DW/FF crossover fic: The Engineer's Gift (9/21)
Title: The Engineer’s Gift
Author: shan21non
Rating: PG-13
Beta Readers: buffyaddict13 and inkhand, who are the best!
Warnings: Swearing in Mandarin!
Pairings: Ten/Rose, Mal/Inara, a bit of Simon/Kaylee
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who or Firefly. How is that fair?
Summary: When the Doctor takes a wrong turn, he and Rose find themselves aboard Serenity. Confusion, explosions, mystery, romance, and adventure ensue!
Chapter one Chapter two Chapter three Chapter four Chapter five Chapter six Chapter seven Chapter eight
A/N: Oh my god LJ, never do that to me again! I’ve been trying to post for days, but I’ve been unable to do anything, including reply to comments. I’m giving this my best shot. *fingers crossed*
CHAPTER NINE
One thing that came as a surprise to Simon when he joined the crew of Serenity, was the inordinate amount of d owntime on a smuggling ship. Like now, for instance, in the journey between pickup and drop-off of cargo. Mal said that they wouldn’t arrive on Paquin for another 24 hours, so in the meantime, Simon had little to do but sit and wait.
He always assumed that a life of crime would involve a lot more excitement of the running-for-your-life variety, but the truth was that it actually involved a lot more sitting-around-waiting-for-the-next-job time. In fact, as doctor, Simon felt like the least useful member of the crew. Every once in a while, someone was shot or beaten, but for the most part, his talents were wasted.
So now, having nothing to do, Simon found his thoughts occupied by the Doctor and River. The man was certainly odd, but compared to River, his eccentricities were negligible. If Simon could talk to him, get some more information about what was done to him and how he had recovered, then maybe there was some hope that his sister could one day lead a normal life. The stranger was, after all, a doctor. Surely he could give a qualified medical opinion.
His mind made up, Simon emerged from his room in the early morning hours in search of the Doctor. Finding the guest room was empty, he ventured further into the ship. The cargo bay was vacant save for a meditating Shepherd Book, so Simon slipped past him without a sound. He climbed the steps, and turned toward the sound of voices in the kitchen.
“No! You’re kidding me!” he heard a female voice laugh.
Turning the corner into the kitchen revealed Rose at the sink, grinning widely at none other than Jayne.
“Dead serious! So there I am, pants around my ankles, armed with nothin’ but a-”
“A teaspoon!” Rose guffawed.
“It weren’t funny at the time!” Jayne groused, but he was smiling at the blond.
“Oh my God, how did you get out of there? I mean, that woman-”
“Had the keys to my gorram hovercraft! I know!” Jayne finished.
Rose burst into laughter again, leaning back against the sink for support. She slipped a little, and as she turned to right herself, she noticed Simon standing in the doorway.
“Doctor Tam!” she greeted him.
“Simon,” he corrected her offhandedly. He was staring at the two of them, slightly dumbstruck that they appeared to be getting on so well.
“Jayne was just telling me the funniest story,” Rose explained.
Simon raised his eyebrows.
“Apparently.”
He stepped further into the room, and noticed that Rose’s arms were covered in a thin layer of soapy foam up to her elbows. He frowned, and peered over her shoulder at the sink full of water.
“Jayne, isn’t it your day to do the dishes?” he admonished.
Jayne’s eyes went wide.
“She wanted to do it!” he insisted.
Rose nodded.
“I just want to make myself useful. You know, it’s the least I can do to repay you all for saving the Doctor.”
Simon sighed.
“Yes, thank you Jayne, for your medical expertise,” he said under his breath.
“You can stay permanently, far as I’m concerned. Doc, she made a omelet outta mostly protein mush and a single old chicken egg that was the best damn thing I had in years,” Jayne announced.
“The trick is to add a splash of water. Makes the eggs fluffy,” Rose revealed.
She turned back to the sink and buried her hands in the soapy water once more.
“Rose, do you know where the Doctor is?” Simon asked, remembering his purpose.
Curiously, Rose’s shoulders tensed.
“Uh, no actually. I-I haven’t seen him since last night,” she stammered.
