Like Blood in the Rayne Chapter 1
Title: Like Blood in the Rayne
Author: elsibet34
Fandom: Firefly
Pairings: Jayne/River with hints at Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee
Rating: R
Disclaimers: Joss is the Master of the Firefly ‘Verse. Subspecies is the product of Charles Band’s beautiful mind. It’s all theirs. (Although I’m going to stage an action figure fight between my Radu and Jayne Cobb figures later. Heee. I might take photos.)
Summary: Serenity takes on more than its’ crew bargained for when they transport an ancient artifact.
Notes: This takes place after the BDM and all the Subspecies films. Everything is fair play. Also, I reserve the right to change pov at scene changes. I like to. :P
Chapter One - If it Sounds too Good to be True
Serenity floated through the black. Okay, maybe floated was a bad word. She limped. Malcolm Reynolds, her captain, lay in his bunk, tossing in an uneasy sleep. His dreams of Reavers and lost friends intermingled with worries about the future on a budget that was shortly to run dry yet again.
“Captain, I got a wave. I’m gonna bounce it down to you.” River’s voice startled him awake. It took him a second to register there’d really been a sound, that it hadn’t been his imagination. She had this uncanny ability of mimicking things Wash had said these days, or maybe not all that uncanny considering the girl’s abilities. Mal rubbed both hands over his face briskly as he stumbled to his cortex terminal.
“You feel like giving me a heads up warning as to who’s the one calling?” He tried to push her into a little more jovial humor. She tended to get all clammed-up-like when she manned the cockpit alone. Taking the whole deal about loving the ship a little too much to heart made her worry a tad too much. She just sat up there, like she was fixed on channeling the former pilot, and got extra quiet whenever anyone noticed.
“Badger.” Sure enough, there she was with another one word answer. She was shutting off the Wash speak. He’d be willing to bet she’d been sitting in the dark, happily talking to those dinosaurs again, before the wave came through. How many times had he caught her at it in the last month since she started helping fly? Every night, it seemed, she sat there trying to get the ship to love her when she really ought to be sleeping. She seemed to think the ship missed Wash. Maybe the girl was right. She always did know what was going on.
Mal didn’t know how else to handle it. He’d tried to just let her be but it was getting out of hand. Maybe if he played the ‘order her to do it’ card she’d have to listen. He gathered up his best stern father figure voice. “Alrighty, little one, but after I’m done I better find you’ve put this place to rest for the night and gone off to bed where you oughta be, dong le ma?”
The only answer was the flicker of the cortex screen as the little man’s face came into focus. It wasn’t exactly a face Mal wanted to see first thing when he woke, especially if the little weasel was the cause of his newly alert state. Mal decided he just didn’t feel like being diplomatic about the interruption to his sleep. “Now, why do I have a sinking feeling seeing you all a sudden in the middle of the night?”
Badger shrugged his tightly suited shoulders and grinned back at him. “Not the middle of the night my time, Captain Reynolds. It’s lunch. If I was to wait until you was awake to wave, I’d likely be asleep myself.” He got a curious look to him. “Say, what’s with the chippy answering my wave? I thought she was a passenger. Not that I’m complaining about seeing her, mind. Just a bit strange she’s still around.” He chuckled. “Had us a little chat last time I was on your boat. I like that girl.”
Mal screwed up his forehead to think for a second. Maybe he was half asleep but the thought of Badger actually liking anyone was a bit weird, let alone that he should like River at all. Mal wavered between disgust and worry that Badger might know more about River than he was letting on for a moment before deciding the man was being up front about this one thing. Go figure, the little guy had a soft spot. Zoe had mentioned the manner in which River had aped Badger’s voice and manners last time they worked together, of course, but he pretty much filed it away as a useless bit of funny that happened while he was busy getting beat up. He cleared his throat. “Well, she decided to stay on and we were in need of another pilot.”
Badger made what was probably his best sympathetic face. “Oh, yeah. Word got out ‘round here about your unfortunate, shall we say, loss. I don’t need to tell you, there was some mighty strange stories went along with it.”
Not in any mood to go down that road, Mal asked, “You gonna cut to it and tell me what’s so all fired important it couldn’t wait ‘til next time we hit Persephone?”
