The Misfortune - His Mrs. Janisch, Part 5
Title: The Misfortune - His Mrs. Janisch, Part 5
Author: Gilliebeans
Summary: Mal's job goes south; Inara meets with Janisch; Wash and Zoe talk. Preseries.
Rating: PG
Words: 2199
Author's Note: I want to apologize for taking so long to update. Many, many thanks to Charlie and 2x2 for nudging me along.
Disclaimer: If wishing could make it so, I would own firefly. I don't.
Mal's face settled back into the frown he'd been exercising the last few days. The job might have gone smooth, it wasn't like they didn't have a chance to make it so. Jayne had watched Wydell's place all day, had given them enough opportunity to get into place before the meet with the usurping crew. As it happened, they'd got into place just fine, thanks to the intel from little Kaylee, eyeballing Wydell's crappy excuse for a security system with the video feed Jayne was sending her. "Hardly better than a NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign and a rawhide loop on the doorknob," she'd scoffed, incredulous, before telling Zoe what she needed to do to put it to sleep.
Found the goods, hauled ass getting them stole and on the mule, quiet and fast. Didn't know punk Wydell had a punk kid who liked to sneak into the warehouse and root around lookin' for Daddy's stash of recreationals. Skinny, sweaty punk kid who was too young to shoot but too far away to brain, even when he peeked out from behind the crate and warned them off, in a voice that cracked and whistled with fear.
So Wydell's pack of geniuses came howlin' down upon them in the alley behind the place. Enough light to see them by, so Wydell knew it was them, even if he was in no shape to follow after Zoe beat him loose as a secondhand shoestring. Had to unload the goods to Peebles, in the interest of time, even though Peebles was the stingiest hun dan on Boros. The take ended up laughably paltry, barely half of what Mal's usual contact would have paid. And Jayne'd gotten stabbed before they got away.
He'd seen worry-faced Kaylee, hustling after Jayne as he lurched out of the infirmary, padded up with gauze, stinking and surly as a hungover rhinoceros. The coin he'd earned, such as it was, very nearly made the stabbing worse. Insult to injury. And Wash's opinion was plain to read on his face. Same as ever.
He was halfway up the steps to her shuttle when he remembered Inara wasn't there, her Guild had drawn her in for counsel and protection No accusation in any of their eyes, he supposed. No reason to be ashamed, among them, of asking for help and comfort. Of doing what needed doing during a long few days' wait, talking the worry and the sorrow down into exhaustion, looking into sympathetic faces while the hard thoughts came.
She'd pretended like she didn't need any of it. And he'd let her pretend. Why the hell was she on his ship? And after she was back amongst those that loved her and didn't trouble to hide it, what chance was there of her ever coming back?
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"I wanted to hear what you had to say privately." Inara broke the silence that had billowed out between them after Janisch's rueful, fond greeting in the shabby grey meeting room at police headquarters.
Redding drew a breath, caught her eye. "Surely you know, my dear, that this interview isn't private." The same warm, delighted smile he'd shown her so many times over the years, the smile that said I adore you, everything about you. Affectionate. Indulgent. So convenient.
Inara kept her eyes on his face, kept her tone even, didn't return the smile. "I meant us, face to face. Before you have to go to court."
Redding nodded and sighed, casting his eyes down, his expression now completely somber. He reached for the hand that rested in her lap, wrapped his own hand around it and squeezed. "I'm so sorry, bao bei. So very sorry."
Inara drew a deep, shaky breath before she went on with a question, although it was not the one she most needed to ask. "Redding, what happened?"
"My plan was to stop when I'd gotten enough." Another smile, self-deprecating and regretful. "My plan was not to get caught. I got caught." He delivered the last remark with a tired little shrug.
"Enough for what?" Inara schooled the incredulous anger from her voice. She'd read a few of the news reports and she knew how much he'd been accused of taking.
"Enough to disappear - start life over on some twee little Rim world, a gentleman farmer and his lady fair." The gentle pressure around her hand would have been so pleasant, a few days ago .
Inara closed her eyes and turned her face away. "So you opened that account, forged those documents - "
"The plan was much more entertaining in my imagination. As I envisioned it, no one found me out."
She drew her hand away and let it rest in her lap again. Her eyes were steady on his as she spoke. "But you were found out. And that money, that marriage certificate brought investigators into my home. Where I sat, Redding, and defended you while they threatened my career. Your actions exposed me to vile and degrading innuendo on every news outlet on Boros."
"I know it must have been awful for you. And Inara, please believe that I never meant for that to happen. I took pains, all along, to insulate you from what I was doing. To make sure you would be found blameless."
"How could you do any of it? Take the money of the people who trusted you?" Inara recalled, with a sickened clarity, so many events they'd attended together; parties, dinners, a weekend they'd spent as guests at the lake house of some friends. Victims.
"Those people took risks because of their greed over the returns I promised." Redding's own dear face, his familiar, affectionate smile, only how was it she'd never seen how completely dispassionate he could be? "They couldn't be satisfied with the more modest percentages they'd get with other investors. And Inara, my clients are wealthy and well-insured. I've sent no one scavenging for his next meal."
Inara shook her head, dismissing his justification. "Was it worth throwing your life away? Your reputation?"
"I'm not going to prison. I may be under house arrest during the appeals process." Redding shrugged. "You know my house, I'll be comfortable. The one thing I never did, my love, was cheat my lawyers."
