Serenity, Nevada - Part 7
I should probably mention at this point - since I haven't before - that the only Buffy characters who will be appearing will be Oz & our guest villains. So don't look for any of the other Scoobies to show up any time soon. And it'll probably be at least another week if not longer before I update again, since I'm currently crazed with packing, lesson prep, and finances.
Part 6. Part 5. Part 4. Part 3. Parts 2&1.
7.
River was stuffing her face. As usual. Where did she put it all? Simon knew that if he asked, she'd probably tell him she had a portable black hole in her pocket. Then offer to get him one.
"May I have another helping of rice, please?"
Inara's butler-chef-driver-whatever-he-felt-like-being-today, Matteo Velasquez, smiled benevolently at River and said, "Of course, perdita. With yellow peppers?"
"Definitely. Thank you, Matteo."
Little Miss Manners. As if she hadn't scared the life out of him less than seven hours ago. Simon hadn't been sure keeping this dinner engagement was a good idea, but River seemed determined to make up for her earlier outrageousness by being a perfect angel. Certainly Reverend Book and Matteo were taken in.
Well, maybe not. They might have just been enjoying watching her drive him crazier. Inara, of course, knew what River was up to, but she wasn't about to interfere. Simon suspected their hostess was too amused by his sister's primness, and his suspicion of it, to even consider giving him any help.
"River, don't you think you've had enough, maybe?" he asked, almost under his breath.
Which was - unfortunately - not quiet enough to escape Matteo's attention. Twenty years of riding herd on ranch hands and Diego Serra's employees had given him ears like finely-tuned seismosmeters. "Let her eat! That's what it's here for, isn't it? And anyway, she's a bird! Too thin, trying to fly away--"
"She's not too thin, she's still growing. I just thought she ought to save room for dessert--"
"You're a doctor and you can't see she needs to eat more, because you don't eat enough either!" Matteo glared at him, and spooned another chimichanga onto his plate. "Always working, never getting a decent meal, skinny as a rail---"
Inara was hiding her mouth behind her napkin, and Reverend Book's eyes were glinting in amusement. He really should have known better than to argue with Matteo over a food issue.
"It's a wonder you don't both waste away! Ahh! Eat more of the corn, and leave your sister to finish her meal in piece!" Matteo ordered him, then stomped out to replenish the salad bowl.
It was almost like a family dinner, except their Grandfather Tam couldn't cook and their Grandfather Wells was an avowed atheist. Otherwise, the spoiling of River and haranguing of Simon was awfully familiar. Dinner at Inara's hacienda was one of the few regular things about life in Serenity that he and River could count on. Good food; French or Mexican or Thai, whatever Matteo was experimenting with that week. Good conversation, thanks to Inara and whoever she'd invited; the Reverend being a common guest, but various other townspeople who didn't mind River sometimes joining them as well. And the so-familiar trappings of wealth and comfort, Southwestern in flavor, instead of New England based; all were reminders of home. And, if Simon were going to admit it, extremely welcome ones. It was nice, having a bit of normality to cling to.
Except, of course, their parents had abandoned River once she became... different, and Inara had been nothing but helpful and kind, once Simon and Mal had explained the situation to her. Which wasn't the kind of comparison he usually felt comfortable making, but after a day like today, it was inescapable.
He still wondered who they'd been sometimes, the men who'd wanted his parents to give them custody of River. With their English accents and officious demeanors, and not one convincing bit of evidence that they could help her. It had been enough for their parents that someone wanted to take their brain-damaged daughter off their hands. One thing had been clear to Simon, newly released from his residency, barely back from the Bar exam: they didn't know a damn thing about treating mental illness. And leaving River in their hands would have been the worst kind of irresponsible abuse possible.
But after today - when he'd thought she was finally getting better - when she hadn't had a serious incident since this summer started, enough to make him think, almost, of contacting Dad and Mom again, now... he wondered if he'd done the right thing after all. He'd done better than they would have, yes. But was his best really so much better?