Simon paused, staring at her back for a moment, as if that would explain why she sounded so out of sorts. When no such explanation materialized, he shrugged.
“Right, well, I’ll just keep looking.”
“Okay!” Rose called over the sound of swishing water and clinking plates.
Jayne grunted and turned back to his audience.
“So anyways, there I was, pants around my ankles, teaspoon at the ready, and there’s a knock at the door.”
Simon never discovered who was at the door, because he had already left the room. It was then that he heard the man he was looking for. The Doctor’s voice rang out from the engine room.
“So you rerouted the G-line around the graft couplings to brace them?”
“Yup!” Kaylee’s voice replied.
Simon walked towards the voices as the Doctor replied.
“Oh, that is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! You are a mechanical genius, Kaylee Frye, and coming from me, that’s saying something.”
“I don’t know about all that. It just sorta made sense ‘cause of the way the copper piping has that little S-curve,” Kaylee said.
Simon smiled. All of that mechanical jargon meant nothing to him, but he didn’t need to understand it to know that Kaylee was a brilliant mechanic.
“Oh! Simon! Hi!” Kaylee said, waving to him as he came into view.
He waved back and entered the room, but before he could say anything, the Doctor started up again. Simon noted that, for some reason, the man was barefoot. He crouched over the rotating engine, examining each piece closely through a pair of spectacles.
“But don’t you see, Kaylee? That’s the genius of it! No one else would look at that little S-curve and see anything other than an inconvenience, but you, you brilliant woman, you see an opportunity to solve the problem with the couplings! This entire engine is a testament to your ingenuity.”
Kaylee blushed scarlet at the high praise, but couldn’t quite hide her grin.
“It weren’t nothin’,” she mumbled.
Simon smiled again at her modesty. As amazing as Kaylee was at her job, what made her truly special was her complete humility. And her innocence. And her kindness. And her humor.
“That’s exactly what Beethoven would have said-well, did say, actually. Ordinary people look at a piano, and they see a bunch of white and black keys, but to Beethoven, they just made sense. He saw the movement of his fingers before he touched the keys, he heard the music in his mind, and he just played.”
Simon wasn’t sure if Kaylee even knew who Beethoven was, but by the looks of her, she might just burst if the Doctor heaped any more praise on her. Kaylee beamed at the Doctor and the Doctor beamed right back at her. The smile slid off Simon’s face.
“Mind you, he did go a bit overboard,” the Doctor went on. “When he composed Für Elise, I said, ‘Ludwig, why not just write her a love letter? Why must everything be a sonata or a bagatelle? Elise gets it, okay? Nobody likes a showoff.’ But it was all, ‘Music of the heart’ and so on.”
Kaylee laughed.
“I’d like to hear that song,” she said.
“Oh, have you not?” the Doctor asked. Kaylee blushed and shook her head. “Well, that simply won’t do. I’ll pull it up for you later. I’m sure we can find a recording of it on the Cortex.”
The thought of the Doctor and Kaylee huddled together around a monitor, listening to romantic music did something strange to Simon’s heart rate. Clearing his throat, he spoke a little more loudly than was strictly necessary.
“Kaylee, would you mind if I steal the Doctor away for a while? I have some medical questions for him.”
Kaylee looked like she had just been awoken from a daydream. She blinked a few times before focusing her eyes on Simon, almost as if she’d forgotten he was there.
“Oh! Sure, of course. Sorry,” she said. “I need to eat breakfast anyway.”
“Doctor?” Simon prompted.
The Doctor straightened up and folded his glasses carefully in his suit pocket.
“Lead the way!” he said cheerfully.
Simon knew that the Doctor hadn’t done anything wrong, but he walked down to the med bay without throwing a backward glance at the man. It wasn’t until he entered the infirmary that he finally turned around to see the Doctor glancing uncertainly down the hall to the guest rooms.
“Something wrong?” Simon asked.
“Er, no.” The Doctor paused, then spoke again. “Say, have you seen Rose this morning?”
“Yes. In the kitchen with Jayne a few minutes ago. Why?” Simon replied.
The Doctor looked relieved.
“No reason. I’m just going to go retrieve a few things from our room. Carry on and I’ll be back before you can say ‘the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.’”
