85) Now I Wonder What My Life Is Going To Mean If It's Gone
Warning: Attempted sexual assault
They'd found some pretty decent bargains. Baby clothes for the constantly growing Emma and a soft brush for her curls. And shoes. For both Emma and Jack. And a few things that Emma could grow into. Jack had found a jacket a bit like Kaylee's but in a bright cherry red with white blossoms on it and Jayne had agreed it was a good deal, warm and pretty.
They'd been debating the best place they might find a few toys when the mood of the crowd around them turned ugly. Jayne had done his best to get them out of the market, taking them down the alleys to another set of wider streets.
For a couple blocks they'd made good time, and then they'd ended up in the middle of a riot. Jack couldn't even be sure how. It seemed like one minute they were moving at a steady pace and the next there were too many people around them to count, screaming, shouting, throwing rocks and bottles and anything they could get their hands on.
She and Jayne had ducked into an alley and tried to wait for the wave of people (mob) to pass. But they hadn't gone unnoticed, and someone had grabbed her.
Hands, hard, grasping, hitting her, pulling at her clothes. Boots kicking her when she fell to the ground and tried to roll to her feet to run. Someone else grabbing her, a hand between her waistband and skin, pulling at the tough fabric.
She'd fought. With everything in her she'd fought, using all the dirty tricks Zoë had taught her and it still hadn't been enough. They'd got her on the ground, and she'd never been so afraid in her life. Not in that cave in the dark with Abu, waiting. Not when the Mirabelle was doing its bellyflop down to dirt. Not even when Riddick had held her to the wall with his fist, her feet more than a foot above the deck, snarling his rage in her face.
She hadn't been alone then.
But now...
She didn't know what had happened to Jayne. For all she knew he'd been shot or stabbed. She'd seen knives and heard gunfire (and the choked cries that meant death, somehow carrying under the crowd noise). And she knew that if she wanted to get out of this mess whole she couldn't stop fighting. Kicking at the bastards and connecting with one in the knee got her a backhand across her face.
Then they started to hold her down and she screamed as loud as she could. Not for help. Not for the cops. Not even cursing. Every street kid knew. If you wanted people to come running, you never shouted for help. You hollered at the top of your lungs. "Fire!"
People who'd ignore someone being hurt would come running if someone yelled 'fire' because a fire was trouble, and it could kill everyone. Including the self-involved pricks who didn't care about some kid getting attacked.
He'd ended up in the middle of six or seven nutty hún dàns and by the time he'd laid them out and gotten free, Jack was nowhere in sight. So many gorram alleys off this ruttin' street he'd never find her an' trackin' on concrete weren't exactly a walk in the park neither.
Then he heard a scream of 'fire' and damn near smiled as he raced towards the sound. Girl was fuckin' smart, yellin' fire instead of help or just plain screamin'. Not far from where he was either and damned if she hadn't put up a good fight from the looks of the man groaning against the grimy alley wall clutching his balls.
There was another and from the way his leg looked Jack'd caught him in the knee but good. But that left five of the wángbā dàn de biǎo zi, holding Jack down, no doubt workin' up their nerve to do their worst.
Oh, he was gonna enjoy this...
His knuckles were bleeding. That was the first thing he saw when he came back to himself. Jack was practically plastered to his side. Did they still have the stuff they'd bought... Jayne automatically felt for the satchel he carried. Yeah, still heavy and pretty full. Well that was one less worry.
Bodies, some of them twitchin' an' groanin' an' one or two with bullet holes in various parts of their anatomy. He felt for his Python, a pretty piece he called Matilda and yeah, gun was warm, so he was the one responsible for the bullet holes.
Jack's bag... well that was on the ground with the strap torn at the buckle. She'd likely used it to hit the bastards with or they'd torn it off her. He kept one arm around his freaked out crewmate and moved towards the bag, nothing breakable in it thankfully. Bending to pick it up ached some, he'd likely got some bruised ribs.
Only bright side was it seemed the mob had moved on, so they were safe enough leaving the alley. Downside...well, it figured the Purplebellies would show up after all the ruckus was over. "Jackie girl," He muttered. "We got trouble." Five Purplebelly lawmen on hogs, fancy ones with cortex screens and linkups in the dash.
Jack gave the Purplebellies a look that should've scorched 'em, "Now the cops show up? Instead of when we could've used some help?"
