Firefly - Giselle (17/?)
Title: Giselle
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Beta-Reader: Thanks go to the amazing revdorothyl.
Character/Pairings: Erin Hunter (OC); Jayne/River
Rating: R
Warnings: Post BDM. Violence of the Blue Hands and Reaver variety.
Notes: The prequel to Little Girl Lost, taking place after Miranda is exposed, and three years before Gabriel Tam sets out to find River.
Summary: As the Alliance is ripped apart at the seams, they attempt to recapture their masterpiece. The story of how Jayne Cobb and River Tam left Serenity.
Chapter Notes: (1) Meet Erin Hunter. He loves the sound of his own voice. When asked who the true love of his life is, ten times out of ten, Erin will immediately answer “myself.” After Jayne punches him in the face, Erin will always amend this answer to “my lovely better half, Mattie.”
Erin Hunter, as you’ve no doubt guessed, is also an attention whore. Woe to anyone who’s getting more than him.
(2) In this fic, “Pair” is the official terminology used by the Alliance Government to describe the Blue Hands as they always come in twos.
Chapter Seventeen
Ariel, River’s Birthday
It takes longer than Erin Hunter would have liked for the Parliament Secretary to clear away enough of the legal blue tape before Erin is finally allowed to walk past the burly Alliance army guards to view for himself the scene where two sets of Pairs met their brutal end.
There isn’t much to see.
Erin had bought new sunglasses especially for the occasion. (He would have bought a dark suit too, but Gale had forbid it, complaining that they didn’t have the funds for Erin to waste on a suit he’d only wear once. Since she did have a point, and because she’d gotten incredibly scary since Luce had knocked her up, Erin did not treat himself to a new suit.)
The eldest of the Hunter brothers stands at the edge of the quiet street that leads into the back area of the warehouse district, surveying the stained windows, the sheer amount of rust contrasting with the clean, sheer look the rest of Ariel boasts.
“Just goes to show, anytime, anywhere, everything’s built off of decay,” Erin muses, breaking character and ruining the impression he’d been going for.
The sun warming his back, Erin’s posture is straight despite one knee being ever so slightly bent, his hands on his hips, a serious look on his face and his new, shiny sunglasses hiding his gaze from the world. His dark leather bounty-hunting outfit gleams from the cleaning Erin had given it the night before (just because he can’t have a suit like any of these Alliance bitches doesn’t mean that Erin Hunter can’t and doesn’t look better than all the rest of them put together).
Beside him, the Secretary shifts uncomfortably, his face struggling to keep from adopting an expression of disgust (a trying task when dealing with any one of the Hunters, near impossible when dealing with two at the same time). Deciding that enough time has slipped by for Erin to make all the necessary observations, the Secretary delicately coughs. “Your brother couldn’t make it?”
Erin raises both hands to remove his sunglasses. For a moment, he appears briefly irritated that the Secretary talked to him, but the Secretary has only to blink and the expression has been wiped clean from Erin’s face.
Erin grins and leans in close, humour in his blue eyes. “Well, you know Luce, being one of those happily married types an’ all, decided he’d much rather be handcuffed to the bunk by Gale and molested than join us on this bee-u-ta-ful Sunday mornin’.” Erin drapes his arm around the Secretary’s shoulder. “There’s just no accountin’ for taste these days, huh, Jimmy?”
“No,” ‘Jimmy’ says dryly.
“You are a rare gem among men,” Erin says grandly, replacing his sunglasses on his face. Slowly, he pulls his hands away to place them back on his waist.
Gruffly he asks, “This the place?” He steps forward, intent on the white chalk body outlines on the ground.
“Yes,” the Secretary answers, referring to his ever-present data pad. “Alpha Pair met their end out here. We discovered the remains of Echo Pair inside Building Thirty-two.”
He leads the way into the empty warehouse where River defeated two of her dreaded Blue Hands before being taken down by the control phase uttered by Agent Anderson. The Secretary is within the doorway of the empty building when he realizes that he’s lost the bounty hunter. He turns around and briefly wonders why he’s just not surprised anymore.
Lying on the ground so that the white chalk body outline that marked where Agent Anderson of the Alpha Pair had met his end outlines Erin’s own body, Erin stares up at the blue sky. He chews loudly on a piece of fruit in his mouth, acting for all the ‘Verse as if he were lying on a hammock stretched between two trees being gently rocked by a summer breeze.
