Four Saves and a Pie [Firefly xover]
Title: Four Saves and a Pie
Author: all_you_wanted
Cross w/: Firefly
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing, please don’t sue.
A/N: This was originally written as a 5 Things drabble.
Spoilers/Timeline: Firefly Verse; before the big
Summary: Four times the crew of Serenity were saved by an unseen force, and one time River Tam made a pie for a stranger in the street.
------------------------------------------
"Capt'n, we just lost the rear stabilizers. Without them we got nothing to keep us from burning up when we hit atmo." Wash yelled into the com, his hands gripping the wheel. He saw a streak of red flash out of the blue of the planet below but when he blinked his eyes it was gone.
The lights on the console stopped blinking, the alarms shut off and the ship's shaking calmed immediately.
Wash hit the com button. "Nevermind."
------------------------------
Jayne Cobb had always hoped he'd die with one of the three women in his life by his side. Vera his gun, his Ma or whatever whore he was with who'd sent him off into the great beyond with a smile on his face.
The man stood there, hand on the purple hilt of his gun. Who put purple on a gun? Now that was just sly looking.
"I'm severing our business arrangement, Mr. Cobb."
"Huh?" Jayne understood 'business' and his name. He also got from wacked out gleam in his eye that this bastard meant to do harm to an unarmed man. Ben tiansheng de yi dui rou.
The bastard drew and fired. Jayne flinched and closed his eyes, not wanting to face death head on. Only death didn't come. Popping open one eye, he saw baldy on the floor, knocked out cold, the bullet he'd aimed to hit him directly between the eyes lay on the ground next to his boot.
Jayne didn't need to be told twice to count his lucky stars and run.
------------------------------
Kaylee fell behind, her mind more focused on reading the new ZR37 Tie Wing maintenance manual she had her nose buried in, than on walking.
"Mei mei! Get out of the way!"
She looked up in time to see an Alliance truck barreling down the road right for her. And then she wasn't. She was on the side of the road watching the truck keep on running right over the place where she'd been.
And she knew that was where she'd been cause right there under its tires was her book.
------------------------------
Inara's fingers were white as she pulled at the man's hands around her throat.
He was a new client. Not only of hers but of the Guild's as well. An old friend had asked her to meet with him for an interview of sorts. His breeding and social standing made him a shoo in for companion service, but not much was known of him personally and this was to be a causal meeting to information gather so it might be easier to pair him up with other companions.
He seemed a lovely, but lonely man and all had been going well, but somewhere between the tea ceremony and her telling him of her fond memories of horse back riding in the country near where he had a summertime villa, he'd snapped and struck her.
"I'll kill you." He spat as he talked, his face and hairless head turning such a violent color of purple that it almost matched his shirt. "I'll kill you!"
Then he grabbed her by the neck and started to squeeze. The years of house taught self defense training left her. She pulled and fought as hard as she could but it was no use. Spots started to form before her eyes and suddenly she was very sleepy.
"I loved you." He whispered as she closed her eyes and for a second, it occurred to Inara that there was a bit of irony to be in her line of work and called another women's name as she died.
"Lana." He said as she drifted off.
Inara gasped life back into her lungs and sitting up found herself to not be dead on the floor, but alive and laying on the chaise, a good twenty feet from where her attacker now lay unconscious and bound up like livestock with the curtain ties.
------------------------------
One time with pie....
River had been excited all day.
"He's there Simon. He's there." She sang as she danced circles around him.
"Who mei mei? " He'd asked but she her only answer was more singing as she skipped away to the mess to make a pie.
River had never made a pie before in her life, but if anyone could do blindly figure their way through something, it was his sister. The last job the crew had picked up had been legit. A produce run to a planet suffering a drought and part of the payment had been a bushel of whatever for each person on the ship. There'd been luscious berries, firm beans with snap and even exotic tropical fruits that had been hard to come by in even the stately Tam home.
But River would have none of them. She went for the plainest, can find it anywhere-ist thing imaginable; Apples.
"They're his favorite."
That had been the first reference to this mysterious "He". For a while Simon had been worried she'd been talking about someone on the ship. Wash or the Captain or, shudder to think, Jayne, but she'd only looked at him like he was light minded when he asked her that.
The whole of Serenity was filled with the spicy sweet scent of baking as the day went on. At lunch Simon stopped by to find his sister locked in a battle of wills with the shipboard merc, her pie cooling between them on the table.
"Aw come on. Just one little bite." Jayne begged, his hand inching toward the edge of the golden crust.
River moved no part of her body but one eyebrow. "Touch my pie and I will kill you with my mind."
