The Misfortune - His Mrs. Janisch, Part 1
Title: His Mrs. Janisch, Part 1
Author: Gilliebeans
Rating: PG
Words: about 2200
Summary: preseries, M/I; questions about Inara bring the Feds to Serenity, and Mal's not happy. The next chapter in The Misfortune, set before the beginning of the series Firefly.
Author's note: Many, many thanks to Charlie and 2x2, who helped me so much with the ideas in this story, and gave me much-needed encouragement to type words into sentences and not fret so much. I apologize for the long delay between chapters, this has been a tough one to write. So I'm posting it in smaller sections, rather than my usual big stories. The next part should be along in a few days.
What really irked Mal was that Zoe wasn't on board when the feds came calling. Kaylee's birthday, Serenity was planetside on Boros with a bit more than a day before the meet with the sketchy characters they'd be doing business with, and so Zoe and Inara took Kaylee to some place Inara knew. Ladies' baths in clean hot water, mysterious and womanish bathing rituals, shampoo and soap that didn't smell identical to the bottle of stuff next to the galley sink, and shiny colors on their toes. Zoe'd be at her most glamorous, come to break him out of jail that night.
Yeah, he'd signed off on the outing - it was Kaylee's birthday, and he'd seen the gratitude in her eyes. More than one reason, Kaylee loved Zoe, but it was going on two weeks since the attack and his mei mei still had that apprehensive set to her shoulders, more often than he liked to see. She'd feel safer with Zoe along. Mal didn't know how Inara was taking it, precious little she'd shown to him since that morning, when she’d lay next to him, first sleeping, and then on the sweaty, bloody mess he’d made of her bed, to keep him still while Kaylee rushed them back to Serenity.
But she hadn't left, although he'd been sure she would. He'd been waiting for her to come to him, with an entirely plausible explanation about a lovely opportunity elsewhere. She was still on his ship, still the same, and he was starting to hope she understood about what he'd had to do. Starting to hope, and starting to remember how sweet she'd been that morning, and the inviting warmth of her eyes when she turned, laughing in his arms and for one intoxicating moment he might still have been a man who kissed a woman when she looked at him like that.
Maybe. Maybe the something he imagined there might be between them, might not be only in his imagination. If she meant to stay, and if he could find a way to get to the truth between them. Ifs. Maybes.
He kept the cussing under his throat, smacked a bland smile on his face as he set about welcoming the gorram law onto his boat, making yokelly comments about the traffic in port and asking their sufferance for a moment's delay while he fetched his (fake) books for them. He'd just turned on his heel, that pleasant idiot's face still suffocating his own, when one of the feds called his name. His real name, not his fake books name. Things were about to get very bad, and Zoe wasn't there.
Maybe that was for the best, Mal told himself, turning back to the lawmen. Were she about, both of them would likely soon be on the inside and that would leave the breakout op in the hands of Wash and Jayne.
"We won't be needing your ledgers, Captain Reynolds, don't trouble yourself." The fed mouthpiece smoothed his hair back. "Our records indicate you rent a shuttle to Miss Inara Serra, is that correct?" Mouthpiece looked up from his data pad, all manners and Regulation Handbook friendliness, to see Mal's wary nod. "We're here to speak with her."
"She's not about." Mal didn't like this. What the hell was going on to bring four Boros Branch feds calling for Inara?
"Do you know if she is meeting a client?" So delicate, so respectful, but Mal caught the glance exchanged by the men standing behind Mouthpiece. In their official vehicle on the way here, Mal was suddenly sure these upstanding lawmen hadn't called it "meeting."
"No, she's just out for a bit. Due back this afternoon, if you'd like to - "
Mouthpiece interrupted with a smile. "We'll wait."
There's not much lawbreaking to be done with feds holding a quilting bee in a man's cargo bay. Mal busied himself for a few stupid minutes moving crates around and pretending to check invoices, absorbing the tolerant smiles of the law.
Mal ran out of forebearance, put on his best dim, worried citizen's face, and approached the feds again. "Has there been any kind of accident? Was someone...hurt? Miss Serra didn't mention..." Mal trailed off, shaking his head, genuine confusion under his fake bewilderment.
