murmured out of the side of her mouth, "Bester. Kaylee replaced him as a mechanic. Was left here to make his way when Mal took her on. Didn't need two mechanics."

"Obviously the man holds a grudge," Riddick muttered back. "Simon's bleedin' from somewhere, we gotta get him up here."

"Will look as harmless as possible," She replied and quickly pulled her hair out of its coil at her neck. It fell around her shoulders and down her back, obscuring the sword she wore there. Thankfully the coat she wore concealed the guns at her hips.

"I'll try to look dumb," He agreed. "You go for Simon's far side; I get between him and the fākuáng moron."

"Be careful," River nodded and the two of them moved slowly down the ramp. Mal cast a sideways look at them but otherwise didn't move.

Riddick couldn't be certain if it was good or bad that the wind picked up and the rain began blowing near sideways. The moron was blustering now, shouting over the wind and the hammer of the rain on the hull and ground. "Who'n the—You get back or I'll shove this knife straight into her heart."

"They're just gettin' the doc out of the rain Bester," Mal explained soothingly. "You stuck him pretty good. No sense him bleedin' out."

"Wouldn't want to go down for murder," Riddick commented off handedly as he got Simon to his feet. Mud, rain, blood, if it suddenly went dark he'd start to have flashbacks to that hellhole of a planet, start looking around for the gorram sky sharks. "You got him," He looked at River who gave Bester a wild-eyed look and nodded as if terrified.

"Take him inside," Mal ordered in that same calm voice. "Rick, I'd appreciate you gettin' those parts out of the dirt."

Riddick nodded and crouched, carefully replacing the parts that had half spilled out back into the sack. Bester kept ranting, "This is all your fault." His arm tightened around Kaylee's throat and the knife pressed harder to her ribs. Riddick smelt the blood before he saw the red bloom slowly over the fabric of Kaylee's shirt. "If you'd just shut your mouth I'd never a got stuck on this mudball."

"Easy Bester," The Captain tried again to soothe the crazy man. "You want off this rock, we can take you wherever you need to go."

"I'll skewer this tā mā de jiàn huò," Bester threatened.

Riddick stood and took a step back, all he needed was a slight opening, for Bester's attention to leave Kaylee, to focus more on Mal than the knife he held. Kaylee was on her tiptoes trying to breathe and get away from the knife pressing into her side.

From inside the cargo bay, he heard River shriek as if panicked, "Simon!" The echo of her voice and shrill tone jerked Kaylee and Bester's attention past Mal for a moment.

That was all he needed, the shiv he'd slipped into his hand behind the sack of parts flew through the air. At the same time it hit the man's shoulder, a bullet hit the arm attached to said shoulder. The shiv forced Bester to drop the knife he held. The bullet forced him back.

And then Riddick was on him.

Kaylee had fallen with Bester, and scrambled out of the way, the salt of tears and blood mixing with the rain and mud. "Kaylee, go," Riddick growled and dragged the gǒu niáng yǎng de up. He registered her scramble up the ramp (still clutching her sack of parts) in the back of his mind where incidentals were managed. "Gimme one reason I shouldn't just pick up this knife and shove it into your heart," He snarled. "I know every sweet spot on the human body an' every one of 'em'll gush blood."

"Rick," Mal's calm voice behind him. "Why don't you take your knife, and his, and go help River get Simon to the infirmary."

"I dunno Mal," Riddick called back over the noise of the rain. "Seems as if this rock'd be better off if he was fertilizer."

"That's most likely true," The Captain agreed coming up beside him. "But it ain't our call to make."

Riddick pulled his knife out of the gǒu cào de gǒu niáng yǎng de. "Tell you what Mal, I'll just give him a belly wound. Won't kill him if he gets to a doctor. Belly wounds take days. But he'll have a nice set of scars to remind him what happens when he fucks with Serenity's crew."

"Seems like a good compromise," River's voice behind them. "Considering the circumstances. Cap'n?"

Thankfully Mal seemed to understand that Riddick wasn't quite capable of letting Bester go without making him pay somehow, "All right. Rick, you make sure it won't kill him 'less he don't go to a doc. Ain't havin' a murder charge hangin' over your head. Makes things messy."

"I'll avoid the abdominal aorta," He promised and smirked at Bester.