"So, I hope you're both... recovered, from today's excitement," Reverend Book said tentatively, taking a sip from his water glass, his eyes darting from Simon to River and back.
Before Simon could say anything, River chirped, "I'm fine. But Simon's still shaken up."
Inara stifled a giggle at this, and Simon glared at his sister. "So nice of you to notice."
"After he got down from the tower, we left so fast I don't think he even said thank-you to everyone for helping." River shook her head sadly, popping a jalapeno in her mouth without flinching.
"I did so thank everyone!"
"You could have been more grateful."
"I could have been more grateful?" Simon accused her, feeling his face heat up at Book and Inara's carefully not-smiling expressions. She was *such* a brat. An unbelievable brat. "You're the one that nearly had Kaylee in tears!"
"And you didn't even stop to comfort her." River smiled her thanks at Matteo as he cleared her plate, then put down a sopapilla dripping in honey for her to dig into.
"I.. what?" Simon choked. Comfort Kaylee? Kaylee the sympathetic, the perpetually cheerful, the bright? Needing comfort from *him*? Not that the idea didn't have appeal, but....
River sighed, shrugged her shoulders hopelessly as Simon spluttered. "Honestly. I give you a perfect opportunity like that...."
"Do NOT tell me you did that to get me a date."
"I didn't," River said calmly. "But it's not a bad idea."
How did this get to be about him? How? How? "You... she...."
"You've liked Kaylee ever since New Year's, with the kiss at midnight, but you've been too busy and lame to follow up on it."
Of all the outrageous, unbelievable, appalling-- "I have not! And besides, Kaylee's not-- she's already got boyfriends, she isn't interested in me--" There had to be a way to end this conversation, there just had to. Especially since River was being so on-target on a subject he'd carefully kept to himself. Or so he'd thought.
"I've about to give up, let her know where you sleep, and tell her to have at you." River forked another mouthful of sopapilla into her mouth, swallowed, then said: "By the way, the lock on your bedroom window is broken."
Okay, that was... a mental image he didn't need at a dinner table. Simon stared at River in gob-smacked silence, broken only by giggles from Inara and a suspicious-sounding cough from Book.
"Ahem. So. Who was that young man Kaylee was talking to when she was helping you out of the crash-cushion?"
Wait. Kaylee was talking to some new guy? And he'd missed it?
"Oh, you saw him?"
"Yes. He didn't look familiar, but they seemed friendly." Reverend Book's voice was mild, and as the minister was not looking at him, Simon couldn't be sure whether that remark was directed at him or not. Okay, that glance? The irony? Definitely directed at him.
"That was Oz. He's a bass guitarist. They're friends. He's staying in town for a while."
"Really," Simon said, because there didn't seem to be anything else to say. "Friends. Hunh." Because who Kaylee wanted to date was her own business, his match-making sister to the contrary. Right. Never mind how far away his mind had gone at the open-window scenario.
River rolled her eyes, not even deigning to look at him. "Not those kind of friends. Just friend-friends. He has an appointment in Istanbul in twenty years, and he's not going to get involved with Kaylee because of it. She might mess it up."
Inara took a sip of wine, her mouth curving in amusement. "I see. He told you about this?"
River licked honey and sugar off her mouth, carefully took another bite, and spoke through the dessert. "He and his witch have an understanding. They'll be old enough for each other in twenty years, when he's walked through the Antarctic naked and she's been to Atlantis. But that's not for a while yet. So he's traveling the Earth. And she's traveling outside of it."
Book sat back, allowing Matteo to put his dessert down in front of him, looking highly entertained in the quietest way possible. "Chatty young man."
River shook her head. "He didn't tell say any of this to Kaylee. I just know. May I please be excused to go dance?"
"Yes, you may." Inara smiled conspiratorially. "I have some new CD's on top of the stereo, if you want to look through them."
"Thank you, Inara. I appreciate you letting me use your ballroom," River said seriously, then bounced up, planting a kiss on Matteo's cheek as she went by. "Thank you for dinner, Matteo, it was wonderful. And it was nice talking to you, Reverend!" she called over her shoulder, already heading for the ballroom, completely oblivious to anything else. No thanks or appreciation for Simon, he noted sardonically. Then again, she wasn't happy about being left here this evening.