Badger smirked, “Always a man of business. Got a job if you’re interested. Let’s just say your take on it’d be the biggest thing you ever did see.”
“And I should consider doing a job for you, for any amount of cashy money, because why again? Last time I saw you, I got stabbed,” Mal gestured angrily at the fading scar on is stomach, “right here. And my crew got held hostage. That don’t really put me in a mind to help you out none too much.”
“Now, then.” Badger held up his hands. “That weren’t really my fault. Held up my end of the deal and just had to protect my interests a bit. Didn’t hurt anybody. More like we had ourselves an all night card game.” He winked. “Sides. Who said anything about cashy money? This deal’s big, Reynolds. Not cash, not even gold or platinum. We’re talking about credits, enough of ‘em to set you up pretty for some time.”
Mal’s eyes grew round. “Credits? That would be implying legit business. Somehow I can’t picture it.”
“You insultin’ my good name?” Badger questioned.
“I would be if a good name’s what you had.” Mal replied drolly.
“Well, see, you hit it right there. That there is just exactly why I need you in on this. You and that respectability you tend to show to people what’s looking for it.”
“In other words, you need someone pretentious enough.”
Badger stalled. “What I need is someone who can blend in enough to deliver the package to a lovely young lady in a rather nice neck of the woods.”
****************************************
**************
Returning the favor of rude awakenings only a couple hours later, Mal’s voice came over the com. “This is your captain speaking. I need all hands in the mess for a meeting.”
Six o’clock in the morning, Serenity time, found the crew gathered at the table at the captain’s request. River sat back in her chair, half asleep because she had stayed on the bridge so late, and waited to see what the others would make of Badger’s deal.
The captain was already talking. “According to Badger, it’s a milk run but for real money. Call me paranoid if you will but those two things don’t likely fit together very often. Frankly, you all know we need the money. The repairs to the ship still aren’t quite done and we’re almost out of everything we got. Thing is, every time we have anything to do with him, things seem to have a way of getting out of hand. I’ll understand if any of you feel the need to make yourselves scarce for the duration of this job.”
“Mal?” Inara asked. “Getting out of hand seems to be the way every job you have goes, if you don’t mind my saying so. I think any of us that would bow out would have already done that by now.” Inara was obviously in. The companion had decided to stay and was making an attempt at becoming one of the crew. River didn’t think anyone else realized Inara had not even attempted to get any clients since Miranda. Maybe she should try to point out that simple fact to Mal.
The captain looked at Jayne next, who just shrugged. Even though the events surrounding Miranda had hit Jayne hard, particularly Shepherd Book’s death, he still liked to play himself off as the big bad merc. “You already mentioned the magic notion of getting’ paid. Don’t gotta worry about me.”
River knew he would say something along those lines and found herself grinning at him just for a moment. She was in, too. A simple nod when the captain looked her way was her only answer. She knew the meeting was essentially over when she ran her eyes around the table to look at all the crew’s faces. They were all going along for the trip. After all they’d been through together lately, they weren’t just crew. They were family. Family stuck things out together.
Zoe was a given. She had moved back into soldier mode seamlessly after losing Wash and wasn’t showing any signs of moving back out yet no matter how many attempts the others made to pull her out of her cocoon. As such, she’d follow her captain anywhere. “To the job, sir.”
Kaylee absolutely couldn’t leave her ship when it still needed fixing. The thought of getting enough money to set her girl back to rights completely had put a smile on her face that was even big by normal Kaylee standards, which was saying something. She was already rattling off the names of parts she’d love to have. “Oh, and the port thruster could really use a new regulator. You know, if we have any extra money since it’s not broke yet.”
Simon watched Kaylee go on about mechanical doodads with a quiet smile and an arm wrapped over the back of her chair. He would never leave Kaylee and River without medical help in case something went wrong. Or, more realistically, he would just plain never leave Kaylee and River. “That would be wonderful.”
One by one, everyone agreed to the job. Simple cargo. One crate. One- way trip. Actual Credits. More than enough to fix up Serenity completely and have them set for supplies for months. All in all it sounded like a great idea until the captain mentioned the destination for the drop. River could feel the tension pouring off Jayne, sitting in his usual seat to her immediate right, even if he hid it well on the outside.