The big oaf stomped off, muttering as he passed things so vile Simon felt dirty just hearing them.
* * *
Planet side everyone disembarked. The Captain had a lead on some proper crime to be doing so he, Zoe and Jayne headed off to meet with some unsavory folks while Wash and Kaylee were on the hunt for new power convertors and something bubbly. Even Inara and the Shepherd had appointments to make, thought obviously of a different sort.
"Your sister's the one who's been making our insides turn all day, so ya'll get stuck with stocking the pantry." The Captain gave him a list and the coin to purchase it with. "And Doc, I best be seeing the means to make a pie that I can actually eat come back on board my ship with ya."
It was a small farming planet out on the rim. Not a lot of Alliance patrolled out this way but still Simon was a worrier. "Let's just get this stuff and get back on board, alright River."
And then she'd done that thing where she sighs, smiles, rolls her eyes and makes him feel like he's 5 inches tall all in one fluent movement, and grabbed her pie.
"The last thing on the list is this way." He started off down another row of vendors but River continued on down the one they'd been. Mei mei?
"He's down here."
"Who?" He asked for the millionth time that day, though he knew he wouldn't get an answer. He followed after her,hands full because he'd gotten stuck carrying the loads of food stuffs while she was still carrying that damn pie.
River stopped in front of a vendor. His booth filled with bushel after bushel of pale yellow corn.
"Yes." He asked, a confused look on his face as River continued to stare at him mutely. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sorry." Simon chimed in when after a long silence it seemed River wasn't going to. "We're of no need of corn. My sister was only looking."
"Helping." River broke in suddenly. "Helping is what you do."
"Ex-Excuse me?"
"Everyday, everywhere. Know one knows it, but you do." She continued on in that odd way of speaking of hers that though Simon found it oddly endearing, to others it was often oddly unnerving. "Everyone wears costumes sometimes to hide who they truly are, but you don't. Your mask is the one you wear everyday, so no one knows who you or what you really are."
"I'm sorry. I don't-."
"River." He tried to pull the reins in on his sister but she pushed him away. "Protector. Savior. Hero." She counted off the names in her head. "The last son. The sun. The El." Simon noted the man, who was really more of a boy looking at him, paled visibly.
"Most people don't know the face of the person they owe their thanks too, but I do." And then River smiled and held out her pie to him. "Just like I know this is your favorite."
• • •
Author: all_you_wanted
Cross w/: Firefly
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing, please don’t sue.
A/N: This was originally written as a 5 Things drabble.
Spoilers/Timeline: Firefly Verse; before the big
Summary: Four times the crew of Serenity were saved by an unseen force, and one time River Tam made a pie for a stranger in the street.
------------------------------------------
"Capt'n, we just lost the rear stabilizers. Without them we got nothing to keep us from burning up when we hit atmo." Wash yelled into the com, his hands gripping the wheel. He saw a streak of red flash out of the blue of the planet below but when he blinked his eyes it was gone.
The lights on the console stopped blinking, the alarms shut off and the ship's shaking calmed immediately.
Wash hit the com button. "Nevermind."
------------------------------
Jayne Cobb had always hoped he'd die with one of the three women in his life by his side. Vera his gun, his Ma or whatever whore he was with who'd sent him off into the great beyond with a smile on his face.
The man stood there, hand on the purple hilt of his gun. Who put purple on a gun? Now that was just sly looking.
"I'm severing our business arrangement, Mr. Cobb."
"Huh?" Jayne understood 'business' and his name. He also got from wacked out gleam in his eye that this bastard meant to do harm to an unarmed man. Ben tiansheng de yi dui rou.
The bastard drew and fired. Jayne flinched and closed his eyes, not wanting to face death head on. Only death didn't come. Popping open one eye, he saw baldy on the floor, knocked out cold, the bullet he'd aimed to hit him directly between the eyes lay on the ground next to his boot.
Jayne didn't need to be told twice to count his lucky stars and run.
------------------------------
Kaylee fell behind, her mind more focused on reading the new ZR37 Tie Wing maintenance manual she had her nose buried in, than on walking.
"Mei mei! Get out of the way!"
She looked up in time to see an Alliance truck barreling down the road right for her. And then she wasn't. She was on the side of the road watching the truck keep on running right over the place where she'd been.
And she knew that was where she'd been cause right there under its tires was her book.
------------------------------
Inara's fingers were white as she pulled at the man's hands around her throat.
He was a new client. Not only of hers but of the Guild's as well. An old friend had asked her to meet with him for an interview of sorts. His breeding and social standing made him a shoo in for companion service, but not much was known of him personally and this was to be a causal meeting to information gather so it might be easier to pair him up with other companions.