"Inara, I appreciate your agreeing to let her stay here while I'm at the office. I was afraid she was going to be horrible about it, but I guess she's saving her bad mood just for me. But after today, I really don't feel comfortable leaving her alone just yet."
Inara waved his thanks away and shook her head. "It was no trouble. But what is Mal up to? I can't imagine anything that would take you into the morgue tonight."
"Who knows... The only person I have a harder time understanding than Malcolm Reynolds is my sister. Atlantis," he muttered under his breath. "That's a new one. Where does she get this stuff?"
Inara lips curved into a Mona Lisa smile. "Oh, really, Simon. I don't think that's all that hard to figure out."
"You don't?"
"It's obvious. She has a crush."
Reverend Book and Matteo immediately directed nearly identical "you just had to say it" and "well, you're going to hell for that" looks at Inara that Simon barely registered, having been rendered speechless and shocky for the second time at the table that night. A crush? River?
Inara seemed even more amused at their reactions, and began to calmly eat her own dessert. "I think it's sweet."
"Sweet?" It was not sweet. Nothing connected to River was sweet, but this was disastrous. "It's wrong! Bad! And may I repeat, wrong! No! She's too young, she can't possibly--"
"She's seventeen," Inara pointed out. "I'd say it was overdue, actually--"
"She is the right age for it," Book said, sounding faintly regretful, and Matteo shook his head in rueful agreement. "A stranger in town, a musician... well, I suppose it's only to be expected--"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And did I mention, no? No! My sister is very fragile--"
River went cartwheeling past the doorway to the ballroom, came to her feet, then jete'd off into the distance, looking fully capable of mayhem, but completely unable to handle anything to do with dating, crushes, heartbreak, or... anything else, for that matter.
"--and despite all evidence that might suggest otherwise, she can't-- it wouldn't be good for her, it would be bad. BAD." Simon directed pleading looks around the room, and got sympathy but no agreement in return. "Do you even hear what I'm saying? Am I speaking English, am I making any sense at all?"
Book shrugged philosophically. "About as much as any brother about his younger sister's romantic life."
"Simon, a crush is harmless, it's just a young girl's way of trying out her feelings," Inara said soothingly. "It doesn't mean anything, and it doesn't have to. I'd take it as encouraging sign, actually. She's finally starting to catch up to the girls her own age in some ways. It's a *good* thing."
Matteo frowned, looking stern. "Of course, if the young man returned her interest, you would have to make certain he was careful of her feelings, and understood that she was different than other people--"
"Oh, god, no. No! This isn't happening. I do not want to hear about this---" See, if he'd left her at home, this would have been their mother's problem. Forget whether River was equipped to cope, *he* definitely wasn't. His own love life sucked, as River knew all too well. How was he supposed to deal with hers?
Inara frowned at the clock. "Aren't you late for your meeting at the morgue, Simon?"
It suddenly struck him that Inara was a woman. A widow no less, and whatever she'd been or done before that, and whatever she and Malcolm Reynolds might be up to, she knew about feelings and romance and probably bass guitarists. Simon seized on that thought like a drowning man. "Could you talk to River? Please? I mean, and explain to her--"
Inara blinked once, very slowly, and smiled. "Explain what?"
He closed his eyes in defeat, and got up from the table. "Never mind. Just... No. I'll... oh, forget it. Thank you for dinner, Inara. Nice to see you again, Reverend. Delicious meal, Matteo. And the mental discord was truly appreciated on top of dessert."
Inara was silently laughing at him, but being too polite to show it. "You're welcome, Simon."
"River! I'm leaving!" he called, once he was out in the hallway.
"Bye, Simon! Remember to duck!"
He stopped in the middle of the hallway, and let his head fall onto his chest. Remember to duck? Atlantis? Leaving the window open? And Inara and Book and Matteo thought that her having a crush was cute?
