Sallie, back in the bar.

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie is stuck.

Rutting stuck in a gorram arm cast for four to six gorram weeksAnd she has to go back to Milliways. Home was easy enough, though the gentler way her employees treated her pissed her off to no end. Skouris' expression her first day home never changed, and when Sallie thanks him for it she calls him Peter

Comments

[makesmeatease]

Inara was sipping tea. Emphasis on was.

Now she's pointing at Sallie's wrist going :O

[realmrsreynolds]

"Shut your mouth, child; a fly'll land in there."

[makesmeatease]

"Sallie." Inara scowls but shuts her mouth. "What happened to your wrist?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"Surgery."

Sallie won't lie to Inara.

She will just...be taciturn.

Malcolm had to learn it from someone.

[makesmeatease]

"What did you do to it?" Inara stands, her bracelets tinkling, skirts rustling. "And--" Another scowl. "Why are you at work?"

[realmrsreynolds]

"I didn't do anything to it, Inara and I will work when and where and how I please."

She's just concerned, Sallie reminds herself two or three times.

"Wrist replacement. Got old."

[makesmeatease]

Inara glances down, properly chastised. Sallie is a strong and perfectly capable woman. She doesn't need Inara hovering.

But she's also her mother-in-law. So Inara feels like she needs to hover sometimes.

"Oh, okay. Well. I'm sure it won't be long before you get the cast off, if you're careful."

[realmrsreynolds]

"'Bout a month and a half. Rehab takes a little longer, but hopefully it'll fly by."

Hopes and prayers, don't you know.

"Malcolm don't know yet, so don't go off at him about it til I can talk to him, hmm?"

[makesmeatease]

"Are you going to talk to him?" Inara asks before she even...thinks about what she's saying. Too late now~ "I mean, seems to me he'd make a big deal out of it and not let you get up for the whole month and a half."

[realmrsreynolds]

Sallie winces from her spot behind the bar.

"Wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but he should probably know since it'll effect 'im eventually."

[makesmeatease]

"I can tell him. And then not let him in the bar for about a week."

OR TRY.

[realmrsreynolds]

"So I can get ten million waves to the house? No thank you, dear. I'll be a big girl about it, I promise."

Sallie looks down at the bartop, debating something.

"I sold one of the outlying properties to pay for it."

[makesmeatease]

"If it's what you needed, it had to be done." Inara shrugs, leaning against the bartop to study her mother-in-law. "You don't do things idly, Sallie."

[realmrsreynolds]

"He'll see it as me not wantin' to let him help."

[makesmeatease]

"Mal sees things the way he wants to see them, no matter what the truth is." Inara murmurs softly, looking down.

Just like the Kaylee situation.

[realmrsreynolds]

"What is it."

Because like hell is a look like that across Inara's face if Malcolm hasn't done something objectionable.