Ghosts, Part II
Title: Ghosts
Author(s): darkmagic-luvr
Crossover: Supernatural/Firefly
Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly or Supernatural. Any characters you don't recognize are my own and should not be used without my permission.
Type: het
Word Count: Part II - 8,674
Characters/Pairings: Part II - Inara Serra, Mal Reynolds, Sam Winchester, Simon Tam, River Tam, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, Shepherd Book, Zoë Alleyne Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Dean Winchester, Bela Talbot
Warnings: sex, lanuage, violence, death
Spoilers: the Firefly 'verse and through the beginning of season 4 of Supernatural
Artist: quiet-reble
Link to Art: here
Summary: Inara never wanted to die, and with the help of the Winchesters she hadn't for over 500 years. When an old friend and lover walks back into her life, she has to open her closet and face her skeletons, whether either of them want to.
Author’s Notes: And now we have a plot. I'm pointing out now that I've only seen the first few episodes of season 4 for Supernatural. Chinese translations at the bottom.
(PART II)
The beeping sound of her comm shook Inara out of her easy sleep; it had become easier over the decades to get to sleep, she had found that incense did wonders, as did sex. Inara blinked and sat up, pushing the thin silk sheets off her body and slipping out of bed, reaching for her golden colored robe to cover her naked body as she headed for her comms, shifting the drapes that hid the cockpit of her shuttle. Suppressing a yawn out of habit than actual weariness, she pressed a button and waited for Mal to speak his piece, glancing out her window as Serenity broke atmo on Persephone.
“Good you’re up.”
Inara rolled her eyes at the false sardonic tone in Mal’s voice, a smirk gracing her features as her captain rattled off the time they were leavin’ and to get her respectable ass back on his ship before they left or she’d have hell to pay. Inara rolled her eyes again, something she’d found become a habit with her on this ship, with this captain. Pressing the same button again, and effectively shutting off Mal’s voice she turned and proceeded to dress, making sure her protection charm was securely placed in her hair, glittering like an ornament. No one would be the wiser.
She hesitated a moment, debating on whether she really wanted customers on this specific trip. Mal had told her they would be sitting until Kaylee got the new parts she needed to fix the gorram ship. Mal had finally caved after he managed to set them drifting for a good hour before Inara suggested something that lit up the girl’s eyes, silently thanking Dean and John for their obsession with their cars and the resemblance the Impala had with Serenity…in ways.
She pulled the curtain covering a screen on the wall and proceeded to filter through her mail, trying to find a face that suited her. She wanted comfort, she wanted to be treated like a person, not a princess. She wanted…something she hadn’t had in a long time. After what felt like hours of videos, smiling, pompous faces. Glittering eyes that held nothing but shyness and desire and possession. She shook her head. It was would be a wasted trip on her part. Nothing she could gain. With a sigh she decided it wasn’t worth leaving her family and turned away from her monitor, heading for the cargo bay to see if Kaylee had managed to sweet talk anyone interesting into flying with them.
Inara felt her hand connect with the metal of the rail, her eyes cast downwards as she concentrated on her steps. She wanted to make an impression when she met new passengers. However the eyes she felt on her seemed to bore into her. Like they knew what she was hiding under the heavy material and the jewels along her hands. She looked up under her eyebrows, opting for dark, mysterious and sexy as she swept her eyes over the newcomers. Typical inbred sacks of meat. Monkeys wearing clothes. A scruffy looking bald man with a knife the size of her foot was standing too close to Kaylee for Jayne’s comfort, and next to him was an equally irritating, almost-as-bald-but-not-quite-there-yet man with a pistol in his hand, twirling it around as he gave every woman in the ship a once over. Jayne was looking from one man to the other, an inner battle raging behind his eyes as he decided who to take out first.
Neither of them however, were looking at her like they actually saw her. They saw her naked, they were pigs, but it wasn’t what she was feeling. Her gaze continued to sweep along the cargo bay. Wash was loading boxes off the mule, Zoë’s fingers itching for the gun on her hip, trying desperately to ignore the new passengers on board. Mal staring at Simon, who promised to keep River out of the way until the slime balls they picked up were gone.
Inara felt her foot connect to the landing, her eyes stopping on the last person in the bay. A pair of hazel eyes stared back at her, glinting in the hanging lights. She felt her chest tighten, the people who had caught her form walking down the stairs were now staring at her, as she stared at-
“Hi, Inara.”