The Secretary sighs before briskly walking back towards Erin Hunter. He stops beside the other man and glares down. “Mr. Hunter?”
Erin tilts his head back to see the Secretary. He swallows and pushes his sunglasses back on his forehead. He smiles innocently as he holds up a plastic container full of roughly cut up fruit. “Pear?”
Erin’s private theory that his good friend Jimmy is actually a robot becomes more plausible when Jimmy doesn’t even twitch.
“No, thank you.” The Secretary indicates the warehouse. “Shall we?”
“There’s nothing there of interest, Jimmy. Ain’t there today an’ wasn’t there yesterday,” Erin answers, stuffing another piece of pear into his mouth. “An’ -- ‘fore you ask -- it wasn’t there the day before, either. It went with the rain.” Erin chuckles. “He came with the rain an’ he went with the rain, an’ that’s all there is to it.”
The Secretary frowns, his hand tightening on the data pad that rarely leaves his side. “Forgive me,” he says before turning to the numerous military guards around the crime scene. “You’re dismissed.” He waits until the last guard has filed out before he dares to address Erin again. “Are you incapable of capturing this vigilante despite your assertions that it would be a…” -- he referred to the data pad-- “‘a quarter piece of my mother’s carrot cake with an extra two inches of icing’?”
Erin places his empty plastic container to the side. Slowly, he draws himself up so that he’s sitting cross-legged. Erin smiles lazily.
The Secretary takes a step back.
“You know as well as I do, Jimmy,” Erin murmurs in a tone which would have been comforting coming from any other person, but -- coming from Erin -- is only capable of filling his listener with the utmost unease, his smile revealing more teeth as the Secretary hugs his data pad to his chest, “that I can only get you your guy if you show me what really happened here. I’ve seen the bodies, I’ve heard how they died, but I didn’t see it.” In a smooth motion, Erin’s standing and right in the Secretary’s face. “Pretend for a moment that all this pristine Core crap doesn’t exist. That you’re just as muddy as the rest of us. That the ashes God used to make you were the same ashes he used to make me.”
Erin reaches out and deliberately tucks one finger after another over the data pad.
A faint red light flashes against the pad of Erin’s thumb.
Erin gives a small tug. “Show me the end of their story, Jimmy.”
“Y-you don’t have clearance.” The Secretary tries to step back, but Erin follows.
Erin pulls off his sunglasses, the better for the Secretary to see him roll his eyes. “You people won’t tell me anything about yer little Reader, so I’ve no idea what it is I’m supposed to bring in. You won’t let me at all the evidence yer guy left ya afore he spirited away yer Reader. An’ yet,” Erin shakes his head, reminding the Secretary suddenly of his long-deceased mother when she’d been frustrated with him, “you people expect me an’ mine to bring ‘em in, when we’re not the least bit prepared fer what we’re up against.”
“You gave the impression that you did know exactly how to obtain both parties during our last meeting,” the Secretary states frostily. “And did you not draw up a profile of both targets as well?”
The bounty hunter snorts. “Guesswork at best, with the few clues you’ve bothered to spoon-feed us. Luce has been havin’ a grand ol’ time makin’ up their history from the time they met to the time they began their sordid love affair--”
The Secretary starts, his eyes bulging out of their sockets at the idea of the Alliance’s precious commodity having sex without being programmed.
Erin allows himself a small smile. “But me? I want to know exactly who I’m dealin’ with. So, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna give me access to all the evidence of this here crime scene, an’ you’re gonna tell the old fogies back home that I’ll bring ‘em their man within the year. An’ if they still want the girl, I’ll bring ‘er in too.”
The Secretary swallows. Part of the reason the higher members of Parliament had been reluctant to allow the Hunter brothers any access to the information regarding R. Tam’s latest sighting was due to the fact that they didn’t need anyone else taking a greater interest in the Alliance’s Reader. The captured footage of the destruction of the Maidenhead on Beaumonde had been hacked into by numerous persons on both sides of the law and all corners of the ‘Verse, who were all too interested in having an R. Tam subject for themselves. If the Alliance Parliment wasn't careful, their enemies might start connecting the dots and discover where the other forty-nine subjects of the Academy were buried. That was one secret that must not be allowed to see the light of day like Miranda had.
“You find the girl of little interest?” the Secretary at last ventures.
