First Love Ch. 16 Dealing
Title: Dealing (16/?)
Series: First Love
Author: Romanceguru
Disclaimer: Joss is the boss of me.
Rating: R
Pairings: Jayne/River and all other canon.
Summary: The crew squabbles over the new job, but ultimately it’s up to River to decide. Someone’s not happy.
Notes: Don’t yell at me! I know it’s been forever and a day. I’m determined to battle my lazy muse to the end on this one. Hopefully not all interest is lost…
AN: A few months ago, I gave this story a little make over. FL was my first very venture into writing and I wanted to make the earlier chaps flow better with the later stuff. Chapters 1 & 2 got a massive edit, 3 received a middle section, 4 & 5 were combined. I also cleaned up sections here and there, mainly removing tired clichés and glossing over the cheesy stuff. Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s plenty of sap left. : )
Thanky to my goddess of a beta elsibet34!
Refresher: There’s a new job on the table, one far more dangerous than any to date. An old friend of Inara’s, Jonathan Marks, the owner of the Opera house they’ve been invited to on Osiris, has requested aid in breaking his own young daughter out of the Academy. River is key to the mission’s success as she has the most insight…
You can catch or brush up here.
The group was gathered in the small office in the back of the theater, each in their own relative state of surprise, anger or passivity at hearing the details of the new job. There was a strange quiet as the gravity of it sunk in.
“So, wait. You want River to do what?” Kaylee reeled, half believing this was some kind of joke. The mechanic turned towards the captain, her eyes wide. “How could ya even think on it?”
Mal gave Kaylee his best captainy face, but the truth was, this whole deal gave him an uncomfortableness. The only problem was, he couldn’t straight out refuse the grieving man without at least first running it by the crew, and River most importantly.
Jayne slammed his glass down, whisky sloshing down the sides and all over the expensive side-table. “No ruttin’ way is this happening! Yer out of yer gorram mind, Mal. The guy’s moneyed up plenty. He can buy someone else their coffin.”
“Look. Nothing’s writ in stone just yet.” Mal defended. There’s no need to go get your panties in a jumble ‘fore you‘ve heard all the particulars.”
“The place is a fortress. Possibly even more so now that they’ve had an escapee. Not to mention the psychological repercussions of having River return to that place. I have to agree with the others in saying that this is not your best idea ever.” Simon censured.
Mal looked exasperated. “It ain’t even my contact. I’m just as new to this as you. That said, I’d think if anyone here could empathize with the situation, it’d be you. What if them under road…”
“Underground.” Simon corrected.
“…Folks had turned a blind eye to your plight? What then?” Mal finished.
Simon drew silent, his lack of response conceding the captain’s point.
Inara laid a reassuring hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I’m the last one that would ever wish River harmed. I would have never suggested to Jonathan that we could somehow help had I not believed…”
“So this was yer ruttin’ idea, ‘Nara? Jayne interrupted, glaring at the companion from across the small space. “Ni men dou shi sha gua. Day keeps on gettin’ better and better!”
Keeping her composure, Inara tried to defend her reasoning. “I only wanted to help quell the animosity brewing. Bring a sense of normalcy back. Finding work has always united this family in the past… I was just trying to help.” She summed up dejectedly.
“Well thanks, but no thanks.” Jayne snapped. “Them folks are the same ones that cut up her brainpan, made her all screwy, an’ you wanna send her back there?” Downing the rest of his drink, he sucked in a sharp breath before announcing firmly, “She ain’t doin’ it.”
“This ain’t a democracy, Jayne.” Mal asserted.
“Yeah. It’s more like a dictatorship.” Wash put in.
Zoe shot her husband a look. “Baby, now’s not the time.”
Wash threw his hands up in the air. “Why tian xiao de not? Why is it that I never get a say in these little pow wows? After all, they usually end up putting mine or somebody’s life I love in peril.”
“Looks to be River’s the only one in peril.” Jayne declared acrimoniously. “And I’m scratching my head as to why you’d all be throwing her into the path of it!”
“Remember a time when you where plenty fine doing just that.” Mal snarked.
“Gorramit, Mal! I’ve had enough…”
“Stop! Please, stop. Have my own voice. Not invisible.”
Everyone turned towards River, who stepped away from the corner from which she had been silently observing the catfight and walked over to Jonathan, kneeling before him. The man had his head down, wearily pinching the bridge of his nose amongst the chaos.
As she touched his shoulder, he looked up at her with heavy eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” He began regretfully.
“No. Did what you had to.” She smiled at the tired man sympathetically. “Love is….love is…is… binding…bonding.” Stuttering her words, River shook her head to make them clear, to make them come as she saw them. Except there was a blinding rush of pain all at once, and the words became lost, unimportant. “There is hurt...it hurts!” She cried out, furling into a little ball.
River frantically closed herself off from the light, trying to contain the scratching as it echoed in her ears. Sharp pricks of pain seared just beneath her scalp, making her dizzy.
The intensity of it worsened in her dark cocoon, blaring red static blocking her away from everyone and everything.