As far as anyone else would notice, Jayne hadn’t even flinched when the captain said, “Ariel.” But she knew. She always knew when he thought about it, even without getting into his head. She could see the miniscule twitch he always got up near his ears when his jaw clenched.
While nearly everyone headed to prepare what they’d need to meet with Badger or to just get back to their own daily grind, River hung back in the mess and strolled up behind Jayne as he checked the cupboards for something to eat. She waited until everyone else was out of earshot to speak. “Food won’t fill that hole. Chasm runs deep but it’s not real.”
He spared her just a glance before returning to his search. “When ya start talking all nutty again? I thought that fancy doc said ya was on the mend, and all that.”
“Not talking crazy, Jayne.” She sighed. “You’re just not listening.” Okay, this wasn’t going as well as she’d hoped.
She tried again. “The silver this time would not be tainted with your guilt. Not if you would let it go. There was no blood from this girl to turn it to copper.” She knew he’d caught on when he slammed a cupboard shut and managed to grab the back of his shirt in one fist to stop him before he could run off. She spoke fast so he wouldn’t leave. “I know you tried to stop it, knew when you changed your mind but it was too late. Tried to run. The dogs had already been called.”
“Let go of my shirt, little girl.” Jayne ground out without turning around. “Ain’t gonna stand here and listen to this.”
She let go of the fisted fabric but Jayne jumped in shock just as she hoped he would when she wrapped her arms loosely around him from behind, both hands overlapping over his heart, and lay her right cheek against his back. If subtlety wouldn’t work, she’d have to go for broke. “Your brain’s all upside down and your toes are still in the sand. Are you angry at yourself that you made a mistake or angry with me that I saw it happen?”
He stood completely still like a frightened rabbit when she loosed her hold and moved around to look him in the eye. “Come inside, little lost boy. I forgave a long time ago. Your turn.” She moved to her tiptoes and pressed a gentle kiss to the spot where he’d twitched earlier, trying to make the tense spot go away but just making it twitch again under her lips, and then walked away. She felt him staring at her back in confusion until she left his line of sight.
Author: elsibet34
Fandom: Firefly
Pairings: Jayne/River with hints at Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee
Rating: R
Disclaimers: Joss is the Master of the Firefly ‘Verse. Subspecies is the product of Charles Band’s beautiful mind. It’s all theirs. (Although I’m going to stage an action figure fight between my Radu and Jayne Cobb figures later. Heee. I might take photos.)
Summary: Serenity takes on more than its’ crew bargained for when they transport an ancient artifact.
Notes: This takes place after the BDM and all the Subspecies films. Everything is fair play. Also, I reserve the right to change pov at scene changes. I like to. :P
Chapter One - If it Sounds too Good to be True
Serenity floated through the black. Okay, maybe floated was a bad word. She limped. Malcolm Reynolds, her captain, lay in his bunk, tossing in an uneasy sleep. His dreams of Reavers and lost friends intermingled with worries about the future on a budget that was shortly to run dry yet again.
“Captain, I got a wave. I’m gonna bounce it down to you.” River’s voice startled him awake. It took him a second to register there’d really been a sound, that it hadn’t been his imagination. She had this uncanny ability of mimicking things Wash had said these days, or maybe not all that uncanny considering the girl’s abilities. Mal rubbed both hands over his face briskly as he stumbled to his cortex terminal.
“You feel like giving me a heads up warning as to who’s the one calling?” He tried to push her into a little more jovial humor. She tended to get all clammed-up-like when she manned the cockpit alone. Taking the whole deal about loving the ship a little too much to heart made her worry a tad too much. She just sat up there, like she was fixed on channeling the former pilot, and got extra quiet whenever anyone noticed.
“Badger.” Sure enough, there she was with another one word answer. She was shutting off the Wash speak. He’d be willing to bet she’d been sitting in the dark, happily talking to those dinosaurs again, before the wave came through. How many times had he caught her at it in the last month since she started helping fly? Every night, it seemed, she sat there trying to get the ship to love her when she really ought to be sleeping. She seemed to think the ship missed Wash. Maybe the girl was right. She always did know what was going on.