“What?” Simon asked, but the Doctor was already gone.
With a shrug, the young doctor busied himself pulling out all of the data he had on River. He placed the CT scans of her brain on the light box and laid out the binders he’d filled with his medical notes across the countertops. He accessed the data stick from the 3D neuro-imaging scan they’d done on Ariel and projected the results into the small projection field beside the exam chair.
“I’m back!” the Doctor announced. He now wore shoes, and his brown tie was one more firmly knotted around his neck.
Simon took a deep breath and began.
“This is all of the data I’ve compiled on my sister; what was done to her, and its effects. I’m hoping you might be able to shed some light on…”
He trailed off, unsure of exactly what he wanted to ask. I’m hoping you might be able to shed some light on how badly they hurt her? On how far gone she is? On whether she’ll ever be normal again?
The Doctor stepped next to Simon and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said earnestly.
Simon nodded and stood back as the Doctor worked. He was amazed at the frenetic way the man flitted from document to document, pouring over each ounce of data like a detective with a magnifying glass. Simon could sense that the Doctor’s brain was whirring as he moved, his mind piecing together data that took Simon years to assemble. Every now and then, the Doctor would ask him for clarification or additional information, but for the most part, he worked silently.
After about an hour, the Doctor stood and stretched.
“I’m going to need a bit longer to process everything, Simon. Why don’t you take a break and clear your head a little. Find that mechanic of yours. She’s a good distraction.”
Simon frowned.
“What? Kaylee’s not-she isn’t-she’s not mine,” he stuttered.
“Are you sure? She couldn’t stop talking about you,” the Doctor said.
“Really?” Simon asked, unable to help himself.
The Doctor tried and failed to hide a smirk.
“Got a bit tedious, really. Thank goodness she decided to show me the engine room. A conversation change was in order.”
Simon cleared his throat.
“Yes, well, I’ll check back later?”
“Shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll find you when I’m done,” the Doctor said dismissively.
Simon acquiesced. He made his way to the cargo bay and it was there that he found ‘his mechanic.’ Kaylee was lying on her stomach next to Rose. The two of them were huddled around something on the floor, examining it so closely that neither of them noticed his entrance.
“She’s actually sorta cute,” Kaylee said.
“Who’s cute?” Simon asked.
Kaylee sat up quickly.
“Hi, Simon,” she said.
Rose gave a friendly wave, which he returned.
“Did the Doctor help you with your medical questions?” Kaylee asked.
“He’s working on it. Who’s cute?” he repeated.
“Harriet,” Kaylee said, gesturing at the floor.
He stepped closer and peered at the ground. Between the girls was a small green insect. It looked a bit like an oversized ant.
“It’s a bug,” he said.
Rose scooped the bug off the ground and cradled it in her hands.
“Actually, she’s an assassin beetle,” she corrected.
“She looks like an ant,” Simon noted.
“She’s still a nymph. She’ll be developing into an adult soon, the Doctor said.”
“She’s our new pet!” Kaylee announced.
Simon frowned.
“I didn’t know you could keep a beetle as a pet,” he admitted.
“You can with this one,” Rose assured him.
“She likes people, Simon,” Kaylee explained. “It’s the truth! I met Rose in the kitchen and there Harriet was, hidin’ behind the toaster. Then we came down here to play jacks and a little while later, who do we find?”
“Harriet?” Simon guessed.
“Harriet! She followed us down here!” Kaylee said excitedly. “So we moved a bit ‘cause we didn’t wanna smush her when we played jacks, but she just kept scuttling along, followin’ us wherever we went. She likes us!”
“She has good taste,” Rose commented, gently stroking the bug’s back.
To Simon’s surprise, the creature seemed perfectly content at the human contact. He frowned again.
“Is there a hole in one of the crates?”
“Nope. The Doctor found a single survivor from the burnt crate. She’s it,” Rose replied.
“Say, Simon, can you hold her for a bit? She keeps gettin' in the way of jacks and Rose was winnin’ what we left off,” Kaylee asked sweetly.
Simon chuckled.
“Of course.”