“River?” Simon’s voice was panicked as he knelt beside his sister, trying to pry her hands off of her ears. “Mei mei, look at me. I need to check your pupils.”
“What’s the matter with her? She gonna be alright?” Jayne was now standing over them both, a look of concern etched in his brow.
“Is she ever alright?” Simon exasperated. “Just help me get her up, ok?”
The merc stood there dumfounded at the sight of River acting the same way she did before he started giving a damn. He remembered looking away plenty from that sort of mess, simply passing it off as not his problem. Only it was his problem now, wasn’t it?
Snapping into action, he bent down he scooped the ball of River up, asking, “Where too, Doc?”
Inara looked around and grabbed a hanky, dousing it with water before pressing the cool cloth to River’s forehead as Simon directed Jayne back to Serenity for the time being.
“If you will.” A paled Jonathan spoke up. “We have an excellent medical facility just down the way, in the old town. First rate.”
Simon pondered this a moment while Mal spoke up. “I’m thinking that won’t be necessary. Alliance hospital ain’t the wisest a port of harbor. I’m not so sure River’s off the radar just yet.”
“Well, if you need anything. Anything at all…”
“We’ll be sure an’ drum up your assistance that time comes.” Mal nodded to the man as the crew filed their way out of the office. Passing the nursing duties off to Kaylee, Inara lingered behind.
Picking a capture off of Jonathan’s desk, Inara’s eyes washed over the image. A small blonde child smiled back at her blissfully. The young girl’s innocence was haunting. Inara looked up apologetically at the girl’s father. “I…It seems I misjudged…”
“Inara, please, don’t beat yourself up.”
The companion smiled to mask her shame, wondering if she should even return to Serenity at all.
---
Jayne lifted, stacked and moved things around, having rearranged the stock in the cargo bay at least five times by now. He was sweaty, tired and numb, too exhausted to think on anything, and that’s the way he preferred it.
While he was busy being blank, he heard cautious footsteps approach him from behind. Without turning, he knew who it was. He could recognize those fancy-soled shoes anywhere.
Simon cleared his throat. “She’s stable. You can go and see her now.”
Jayne ignored him as he heaved a sack of dried goods into a storage bin, grunting in the process.
The doctor just stood there, staring at Jayne’s back as he continued to work and let out a sigh of resignation before turning away.
Interrupting the silence, Jayne’s voice was thick with concern. “She fixed?”
Simon paused at the hatchway, “For now.” He answered simply. He wanted to lecture him, tell him this is what happens when you decide to be with someone. Especially someone like River. But the fight was weak in him. I told you so seemed ill-fitting.
Wiping the back of his hand over his brow, Simon sounded aged beyond his years. “Just go to her. She hasn’t stopped asking for you since she became lucid.” Simon hesitated before adding, “I’ve given up trying to understand why, but she loves you. I’ve never been a hundred percent sure on anything when it comes to my sister, but of that I’m certain.”
Jayne nodded his head solemnly. There was a constant pressing in the back of his mind, one that said he deserved none of it. Her or her giving a shit.
He didn’t know if what he was feeling was love. Half the time he felt high and the other half like someone had torn his gorram insides out and lit them on fire. It was a lot to handle for someone who’d spent his entire life avoiding feeling much of anything.
After a moment, Jayne relented. “Tell her I’ll be in. Want ta clean up some. Smell like someone’s ass.”
Simon couldn’t help but smile at the man’s simple truth. “Yes, you do.”
---
When Jayne entered the infirmary a while later, he found River sitting up and talking with Kaylee about some girly stuff he didn’t want to pay no heed to. Sheepishly, he hung back at the doorway until they both stopped to look at him.
A smile broke across River’s face, one that could soften the meanest of men and he remembered in that instant why it was he fell in the first place.
Kaylee expression was less forgiving. “It’s about damn time. What’s so pressin’ that it can’t wait tell the ‘morrow?” When Jayne said nothing, Kaylee turned back to River and moved to kiss her forehead. “Feel better, sweetie. I‘ll bring ya down something good to munch on in a bit. Well, good as the same ole stuff goes.”
River smiled back at her, but said nothing, her eyes skirting to Jayne, waiting patiently for him to come to her.
Kaylee stopped and looked up at Jayne on her way out, chastising him further. “Next time, you can do good ta show a little concern. You know, like being there.” Before Jayne could come back with something, (he didn’t have anything really; she was right) she sauntered off in that sassy way that rubbed it in further.
He had been avoiding. Truth was, sometimes he didn’t know how to react to this sort of thing, worrying about someone beside himself.
“I’m not mad.” River stated flatly. Her pretty gown had been replaced with a simple, pale blue nightdress. “They think I might become irrational and feel abandoned by you.”
“You don’t?” Jayne moved to sit on the bed, facing River. “Been messin’ up more’n not. You sure ya want at keep me around?
“You’re imperfect.” River shrugged her shoulders. “We all are. Can’t make people do as we wish. Not puppets.” Lowering her voice, River continued, “They tried to make me dance. Couldn’t. Tangled the strings.”
