[The Engineering Alcove]

[meimeichanic]

Kaylee really really misses Mal and Jayne. Really.

It kinda sucks that they're all together here, but that they're not all together, because people are going off on quests without her, and that there's all these other people, which is shiny, Kaylee likes people, but there's just not the nine eight of them on Serenity together. She has Simon and

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[corpwashburne]

And here's someone else that she hasn't spoken to in a while.

"Figured I'd find you down here," Zoe says with a smirking grin.

[meimeichanic]

"Zoe?"

Kaylee had been holding something heavy, metallic and greasy. Now she's struggling up, unidentified greasy object in hand, to throw her arms aorund her.

"Wei! How've you been?"
"

[corpwashburne]

There is an indeterminate speck of time where Zoe is afraid that Kaylee has finally snapped and is coming to bludgeon her with that... thing. But the attack turns into a hug -- albeit a greasy one -- and Zoe happily returns it.

"Still ain't used to bein' planetside for so long," she says with a shrug. Being born and raised in the black gives one a whole different set of perspectives. "How about you, mèimei? You holding up okay?"

[meimeichanic]

"Me? I'm shiny," says Kaylee as she hangs back, still grinning.

"Bein' planetside's bit like when I was growing up. Still things to do, people to see. Least I ain't bored."

She tilts her head up, looking at Zoe carefully. All the time they been stuck here, they haven't really talked. Not that they talked all that much anyway. "Cap not back yet?"

[mysolarsailpwns]

Jim doesn't recognize what Kaylee's building, so he's poking around. Not touching anything, because he doesn't want to break it, and may very well, since he doesn't know what it is.

[meimeichanic]

The reason no one knows what it is? Kaylee hasn't told anyone. It sort of feels like treachery, leavin' them all like this, or at least tryin' to.

"Watch what you're touching there," she says brightly, bearly looking up at him. "Some'a the bolts are kinda temp'ry."

[mysolarsailpwns]

"I'm not touching," Jim says tonelessly. "Just looking. What's it supposed to be?"

He'd never recognize it as a ship. The ships he knows are a lot more nautical.

[meimeichanic]

Now she glances up and over to where he is.

"That right there's gonna be the forethrust, I ever figure out a way to mock up an accline for it without blowing up the building."

[fengmei]

Kaylee, thankfully, is a consistent personality.

River can go quite a while not being sure where most of the other people she spends time with are, but if she wants or needs Kaylee, generally, it's easy to locate her.

"Wei," she says, stepping in and finding herself a seat somewhere on an opportune location of the floor. She's not getting distracted by items in empty spots, or turning her head around too much -- a better, more lucid time of day.

[meimeichanic]

"Wei, meimei."

Kaylee may be everyone else's meimei, but River's hers, just as she is Simon's. Well, almost.

"How're you doing, sweetheart?"

[fengmei]

Close enough. Not that this area's got marriage laws, anyway.

"Warmer." Apparently at some point earlier she'd been cold. Sometimes River forgets that not everyone knows things about other people as quickly as she can.

"Taped a man to a chair a few days ago."

[meimeichanic]

"You did what?" Kaylee narrows her eyes, tilting her head. "Why'd you do that?"

[only_fell]

While Inara is forcing herself to get out of her apartment, she figures she might as well go and see Kaylee, just to check and see how the little mechanic is doing.

She looks for her first in the engineering alcove because that's where she always expects to find Kaylee and sure enough, that's where she is.

"Ni Hao, Meimei," she says in greeting. She's wearing a thick cable sweater over the purple silk dress she arrived in but if Kaylee looks closely the amount of weight Inara has lost is still very visable.

[meimeichanic]

Yeah, yeah it is. Which is why Kaylee's eyes are wide with concern and worry, even if she smiles and waves something greasy.

"Wei, 'Nara. How's it going?"

[only_fell]

"Alright," Inara smiles and steps over a piece of something metal. "I wanted to come check on you. We haven't talked in a long time. How are you?"

[meimeichanic]

"Oh, I'm shiny," Kaylee says easily, waving a hand to cover her work generally. "Ain't bored anyhow. You sure you're alright?"

[never_married]

This place was certainly like nothing Book had ever seen before. And he had seen a lot of places throughout the 'verse. He'd traveled longer and far than any might think. If only others knew just what he'd done or where he'd been...

Book had gotten settled into what would be his apartment, which wasn't hard to do when he didn't have that much in the way of belongings. And he had been walking around the apartment, learning where things were. He'd been to the common room, or that's what he could have called it. And he had looked outside, but not actually stepped outside, not since he'd arrived. He still remembered what that man by the gate had warned him.

It was only when he was making his way back to his room did he hear the noises of the boiler room. It reminded him right away of Serenity's engine room and little Kaylee. Coming closer, he decided he would just take a quick look inside.

He couldn't hold his suprise. "Kaylee."

[meimeichanic]

Kaylee's hard at... well, thought rather than work, but her head is down and she's preoocupied when someone enters. When he speaks, she's about ready to give a polite "wei" without looking up. And in fact, she does. It's only after she's said the word, doesn't the surprise, and then the recognition of the voice sink in, and she looks up, more than a little surprised.

"Shepherd?"

[never_married]

Book smiles warmly and comes into the boiler room. Granted, it doesn't look much like Serenity's engine room, but he's not surprised to find Kaylee here. He wonders briefly if these machines are talking to her like Serenity did, but then shakes his head. Of course they are. Kaylee has that gift.

"Hello Kaylee."

He came over to stand beside her, eyeing the machinery a little more now that he was closer.

"Well, this is a da bian hua from Serenity, isn't it?"

da bian hua - big change

[meimeichanic]

There's quite a lot to look at - a giant water purifier, pipelines, strange machines that looked alien even to Kaylee when she was new.

She's scrambling up now, wiping greasey hands down on her overalls, before throwing her arms around him.

"It sure is that. Shepherd Book, that's really you?"

Wash is here, but she hadn't dared to think that anyone else she knew to be dead would turn up.