Postal Services
Title: Postal Services
Author: cptmalreynolds
Prompts: 4 - Ficlet - Lost Letter for writers_muses
#51 - Christmad for joss100 47/100
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Mal and Badger
Warning: None
Disclaimer: Do not own, and if I did, I wouldn't be sharing.
Summary: Sometime after the Big Damned Movie
Wordcount: 626
Postal Services
“Got something special for you today Mal,” Badger said with a shit eating grin. And considering the stains on his tie, it was quite possible he’d been chewing on just that. He held up a crumpled piece of paper in one fingerless glove covered hand and the envelope in the other. “It’s a letter came my way of the postal service. Seems it’s been lost in space for years.”
“And you just thought you’d open it up?” I leaned forward onto his crap covered desk, only to draw the attention of his body guards and their guns. “Mighty nice of you, I could have gotten a paper cut. So what’s it goin’ to cost me to get my mail Badger?”
“Oh nothing much.” He held the paper out to me. I didn’t reach for it, I knew he’d just snatch it away. “I jus’ want you ta read it in front o’ me.”
“Sure thing Badger.” I took the letter. The handwriting was familiar as my own. The pictures changing along the bottom of the page like a knife in my gut. There was my mother’s ranch. There was my favorite horse. There was my girl with our little boy on top of my favorite horse. I sat down hard into the rickety chair across from Badger.
***
Dear Mal,
We’re all hoping you get to come home for Christmas, but we understand that the Browncoats needs you. Will is learning how to ride. Your mama is letting him ride your horse. He looks so cute up there, with his little fist tangled in her mane. I wanted to ride behind him, but he told me no. I swear he’s so much like you. Your mother says it’s scary how much alike you are. She wonders if there’s any of me in him at all.
For Christmas I’m giving him his own horse. One of your filly’s had a beautiful foal last spring, and your mother wants Will to have him. She said you’d want that too. I wish you were here Mal. I miss you so much.
Your mother is doing well. The doctor says she’s in recovery. I’d tell you more, but she’s reading this over my shoulder and would have a fit. She doesn’t want you worrying about her and coming home before you have leave. No Reynolds is going AWOL on her watch. She told me to write that.
Will and I love you and miss you Mal. Be safe and come home soon. This war can’t go on forever although it already feels like it has.
Love You,
Emma
PS - when you come home we are getting married.
***
Every bit of pain I’d felt when we’d been told what the Alliance had done to Shadow hit me like a small moon. It was like the breath and life was knocked right out of me. They had been my hope, my reason and my life, but the Alliance had taken them away from me when they’d turned Shadow into a lifeless barren planet to show us how high and mighty they were. Everything I’d fought for and lost had been for nothing, because the Alliance had won. We’d lost. We’d lost it all.
“Bun tyen-shung duh ee-dawy-ro,” I spat the curse at Badger. I shoved the letter into my browncoat and stumbled out of the warehouse. The raging sun beat down on me as I found my way to the nearest bar. Should have gone back to Serenity, but I needed to get drunk so much more than I needed to look at anyone who’s face I knew. Didn’t want no comfort, so I went where none would be given. “Whiskey, leave the gorram bottle.”
Translation -Stupid inbred stack of meat.
Author: cptmalreynolds
Prompts: 4 - Ficlet - Lost Letter for writers_muses
#51 - Christmad for joss100 47/100
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Mal and Badger
Warning: None
Disclaimer: Do not own, and if I did, I wouldn't be sharing.
Summary: Sometime after the Big Damned Movie
Wordcount: 626
Postal Services
“Got something special for you today Mal,” Badger said with a shit eating grin. And considering the stains on his tie, it was quite possible he’d been chewing on just that. He held up a crumpled piece of paper in one fingerless glove covered hand and the envelope in the other. “It’s a letter came my way of the postal service. Seems it’s been lost in space for years.”
“And you just thought you’d open it up?” I leaned forward onto his crap covered desk, only to draw the attention of his body guards and their guns. “Mighty nice of you, I could have gotten a paper cut. So what’s it goin’ to cost me to get my mail Badger?”
“Oh nothing much.” He held the paper out to me. I didn’t reach for it, I knew he’d just snatch it away. “I jus’ want you ta read it in front o’ me.”
“Sure thing Badger.” I took the letter. The handwriting was familiar as my own. The pictures changing along the bottom of the page like a knife in my gut. There was my mother’s ranch. There was my favorite horse. There was my girl with our little boy on top of my favorite horse. I sat down hard into the rickety chair across from Badger.
***
Dear Mal,
We’re all hoping you get to come home for Christmas, but we understand that the Browncoats needs you. Will is learning how to ride. Your mama is letting him ride your horse. He looks so cute up there, with his little fist tangled in her mane. I wanted to ride behind him, but he told me no. I swear he’s so much like you. Your mother says it’s scary how much alike you are. She wonders if there’s any of me in him at all.
For Christmas I’m giving him his own horse. One of your filly’s had a beautiful foal last spring, and your mother wants Will to have him. She said you’d want that too. I wish you were here Mal. I miss you so much.
Your mother is doing well. The doctor says she’s in recovery. I’d tell you more, but she’s reading this over my shoulder and would have a fit. She doesn’t want you worrying about her and coming home before you have leave. No Reynolds is going AWOL on her watch. She told me to write that.
Will and I love you and miss you Mal. Be safe and come home soon. This war can’t go on forever although it already feels like it has.
Love You,
Emma
PS - when you come home we are getting married.
***
Every bit of pain I’d felt when we’d been told what the Alliance had done to Shadow hit me like a small moon. It was like the breath and life was knocked right out of me. They had been my hope, my reason and my life, but the Alliance had taken them away from me when they’d turned Shadow into a lifeless barren planet to show us how high and mighty they were. Everything I’d fought for and lost had been for nothing, because the Alliance had won. We’d lost. We’d lost it all.
“Bun tyen-shung duh ee-dawy-ro,” I spat the curse at Badger. I shoved the letter into my browncoat and stumbled out of the warehouse. The raging sun beat down on me as I found my way to the nearest bar. Should have gone back to Serenity, but I needed to get drunk so much more than I needed to look at anyone who’s face I knew. Didn’t want no comfort, so I went where none would be given. “Whiskey, leave the gorram bottle.”
Translation -Stupid inbred stack of meat.