The voices in the room stopped. Mal and Simon turning their heads to stare at Inara and their newest stranger. Inara looked…to say the least, like she had been slapped in the face. Not angry, but defiantly not all that coherent.
“Sam.” She breathed his name, more than said it. The letters rolling off her tongue, like a forgotten drug she longed to have back. Everyone was staring at her. All she noticed were glinting hazel eyes, tall muscular frame, and hair that seemed even more shaggy than she remembered. She blinked twice, trying to quickly shake off her feeling of gods in heaven you have a sick, twisted, ironic mind.
Sam took a step forward, his hand sliding over the strap of his bag, slung over his shoulder casually. Inara swallowed, tears blurring her eyes. She found herself walking toward him quickly, hands reaching out to clutch his shirt, bringing his face down to hers, crashing her mouth against his. She absently heard his bag slide to the ground, the contents thunking against the metal ground, rattling what she could only assume was hunting go se. The sound, the thought, brought her back down to her little slice of petty earth, and she pulled away from Sam, swallowing the lump in her throat and taking a step away from him. She glanced down at the bag, then back up at Sam.
“You expect me to go with you?” she asked harshly. She knew the crew was watching her, completely confused as to what the hell she was doing, thinking. Who the hell she kissed without a second thought. Sam’s eyes lost their twinkle, immediately becoming dark. It was an expression she was used to, his lips bruised and red and still wanting her.
“It’s Dean, Inara,” said Sam, watching her breath catch in her throat again. “He crawled out of the pit.”
Her heart stuttered for a moment then sped up, taking her breath with her, hyperventilating. Sam reached out to her, only to have a gun shoved into his face by Jayne, that man with the girls name who sort of reminded him of Dean. Sam’s eyes snapped onto the gun, hands coming up and disarming the taller man without even blinking, leaving him on the ground and tossing his gun after him. Jayne motioned to stand up, but felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Inara standing next to him, not looking at him, but staring up at Sam.
“No, Jayne,” she said softly. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Jayne opened his mouth to protest, but found him unable to say anything remotely coherent or smart sounding. He closed it again and grabbed his gun, fuming as he stood up and backed away from Inara and her toy.
“Inara, you know I need you,” said Sam, taking a step closer to her, the heat coming off him, hitting Inara in waves. She couldn’t say no… “God, I missed you…”
His fingertips against her cheek snapped the tolerance she had built up against him. Her eyes locked onto his and suddenly they were the only two people on the ship, the planet, the universe. Her eyes slid halfway closed, leaning into his touch.
She missed him. It hurt how much she wanted this. To feel him again. Her bottom lip trembled slightly, tongue running over it, eyes flickering up into Sam’s, dark with lust and something else. It was always something else.
She took his hand on her cheek and turned on her heel, heading for the staircase, Sam following behind her, watching her. Reading her mind.
Sam slammed her against the wall of her shuttle, his mouth devouring her, their teeth clicking together as they fought to get each other undressed. Inara found her fingers going down the path they had memorized too many years ago, lucky and not surprised that he hadn’t blended with the times. He didn’t have trouble with her dress, untying the belt holding the fabric to her body and sliding his hands along her sides, gripping at the skin his found, turning it to fire. Inara whimpered against his mouth, her hands flying over his chest, down his stomach and working on his pants. Sam tore his mouth away from hers, biting his way down her jaw, neck, settling his teeth into the space above her collarbone, marking her, they way he had so many times.
His name on her lips was like breathing, she found it so easy to pick up and she found she needed it. To say his name, over and over and over until her throat was hoarse. Sam’s tongue slid over the teeth marks on her neck, soothing the damage he caused. His gesture went by unnoticed, she didn’t expect him to be gentle with her. His hands moved from her waist, sliding down her hips and along her thighs, leaving goose bumps along her skin. He hoisted her up against the wall, her legs sliding around his hips, settling against him in an oh so familiar way that she ached at night to feel again. His erection teased her.
Inara felt him smirk against her neck, the deep rumble of his voice making her whimper. “Don’t you have to charge extra for foreplay?”