Erin gapes at him. “Her? But--!” Erin shakes his head to collect himself. “You’ve seen the footage, right? Of that bar fight on Beaumonde? Hell! She’s all good fun until somebody says Eta karoom na smech, and --” Erin snaps his fingers. “Party’s over!” Erin draws in several deep breaths.
As he does, the Secretary notices that all of Erin’s teeth are showing, gleaming in the early morning sun. The older man suddenly finds himself wondering if the bounty hunter doesn’t sharpen his teeth.
“I want the real thing,” Erin says, voice hushed. “I want the thrill of the hunt again, Jimmy. This guy - he’s my white whale. I get him, I get my immortality. My name’ll live forever.”
The Secretary stiffens. This time when he steps back, Erin doesn’t follow immediately after him. Casting one last glance at the brutally and annoyingly honest bounty hunter, the Secretary pulls up the data pad and jots in various codes.
A small yellow insect seems to have found a favourite new walking path as it scurries over the sleek, white surface of the back of the data pad. Though the Secretary brushes it away, the insect soon returns with all the obsession of any fly around a new toy. After a moment, the Secretary grimaces and passes the equipment to Erin.
“You’re a good man, Jimmy,” Erin says and, for the first time in their acquaintance, James Oke has the feeling that Erin Hunter isn’t joking.
He smiles faintly. “I’m too old for this.”
Erin clicks his tongue. “Jimmy, ol’boy,” his smile is full of pity, “you’re never too old to take some risks.” He looks down at the data pad, a clear dismissal. “Call you when I’m done.”
The Secretary practically runs to the entrance of the side street, desperate to get away from the vulgar crime scene. Unaware that he was playing right into Erin’s hands, as per usual.
Erin waits until the Secretary has reached his destination before holding his finger out to the little, yellow insect still crawling around on the surface of the pad. It freezes in place before flashing red exactly three times.
Erin smirks. He’d paid a pretty penny for this little itty-bitty piece of technology and, as his darling Mattie had promised, it was worth every credit.
He’d have to wait a few more minutes to return his ‘bug’ to the little matchbox it had been taken from. It had only copied seventy percent of the wished-for data. He removes his finger, and the bug starts walking in various patterns along the data pad again.
Knowing he has to look busy and because he can’t ignore his curiosity any longer, Erin focuses all of his attention on the series of crime photos detailing the damage done to the Alpha Pair.
His voice breaks as he involuntarily utters the next words. “Jesus Christ, Jayne.”
Each picture is worse than the last, and even though he’s seen the like before back when he, Luce and Jayne had hunted together, there’s something about this slaughter that is different. Jayne didn’t just slaughter these men in the heat of the moment, no. Jayne had been completely in control of himself and his emotions when he’d carved up the Alpha Pair.
This is something that Erin would never have been able to see in the Alliance laboratory where the bodies had been stripped of their clothes before being cleaned thoroughly. He hadn’t felt any fear when he’d examined them then, nothing like the chill settling upon the marrow of his bones now.
Jayne hadn’t been acting while under the thrall of the bloodlust that ran through the veins of all Isis men. He’d been controlling it.
Erin runs his tongue along the edge of his teeth. Hard enough to draw blood, which he gulps down greedily. He can't afford to give Jimmy or the guards any hint that he's afraid, or cause to doubt his abilities on this case. If Erin loses this job, it could be handed over to someone else on the Alliance's payroll, someone worse than himself, someone who isn't family, and Jayne's blood would be added to all the rest decorating Erin's hands.
Erin knows what he’s seeing here. He knows it like he knows how each kiss he shares with beautiful, ever-so-delicate Mattie is another instance where he is tempting his own fate. Any day now, he’ll press his lips against hers, taste her sweet poison, and go the way of so many of her past victims. Sometimes, it’s really hard loving a woman who gives Death a run for its money.
Which is probably why Erin is entirely sympathetic toward his blood brother.
Jayne Cobb’s in love and somebody dared to go after what was his.
Erin bites down hard on the inside of his cheek, forcing back memories of a time when his own lady love was… not threatened, per se, but terribly unhappy that she could no longer bear any children. The Doc had messed up real bad (the man really was better suited to treating animals than people) and Mattie had been heartbroken. So heartbroken that she'd tried to break things off with the love of her life. Erin hadn't reacted very well to that. The ol’ Doc still refused to treat Erin to this day, even though Erin had let the pompous fool live out of the goodness of his heart.