Mal didn’t know how else to handle it. He’d tried to just let her be but it was getting out of hand. Maybe if he played the ‘order her to do it’ card she’d have to listen. He gathered up his best stern father figure voice. “Alrighty, little one, but after I’m done I better find you’ve put this place to rest for the night and gone off to bed where you oughta be, dong le ma?”
The only answer was the flicker of the cortex screen as the little man’s face came into focus. It wasn’t exactly a face Mal wanted to see first thing when he woke, especially if the little weasel was the cause of his newly alert state. Mal decided he just didn’t feel like being diplomatic about the interruption to his sleep. “Now, why do I have a sinking feeling seeing you all a sudden in the middle of the night?”
Badger shrugged his tightly suited shoulders and grinned back at him. “Not the middle of the night my time, Captain Reynolds. It’s lunch. If I was to wait until you was awake to wave, I’d likely be asleep myself.” He got a curious look to him. “Say, what’s with the chippy answering my wave? I thought she was a passenger. Not that I’m complaining about seeing her, mind. Just a bit strange she’s still around.” He chuckled. “Had us a little chat last time I was on your boat. I like that girl.”
Mal screwed up his forehead to think for a second. Maybe he was half asleep but the thought of Badger actually liking anyone was a bit weird, let alone that he should like River at all. Mal wavered between disgust and worry that Badger might know more about River than he was letting on for a moment before deciding the man was being up front about this one thing. Go figure, the little guy had a soft spot. Zoe had mentioned the manner in which River had aped Badger’s voice and manners last time they worked together, of course, but he pretty much filed it away as a useless bit of funny that happened while he was busy getting beat up. He cleared his throat. “Well, she decided to stay on and we were in need of another pilot.”
Badger made what was probably his best sympathetic face. “Oh, yeah. Word got out ‘round here about your unfortunate, shall we say, loss. I don’t need to tell you, there was some mighty strange stories went along with it.”
Not in any mood to go down that road, Mal asked, “You gonna cut to it and tell me what’s so all fired important it couldn’t wait ‘til next time we hit Persephone?”
Badger smirked, “Always a man of business. Got a job if you’re interested. Let’s just say your take on it’d be the biggest thing you ever did see.”
“And I should consider doing a job for you, for any amount of cashy money, because why again? Last time I saw you, I got stabbed,” Mal gestured angrily at the fading scar on is stomach, “right here. And my crew got held hostage. That don’t really put me in a mind to help you out none too much.”
“Now, then.” Badger held up his hands. “That weren’t really my fault. Held up my end of the deal and just had to protect my interests a bit. Didn’t hurt anybody. More like we had ourselves an all night card game.” He winked. “Sides. Who said anything about cashy money? This deal’s big, Reynolds. Not cash, not even gold or platinum. We’re talking about credits, enough of ‘em to set you up pretty for some time.”
Mal’s eyes grew round. “Credits? That would be implying legit business. Somehow I can’t picture it.”
“You insultin’ my good name?” Badger questioned.
“I would be if a good name’s what you had.” Mal replied drolly.
“Well, see, you hit it right there. That there is just exactly why I need you in on this. You and that respectability you tend to show to people what’s looking for it.”
“In other words, you need someone pretentious enough.”
Badger stalled. “What I need is someone who can blend in enough to deliver the package to a lovely young lady in a rather nice neck of the woods.”
****************************************
**************
Returning the favor of rude awakenings only a couple hours later, Mal’s voice came over the com. “This is your captain speaking. I need all hands in the mess for a meeting.”
Six o’clock in the morning, Serenity time, found the crew gathered at the table at the captain’s request. River sat back in her chair, half asleep because she had stayed on the bridge so late, and waited to see what the others would make of Badger’s deal.
The captain was already talking. “According to Badger, it’s a milk run but for real money. Call me paranoid if you will but those two things don’t likely fit together very often. Frankly, you all know we need the money. The repairs to the ship still aren’t quite done and we’re almost out of everything we got. Thing is, every time we have anything to do with him, things seem to have a way of getting out of hand. I’ll understand if any of you feel the need to make yourselves scarce for the duration of this job.”