Mouthpiece - he'd identified himself as Gautier, Mal remembered - sent an appraising look Mal's way. Smiled. Let that standard issue pleasant demeanor slip, just a hair's breadth. "No, Captain Reynolds, fortunately we're not delivering bad news."
He detached from his herd and walked closer, still eyeing Mal intently. "We just need to ask Miss Serra," and Mal wondered at the emphasis, but only for a moment, Mouthpiece kept talking and cleared it all up fine "about her husband."
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"Folks like Kaylee should have more than one birthday a year," Zoe announced, grinning.
" Yes, that's only right." Inara returned the smile as she slid into the taxi beside Zoe. "Someone ought to appropriate birthdays from those that don't appreciate them properly - and redistribute them to the deserving. To the fun people."
"I wouldn't turn 'em down, 'specially if I get to get my fancy on at a place like that!" Kaylee glanced behind her at the spa as she fastened her seat belt. "I bet that’s just a plain old regular day in a Companion’s house, right, ‘Nara?"
Inara laughed softly, enjoying the openhearted smile on her friend’s face. "Not quite."
"We ought to come back next year." Kaylee looked from Inara to Zoe and nodded excitedly. "No reason we couldn’t be around Boros again, there’s plenty to st-....do here." She glanced fast, apprehensive eyes at the cabdriver, clearly wondering if he had noticed the word she’d bitten back. But he appeared to be paying them no mind, and after a moment Kaylee returned Zoe’s amused smile. "We could come back for your birthday, Zoe, it’s coming up pretty soon."
"Hmm, I wouldn’t object. And I bet my husband would love girl-talkin’ in the steam room.."
"He’d look quite dashing in a pink robe and slippers." Inara nodded her head at Zoe for emphasis as both women smiled.
"He’s a very pretty man - tells me so all the time." At this, all three women shared an affectionate laugh.
"And Zoe, they got those private springwater rooms, did you see? The whole room is a little pool, wall to wall with the steps going right down into the water, you could - "
"That did not escape my notice, sweetie-girl." Zoe’s voice was a rich purr as she sent Kaylee a sly, sidelong look..
"Course, since Wash is coming we’d be obligated to carry Jayne and the Captain along too." Kaylee wrinkled her nose, considering. "I bet Jayne’d wallow in that mud bath all day."
Inara chuckled. "And then roam the halls covered in it like some kind of uncouth swamp monster."
Zoe raised an eyebrow at Inara. "There are cultured swamp monsters?"
Kaylee answered for her. "On Sihnon there are." She shook her head in feigned exasperation. "Cap’n would wear his boots in the steam room."
"Probably insist on frisking the pedicure boy." Zoe narrowed her eyes in a brief imitation of Mal's suspicious glare.
"Zoe." Inara tapped at her friend’s hand, then nodded out the window. They could see Serenity’s open cargo bay, and the vehicle parked outside it. Inara heard Kaylee’s soft gasp.
"Whadya think...do you think..." Kaylee looked at Inara, then at Zoe, who had shifted forward in her seat for a better look.
"We’ll see." By now, they were close enough to see four strangers, dressed for office work, loitering in the cargo bay. Mal moved among them, throttling a broomstick and looking pointedly genial.
"Bet they’re not delivering a birthday cake."
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Husband? Mal shrugged. Gautier was watching him, looking for some kind of reaction. "Never had the pleasure."
The officer smiled at this, a little too politely. "His name is Redding Janisch. Has Miss Serra mentioned that name?"
Mal shook his head. "Not that I recall, no."
"Maybe you've seen him about, just not made his acquaintance." He extended a tailored arm and passed a capture, seeming to make a decision as he did. "Would you characterize your relationship with Miss Serra as close, Captain Reynolds?"
"Not particularly." Close. Conjured up all kinds of memories that he didn't need to be dwelling on now, not looking at a capture of Inara, dressed up fancy even by her standards. A wedding dress? Could be, Mal hadn't gotten around to familiarizing himself with the bridal fashions on Sihnon. Her hair was swept back from her face and neck and dotted all throughout with crystals and bitty flowers. Jewels at her ears, wrist, throat. She was dancing with, well, any woman's working definition of Prince Charming. Tall, handsome, rich - if the clothes and the setting were any indication. And he held Inara as she danced, beaming up at him, her hand resting assured on one strong-looking shoulder. Other couples flitted through the candlelit background of the picture, but these two seemed not to notice or care. Inara and her husband.