Jayne sighed and they made their way forward. No point tryin' to avoid lawmen. They were usually bèn dàn but that didn't mean they were complete xiā xiāzi húshuō bādào. The reaction he got wasn't what he expected though.
"You two all right," One of the lawmen climbed off his hog and headed towards them. "Either of you need medical attention?"
"He's got some bruised ribs and bloody knuckles," Jack told them warily. "Me…I've got… well," She shrugged against Jayne as if in explanation for her rapidly bruising face and dirty, disheveled clothing.
"Yolanda, front'n' cen'r," The first lawman yelled behind him, and another got off their hog. Helluva figure on this one, now that she weren't hid behind her hog windshield. "Got a young woman here, been assaulted," The first lawman gave the shorthand version of what he figured had happened. "Smitty, Lang, you two start hogtying the ones on the ground. By the time we finish, the wagon'll be here to haul 'em off." He paused as he took in the bullet holes, "Bring some bandages. They bleed out it'll save us the trouble of hangin' 'em but the Cap'n frowns on that."
Jack was persuaded to let go of Jayne and talk to the female Purplebelly a little ways away from all the hullabaloo and the one in charge regarded Jayne, "I'm Sergeant Mikkelsen. Can you give me an idea of what happened to the two of you?"
Jayne wasn't entirely sure of the wisdom of talkin' with lawmen when he was pretty sure what he'd done was breakin' the law but on the other hand, the man had figured Jack got beat up pretty bad an' maybe worse an' hadn't seemed inclined to blame her for it none. "I… me an' Jackie girl, we're out at the market, heard there's good secondhand shops 'round it. We got a baby on the boat an' the girl grows faster'n a weed." He hadn't missed the Sergeant angling his hog towards Jayne and Jack, and he'd bet platinum to pot-stickers that he was scanning them for contraband. Which, thankfully, they had none.
"No point buyin' new when she'll outgrow it in a month," The Sergeant nodded. "The two of you came from the docks?"
"Our ship's pickin' up some cargo, Cap'n said to see if we could find some deals on stuff for the baby and any foodstuffs we could find," Jayne nodded. "We come out of a shop an' the market's just up an' disappeared and there's all these folks on the street. Throwin' rocks an' bottles an' shootin' guns in the air." He shook his head, "I got nothin' 'gainst folks carryin' guns, carry one myself, but shootin' 'em off is a waste of bullets an' dangerous besides."
Sergeant Mikkelsen nodded his understanding, "Too many idiots don't understand guns are serious pieces of trouble in the wrong hands."
"An' they always seem to end up in 'em," Jayne found himself in agreement with a lawman for one of the first times in his life. Weird. "Anyhow, I ain't too bright, but we figured on the streets weren't the best place to be, started to head back to the ship."
"You figured right," The stocky blond cop agreed. "We got patrols all over the city tryin' to contain or control this mess."
"Yeah," Jayne sighed and looked at Jack before continuing. "Some folks…guess they didn't like how I looked, or they liked how Jackie girl there looked a little too well. Someone grabbed her, six or seven of 'em tried to gang up on me, and the others dragged her down here."
"Did you leave the first set of attackers in the same condition as these," The Sergeant's eyes sharpened, and Jayne shook his head.
"They're 'bout two alley's down I guess, I slammed 'em into the walls and didn't much care 'bout how bad I hurt 'em. I know what men with their blood up'll do to a girl or boy they drag off like that. Didn't care what I had to do, wasn't gonna let that happen to her." He scowled at the thought.
"How long would you say the fight lasted until you were able to go in search of her," Dark green eyes looked from Jayne to Jack speculatively and Jayne figured the man wondered how far the qīngwā cāo de liúmáng had gotten.
"Not long, maybe five or six minutes," Jayne shook his head. When the man's eyebrows rose Jayne shrugged, "Part of my job on our boat is protectin' the crew, 'specially the girls, when we're off the ship. Got another fella bigger'n me and we spar, so I got a lotta practice. An' if I ain't worried 'bout pullin' my punches or how bad I'm beatin' someone I can end a fight pretty gorram quick." He shook his head, "This weren't no friendly bar brawl, this's people tryin' to hurt her, tryin' to hurt me, much good it did 'em. Don't feel bad even if I kilt 'em. Better'n they deserve for what they'd a done to her."