“Yeah, well, I guess they didn’t take in account your unpredictable nature.”
River grinned mischievously. “I defy convention.”
Jayne was more staid when he spoke next. “You went crazy for a spell, thought maybe them Reaver’s might turn up again.”
River was no longer smiling, the seriousness in her expression beyond intimidating. “I can’t let them hurt. They’re screaming inside. Broken, battered and reassembled. You know it has to be.”
Jayne sighed, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. “If yer heart-set on goin’, I reckon I can’t stop ya. But it’s gotta be done right, dong ma? Need ta have me at your back.”
Relaxing some at his acquiescence, River reached out and touched Jayne’s face tenderly. “Can’t come along. Best interests can cloud judgment. Won’t shoot straight.”
Before Jayne could began to protest, count off a million and one scraps he’d survived through, River leaned forward and kissed him, forcing him to swallow his objections. Her strong arms pulled him to her as she lay back, and he followed, willing.
He found his hands itching to do sinful things when her kiss deepened to something more suggestive, egging him on. Just as it was getting hot and heavy, River pulled away. “Someone’s coming. Captain someone.”
Jayne’s face scrunched up in puzzlement. “How’d…”
Just then, Mal walked in, his comment just winning his physical manifestation as he peeked through the med-bay window.
“Dammit, Jayne. There a reason you feel the need put your relations on public display? You got your own bunk. Use it.”
Forgetting about the girl’s sudden influx of mind reading powers, Jayne could hardly believe that the captain was saying what he was saying as he pushed himself off of her. The man had been against the idea of them from the start. This change in behavior made him downright suspicious.
“Now, wait a tick.” Jayne squinted his eyes skeptically. “Yer tellin’ me that yer okay with the idea of me and her rutting like two dogs in heat?”
“Well, since you worded it so attractively.” Mal smiled that fake smile he got when something amused him. “I’m sure River here’s just jumping at the opportunity to bed you now.”
“We could also use my bunk.” River suggested keenly, unfazed by Mal’s sarcasm.
Jayne turned back to her and waggled his eyebrows. “So, ya wanna?”
“Hold up. I wasn’t exactly meanin’ now, this minute.” Mal protested. “More like in the very distant and faraway future. When River’s a nice, ripe, middle age.”
“Too late. Insinuation has opened the flood gates to impure thoughts.” River pointed out dryly.
Mal snorted. “Hate to break it to ya, sweetheart, but Jayne’s gate has been broke for some time now.”
“Was talking about me.”
“Yeah, right.” Mal amended. He shivered at the way the girl was looking at his merc, not even wanting to know what a mind like that worked up on a good day, let alone one that was filled with thoughts of sex. With Jayne.
“What needs to be said can wait. I’m just gonna…” Backing up, Mal smacked into Simon’s crash cart, causing the metal to clamor loudly. “I need to see if I can’t…not be here.” He finished lamely.
When the captain had gone, River turned her attention to Jayne. “He’s nervous. Thinks I’m growing up too fast.”
Jayne got that far away look on his face as he tried to piece two and two together. That was three times now she‘d done that. Letting on what folk were thinking and doing.
“Are you seein’ things again, girl? Thought you was cured from that?”
“Comes and a goes. Always will.” River answered simply as if she had accepted her fate. “Modifications are irreversible.”
Jayne smiled mischievously, making good use of the moment. “Can you make out what I’m thinkin’ now?”
“Potatoes and peach cream pie?” She looked adorable just then, confused by her own answer.
“Well, there’s that.” Jayne admitted.
River smiled proudly as she saw herself in his eyes, as she was, but better. “And me.”
“Yep, you.” Jayne looked deep into River’s eyes, knowing all that needed to be said, she already knew.
“Can’t have dessert before dinner. Wouldn’t be polite.” She was teasing him now, being coy. Except he could feel that something had changed, that she was as ready as he was.
Scooping River up in his arms, sheet and all, Jayne stood, pondering the closest port of harbor. “Yeah, well I’m starving. ‘Sides, never been much on manners. Spoils the fun of bein’ the loudest and meanest.”
“You’re not as mean as you think. Teddy bear.”
The merc acted put out from the insult to his manhood. “Is that how it’s gonna be, now?”
River bit her lip as she smiled, daring him with her eyes.
Jayne smirked impishly. “Well, then, I’m jus’ gonna have ta prove ya wrong.”
As they headed to her bunk, ‘cause it was nearest, River pondered aloud, “Did you know the female preying mantis rips her partners head off while mating?”
“That so?” Jayne asked, too busy being distracted by happy thoughts of what was to come.
“I won’t do that. To you.” She whispered sweetly in his ear as he slid open her door and shut it behind them.
As he lay her on the bed, ready to disrobe, Wash’s voice drifted through the ship like a clumsy voyeur interrupting the mood. “Um, attention ladies and gents. We have a visitor asking to board. Say’s she’s Simon and River’s mother. Are we pretending not to be home?”
TBC…
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Chinese:
Ni men dou shi sha gua. - Idiots. All of you.
Tian xiao de - in the name of all that’s sacred
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