He allowed Rose to transfer the tiny bug into his hands, and contented himself with watching the two young women enjoy their game. He couldn’t help smiling along with Kaylee whenever she scored a point. Occasionally he stroked Harriet’s back, which made the beetle pause her constant pacing to and fro across his palm.
He wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed when the Doctor emerged.
“Simon, I’ve finished-oh! Rose. Hello.”
He froze halfway across the room, staring at his companion with wide eyes.
“Hello Doctor,” Rose said, somewhat formally. “I see you located your shoes.”
The Doctor’s face seemed suddenly flushed, and he struggled to reply.
“Yes, I uh, I found them. And… and now they’re on. My feet. So… Good. That.”
Rose rolled her eyes.
“Doctor, you haven’t met our new pet,” Kaylee said.
The Doctor’s eyebrows rose in interest.
That seemed to bring Rose out of her funk, because she smirked and stood.
“Yes. Let me introduce the two of you,” she said.
She held out her hands, and Simon transferred the creature to her. Then she held it up for the Doctor to see.
“Doctor, please meet Harriet Jones: Beetle.”
For reasons that Simon didn’t understand, Rose’s words caused the Doctor to emit a loud guffaw.
“Oh, Rose, really?” he said when he’d stopped laughing.
“Well we would’ve done Raxacoricofallapatorius, but Kaylee had some pronunciation difficulties,” she replied.
If possible, his grin grew even wider, but Simon was eager to hear the Doctor’s findings, and couldn’t stop himself from interrupting the happy moment.
“Should we return to the exam room, Doctor?” he prompted.
“Yes, of course,” the Doctor said, pulling his attention from Rose with some difficulty.
They moved towards the doorway but Kaylee’s voice stopped them.
“River, where’ve you been?” the mechanic asked.
Simon turned his head around in time to see his sister pull out a long carving knife. To his horror, she pulled her arm back and sent it soaring towards Rose. The blade cut a neat line through the air and sunk directly into Rose’s outstretched hand. The blond let out a surprised shriek and fell to her knees.
The Doctor was at her side in an instant, pulling off his jacket and wrapping it around her hand to stem the flow of blood.
“Don’t remove the knife yet!” Simon shouted, running towards his sister.
River thrashed wildly as he locked his arms around her.
“LITTLE SPIES! SOON THEY’LL BE EVERYWHERE!” she screamed.
“River, stop it! What did you do?!” Simon shouted over her, squeezing as tightly as he could.
Simon vaguely registered that the rest of the was crew flooding into the cargo bay, demanding answers, which Kaylee fielded as best she could through her tears. Simon’s attention, however, was consumed by his sister.
She was completely incoherent now, thrashing in his arms. As soon as the screaming stopped, she began laughing, a mad cackle. Then she started to recite a poem.
"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly; "'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.
It wasn’t anything Simon had heard before, and River spoke very quickly, her voice rising to a maniacal pitch at random points in her recitation. Whatever it lacked in presentation, its overall effect was no less eerie.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair, And I have many curious things to show when you are there."
Mal and Jayne approached them now, Mal taking River’s arms and Jayne her legs.
"Oh no, no," said the little fly; "to ask me is in vain, For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
The two larger men managed to hold her down, freeing him to run to the med bay for a tranquilizer. When he got there, he recognized the Doctor’s presence and realized that he must have carried Rose down at some point after River’s attack. Neither man attempted to start up a conversation, however. Simon grabbed what he was looking for and dashed back upstairs.
When he burst into the cargo bay, River was just finishing her poem.
Thinking only of her crested head. Poor, foolish thing! at last
Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast; He dragged her up his winding stair, into the dismal den - Within his little parlor - BUT SHE NE’ER CAME OUT AGAIN!
Simon drove the needle into River’s arm, and she promptly passed out.
End Notes: So, there’s a cliffhanger for ya! Don’t hate me?
For those of you who don’t know, the poem that River recited is called “The Spider and the Fly.” It was written by a woman named Mary Howitt as sort of a twist on a Lewis Carroll poem, and it is incredibly creepy. You can find both poems here, if you’re interested: http://www.wussu.com/poems/lctlq.htm
Click on to chapter ten!