Maybe River wasn't the only crazy one in this town. It would certainly explain a lot.
****
Comments? Heh.
Chris
Part 6. Part 5. Part 4. Part 3. Parts 2&1.
7.
River was stuffing her face. As usual. Where did she put it all? Simon knew that if he asked, she'd probably tell him she had a portable black hole in her pocket. Then offer to get him one.
"May I have another helping of rice, please?"
Inara's butler-chef-driver-whatever-he-felt-like-being-today, Matteo Velasquez, smiled benevolently at River and said, "Of course, perdita. With yellow peppers?"
"Definitely. Thank you, Matteo."
Little Miss Manners. As if she hadn't scared the life out of him less than seven hours ago. Simon hadn't been sure keeping this dinner engagement was a good idea, but River seemed determined to make up for her earlier outrageousness by being a perfect angel. Certainly Reverend Book and Matteo were taken in.
Well, maybe not. They might have just been enjoying watching her drive him crazier. Inara, of course, knew what River was up to, but she wasn't about to interfere. Simon suspected their hostess was too amused by his sister's primness, and his suspicion of it, to even consider giving him any help.
"River, don't you think you've had enough, maybe?" he asked, almost under his breath.
Which was - unfortunately - not quiet enough to escape Matteo's attention. Twenty years of riding herd on ranch hands and Diego Serra's employees had given him ears like finely-tuned seismosmeters. "Let her eat! That's what it's here for, isn't it? And anyway, she's a bird! Too thin, trying to fly away--"
"She's not too thin, she's still growing. I just thought she ought to save room for dessert--"
"You're a doctor and you can't see she needs to eat more, because you don't eat enough either!" Matteo glared at him, and spooned another chimichanga onto his plate. "Always working, never getting a decent meal, skinny as a rail---"
Inara was hiding her mouth behind her napkin, and Reverend Book's eyes were glinting in amusement. He really should have known better than to argue with Matteo over a food issue.
"It's a wonder you don't both waste away! Ahh! Eat more of the corn, and leave your sister to finish her meal in piece!" Matteo ordered him, then stomped out to replenish the salad bowl.
It was almost like a family dinner, except their Grandfather Tam couldn't cook and their Grandfather Wells was an avowed atheist. Otherwise, the spoiling of River and haranguing of Simon was awfully familiar. Dinner at Inara's hacienda was one of the few regular things about life in Serenity that he and River could count on. Good food; French or Mexican or Thai, whatever Matteo was experimenting with that week. Good conversation, thanks to Inara and whoever she'd invited; the Reverend being a common guest, but various other townspeople who didn't mind River sometimes joining them as well. And the so-familiar trappings of wealth and comfort, Southwestern in flavor, instead of New England based; all were reminders of home. And, if Simon were going to admit it, extremely welcome ones. It was nice, having a bit of normality to cling to.
Except, of course, their parents had abandoned River once she became... different, and Inara had been nothing but helpful and kind, once Simon and Mal had explained the situation to her. Which wasn't the kind of comparison he usually felt comfortable making, but after a day like today, it was inescapable.
He still wondered who they'd been sometimes, the men who'd wanted his parents to give them custody of River. With their English accents and officious demeanors, and not one convincing bit of evidence that they could help her. It had been enough for their parents that someone wanted to take their brain-damaged daughter off their hands. One thing had been clear to Simon, newly released from his residency, barely back from the Bar exam: they didn't know a damn thing about treating mental illness. And leaving River in their hands would have been the worst kind of irresponsible abuse possible.
But after today - when he'd thought she was finally getting better - when she hadn't had a serious incident since this summer started, enough to make him think, almost, of contacting Dad and Mom again, now... he wondered if he'd done the right thing after all. He'd done better than they would have, yes. But was his best really so much better?
"So, I hope you're both... recovered, from today's excitement," Reverend Book said tentatively, taking a sip from his water glass, his eyes darting from Simon to River and back.
Before Simon could say anything, River chirped, "I'm fine. But Simon's still shaken up."
