Like Blood in the Rayne Chapter 12
Mal watched Inara walk to the sink, their bowls in her hands. She put the bowls down and turned back to the table, smiling when she saw him watching her. He returned his own grin, happy for the ability to gaze at her openly at last. He walked past her to get a bowl, filling it to take to Zoe. He joked, “You don’t reckon the doc having dish detail caused that runner he just pulled, do you?”
Inara laughed lightly, eyes twinkling. “No. I think we can blame River and Jayne for the disappearing act.” She laid just the tips of her fingers on his hand to stop his walking away. “That was very kind of you to tell Simon to get used to thinking of them together. That will be of help to them. One question, did you mean it?”
Mal shrugged her hand off and started to walk, somewhat embarrassed to hear her sparkling laugh behind him still. “Yeah, I meant it but you don’t need to be making a fuss about it. I’d like to keep Jayne thinking he’s walking the raggedy edge a while longer.”
“Don’t worry, Mal. The secret of your soft, squishy heart is safe with me.” She assured him while following him up to the bridge. “I won’t tell a soul.”
“Tell a soul what?” Zoe asked when they stepped on the bridge. Mal braced himself for verbal impact; he had quite stupidly forgotten Zoe possessed such great hearing. Zoe spun in the pilot’s seat to look at the doorway. “If you’ve got something good on the Captain, you’d best be sharing.”
Mal marched in and pushed the bowl into Zoe’s hand. He pulled the ‘I’m in charge around here’ technique and hoped it would work. “The only good thing you’re getting is breakfast. I use the word good loosely here, unfortunately. How are we flying?”
Zoe took a bite and made a face. “You weren’t kidding. Kaylee make this? She usually cooks better. The doc must have been distracting her.” She pointed at the cortex screen. “I brought up the map to do a bit of manual navigation. We’ve been picking up some interference from an ion storm on that moon just behind us. Should be clear any minute.”
Mal found himself with the bowl back in his hand when Zoe shoved it at him and started tapping on the navigation screen. “Deng yimiao. Radar’s back up. We’ve got a ship on our tail, just out of range of the collision alarm. No telling how long it’s been sitting there.”
Mal gave the bowl to Inara and looked at the screen with Zoe, a dreadful thought coming to him. What had that Morgan woman said about shadows? He asked the question even though he already knew the answer, hoping it had miraculously changed despite the fact he never had much faith such things. “Tell me there’s not a light source behind us?”
Zoe answered dryly, “There’s a light source behind us, Sir.” She poked a small dot on the navigation screen. “Right here. That moon I mentioned. Behind the other ship, too.”
“Too zaizi.” Mal cursed. Only one course of action presented itself in his head. “Get us some distance on that ship, Zoe. I don’t think we want to know what happens if we catch its shadow.”
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Jayne waited off to one side while River slid the door to her room open with one hand. He hesitated on the threshold when she went in, almost afraid to enter her domain since the dramatic shift occurred in their relationship. Lions need to have and respect territorial boundaries. But then, she glanced back at him and he felt no other need than the one to be near her. He knew their territories were one.
Jayne stepped into the room, shutting the door. He looked back at the door, a mite worried about River’s coming back downstairs. “You sure you want to be down here? I thought you said those voices got all loud mouthy when you tried to sleep in here. You still hear ‘em?”
River opened and closed the first drawer quickly, moving on to the next and pulling out a few things that she then held loosely in one arm. “Some, nothing clear. I can keep them quiet now that I’m more familiar with them.” She grabbed his hand with her empty one and pulled him farther into the room. “Your mind is unclouded. Proximity to you diminishes their volume. Or, having you near helps me.”
River pushed him down to sit on the bed and dropped the bundle of clothes next to him, blushing when he stared at her. Jayne noticed she turned a nice, rosy shade of pink that got him to wondering where else on her changed color like that. He didn’t have too long to wonder before she gripped the fabric of her dress in both hands and slowly pulled it over her head. He found himself holding his breath in anticipation.
Since he’d been completely expecting to get all worked up when she took off her clothes, the belly laugh came as a shock when it shot out of him. “What are you doin’ with that thing tucked in your panties?” He gestured at the gun she wore under the elastic at her hip.