Author: shan21non
Rating: PG-13
Beta Readers: buffyaddict13 and inkhand, who are the best!
Warnings: Swearing in Mandarin!
Pairings: Ten/Rose, Mal/Inara, a bit of Simon/Kaylee
Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who or Firefly. How is that fair?
Summary: When the Doctor takes a wrong turn, he and Rose find themselves aboard Serenity. Confusion, explosions, mystery, romance, and adventure ensue!
Chapter one Chapter two Chapter three Chapter four Chapter five Chapter six Chapter seven Chapter eight
A/N: Oh my god LJ, never do that to me again! I’ve been trying to post for days, but I’ve been unable to do anything, including reply to comments. I’m giving this my best shot. *fingers crossed*
CHAPTER NINE
One thing that came as a surprise to Simon when he joined the crew of Serenity, was the inordinate amount of d owntime on a smuggling ship. Like now, for instance, in the journey between pickup and drop-off of cargo. Mal said that they wouldn’t arrive on Paquin for another 24 hours, so in the meantime, Simon had little to do but sit and wait.
He always assumed that a life of crime would involve a lot more excitement of the running-for-your-life variety, but the truth was that it actually involved a lot more sitting-around-waiting-for-the-next-job time. In fact, as doctor, Simon felt like the least useful member of the crew. Every once in a while, someone was shot or beaten, but for the most part, his talents were wasted.
So now, having nothing to do, Simon found his thoughts occupied by the Doctor and River. The man was certainly odd, but compared to River, his eccentricities were negligible. If Simon could talk to him, get some more information about what was done to him and how he had recovered, then maybe there was some hope that his sister could one day lead a normal life. The stranger was, after all, a doctor. Surely he could give a qualified medical opinion.
His mind made up, Simon emerged from his room in the early morning hours in search of the Doctor. Finding the guest room was empty, he ventured further into the ship. The cargo bay was vacant save for a meditating Shepherd Book, so Simon slipped past him without a sound. He climbed the steps, and turned toward the sound of voices in the kitchen.
“No! You’re kidding me!” he heard a female voice laugh.
Turning the corner into the kitchen revealed Rose at the sink, grinning widely at none other than Jayne.
“Dead serious! So there I am, pants around my ankles, armed with nothin’ but a-”
“A teaspoon!” Rose guffawed.
“It weren’t funny at the time!” Jayne groused, but he was smiling at the blond.
“Oh my God, how did you get out of there? I mean, that woman-”
“Had the keys to my gorram hovercraft! I know!” Jayne finished.
Rose burst into laughter again, leaning back against the sink for support. She slipped a little, and as she turned to right herself, she noticed Simon standing in the doorway.
“Doctor Tam!” she greeted him.
“Simon,” he corrected her offhandedly. He was staring at the two of them, slightly dumbstruck that they appeared to be getting on so well.
“Jayne was just telling me the funniest story,” Rose explained.
Simon raised his eyebrows.
“Apparently.”
He stepped further into the room, and noticed that Rose’s arms were covered in a thin layer of soapy foam up to her elbows. He frowned, and peered over her shoulder at the sink full of water.
“Jayne, isn’t it your day to do the dishes?” he admonished.
Jayne’s eyes went wide.
“She wanted to do it!” he insisted.
Rose nodded.
“I just want to make myself useful. You know, it’s the least I can do to repay you all for saving the Doctor.”
Simon sighed.
“Yes, thank you Jayne, for your medical expertise,” he said under his breath.
“You can stay permanently, far as I’m concerned. Doc, she made a omelet outta mostly protein mush and a single old chicken egg that was the best damn thing I had in years,” Jayne announced.
“The trick is to add a splash of water. Makes the eggs fluffy,” Rose revealed.
She turned back to the sink and buried her hands in the soapy water once more.
“Rose, do you know where the Doctor is?” Simon asked, remembering his purpose.
Curiously, Rose’s shoulders tensed.
“Uh, no actually. I-I haven’t seen him since last night,” she stammered.
Simon paused, staring at her back for a moment, as if that would explain why she sounded so out of sorts. When no such explanation materialized, he shrugged.