At least there was a bright side to this whole 'Jayne being in love' nonsense. Mattie would be happy to know her big brother was in love, even if the prospective bride made Luce look sane and fully capable of being left alone with a knife. Of course, Radiant Cobb probably wouldn’t be too happy about the war Jayne had just brought to her doorstep. Nor would she be enthusiastic about her son’s new bride. Radiant Cobb had made it very clear that there was no woman alive good enough to take up residence in the tattered remains of her boy’s heart. Sweet, dead Vera was proof of that.
Erin sighs and closes the browser window. A quick tap of the finger and he opens up a new folder. One that shows him the face of a young girl with witching eyes and tangled hair. River Tam.
With a bounty like hers, Erin had long ago memorized her face in the hopes of one day stumbling across her. The bounty’s been cancelled, has been ever since the Miranda broadcast aired, but Erin is a patient man -- he has to be with a brother like Luce and a woman like Mattie -- and it’s only a matter of time before the bounty is reactivated. Erin studies the photograph for a long while as his bug continues to download files, before finally shaking his head.
He doesn’t get what Jayne sees in the girl. She’s no Mattie, but maybe that’s the point. Mattie never needed to be rescued, even after losing her babe to a Reaver blade, but this girl clearly does. When Erin sees Jayne, he’ll ask. Hopefully, Jayne won't try to kill him. He tends to get sensitive when talking about feelings.
But, because Jayne is family, now and forever through bonds forged with blood -- the shared blood running through their veins; the blood they’ve spilled onto their hands over the years; and more importantly, the blood of loved ones left behind during i lár na hoíche -- Erin will follow Jayne down this new path. Hell, the entire Family (which has grown considerably since those dark first days on Persephone) will march after Jayne. The Prodigal Son wouldn’t take up a cause he couldn’t win. He's too smart for that. Even the littlest member of the Isis Family knows that.
Still. Jayne Cobb in love.
“An’ you said he’d only ever love you,” Erin says to a dead woman in a huge line of dead people he’d once known in that long ago other life. A cruel smile tugs at his lips. “Think he’s built her a house yet?”
Erin fights the sudden, insane urge to scream with laughter.
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Beta-Reader: Thanks go to the amazing revdorothyl.
Character/Pairings: Erin Hunter (OC); Jayne/River
Rating: R
Warnings: Post BDM. Violence of the Blue Hands and Reaver variety.
Notes: The prequel to Little Girl Lost, taking place after Miranda is exposed, and three years before Gabriel Tam sets out to find River.
Summary: As the Alliance is ripped apart at the seams, they attempt to recapture their masterpiece. The story of how Jayne Cobb and River Tam left Serenity.
Chapter Notes: (1) Meet Erin Hunter. He loves the sound of his own voice. When asked who the true love of his life is, ten times out of ten, Erin will immediately answer “myself.” After Jayne punches him in the face, Erin will always amend this answer to “my lovely better half, Mattie.”
Erin Hunter, as you’ve no doubt guessed, is also an attention whore. Woe to anyone who’s getting more than him.
(2) In this fic, “Pair” is the official terminology used by the Alliance Government to describe the Blue Hands as they always come in twos.
Chapter Seventeen
Ariel, River’s Birthday
It takes longer than Erin Hunter would have liked for the Parliament Secretary to clear away enough of the legal blue tape before Erin is finally allowed to walk past the burly Alliance army guards to view for himself the scene where two sets of Pairs met their brutal end.
There isn’t much to see.
Erin had bought new sunglasses especially for the occasion. (He would have bought a dark suit too, but Gale had forbid it, complaining that they didn’t have the funds for Erin to waste on a suit he’d only wear once. Since she did have a point, and because she’d gotten incredibly scary since Luce had knocked her up, Erin did not treat himself to a new suit.)
The eldest of the Hunter brothers stands at the edge of the quiet street that leads into the back area of the warehouse district, surveying the stained windows, the sheer amount of rust contrasting with the clean, sheer look the rest of Ariel boasts.
“Just goes to show, anytime, anywhere, everything’s built off of decay,” Erin muses, breaking character and ruining the impression he’d been going for.