He worried for a minute that he'd said too much but the lawman's expression didn't harden or anything. No narrowed eyes like he was fixin' to arrest them either.
"Whoever taught her to fight did a good job," The female cop came up to them with Jack. "She got beat pretty bad, but they didn't get any further'n holdin' her down b'fore her brother got there."
"Jayne's been helpin' teach me," Jack offered quietly. "'Thout what him an' Rick an' Zoë taught me, doubt I'd've lasted more'n two minutes."
"We need to teach you more 'bout gettin' outta holds," Jayne took her satchel and tied the strap back together. It'd hold until they got back to Serenity at least.
The sergeant nodded and after him and the female Purplebelly talked some in language Jayne really couldn't understand even though it sounded like English. Then the woman grabbed one of the other guys who'd been busy hogtyin' the bastards who'd tried to take Jack and they headed down to where Jayne had left his own pile of bruised and beaten bastards.
"You two gonna be all right getting back to the docks," The sergeant looked at them. First time Jayne'd felt like a lawman was actually concerned about folks couldn't even pay him off. "We've got the wagon coming for the ones that're still breathing and a bus to pick up the ones that aren't."
"It ain't that far," Jayne estimated the distance. "'Spect we'll be all right to walk. So long's we don't run into another mob."
"You got enough ammunition for that python," The lawman tilted his head thoughtfully and Jayne checked his cargo pants.
"Got two more clips," He pulled one out. "Eight rounds each, plus a couple," He checked his other pockets. "Didn't figure to need more, not just doin' the marketin'."
"Hernandez," The Sergeant shouted over his shoulder. "Bring me that Chunker out of the hog side pocket."
A swarthy lawman who'd been visibly on guard the entire time his fellows were talking to Jayne and Jack or tyin' up bodies pulled something out of the Sergeant's hog's storage area and hurried it over. "Called it in, wave says the wagon'll be here in five, the bus in ten maybe. Busy night."
"Yeah, no shit," Mikkelsen nodded and took the something from the other lawman and handed it to Jack. "Confiscated this earlier in the evening. Some idiot kid wavin' it around like it was a popgun. It's non-lethal but it'll do enough damage to subdue someone who's coming after the two of you." He showed her how to open the chamber, load it, close it up again and take off the safety, "You keep it ready and the two of you beat feet back to your boat."
"Sarge," Hernandez sounded like he wanted to object and Mikkelsen speared him with a look.
"You know damn well that kid had it illegally, bought it on the street and we'll never be able to track down from who," The Sergeant said coldly. "It's not such a valuable piece that the Lieutenant'll be pissed we didn't bring it back. I'd rather get a smack on the knuckles for it than leave a girl without a weapon during a gorram riot."
"You don't hafta—" Jack started to protest. Jayne wasn't sure why, if a lawman wanted to give away a piece of contraband you didn't argue with him. You took it and hoped there wasn't a hook attached somewhere to reel you back in.
"Your brother's a big guy but there might be too many next time, or they just get lucky," Mikkelsen told her. "You take it, get back to your ship." He looked them over as if estimating their chances and nodded. "Mob's've shifted some, you got a good clear path for at least forty minutes. You go straight down this road, make a right when you see the building with pillars and a dome at the crossroads. That'll take you straight to the docks."
Jayne nodded and made sure Jack's satchel was secured across her body like his, "Jackie girl, let's see how good a pace we can set."
Mikkelsen looked towards the opposite direction and Jayne saw one of the big trucks his ma called a paddy wagon. "You two stay safe, we'll be getting on with arresting these…men." He gave them a nod and began to hurry towards the truck.
Jayne figured that was as good a dismissal as they'd get and took Jack's hand. No way was he going to lose her this time.
Author's Note: I think the entire crew is starting to find Hera very inhospitable.
Chinese Translation:
hún dàns (bastard) (individual who has at least two biological fathers and one biological mother - bastard / scoundrel / bastard / hoodlum / wretch)
wángbā dàn de biǎo zi (whore's bastard/son of a bitch(insult))
bèn dàn (fool / idiot)
xiā xiāzi húshuō bādào (blind, foolish man talking nonsense)
qīngwā cāo de liúmáng (frog fucking hooligans)