“Right, well, I’ll just keep looking.”
“Okay!” Rose called over the sound of swishing water and clinking plates.
Jayne grunted and turned back to his audience.
“So anyways, there I was, pants around my ankles, teaspoon at the ready, and there’s a knock at the door.”
Simon never discovered who was at the door, because he had already left the room. It was then that he heard the man he was looking for. The Doctor’s voice rang out from the engine room.
“So you rerouted the G-line around the graft couplings to brace them?”
“Yup!” Kaylee’s voice replied.
Simon walked towards the voices as the Doctor replied.
“Oh, that is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! You are a mechanical genius, Kaylee Frye, and coming from me, that’s saying something.”
“I don’t know about all that. It just sorta made sense ‘cause of the way the copper piping has that little S-curve,” Kaylee said.
Simon smiled. All of that mechanical jargon meant nothing to him, but he didn’t need to understand it to know that Kaylee was a brilliant mechanic.
“Oh! Simon! Hi!” Kaylee said, waving to him as he came into view.
He waved back and entered the room, but before he could say anything, the Doctor started up again. Simon noted that, for some reason, the man was barefoot. He crouched over the rotating engine, examining each piece closely through a pair of spectacles.
“But don’t you see, Kaylee? That’s the genius of it! No one else would look at that little S-curve and see anything other than an inconvenience, but you, you brilliant woman, you see an opportunity to solve the problem with the couplings! This entire engine is a testament to your ingenuity.”
Kaylee blushed scarlet at the high praise, but couldn’t quite hide her grin.
“It weren’t nothin’,” she mumbled.
Simon smiled again at her modesty. As amazing as Kaylee was at her job, what made her truly special was her complete humility. And her innocence. And her kindness. And her humor.
“That’s exactly what Beethoven would have said-well, did say, actually. Ordinary people look at a piano, and they see a bunch of white and black keys, but to Beethoven, they just made sense. He saw the movement of his fingers before he touched the keys, he heard the music in his mind, and he just played.”
Simon wasn’t sure if Kaylee even knew who Beethoven was, but by the looks of her, she might just burst if the Doctor heaped any more praise on her. Kaylee beamed at the Doctor and the Doctor beamed right back at her. The smile slid off Simon’s face.
“Mind you, he did go a bit overboard,” the Doctor went on. “When he composed Für Elise, I said, ‘Ludwig, why not just write her a love letter? Why must everything be a sonata or a bagatelle? Elise gets it, okay? Nobody likes a showoff.’ But it was all, ‘Music of the heart’ and so on.”
Kaylee laughed.
“I’d like to hear that song,” she said.
“Oh, have you not?” the Doctor asked. Kaylee blushed and shook her head. “Well, that simply won’t do. I’ll pull it up for you later. I’m sure we can find a recording of it on the Cortex.”
The thought of the Doctor and Kaylee huddled together around a monitor, listening to romantic music did something strange to Simon’s heart rate. Clearing his throat, he spoke a little more loudly than was strictly necessary.
“Kaylee, would you mind if I steal the Doctor away for a while? I have some medical questions for him.”
Kaylee looked like she had just been awoken from a daydream. She blinked a few times before focusing her eyes on Simon, almost as if she’d forgotten he was there.
“Oh! Sure, of course. Sorry,” she said. “I need to eat breakfast anyway.”
“Doctor?” Simon prompted.
The Doctor straightened up and folded his glasses carefully in his suit pocket.
“Lead the way!” he said cheerfully.
Simon knew that the Doctor hadn’t done anything wrong, but he walked down to the med bay without throwing a backward glance at the man. It wasn’t until he entered the infirmary that he finally turned around to see the Doctor glancing uncertainly down the hall to the guest rooms.
“Something wrong?” Simon asked.
“Er, no.” The Doctor paused, then spoke again. “Say, have you seen Rose this morning?”
“Yes. In the kitchen with Jayne a few minutes ago. Why?” Simon replied.
The Doctor looked relieved.
“No reason. I’m just going to go retrieve a few things from our room. Carry on and I’ll be back before you can say ‘the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe.’”
