Afterlife (3/4)
Title: Baby Girl
Series: Afterlife
Prompt: #96 Last
Rating: G
Word Count: 732
Title: Baby Girl
Series: Afterlife
Prompt: #96 Last
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done
Rating: G
Word Count: 732
“Hey there, baby girl.” Jayne slumps into the copilot’s chair in the cockpit while River expertly steers the ship. There’s something wrong today, she can see it in the way he frowns out at the passing stars.
“Not a baby or a girl anymore, you may call me ‘woman’ now,” she jests, trying to lighten his sour mood. It’s true though, she’s grown up plenty in the years that his spirit has been accompanying her. Simon had taken her off her medication a year after she stopped telling him that she could see Jayne and her chaotic mind had evened out.
“Yer right, and that’s why I gotta be goin’.” He doesn’t look at her, he can’t, because he knows that if he has to see the heartbroken expression on her face his own will break just to keep hers company.
“Alright, I’ll see you tonight. Will you tell me the story of how you obtained Vera before I go to bed?” She was stable and had been able to cope with all the responsibilities of an adult, but sometimes she still acted childlike. She was afraid of being alone and depended on him for company and still asked for bedtime stories. And that was why he needed to leave. He’d stayed far too long already and it was hurting her, keeping her from developing like she should.
“No, I’m not gonna be here to tell ya any more stories.” He tries to say it as gently as he can, but the emotion choking his voice makes it come out gruff and a little raw. Her stricken face turns to his quickly, panicked brown eyes searching out his own.
“You’re leaving?” she asked, voice full of confusion and fear. “You can’t. Where would you go?”
“Away.” He regains control over himself and vows to remain strong through his painful departure. “Far away where people like me go.”
“No. Please, no.” Her eyes water and that little pouty bottom lip starts to tremble and she looks like the lost little girl he’d been trying to help find her way. He’s tempted to give in to her pleading, to stay with her as long as she wants him around, but deep down he knows that she’ll never be able to stand on her own with him hanging around. So he ignores the tears that trickle down her alabaster cheeks and keeps his eyes firmly on the wide expanse of black beyond the windshield.
“I have to. It’s time to go, let you live yer life without a grumpy mercenary as an invisible friend tagging along.”
“But I want you to stay. Your baby girl, remember?” She’s dissolved into whimpers at the sound tears at his heart like razor blades through tissue paper.
“Not a baby or a girl, yer a beautiful young woman,” he cups her face in his hands and she can feel the cool tingle of air against her tear streaked cheeks. The echo of her playful words taunt her and she wishes she had never said them.
“I’ll never see you again.” Her resolve is weakening and he’s not sure if he’s proud of her for accepting what has to be done or saddened that she’s letting him go.
“Now that’s just plain not true.” His eyes are stern as they stare solidly into hers. He’s using the same tone he uses when he gives her advice, the ‘this is how it is and don’t you question it’ voice. “You’ll see me again, but it won’t be for a long while, until you’ve lived all the life yer body can handle. And don’t ya think for a second that I’m not gonna be watchin’, makin’ sure yer doin’ good and treatin’ yer guns right.” The thought of him keeping vigil over her from whatever distant place he’s going to comforts her and she allows her tense muscles to relax and her eyelids to drift closed.
With one last look at her sad little face, he presses a cold kiss to her forehead and lets himself drift away like whispers in the wind. When she opens her eyes again he’s gone and the loneliness settles heavily in her bones. But she decides that she’s not going to waste her life. She’ll stand on her own two feet and live just like he wanted her to and trusts that she’ll see him again.
< Previous: Touch, Prompt #14 Joined | Next: Lifetime, Prompt #45 Shipwreck>
Series: Afterlife
Prompt: #96 Last
Rating: G
Word Count: 732
Title: Baby Girl
Series: Afterlife
Prompt: #96 Last
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done
Rating: G
Word Count: 732
“Hey there, baby girl.” Jayne slumps into the copilot’s chair in the cockpit while River expertly steers the ship. There’s something wrong today, she can see it in the way he frowns out at the passing stars.
“Not a baby or a girl anymore, you may call me ‘woman’ now,” she jests, trying to lighten his sour mood. It’s true though, she’s grown up plenty in the years that his spirit has been accompanying her. Simon had taken her off her medication a year after she stopped telling him that she could see Jayne and her chaotic mind had evened out.
“Yer right, and that’s why I gotta be goin’.” He doesn’t look at her, he can’t, because he knows that if he has to see the heartbroken expression on her face his own will break just to keep hers company.
“Alright, I’ll see you tonight. Will you tell me the story of how you obtained Vera before I go to bed?” She was stable and had been able to cope with all the responsibilities of an adult, but sometimes she still acted childlike. She was afraid of being alone and depended on him for company and still asked for bedtime stories. And that was why he needed to leave. He’d stayed far too long already and it was hurting her, keeping her from developing like she should.
“No, I’m not gonna be here to tell ya any more stories.” He tries to say it as gently as he can, but the emotion choking his voice makes it come out gruff and a little raw. Her stricken face turns to his quickly, panicked brown eyes searching out his own.
“You’re leaving?” she asked, voice full of confusion and fear. “You can’t. Where would you go?”
“Away.” He regains control over himself and vows to remain strong through his painful departure. “Far away where people like me go.”
“No. Please, no.” Her eyes water and that little pouty bottom lip starts to tremble and she looks like the lost little girl he’d been trying to help find her way. He’s tempted to give in to her pleading, to stay with her as long as she wants him around, but deep down he knows that she’ll never be able to stand on her own with him hanging around. So he ignores the tears that trickle down her alabaster cheeks and keeps his eyes firmly on the wide expanse of black beyond the windshield.
“I have to. It’s time to go, let you live yer life without a grumpy mercenary as an invisible friend tagging along.”
“But I want you to stay. Your baby girl, remember?” She’s dissolved into whimpers at the sound tears at his heart like razor blades through tissue paper.
“Not a baby or a girl, yer a beautiful young woman,” he cups her face in his hands and she can feel the cool tingle of air against her tear streaked cheeks. The echo of her playful words taunt her and she wishes she had never said them.
“I’ll never see you again.” Her resolve is weakening and he’s not sure if he’s proud of her for accepting what has to be done or saddened that she’s letting him go.
“Now that’s just plain not true.” His eyes are stern as they stare solidly into hers. He’s using the same tone he uses when he gives her advice, the ‘this is how it is and don’t you question it’ voice. “You’ll see me again, but it won’t be for a long while, until you’ve lived all the life yer body can handle. And don’t ya think for a second that I’m not gonna be watchin’, makin’ sure yer doin’ good and treatin’ yer guns right.” The thought of him keeping vigil over her from whatever distant place he’s going to comforts her and she allows her tense muscles to relax and her eyelids to drift closed.
With one last look at her sad little face, he presses a cold kiss to her forehead and lets himself drift away like whispers in the wind. When she opens her eyes again he’s gone and the loneliness settles heavily in her bones. But she decides that she’s not going to waste her life. She’ll stand on her own two feet and live just like he wanted her to and trusts that she’ll see him again.
< Previous: Touch, Prompt #14 Joined | Next: Lifetime, Prompt #45 Shipwreck>