“Mal?” Inara asked. “Getting out of hand seems to be the way every job you have goes, if you don’t mind my saying so. I think any of us that would bow out would have already done that by now.” Inara was obviously in. The companion had decided to stay and was making an attempt at becoming one of the crew. River didn’t think anyone else realized Inara had not even attempted to get any clients since Miranda. Maybe she should try to point out that simple fact to Mal.
The captain looked at Jayne next, who just shrugged. Even though the events surrounding Miranda had hit Jayne hard, particularly Shepherd Book’s death, he still liked to play himself off as the big bad merc. “You already mentioned the magic notion of getting’ paid. Don’t gotta worry about me.”
River knew he would say something along those lines and found herself grinning at him just for a moment. She was in, too. A simple nod when the captain looked her way was her only answer. She knew the meeting was essentially over when she ran her eyes around the table to look at all the crew’s faces. They were all going along for the trip. After all they’d been through together lately, they weren’t just crew. They were family. Family stuck things out together.
Zoe was a given. She had moved back into soldier mode seamlessly after losing Wash and wasn’t showing any signs of moving back out yet no matter how many attempts the others made to pull her out of her cocoon. As such, she’d follow her captain anywhere. “To the job, sir.”
Kaylee absolutely couldn’t leave her ship when it still needed fixing. The thought of getting enough money to set her girl back to rights completely had put a smile on her face that was even big by normal Kaylee standards, which was saying something. She was already rattling off the names of parts she’d love to have. “Oh, and the port thruster could really use a new regulator. You know, if we have any extra money since it’s not broke yet.”
Simon watched Kaylee go on about mechanical doodads with a quiet smile and an arm wrapped over the back of her chair. He would never leave Kaylee and River without medical help in case something went wrong. Or, more realistically, he would just plain never leave Kaylee and River. “That would be wonderful.”
One by one, everyone agreed to the job. Simple cargo. One crate. One- way trip. Actual Credits. More than enough to fix up Serenity completely and have them set for supplies for months. All in all it sounded like a great idea until the captain mentioned the destination for the drop. River could feel the tension pouring off Jayne, sitting in his usual seat to her immediate right, even if he hid it well on the outside.
As far as anyone else would notice, Jayne hadn’t even flinched when the captain said, “Ariel.” But she knew. She always knew when he thought about it, even without getting into his head. She could see the miniscule twitch he always got up near his ears when his jaw clenched.
While nearly everyone headed to prepare what they’d need to meet with Badger or to just get back to their own daily grind, River hung back in the mess and strolled up behind Jayne as he checked the cupboards for something to eat. She waited until everyone else was out of earshot to speak. “Food won’t fill that hole. Chasm runs deep but it’s not real.”
He spared her just a glance before returning to his search. “When ya start talking all nutty again? I thought that fancy doc said ya was on the mend, and all that.”
“Not talking crazy, Jayne.” She sighed. “You’re just not listening.” Okay, this wasn’t going as well as she’d hoped.
She tried again. “The silver this time would not be tainted with your guilt. Not if you would let it go. There was no blood from this girl to turn it to copper.” She knew he’d caught on when he slammed a cupboard shut and managed to grab the back of his shirt in one fist to stop him before he could run off. She spoke fast so he wouldn’t leave. “I know you tried to stop it, knew when you changed your mind but it was too late. Tried to run. The dogs had already been called.”
“Let go of my shirt, little girl.” Jayne ground out without turning around. “Ain’t gonna stand here and listen to this.”
She let go of the fisted fabric but Jayne jumped in shock just as she hoped he would when she wrapped her arms loosely around him from behind, both hands overlapping over his heart, and lay her right cheek against his back. If subtlety wouldn’t work, she’d have to go for broke. “Your brain’s all upside down and your toes are still in the sand. Are you angry at yourself that you made a mistake or angry with me that I saw it happen?”
He stood completely still like a frightened rabbit when she loosed her hold and moved around to look him in the eye. “Come inside, little lost boy. I forgave a long time ago. Your turn.” She moved to her tiptoes and pressed a gentle kiss to the spot where he’d twitched earlier, trying to make the tense spot go away but just making it twitch again under her lips, and then walked away. She felt him staring at her back in confusion until she left his line of sight.