“What?” Simon asked, but the Doctor was already gone.
With a shrug, the young doctor busied himself pulling out all of the data he had on River. He placed the CT scans of her brain on the light box and laid out the binders he’d filled with his medical notes across the countertops. He accessed the data stick from the 3D neuro-imaging scan they’d done on Ariel and projected the results into the small projection field beside the exam chair.
“I’m back!” the Doctor announced. He now wore shoes, and his brown tie was one more firmly knotted around his neck.
Simon took a deep breath and began.
“This is all of the data I’ve compiled on my sister; what was done to her, and its effects. I’m hoping you might be able to shed some light on…”
He trailed off, unsure of exactly what he wanted to ask. I’m hoping you might be able to shed some light on how badly they hurt her? On how far gone she is? On whether she’ll ever be normal again?
The Doctor stepped next to Simon and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said earnestly.
Simon nodded and stood back as the Doctor worked. He was amazed at the frenetic way the man flitted from document to document, pouring over each ounce of data like a detective with a magnifying glass. Simon could sense that the Doctor’s brain was whirring as he moved, his mind piecing together data that took Simon years to assemble. Every now and then, the Doctor would ask him for clarification or additional information, but for the most part, he worked silently.
After about an hour, the Doctor stood and stretched.
“I’m going to need a bit longer to process everything, Simon. Why don’t you take a break and clear your head a little. Find that mechanic of yours. She’s a good distraction.”
Simon frowned.
“What? Kaylee’s not-she isn’t-she’s not mine,” he stuttered.
“Are you sure? She couldn’t stop talking about you,” the Doctor said.
“Really?” Simon asked, unable to help himself.
The Doctor tried and failed to hide a smirk.
“Got a bit tedious, really. Thank goodness she decided to show me the engine room. A conversation change was in order.”
Simon cleared his throat.
“Yes, well, I’ll check back later?”
“Shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll find you when I’m done,” the Doctor said dismissively.
Simon acquiesced. He made his way to the cargo bay and it was there that he found ‘his mechanic.’ Kaylee was lying on her stomach next to Rose. The two of them were huddled around something on the floor, examining it so closely that neither of them noticed his entrance.
“She’s actually sorta cute,” Kaylee said.
“Who’s cute?” Simon asked.
Kaylee sat up quickly.
“Hi, Simon,” she said.
Rose gave a friendly wave, which he returned.
“Did the Doctor help you with your medical questions?” Kaylee asked.
“He’s working on it. Who’s cute?” he repeated.
“Harriet,” Kaylee said, gesturing at the floor.
He stepped closer and peered at the ground. Between the girls was a small green insect. It looked a bit like an oversized ant.
“It’s a bug,” he said.
Rose scooped the bug off the ground and cradled it in her hands.
“Actually, she’s an assassin beetle,” she corrected.
“She looks like an ant,” Simon noted.
“She’s still a nymph. She’ll be developing into an adult soon, the Doctor said.”
“She’s our new pet!” Kaylee announced.
Simon frowned.
“I didn’t know you could keep a beetle as a pet,” he admitted.
“You can with this one,” Rose assured him.
“She likes people, Simon,” Kaylee explained. “It’s the truth! I met Rose in the kitchen and there Harriet was, hidin’ behind the toaster. Then we came down here to play jacks and a little while later, who do we find?”
“Harriet?” Simon guessed.
“Harriet! She followed us down here!” Kaylee said excitedly. “So we moved a bit ‘cause we didn’t wanna smush her when we played jacks, but she just kept scuttling along, followin’ us wherever we went. She likes us!”
“She has good taste,” Rose commented, gently stroking the bug’s back.
To Simon’s surprise, the creature seemed perfectly content at the human contact. He frowned again.
“Is there a hole in one of the crates?”
“Nope. The Doctor found a single survivor from the burnt crate. She’s it,” Rose replied.
“Say, Simon, can you hold her for a bit? She keeps gettin' in the way of jacks and Rose was winnin’ what we left off,” Kaylee asked sweetly.
Simon chuckled.
“Of course.”