River frowned her confusion at him, wrinkling up her forehead. “No place else for it to go.”
Jayne gawped at her. The girl might be a genius but sometimes she was also an idiot. “You can’t wear a gun in your panties, crazy person. What you plannin’ on doin’? Pulling up your dress to get it when you need it?”
She pointed at the clothes laying beside him as if they would clear up everything. Jayne checked the pile and found her baggy pants. Well, at least it was a sight better than a dress. He gave a second’s thought to a fix for her problem. “Ain’t gonna work even tucking it in the waistband of those stretchy things. Like as not, the ruttin’ gun will fall out before you get ten yards. You got a belt and a scarf?”
River found the items he requested and handed them to him, stopping to attempt to watch what he was going to do. “You go on and get dressed. I got it handled.” Jayne prompted, not wanting her looking while he worked. While she was busy, he tied the scarf to the belt, making a loop that could serve as a makeshift holster. He held it up to show her when she was dressed and didn’t see why she got such a sappy look on her face about it. “What?” he asked.
She reached out to touch the belt, smiling at it. “Smarter than they all think you are. They just don’t understand how your mind works. It’s beautiful.”
Jayne chuckled. “Ain’t smart, kid. That’s just plain know-how. Not the same thing. Come here so I can get this on you.” He wrapped the belt around her waist over the top of her sweater, buckled the belt, picked up her new gun and slid it into its place.
Ai ya. She looked awful cute all strapped with weaponry like that. He pulled her to him, intent on the lure of her lips but barely got a taste before she pushed him away. Her eyes were wide. “The stone.” She said just before she ran from the room.
Now, what the hell was she doing? Jayne went to follow her, his mood more disappointed than worried. “Well, that can’t be good.” He said dejectedly.
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Kaylee ran as fast as she ever ran but it felt like the faster she went, the more the ship stretched. The distance to the bridge, and help, seemed to equal the whole of space. Her breath came in sharp huffs, pounding in and out with the rhythm of her feet striking he deck. Too afraid to look back, she strained to hear what sounds came from behind her and was relieved to hear only an accompanying clomp of Simon’s boots to each step of her own. Together they clambered up the steps to the bridge, startling Mal. Kaylee didn’t wait to catch her breath but gasped out the words “There’s something back there.”
Maybe it was the fear in her eyes, or the way she trembled until Simon steadied her with his arm, but the Captain didn’t take the time to ask for clarification. He went straight to fighting mode, pointing at the black that lay ahead of them. “Zoe, you keep the speed up, get us moving out there and the hell away from that ship. Inara, you stay here with her.”
Mal didn’t wait for Inara to answer before drawing his gun and heading off but even through her fog, Kaylee noticed Inara quietly agreed and sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Things were definitely going funny around here if Inara and the Captain didn’t see time to argue. Most of Kaylee, the part that was scared spitless, wanted to sit in the third seat and pretend things were just okey dokey. The rest of her wanted to see the little, whatever they were, taken care of lest she not believe they were really gone. That part primal won out and she found herself following the Captain back down the steps, Simon right behind her.
As they made their way down the hall, flashes of red skittered out of the kitchen and darted around the corner to the steps leading down. Their little eyes reflected back a red light that resembled laser beams, but only for a split second before they vanished down the stairs. Kaylee squealed. “That’s them. The little…oh, god. They’re really there.”
Simon stepped closer to Kaylee and put an arm around her again, rubbing her back softly in soothing circles. “Bao bai, maybe you should wait with Inara and Zoe. I’ll go with the Captain.” He suggested in a calming voice.
Kaylee shook her head. She was glad he wanted to protect her but firm in her resolve to stay strong. “No. I want to see them get good and gone or I’ll never sleep again.” She squared her shoulders and stood up as straight as she could. And darn it, she was proud of herself for it. “We just gotta figure out where they headed.”
Mal muttered, “Why do I get the sinking feeling they’re headed for our cargo?” He sped down the steps after them, Kaylee and Simon following right on his heels.
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I decided you should know the main words by now but…
*Help with the new Chinese, just in case:
Deng yimiao. - Hold on a second.
Too zaizi - Son of a rabbit