The sun warming his back, Erin’s posture is straight despite one knee being ever so slightly bent, his hands on his hips, a serious look on his face and his new, shiny sunglasses hiding his gaze from the world. His dark leather bounty-hunting outfit gleams from the cleaning Erin had given it the night before (just because he can’t have a suit like any of these Alliance bitches doesn’t mean that Erin Hunter can’t and doesn’t look better than all the rest of them put together).
Beside him, the Secretary shifts uncomfortably, his face struggling to keep from adopting an expression of disgust (a trying task when dealing with any one of the Hunters, near impossible when dealing with two at the same time). Deciding that enough time has slipped by for Erin to make all the necessary observations, the Secretary delicately coughs. “Your brother couldn’t make it?”
Erin raises both hands to remove his sunglasses. For a moment, he appears briefly irritated that the Secretary talked to him, but the Secretary has only to blink and the expression has been wiped clean from Erin’s face.
Erin grins and leans in close, humour in his blue eyes. “Well, you know Luce, being one of those happily married types an’ all, decided he’d much rather be handcuffed to the bunk by Gale and molested than join us on this bee-u-ta-ful Sunday mornin’.” Erin drapes his arm around the Secretary’s shoulder. “There’s just no accountin’ for taste these days, huh, Jimmy?”
“No,” ‘Jimmy’ says dryly.
“You are a rare gem among men,” Erin says grandly, replacing his sunglasses on his face. Slowly, he pulls his hands away to place them back on his waist.
Gruffly he asks, “This the place?” He steps forward, intent on the white chalk body outlines on the ground.
“Yes,” the Secretary answers, referring to his ever-present data pad. “Alpha Pair met their end out here. We discovered the remains of Echo Pair inside Building Thirty-two.”
He leads the way into the empty warehouse where River defeated two of her dreaded Blue Hands before being taken down by the control phase uttered by Agent Anderson. The Secretary is within the doorway of the empty building when he realizes that he’s lost the bounty hunter. He turns around and briefly wonders why he’s just not surprised anymore.
Lying on the ground so that the white chalk body outline that marked where Agent Anderson of the Alpha Pair had met his end outlines Erin’s own body, Erin stares up at the blue sky. He chews loudly on a piece of fruit in his mouth, acting for all the ‘Verse as if he were lying on a hammock stretched between two trees being gently rocked by a summer breeze.
The Secretary sighs before briskly walking back towards Erin Hunter. He stops beside the other man and glares down. “Mr. Hunter?”
Erin tilts his head back to see the Secretary. He swallows and pushes his sunglasses back on his forehead. He smiles innocently as he holds up a plastic container full of roughly cut up fruit. “Pear?”
Erin’s private theory that his good friend Jimmy is actually a robot becomes more plausible when Jimmy doesn’t even twitch.
“No, thank you.” The Secretary indicates the warehouse. “Shall we?”
“There’s nothing there of interest, Jimmy. Ain’t there today an’ wasn’t there yesterday,” Erin answers, stuffing another piece of pear into his mouth. “An’ -- ‘fore you ask -- it wasn’t there the day before, either. It went with the rain.” Erin chuckles. “He came with the rain an’ he went with the rain, an’ that’s all there is to it.”
The Secretary frowns, his hand tightening on the data pad that rarely leaves his side. “Forgive me,” he says before turning to the numerous military guards around the crime scene. “You’re dismissed.” He waits until the last guard has filed out before he dares to address Erin again. “Are you incapable of capturing this vigilante despite your assertions that it would be a…” -- he referred to the data pad-- “‘a quarter piece of my mother’s carrot cake with an extra two inches of icing’?”
Erin places his empty plastic container to the side. Slowly, he draws himself up so that he’s sitting cross-legged. Erin smiles lazily.
The Secretary takes a step back.
“You know as well as I do, Jimmy,” Erin murmurs in a tone which would have been comforting coming from any other person, but -- coming from Erin -- is only capable of filling his listener with the utmost unease, his smile revealing more teeth as the Secretary hugs his data pad to his chest, “that I can only get you your guy if you show me what really happened here. I’ve seen the bodies, I’ve heard how they died, but I didn’t see it.” In a smooth motion, Erin’s standing and right in the Secretary’s face. “Pretend for a moment that all this pristine Core crap doesn’t exist. That you’re just as muddy as the rest of us. That the ashes God used to make you were the same ashes he used to make me.”
Erin reaches out and deliberately tucks one finger after another over the data pad.
A faint red light flashes against the pad of Erin’s thumb.