Mal had to admit he found himself some unsettled by Rick's near gleeful grin as he sliced into Bester's belly. That River wore a similar grin reassured him not at all as it was a well-known fact amongst Serenity's senior crew that the girl was still slightly cracked. Reveling in a person being hurt, considering that person had hurt Simon, wasn't unexpected.

Simon being hurt also left them without a doctor and Zoë was in no condition to play surgeon. Ordinarily Mal would say River was their next best bet but he'd learned a several months ago that while his Little Albatross was all sortsa genius, the one thing she wasn't, was a healer. In fact, apart from the rudimentary first aid of 'bandage and keep pressure on it' sort of thing, River had no knowledge beyond the theoretical when it came to medicine.

He had no doubt she had anatomy books and quite a bit of know how in that big brain pan of hers, but it wasn't any good to them in a medical sense. Unless he wanted someone killed, tortured or poisoned. River was all sorts of useful in those situations. He tried not to think of that too much.

So, when he closed up the bay and headed back to the infirmary he figured to find more than a little chaos. What he got was, all right, yeah, still chaotic, but much less so than he'd thought to find.

Carolyn and Jack were helping Kaylee on the side bench. His genius mechanic had a nasty jab in her side. Carolyn was telling Jack to hold the light over the wound and flooding it with saline and hydrogen peroxide.

He'd expected to find River with tears on her face, clutching her brother's hand. River never did well in the infirmary and Simon being hurt would just make it worse. He was half right.

Mal stood in the doorway of the infirmary in stupefied shock as Rick directed Mal's little witch, "Okay, yeah, that's good, keep him on his side for a minute." He looked at Simon's back and shook his head, "Nope, didn't go through. So we can keep him on his back." The huge man turned and looked at his 'ladies', "Carolyn, if there isn't any other junk comin' out of the wound then grab some of that ointment and slather it on. Then cover the whole shebang with a bandage. Make sure you tape it good though. It's in a bad spot for moving easy."

"Got it," Carolyn nodded, and Jack hurried over to the drawers to pull out the ointment in question.

Rick looked up and gave Mal a wry lopsided grin, "Hey Cap'n. Gimme a hand here would ya?"

"Sure," Mal was perfectly happy to follow instructions. He knew damn well that his first aid was extremely fundamental, exceeding River's only because of his combat experience. "What'd you need?"

"Give him a local," Rick replied. "River's got the dosage figured, as it's just math, but I've got my hands full."

Mal nodded because Rick did at that, grabbing instruments and supplies with one hand while the other kept pressure on Simon's wound. "I can dope him," He agreed, going for the anesthesia and filling the syringe with the right amount according to River's quiet murmur. "Did it nick anything?"

"His left side," Rick's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Other than that, I got no clue yet. Need to actually look at it and I can't do that until he's doped." His voice gentled slightly, "River, until Carolyn is done with Kaylee, need you to hand me tools. I dunno what they're actually called but I'll describe 'em and you hand 'em over. Okay?"

The slender girl nodded, "Will try."

"Good," He waited until Mal had slid the needle into Simon's side. "Give me a slow count of sixty seconds." He looked up again, "Mal, before we get much farther, get the heart monitor hooked up to him so if he has trouble, we get more warning than him seizing on us."

Well, that made all sorts of sense. At least that piece of equipment he knew how to use, "Simon's got a list of blood types and who's compatible with who somewhere." He commented as he slapped the sticky things to Simon's chest.

"Someone find that and get a line going between Simon and whoever matches him," Rick ordered. "Unless there's a plasma storage fridge hidden in here."

"Time," River announced and moved away to rummage through one of the mysterious cabinets Simon had so meticulously organized. "Here." She came up with several plastic bags, the type that would hold blood or plasma. "Simon saved these from Ariel."

Mal wasn't sure exactly what they were but his little mind readin' witch seemed pleased. So did Rick which Mal wouldn't have figured on.

"Set up one of them," He nodded at Mal who blinked.

"Yeah, be happy to, iffen I knew what they were," He confessed his ignorance.

"They're dehydrated plasma bags," River explained and went to the small sink. "Add water and shake them, and they turn back into liquid plasma. Can't be done with blood yet, but it makes it easier to store plasma. No refrigeration."