Mal checked the date stamp at the side of the capture as Inara and her prince swayed languorously, contentedly to the intimate, thrumming music. It was from a year before she'd started renting the shuttle - if his quirky remembrance was accurate, exactly a year. What, had she promised Prince Charming a year of wedded bliss before the princess vacated the castle?
He was being watched. He couldn't scowl, cuss, punch, kick, throw, smash, or set fire to anything. Put on thoughtful dumb face again, raised his eyebrows at Mouthpiece. "She should be back soon, but I can call her if it's..."
"I'll need to ask that you not call her, Captain Reynolds."
They didn't want her knowing in advance that they were coming. What in holy hell was going on? He nodded amiably, giving the feds the face of a man who couldn't draw an inference to save his life. "Best she not be fretted on the way." He picked up a broom from where Jayne had left it against the bulkhead, began to sweep the floor like the 'verse's biggest bozo.
Gautier didn't believe him and Mal knew it, but he played along just the same. "Thank you."
They continued like this a few more minutes, each pretending not to watch the other, when Mal heard the whine of the taxi approaching Serenity. He stowed the bozo broom and nodded at Gautier, whose eyes had already turned toward the bay's opening. Gautier's men were looking as well. Looked mighty keen to do their jobs, interviewing the Companion in trouble. Mal wondered if a detail of four officers went sallying about to interrogate everyone the Boros feds needed to know better.
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"This doesn't look auspicious." Zoe was still smiling as she looked out the window, but her voice had gone quietly grim. "Feds on our boat."
"Feds?" Kaylee's voice squeaked. "How do you know?"
Zoe sent her a look. "And look at how mad the Captain isn't. Ah, he's been sweeping." She lowered her voice just a bit. "Follow my lead. And don't look nervous."
"Easy for you to say." Kaylee kept a jumpy smile on her face as she watched out the window.
They disembarked from the taxi and walked, together, up the cargo bay's ramp.
"Good afternoon, Captain." Zoe turned to the four men. "Gentlemen." She faced Mal again, her face the picture of mild concern. "I hope you didn't have to start without me, sir?"
"Oh, these gentlemen aren't our merchants. And they're not here for us. This is Lieutenant Gautier of the Boros Federal Investigative Office."
Gautier spared Zoe a nod, but she saw where the men behind him were looking. At Inara, who stood frozen at the top of the ramp, her lips pressed tightly together, her eyes enormous.
"Miss Inara Serra?"
"Good afternoon, Lieutenant Gautier." Inara nodded at the men behind the lieutenant. "Gentlemen."
Zoe turned to Mal, expecting some details, but he was watching Inara even more closely than the police were.
"What brings you here, Lieutenant." Phrased not as a question, but a request; soft, but very close to an order for information.
"Miss Serra." Gautier took a few steps forward, his voice efficient and mannerly. Zoe noticed he was keeping the rest of them in his field of vision as well. "I'd like to ask you some questions about your husband."
Zoe saw Inara's quick moment of relief, followed by a shake of her head and what looked like cautious but honest puzzlement. "I don't have a husband."
The man smiled. "Is there somewhere we can sit and talk, ma'am?"
"Certainly. We can speak in my shuttle. But the space won't accomodate your men, Lieutenant."
Gautier nodded to his partner, who had yet to speak. The partner stepped toward Gautier and Inara after a brief look at his comrades. Gautier pointed the remaining two down the cargo bay ramp to wait in the vehicle parked just outside, then turned back to Inara.
"Whenever you're ready."
Inara gestured toward the stairs. "It's this way."
"I'll be joining you as well, Lieutenant." Gautier looked at Mal almost as if he had forgotten about the Captain. "There's nothing that happens on my boat that I don't know about."
"Of course, Captain Reynolds." Gautier nodded. "As it happens, we have some questions in this matter for you as well."
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