Erin gives a small tug. “Show me the end of their story, Jimmy.”
“Y-you don’t have clearance.” The Secretary tries to step back, but Erin follows.
Erin pulls off his sunglasses, the better for the Secretary to see him roll his eyes. “You people won’t tell me anything about yer little Reader, so I’ve no idea what it is I’m supposed to bring in. You won’t let me at all the evidence yer guy left ya afore he spirited away yer Reader. An’ yet,” Erin shakes his head, reminding the Secretary suddenly of his long-deceased mother when she’d been frustrated with him, “you people expect me an’ mine to bring ‘em in, when we’re not the least bit prepared fer what we’re up against.”
“You gave the impression that you did know exactly how to obtain both parties during our last meeting,” the Secretary states frostily. “And did you not draw up a profile of both targets as well?”
The bounty hunter snorts. “Guesswork at best, with the few clues you’ve bothered to spoon-feed us. Luce has been havin’ a grand ol’ time makin’ up their history from the time they met to the time they began their sordid love affair--”
The Secretary starts, his eyes bulging out of their sockets at the idea of the Alliance’s precious commodity having sex without being programmed.
Erin allows himself a small smile. “But me? I want to know exactly who I’m dealin’ with. So, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna give me access to all the evidence of this here crime scene, an’ you’re gonna tell the old fogies back home that I’ll bring ‘em their man within the year. An’ if they still want the girl, I’ll bring ‘er in too.”
The Secretary swallows. Part of the reason the higher members of Parliament had been reluctant to allow the Hunter brothers any access to the information regarding R. Tam’s latest sighting was due to the fact that they didn’t need anyone else taking a greater interest in the Alliance’s Reader. The captured footage of the destruction of the Maidenhead on Beaumonde had been hacked into by numerous persons on both sides of the law and all corners of the ‘Verse, who were all too interested in having an R. Tam subject for themselves. If the Alliance Parliment wasn't careful, their enemies might start connecting the dots and discover where the other forty-nine subjects of the Academy were buried. That was one secret that must not be allowed to see the light of day like Miranda had.
“You find the girl of little interest?” the Secretary at last ventures.
Erin gapes at him. “Her? But--!” Erin shakes his head to collect himself. “You’ve seen the footage, right? Of that bar fight on Beaumonde? Hell! She’s all good fun until somebody says Eta karoom na smech, and --” Erin snaps his fingers. “Party’s over!” Erin draws in several deep breaths.
As he does, the Secretary notices that all of Erin’s teeth are showing, gleaming in the early morning sun. The older man suddenly finds himself wondering if the bounty hunter doesn’t sharpen his teeth.
“I want the real thing,” Erin says, voice hushed. “I want the thrill of the hunt again, Jimmy. This guy - he’s my white whale. I get him, I get my immortality. My name’ll live forever.”
The Secretary stiffens. This time when he steps back, Erin doesn’t follow immediately after him. Casting one last glance at the brutally and annoyingly honest bounty hunter, the Secretary pulls up the data pad and jots in various codes.
A small yellow insect seems to have found a favourite new walking path as it scurries over the sleek, white surface of the back of the data pad. Though the Secretary brushes it away, the insect soon returns with all the obsession of any fly around a new toy. After a moment, the Secretary grimaces and passes the equipment to Erin.
“You’re a good man, Jimmy,” Erin says and, for the first time in their acquaintance, James Oke has the feeling that Erin Hunter isn’t joking.
He smiles faintly. “I’m too old for this.”
Erin clicks his tongue. “Jimmy, ol’boy,” his smile is full of pity, “you’re never too old to take some risks.” He looks down at the data pad, a clear dismissal. “Call you when I’m done.”
The Secretary practically runs to the entrance of the side street, desperate to get away from the vulgar crime scene. Unaware that he was playing right into Erin’s hands, as per usual.
Erin waits until the Secretary has reached his destination before holding his finger out to the little, yellow insect still crawling around on the surface of the pad. It freezes in place before flashing red exactly three times.
Erin smirks. He’d paid a pretty penny for this little itty-bitty piece of technology and, as his darling Mattie had promised, it was worth every credit.
He’d have to wait a few more minutes to return his ‘bug’ to the little matchbox it had been taken from. It had only copied seventy percent of the wished-for data. He removes his finger, and the bug starts walking in various patterns along the data pad again.