Inara stifled a giggle at this, and Simon glared at his sister. "So nice of you to notice."
"After he got down from the tower, we left so fast I don't think he even said thank-you to everyone for helping." River shook her head sadly, popping a jalapeno in her mouth without flinching.
"I did so thank everyone!"
"You could have been more grateful."
"I could have been more grateful?" Simon accused her, feeling his face heat up at Book and Inara's carefully not-smiling expressions. She was *such* a brat. An unbelievable brat. "You're the one that nearly had Kaylee in tears!"
"And you didn't even stop to comfort her." River smiled her thanks at Matteo as he cleared her plate, then put down a sopapilla dripping in honey for her to dig into.
"I.. what?" Simon choked. Comfort Kaylee? Kaylee the sympathetic, the perpetually cheerful, the bright? Needing comfort from *him*? Not that the idea didn't have appeal, but....
River sighed, shrugged her shoulders hopelessly as Simon spluttered. "Honestly. I give you a perfect opportunity like that...."
"Do NOT tell me you did that to get me a date."
"I didn't," River said calmly. "But it's not a bad idea."
How did this get to be about him? How? How? "You... she...."
"You've liked Kaylee ever since New Year's, with the kiss at midnight, but you've been too busy and lame to follow up on it."
Of all the outrageous, unbelievable, appalling-- "I have not! And besides, Kaylee's not-- she's already got boyfriends, she isn't interested in me--" There had to be a way to end this conversation, there just had to. Especially since River was being so on-target on a subject he'd carefully kept to himself. Or so he'd thought.
"I've about to give up, let her know where you sleep, and tell her to have at you." River forked another mouthful of sopapilla into her mouth, swallowed, then said: "By the way, the lock on your bedroom window is broken."
Okay, that was... a mental image he didn't need at a dinner table. Simon stared at River in gob-smacked silence, broken only by giggles from Inara and a suspicious-sounding cough from Book.
"Ahem. So. Who was that young man Kaylee was talking to when she was helping you out of the crash-cushion?"
Wait. Kaylee was talking to some new guy? And he'd missed it?
"Oh, you saw him?"
"Yes. He didn't look familiar, but they seemed friendly." Reverend Book's voice was mild, and as the minister was not looking at him, Simon couldn't be sure whether that remark was directed at him or not. Okay, that glance? The irony? Definitely directed at him.
"That was Oz. He's a bass guitarist. They're friends. He's staying in town for a while."
"Really," Simon said, because there didn't seem to be anything else to say. "Friends. Hunh." Because who Kaylee wanted to date was her own business, his match-making sister to the contrary. Right. Never mind how far away his mind had gone at the open-window scenario.
River rolled her eyes, not even deigning to look at him. "Not those kind of friends. Just friend-friends. He has an appointment in Istanbul in twenty years, and he's not going to get involved with Kaylee because of it. She might mess it up."
Inara took a sip of wine, her mouth curving in amusement. "I see. He told you about this?"
River licked honey and sugar off her mouth, carefully took another bite, and spoke through the dessert. "He and his witch have an understanding. They'll be old enough for each other in twenty years, when he's walked through the Antarctic naked and she's been to Atlantis. But that's not for a while yet. So he's traveling the Earth. And she's traveling outside of it."
Book sat back, allowing Matteo to put his dessert down in front of him, looking highly entertained in the quietest way possible. "Chatty young man."
River shook her head. "He didn't tell say any of this to Kaylee. I just know. May I please be excused to go dance?"
"Yes, you may." Inara smiled conspiratorially. "I have some new CD's on top of the stereo, if you want to look through them."
"Thank you, Inara. I appreciate you letting me use your ballroom," River said seriously, then bounced up, planting a kiss on Matteo's cheek as she went by. "Thank you for dinner, Matteo, it was wonderful. And it was nice talking to you, Reverend!" she called over her shoulder, already heading for the ballroom, completely oblivious to anything else. No thanks or appreciation for Simon, he noted sardonically. Then again, she wasn't happy about being left here this evening.
