Breathing Time
Series: Finding
Title: Breathing Time
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Series
Characters: Jayne/River
Disclaimer: Firefly owns me, I own words
Notes: Missing scene from Out of Gas. Very oblique reference to Jayne/River if you tilt your head and squint. Written as part of a twenty minute writing exercise at B3 during a fic writing panel moderated by
lattelady6
All Jayne/River stories are in the same storyline, even if seen out of order...
Breathing Time
Time. All he had to do was watch the time go by. He counted his breaths, measuring it carefully. Figuring in his mind how many minutes of air was left if he was the only one using it. Trying to subtract from that the air the others consumed. Life in the Black had visited this death by suffocation upon him before.
He could hear Inara calming her own breathing as Serenity disappeared in the rear view screen. She flew by rote, her hands moving automatically as her shoulders tensed and eased with her anxiety for the man they were leaving behind.
Book sat across from him, Bible held in both hands. His normally laughing eyes closed. Jayne could almost feel the Shepherd radiating prayer into the silence.
Kaylee was keeping her attention focused on the engines; access panels open so she could maintain the systems functions at optimum. She tried to still her own tears with only mixed success.
~~~~~
Reaching out with her thoughts, eyes closed, feeling the air, she knew where everyone was.
The tousle-haired pilot’s mind was blessedly calmer since the shuttle launched. His training giving him the necessary focal point away from his anxiety about Zoë. Wash was able to push his fears for her aside in his flying the shuttle away from home, hopefully towards rescue.
Simon’s dark head was bent over Zoë’s unconscious form, stethoscope pressed to her chest. He listened to the regular beat of the warrior’s heart, his thoughts for himself subsumed by his concerns for the others.
She reached further; reached towards warmth she could feel accelerating away, beyond the iron bulk of Serenity.
River matched her breathing to a quiet count she could hear along a thread that connected her to another. Calm, measured, counted breaths using as little air as possible. She could feel the counting was practiced, habitual. Calculations ran swiftly through her mind. Their shuttle would have air for mere minutes longer than the other shuttle. The quiet count she could distantly hear steadied her, gave her balance against Serenity’s silence.