He seemed a lovely, but lonely man and all had been going well, but somewhere between the tea ceremony and her telling him of her fond memories of horse back riding in the country near where he had a summertime villa, he'd snapped and struck her.
"I'll kill you." He spat as he talked, his face and hairless head turning such a violent color of purple that it almost matched his shirt. "I'll kill you!"
Then he grabbed her by the neck and started to squeeze. The years of house taught self defense training left her. She pulled and fought as hard as she could but it was no use. Spots started to form before her eyes and suddenly she was very sleepy.
"I loved you." He whispered as she closed her eyes and for a second, it occurred to Inara that there was a bit of irony to be in her line of work and called another women's name as she died.
"Lana." He said as she drifted off.
Inara gasped life back into her lungs and sitting up found herself to not be dead on the floor, but alive and laying on the chaise, a good twenty feet from where her attacker now lay unconscious and bound up like livestock with the curtain ties.
------------------------------
One time with pie....
River had been excited all day.
"He's there Simon. He's there." She sang as she danced circles around him.
"Who mei mei? " He'd asked but she her only answer was more singing as she skipped away to the mess to make a pie.
River had never made a pie before in her life, but if anyone could do blindly figure their way through something, it was his sister. The last job the crew had picked up had been legit. A produce run to a planet suffering a drought and part of the payment had been a bushel of whatever for each person on the ship. There'd been luscious berries, firm beans with snap and even exotic tropical fruits that had been hard to come by in even the stately Tam home.
But River would have none of them. She went for the plainest, can find it anywhere-ist thing imaginable; Apples.
"They're his favorite."
That had been the first reference to this mysterious "He". For a while Simon had been worried she'd been talking about someone on the ship. Wash or the Captain or, shudder to think, Jayne, but she'd only looked at him like he was light minded when he asked her that.
The whole of Serenity was filled with the spicy sweet scent of baking as the day went on. At lunch Simon stopped by to find his sister locked in a battle of wills with the shipboard merc, her pie cooling between them on the table.
"Aw come on. Just one little bite." Jayne begged, his hand inching toward the edge of the golden crust.
River moved no part of her body but one eyebrow. "Touch my pie and I will kill you with my mind."
The big oaf stomped off, muttering as he passed things so vile Simon felt dirty just hearing them.
* * *
Planet side everyone disembarked. The Captain had a lead on some proper crime to be doing so he, Zoe and Jayne headed off to meet with some unsavory folks while Wash and Kaylee were on the hunt for new power convertors and something bubbly. Even Inara and the Shepherd had appointments to make, thought obviously of a different sort.
"Your sister's the one who's been making our insides turn all day, so ya'll get stuck with stocking the pantry." The Captain gave him a list and the coin to purchase it with. "And Doc, I best be seeing the means to make a pie that I can actually eat come back on board my ship with ya."
It was a small farming planet out on the rim. Not a lot of Alliance patrolled out this way but still Simon was a worrier. "Let's just get this stuff and get back on board, alright River."
And then she'd done that thing where she sighs, smiles, rolls her eyes and makes him feel like he's 5 inches tall all in one fluent movement, and grabbed her pie.
"The last thing on the list is this way." He started off down another row of vendors but River continued on down the one they'd been. Mei mei?
"He's down here."
"Who?" He asked for the millionth time that day, though he knew he wouldn't get an answer. He followed after her,hands full because he'd gotten stuck carrying the loads of food stuffs while she was still carrying that damn pie.
River stopped in front of a vendor. His booth filled with bushel after bushel of pale yellow corn.
"Yes." He asked, a confused look on his face as River continued to stare at him mutely. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sorry." Simon chimed in when after a long silence it seemed River wasn't going to. "We're of no need of corn. My sister was only looking."
"Helping." River broke in suddenly. "Helping is what you do."
"Ex-Excuse me?"
"Everyday, everywhere. Know one knows it, but you do." She continued on in that odd way of speaking of hers that though Simon found it oddly endearing, to others it was often oddly unnerving. "Everyone wears costumes sometimes to hide who they truly are, but you don't. Your mask is the one you wear everyday, so no one knows who you or what you really are."
"I'm sorry. I don't-."
"River." He tried to pull the reins in on his sister but she pushed him away. "Protector. Savior. Hero." She counted off the names in her head. "The last son. The sun. The El." Simon noted the man, who was really more of a boy looking at him, paled visibly.
"Most people don't know the face of the person they owe their thanks too, but I do." And then River smiled and held out her pie to him. "Just like I know this is your favorite."
• • •