"Inara, I appreciate your agreeing to let her stay here while I'm at the office. I was afraid she was going to be horrible about it, but I guess she's saving her bad mood just for me. But after today, I really don't feel comfortable leaving her alone just yet."
Inara waved his thanks away and shook her head. "It was no trouble. But what is Mal up to? I can't imagine anything that would take you into the morgue tonight."
"Who knows... The only person I have a harder time understanding than Malcolm Reynolds is my sister. Atlantis," he muttered under his breath. "That's a new one. Where does she get this stuff?"
Inara lips curved into a Mona Lisa smile. "Oh, really, Simon. I don't think that's all that hard to figure out."
"You don't?"
"It's obvious. She has a crush."
Reverend Book and Matteo immediately directed nearly identical "you just had to say it" and "well, you're going to hell for that" looks at Inara that Simon barely registered, having been rendered speechless and shocky for the second time at the table that night. A crush? River?
Inara seemed even more amused at their reactions, and began to calmly eat her own dessert. "I think it's sweet."
"Sweet?" It was not sweet. Nothing connected to River was sweet, but this was disastrous. "It's wrong! Bad! And may I repeat, wrong! No! She's too young, she can't possibly--"
"She's seventeen," Inara pointed out. "I'd say it was overdue, actually--"
"She is the right age for it," Book said, sounding faintly regretful, and Matteo shook his head in rueful agreement. "A stranger in town, a musician... well, I suppose it's only to be expected--"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And did I mention, no? No! My sister is very fragile--"
River went cartwheeling past the doorway to the ballroom, came to her feet, then jete'd off into the distance, looking fully capable of mayhem, but completely unable to handle anything to do with dating, crushes, heartbreak, or... anything else, for that matter.
"--and despite all evidence that might suggest otherwise, she can't-- it wouldn't be good for her, it would be bad. BAD." Simon directed pleading looks around the room, and got sympathy but no agreement in return. "Do you even hear what I'm saying? Am I speaking English, am I making any sense at all?"
Book shrugged philosophically. "About as much as any brother about his younger sister's romantic life."
"Simon, a crush is harmless, it's just a young girl's way of trying out her feelings," Inara said soothingly. "It doesn't mean anything, and it doesn't have to. I'd take it as encouraging sign, actually. She's finally starting to catch up to the girls her own age in some ways. It's a *good* thing."
Matteo frowned, looking stern. "Of course, if the young man returned her interest, you would have to make certain he was careful of her feelings, and understood that she was different than other people--"
"Oh, god, no. No! This isn't happening. I do not want to hear about this---" See, if he'd left her at home, this would have been their mother's problem. Forget whether River was equipped to cope, *he* definitely wasn't. His own love life sucked, as River knew all too well. How was he supposed to deal with hers?
Inara frowned at the clock. "Aren't you late for your meeting at the morgue, Simon?"
It suddenly struck him that Inara was a woman. A widow no less, and whatever she'd been or done before that, and whatever she and Malcolm Reynolds might be up to, she knew about feelings and romance and probably bass guitarists. Simon seized on that thought like a drowning man. "Could you talk to River? Please? I mean, and explain to her--"
Inara blinked once, very slowly, and smiled. "Explain what?"
He closed his eyes in defeat, and got up from the table. "Never mind. Just... No. I'll... oh, forget it. Thank you for dinner, Inara. Nice to see you again, Reverend. Delicious meal, Matteo. And the mental discord was truly appreciated on top of dessert."
Inara was silently laughing at him, but being too polite to show it. "You're welcome, Simon."
"River! I'm leaving!" he called, once he was out in the hallway.
"Bye, Simon! Remember to duck!"
He stopped in the middle of the hallway, and let his head fall onto his chest. Remember to duck? Atlantis? Leaving the window open? And Inara and Book and Matteo thought that her having a crush was cute?
Maybe River wasn't the only crazy one in this town. It would certainly explain a lot.
****
Comments? Heh.
Chris