"That's handy," Mal admitted taking the bag from his tiny pilot and giving it several good shakes. "How do you know when it's ready?"

"Turns a different color," River took the bag away from him and began to shake it vigorously. It began to go from viscous white to clear in a few minutes and she handed it back to him.

"Okay, we're gonna see what's what," Rick muttered and began to use the spreaders to open the wound. Mal wondered that he could see at all with the goggles he still wore but he just seemed to inhale deeply rather than stare at the wound.

"Uh, Rick?" Mal didn't want to sound completely chī shǎ but he'd seen Simon work and it didn't look like this.

"If the knife nicked his intestines I'd smell it," The huge man shrugged. "Blood that comes from organs smells different than the blood from flesh. Looks like we got lucky." Carolyn came over at that point and began to hand Rick different things as he asked for them while River retreated to the infirmary doorway.


Simon was asleep, Kaylee keeping an eye on him while the rest of them took on the chores of dinner, cargo shifting and getting the ship off the ground.

When they all reconvened in the galley, minus the doctor and mechanic, Mal distributed the beef (beef-like) stew and regarded his unexpectantly talented crew member. "Rick, gotta say, you bein' qualified to handle medical emergencies is a welcome surprise."

"I wouldn't say qualified," The big man shook his head. "We've pretty much exhausted all of my skills."

"I'll admit to some curiosity as to how you came by the know how you do have," Mal prodded. Why he was pushing he couldn't be sure. Maybe because Rick, for all of his willingness to undertake any task he was given, with a minimum of complaints, was still pretty close-mouthed about his past and his skills beyond flying and fighting.

"I heal pretty fast," Rick shrugged. "But I figured it was better to know how to stitch myself up, set a bone, that sort of thing." He took a drink before he added, "Doctors weren't exactly thick on the ground the places I've been."

Mal nodded thoughtfully and Carolyn, maybe to keep Rick from getting too irritated, asked quietly, "Not that I saw much beyond the end of the brouhaha, but what happened?" She glanced at River who was eating silently, "Rick and River came up with the supplies, dropped them on the table and the next thing I know they're tearing out of the galley like there's a fire."

"Bester was…" Zoë frowned. "When we first began flying Serenity, Bester was our mechanic. He could handle the basics, talked a good game…"

"But he got us stuck on that rock we just left for a week longer than we were supposed to be stuck there," Mal continued. He still found that irritating and it had been a good two and a half to three years ago. That Bester hadn't found a way off the rock likely meant he'd not been able to con anyone else into taking him on as a hand or mechanic. Mal was feeling a little stupid himself that he'd been taken in back when he'd hired the tattooed idiot on. "Turned out the reg couple was bad. He was sayin' the grav boot was shot. Didn't even know what the problem was." He shook his head, "He'd brought Kaylee aboard for some fun. She saw what was wrong straight off. I offered her the job. Fired him."

"When we left, Kaylee came with us, and Bester got stuck there," Zoë finished.

"I take it he was harboring some resentment regarding his dismissal from service," Carolyn inquired dryly.

"You might could say," Mal nodded. He found himself grateful that Zoë had begun the story when she did. The question of how River knew to turn and run for the cargo bay hadn't been answered. A glance at Rick told Mal that the man had likely run because River had. River wasn't the type to panic or act foolishly and it seemed Rick had figured that out.

Carolyn shook her head, "At least he hadn't smartened up."

"What the hell did he think he'd get threatening a girl who'd sooner kick puppies than say somethin' mean," Rick's tone indicated some eye rolling going on behind those goggles. "Didn't even seem to know what he wanted, much less how he was gonna get it."

"Planning wasn't his strong suit," Mal agreed and decided to change the subject. "So, this job we've got…"


Author's Note: I wanted to go to Kaylee's home planet for a couple of reasons. One, because I wanted Bester to still be stuck there after Mal had dumped him. And the ensuing drama would be fun. Two, because I figure Kaylee would want for Simon to meet her parents, even informally.

Chinese Translations:

pòxié (broken shoes / worn-out footwear / loose woman / slut)

fākuáng (crazy)

tā mā de (damn it! / fucking) (taboo curse)

jiàn huò (bitch / slut)

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

gǒu cào de gǒu niáng yǎng de (dog-humping son of a bitch)

chī shǎ (stupid / foolish)