Knowing he has to look busy and because he can’t ignore his curiosity any longer, Erin focuses all of his attention on the series of crime photos detailing the damage done to the Alpha Pair.
His voice breaks as he involuntarily utters the next words. “Jesus Christ, Jayne.”
Each picture is worse than the last, and even though he’s seen the like before back when he, Luce and Jayne had hunted together, there’s something about this slaughter that is different. Jayne didn’t just slaughter these men in the heat of the moment, no. Jayne had been completely in control of himself and his emotions when he’d carved up the Alpha Pair.
This is something that Erin would never have been able to see in the Alliance laboratory where the bodies had been stripped of their clothes before being cleaned thoroughly. He hadn’t felt any fear when he’d examined them then, nothing like the chill settling upon the marrow of his bones now.
Jayne hadn’t been acting while under the thrall of the bloodlust that ran through the veins of all Isis men. He’d been controlling it.
Erin runs his tongue along the edge of his teeth. Hard enough to draw blood, which he gulps down greedily. He can't afford to give Jimmy or the guards any hint that he's afraid, or cause to doubt his abilities on this case. If Erin loses this job, it could be handed over to someone else on the Alliance's payroll, someone worse than himself, someone who isn't family, and Jayne's blood would be added to all the rest decorating Erin's hands.
Erin knows what he’s seeing here. He knows it like he knows how each kiss he shares with beautiful, ever-so-delicate Mattie is another instance where he is tempting his own fate. Any day now, he’ll press his lips against hers, taste her sweet poison, and go the way of so many of her past victims. Sometimes, it’s really hard loving a woman who gives Death a run for its money.
Which is probably why Erin is entirely sympathetic toward his blood brother.
Jayne Cobb’s in love and somebody dared to go after what was his.
Erin bites down hard on the inside of his cheek, forcing back memories of a time when his own lady love was… not threatened, per se, but terribly unhappy that she could no longer bear any children. The Doc had messed up real bad (the man really was better suited to treating animals than people) and Mattie had been heartbroken. So heartbroken that she'd tried to break things off with the love of her life. Erin hadn't reacted very well to that. The ol’ Doc still refused to treat Erin to this day, even though Erin had let the pompous fool live out of the goodness of his heart.
At least there was a bright side to this whole 'Jayne being in love' nonsense. Mattie would be happy to know her big brother was in love, even if the prospective bride made Luce look sane and fully capable of being left alone with a knife. Of course, Radiant Cobb probably wouldn’t be too happy about the war Jayne had just brought to her doorstep. Nor would she be enthusiastic about her son’s new bride. Radiant Cobb had made it very clear that there was no woman alive good enough to take up residence in the tattered remains of her boy’s heart. Sweet, dead Vera was proof of that.
Erin sighs and closes the browser window. A quick tap of the finger and he opens up a new folder. One that shows him the face of a young girl with witching eyes and tangled hair. River Tam.
With a bounty like hers, Erin had long ago memorized her face in the hopes of one day stumbling across her. The bounty’s been cancelled, has been ever since the Miranda broadcast aired, but Erin is a patient man -- he has to be with a brother like Luce and a woman like Mattie -- and it’s only a matter of time before the bounty is reactivated. Erin studies the photograph for a long while as his bug continues to download files, before finally shaking his head.
He doesn’t get what Jayne sees in the girl. She’s no Mattie, but maybe that’s the point. Mattie never needed to be rescued, even after losing her babe to a Reaver blade, but this girl clearly does. When Erin sees Jayne, he’ll ask. Hopefully, Jayne won't try to kill him. He tends to get sensitive when talking about feelings.
But, because Jayne is family, now and forever through bonds forged with blood -- the shared blood running through their veins; the blood they’ve spilled onto their hands over the years; and more importantly, the blood of loved ones left behind during i lár na hoíche -- Erin will follow Jayne down this new path. Hell, the entire Family (which has grown considerably since those dark first days on Persephone) will march after Jayne. The Prodigal Son wouldn’t take up a cause he couldn’t win. He's too smart for that. Even the littlest member of the Isis Family knows that.
Still. Jayne Cobb in love.
“An’ you said he’d only ever love you,” Erin says to a dead woman in a huge line of dead people he’d once known in that long ago other life. A cruel smile tugs at his lips. “Think he’s built her a house yet?”
Erin fights the sudden, insane urge to scream with laughter.