Nothing's going to come crashing down on him this time, noooo...

[drhorriblesblog]

Who: Billy & Kaylee
When: BACKDATED to the day the amnesia hit
Where: Billy's house
What: What do you mean, who am I?

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[kaylee_firefly]

Kaylee rolled over on the sofa, murmuring to herself as she slowly started to wake up. Before she opened her eyes, she remembered that Serenity was due to land on Boros today, and she brightened at the idea of going to that little shop she loved- mebbe Simon would come with her...

Then, Kaylee opened her eyes.

She blinked, looking around the room. Which was definitely not her bunk on Serenity. Didn't look near like any part of the ship. There was no familiar engine hum, for starters, and there was windows. With SUNLIGHT!

"什么以神的名义？" Kaylee said to herself, her eyes wide as she stared around the room. "Simon? Captain? Jayne?..."

[drhorriblesblog]

Billy was in the kitchen stirring eggs into an omelet when he caught the string of confused Chinese from the other room. He didn't understand it, but he recognized the names that followed, and his eyebrows drew together in perplexity. 'Simon' had been the guy on her crew that she'd liked, he knew, but unlike her Captain and Jayne (and River), he had never arrived in Aternaville, had he? And she surely wouldn't expect to see Jayne here. No part of Billy's personality wanted that man as a houseguest.

Turning the burner down, he tugged the long sleeves of his T-shirt further over his hands as he returned to the TV room. "Kaylee?" He frowned at her wide-eyed expression, starting to feel genuine worry. "Are you okay?"

[kaylee_firefly]

Kaylee shrank back a little as a guy entered the room- a guy she had never laid eyes on who somehow knew her name!!

"W- where am I?" Kaylee asked, glancing around the room again before fixing her gaze back on the boy. "Where's the Captain? What happened to the ship?" She sucked in a breath, trying to gather her courage. Sure, this guy looked harmless-

but then again, so did River.

"My friends are right close by, I'm countin'. So don't you be tryin' nothing mister!"

[drhorriblesblog]

There was no recognition as Kaylee looked at him. In fact, he thought he saw fear! What he'd been looking for in her eyes for the first several months after she'd found out who he was, and failed to find, was there now. She was putting on a good show of toughness, but she was afraid.

"You're - you're in my house," he replied, bewildered. "You fell asleep here last night. Kaylee... it's me."

No recognition at all. Had he done this? The experiment he'd been working on last night hadn't had anything to do with memory erasure, but he always had a few things in the works. Had something combined with something and gone off? He racked his brain to think what in his lab might have caused this effect.

"...Billy," he tried again, watching her face. "Cranston?" Still nothing. He was starting to reach the point of full-fledged alarm. If he had done this, could he reverse it? If he hadn't done it, could he reverse it? His hands hung uselessly at his sides. "I won't try anything." Unless it could fix her. "I promise. I'm... your friend. I'd

[kaylee_firefly]

She couldn't help but laugh at Billy's remark, shaking her head.

"He's like my brothers," Kaylee replied, joining Billy in the hallway. "Most days you wonder how he can string words together into sentences, but I love him anyway."

She paused at the next door, which had a sign with her name on it.

"Here goes, I guess," she murmured, turning the doorknob and entering the room.

She liked it immediately, of course- strings of lights ringed the walls near the ceiling, and there were bits and pieces of things everywhere. Her name was painted on the wall in swirly pink letters, and there were pictures in frames sitting on a dresser.

Kaylee picked up one of the pictures- it was her and Billy, cuddled up close. It looked like Kaylee had taken the picture herself, her arm outstretched to get the picture as she kissed Billy on the cheek. In the picture, Billy looked like he was trying to be annoyed, but he was smiling, too.

Kaylee held the picture out to Billy, unsure of what to say.

[drhorriblesblog]

Billy was hovering uncertainly in the doorway as she explored her room. He'd seen it before, of course, but he'd never paid particular attention to the photos on the dresser, which is why he didn't know what had attracted her interest until she turned around and confronted him with it.

His eyes went round, and began to dart about the room as if he were looking for a way to escape. He was in the doorway, of course, but it was not a physical escape route he needed.

"Oh. Uh... oh." Good, now maybe we could try adding some consonants? "That's... you promised you were going to delete that picture..."

His back was up against the wall beside the door now, having retreated a step without even realizing it. He remembered when she'd taken that picture. He'd demanded she delete it, and she'd just laughed. He'd persuaded himself that it would never see the light of day and put it out of his mind. Why hadn't it occurred to him that there might be incriminating pictures of the two of them in here? Maybe because it had never crossed his mind

[kaylee_firefly]

A lot of thoughts were swirling around in Kaylee's mind. Not the least of which was where she'd woken up this morning- on Billy's couch.

"We- we're more than just friends, I'm thinking?" Kaylee asked, her heart sinking a little. That's what had been so difficult to explain, what he'd been keeping back from her. "Which makes things a mite confusing when I can't remember you at all."

Not to mention that Kaylee, for her part, was in love with Simon. This Billy seemed like a nice enough guy, but he was still a stranger to Kaylee right now.

[drhorriblesblog]

"Um." Now Billy dropped his eyes. He'd seen the flash of confusion, of doubt, in her face, and he didn't want to see any more. What was he supposed to say? He'd known that hearing I'm your boyfriend from a total stranger would weird her out. Obviously discovering it via evidence wouldn't be any better.

He took a couple of breaths. Gave his head a shake, and looked up, though he didn't raise them past her chin. "Don't worry about it." His voice was quiet, but more sure. "It doesn't matter. Kaylee, we're friends. I just want to help you."