"You might have made an honest living. An enviable living." Inara let her eyes touch the chipped paint on the walls, the one grimy window in the dreary little room. She didn't want to look at him. "You didn't have to cheat anyone."
"Oh my dear, I can't bear to see you so somber. And I'm truly, truly sorry." Redding took a breath, looked at Inara, shook his head. "It's just - once I had the idea, all the pieces, every detail seemed to fall into place with such clarity. It was a beautiful experience, really. I couldn't resist seeing if I could get away with it."
Inara's voice was quiet. "I would never have gone with you, Redding."
"I think I knew that all along. And, believe me my dear, I truly admire you for it. In my dream, the romance of my proposal," Redding laughed a little at this, but didn't meet her eyes "and the really big account in your name - would have persuaded you, but I always had my doubts." The room fell quiet for a long moment. His voice was different when he spoke again. "Don't be anxious, the police already have my statement about you. They know you aren't to blame."
"How nice for them." She looked right at him then and saw his expression change at what he'd seen in her eyes.
Here was the question she'd told herself she wouldn't ask, that to broach the subject was inevitably fruitless, but Inara found herself voicing it anyway. "Was any of it real? I thought we were friends. And please, I'd rather know the truth."
Redding shook his head quickly a few times, his eyes wide with dismay. "Of course it was real." His voice was raw, straining. "I adore you, bao bei. How could I not?"
Inara shook her head in frustration.
"You don't have to give up on me." He reached and took her hand once more, interlacing her cold fingers through his own. "It'll be such an inspiring story. You could be the good woman who has faith in me through my darkest hour, the instrument of my redemption." Janisch smiled, his effervescent charm once more in place, the emotionality of a moment ago seemingly gone. He had pronounced the last few words with good-humored relish, but then paused and went on in a low and earnest voice. "I can see the error of my ways. I can be an honest man."
Inara had a sudden, horrified premonition of what he might say next. "Redding, stop."
"Inara, please, I was trying to admit some levity, get you to smile at least a little?" His face was sorrowful as he shook his head. "If I thought I'd transgressed beyond hope of your forgiveness - I would regret it more deeply than I can say."
"This is not a matter for forgiveness. Things are as they are, as they were from the beginning." Inara fell silent then, listening for a long time to the muffled traffic sounds outside the walls. "The only difference is, now I know the truth between us. It's not a comfortable truth, but I'm glad to know it." She rose. "Goodbye, Redding."
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Zoe handed Wash her shirt, leaning to pull off her boots and trousers. Wash stuffed the shirt into their tiny clothes hamper, then nodded at his wife as she handed him the rest of her clothing. She'd need something fresh to wear for dinner, something that didn't have job-gone-wrong stink all over it.
She sighed, stretched out on the bed and looked at the ceiling. Her husband was watching her. After a moment he sat sideways on the bed and slid up next to her, bending one arm to prop his head.
"There was no reason for Mal to go after this job when Wydell called it off." His voice was low, quietly tense.
Zoe searched his face, his weary eyes, so blue. "Wydell was jumpier than he needed to be about the feds."
Wash nodded at her a few times, fast. "Jumpy. Oh, yes. I see jumpy. The stabby kind of jumpy." He got quiet, stretched out the silence, and his jaw set. "It could have been you."
He wasn't wrong. He was more right than Zoe wanted to admit. And with the price they'd gotten from Peebles, there was no chance of making up with Wydell.
Wash hadn't waited for her reply. "He didn't even check the docks' registry, see about taking another job. I know, the registry might put eyes on us that Mal doesn't want, but honestly, Zoe, what are the odds of finding someone worse than Wydell and his gang? Would a half-decent trader be so bad for a change? Someone not totally crooked?"
Zoe exhaled, taking a private mental inventory of everything that was going to be sore in the morning. "We've done jobs for Wydell before. He ain't the worst we know."
"Which is kinda my point, ladylove." Wash's eyes were intent upon hers.
Zoe nodded, acknowledging. "I'm careful."
"Careful enough to make up for when Mal's not? Which is, let's see, all the time!"
"There was a chance the plan would have worked."
"Would you ever tell him no, Zoe? Because that 'til death do us part' stuff?" Wash was shaking his head as he spoke, his mouth twisted with difficult emotion. "I'm in no hurry to get there."
"I have. And I will, whenever it needs saying. I need you to trust me on that." Zoe trailed her fingers across her husband's brow and down one cheekbone. She smiled tenderly. "I've got someone to come home to now, and that I do not forget." The last she spoke in a whisper, her heart welling with love and gratitude.
Wash was quiet for a moment, his face still troubled. Zoe watched him, wondering if this were the day, the talk she'd always known was coming. Then he leaned in close, starting to smile as he kissed her.
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Inara closed the door behind her and saw Gautier step into the corridor from a door just a few meters away. She expected it, she had known he was there and understood what it meant that he took no trouble to hide it.
Gautier angled his head to one side as he gave her a close, speculative look. "I would have bet on a different story, myself." He shrugged. "You aren't the only one he fooled. Got away easier than most."
Inara made no reply. After a long moment, Gautier stepped to the side, motioning with his hand that she might pass. She started toward the exit door and the friends who waited on the benches just inside, but paused when Gautier spoke again.
"There's still no way it makes a jot of sense, you on that old cargo ship." His voice was shrewd, nearly accusing.
Inara stopped at that and turned to face him as she drew herself perfectly erect. "And it's still none of your business." .