He allowed Rose to transfer the tiny bug into his hands, and contented himself with watching the two young women enjoy their game. He couldn’t help smiling along with Kaylee whenever she scored a point. Occasionally he stroked Harriet’s back, which made the beetle pause her constant pacing to and fro across his palm.
He wasn’t sure exactly how much time had passed when the Doctor emerged.
“Simon, I’ve finished-oh! Rose. Hello.”
He froze halfway across the room, staring at his companion with wide eyes.
“Hello Doctor,” Rose said, somewhat formally. “I see you located your shoes.”
The Doctor’s face seemed suddenly flushed, and he struggled to reply.
“Yes, I uh, I found them. And… and now they’re on. My feet. So… Good. That.”
Rose rolled her eyes.
“Doctor, you haven’t met our new pet,” Kaylee said.
The Doctor’s eyebrows rose in interest.
That seemed to bring Rose out of her funk, because she smirked and stood.
“Yes. Let me introduce the two of you,” she said.
She held out her hands, and Simon transferred the creature to her. Then she held it up for the Doctor to see.
“Doctor, please meet Harriet Jones: Beetle.”
For reasons that Simon didn’t understand, Rose’s words caused the Doctor to emit a loud guffaw.
“Oh, Rose, really?” he said when he’d stopped laughing.
“Well we would’ve done Raxacoricofallapatorius, but Kaylee had some pronunciation difficulties,” she replied.
If possible, his grin grew even wider, but Simon was eager to hear the Doctor’s findings, and couldn’t stop himself from interrupting the happy moment.
“Should we return to the exam room, Doctor?” he prompted.
“Yes, of course,” the Doctor said, pulling his attention from Rose with some difficulty.
They moved towards the doorway but Kaylee’s voice stopped them.
“River, where’ve you been?” the mechanic asked.
Simon turned his head around in time to see his sister pull out a long carving knife. To his horror, she pulled her arm back and sent it soaring towards Rose. The blade cut a neat line through the air and sunk directly into Rose’s outstretched hand. The blond let out a surprised shriek and fell to her knees.
The Doctor was at her side in an instant, pulling off his jacket and wrapping it around her hand to stem the flow of blood.
“Don’t remove the knife yet!” Simon shouted, running towards his sister.
River thrashed wildly as he locked his arms around her.
“LITTLE SPIES! SOON THEY’LL BE EVERYWHERE!” she screamed.
“River, stop it! What did you do?!” Simon shouted over her, squeezing as tightly as he could.
Simon vaguely registered that the rest of the was crew flooding into the cargo bay, demanding answers, which Kaylee fielded as best she could through her tears. Simon’s attention, however, was consumed by his sister.
She was completely incoherent now, thrashing in his arms. As soon as the screaming stopped, she began laughing, a mad cackle. Then she started to recite a poem.
"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly; "'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.
It wasn’t anything Simon had heard before, and River spoke very quickly, her voice rising to a maniacal pitch at random points in her recitation. Whatever it lacked in presentation, its overall effect was no less eerie.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair, And I have many curious things to show when you are there."
Mal and Jayne approached them now, Mal taking River’s arms and Jayne her legs.
"Oh no, no," said the little fly; "to ask me is in vain, For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."
The two larger men managed to hold her down, freeing him to run to the med bay for a tranquilizer. When he got there, he recognized the Doctor’s presence and realized that he must have carried Rose down at some point after River’s attack. Neither man attempted to start up a conversation, however. Simon grabbed what he was looking for and dashed back upstairs.
When he burst into the cargo bay, River was just finishing her poem.
Thinking only of her crested head. Poor, foolish thing! at last
Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast; He dragged her up his winding stair, into the dismal den - Within his little parlor - BUT SHE NE’ER CAME OUT AGAIN!
Simon drove the needle into River’s arm, and she promptly passed out.
End Notes: So, there’s a cliffhanger for ya! Don’t hate me?
For those of you who don’t know, the poem that River recited is called “The Spider and the Fly.” It was written by a woman named Mary Howitt as sort of a twist on a Lewis Carroll poem, and it is incredibly creepy. You can find both poems here, if you’re interested: http://www.wussu.com/poems/lctlq.htm
Click on to chapter ten!