Her fingers twirled into his hair, nails digging into his scalp. Inara didn’t reply, her mouth drifting away from his, hanging open as his nose buried into her neck, breathing in her sent. Her legs managed to push down his jeans, pooling around his ankles. She missed his skin, she missed the feel of him. Foreplay she could care less about, it was foreplay with him she missed. Inara cried out involuntarily as Sam lowered her onto him, snaking one hand around her backside, cupping her ass and rocking against her. He shut his eyes tightly, nuzzling his face into the slope of her neck. It had been too. God. Damn. Long.
Sam, god, please, Sam, seemed to be the only words her tongue could form. Nails dragging down his back, causing him to hiss, thrusting into her, slamming her back against the wall, the back of her head hitting the metal, the sound echoing around them for what seemed like eternity.
Sam was shaking by the time he came, grunting into her hair, long dark strands clinging to the sweat on his face. Inara was trembling, one hand splayed against his back, had been feeling the muscle tense and move whenever he would move, while her other hand was still buried in his hair, fingers tangled and knotted in dark, silk locks. He moved his face from her neck, moving his mouth over hers, brushing his lips over her, sliding the side of his nose along her, breathing her air for eternity.
“I missed you,” said Inara, her eyes fluttering, a content, blissful smile sliding onto her face. Sam didn’t smile back, still hadn’t relearned that trait he lost so long ago, but his eyes lit up. He didn’t need his smile to light up the room, his eyes were enough.
“We never should have separated in the first place,” he said softly, pressing his lips to the side of her mouth, kissing her gently, kissing the smile off her face. She leaned into him, her dress hanging off her shoulders. His skin was warm against her cheek, the musky smell of him bringing back memories she’d buried and forgotten. This was going to be hard. This was going to be painfully hard.
Jayne was fuming. He’d been taken out by a man who looked nearly half his age with boyish looks and puppy dog eyes that only made him want to punch him in the face, nothin’ to do with how he hated dogs or nothin’. But when he was taken out, after he threatened puppy man threatening Inara, there was this darkness that flickered in them, made him rethink mighty quickly about layin’ a hand on the younger man. The man making Inara scream in her shuttle, gettin‘ him off just picturing her usually composed face twisted up in lust and such. Everyone heard it. Kaylee couldn’t keep the blush off her face, muttering about the two of ‘em bein’ romantic and other sorts of crap that he didn’t really think too much of. Wash had said something inappropriate, Mal tried to pass off disinterest, and Kaylee kept her eyes on Inara’s shuttle, a dreamy look on her face, like she was readin’ some sort of children’s book with them happy endings.
He’d been only too happy to take his pissed off attitude out on the slime who’d touched Kaylee’s hair when she wasn’t payin’ him any attention. No one touched Kaylee. Mal had nearly let him toss them both out the air lock, but he waited until they paid him first. It was an hour before Jayne heard Inara or that puppy dog man say anything more than monosyllables, both of ‘em sounding happier than when they saw each other. Jayne stopped near Inara’s shuttle, examining his gun as he pretended not to eavesdrop on their conversation. Puppy man sayin’ something about a pit and someone crawling out of it. Sounded gruesome.
However, Jayne’s attention span could only stretch so far, especially after they got all quiet. Then Mal had to spoil his fun by shoutin’ at him to get his ass to the kitchen because dinner was ready.
“What about Inara?” asked Jayne, not bothering to keep his voice down anymore, enjoying the uncomfortable look that passed over the captains face.
“She can take care of herself, and her guest.”
They didn’t show up for dinner, figured there’d be too many questions, and damn did everyone have questions. Kaylee for one couldn’t stop talking about it, telling River everything about Inara and that the man she was with. River listened quietly, probably knowing full well what exactly was going on between the two.
“They have time,” said River after Kaylee had finished her gossip.
No one really gave her heed, turning instead back to their dinner, waiting for the silence to pass so they could go about their business.
Mal was the only one left at the table, long after everyone went to bed before Inara walked into the kitchen, draped in a gold robe, her curly hair tied up with a pair of chopsticks, fallen curls hanging along her shoulders. She jumped as she spotted Mal sitting at the table, his plate still sitting in front of him. He just stared at her.
“Mal,“ she started breathlessly. She shook off her surprise and moved towards the cabinets, trying to act nonchalant. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“Suppose I should,” said Mal, but made no move to get up. “You going to explain who that man was?”
“I suppose I should,” said Inara, mocking him only slightly. In truth, she really did want to tell Mal about Sam. She had wanted to tell them all about him and who he was. She knew they wouldn’t be able to handle it. Their lives were complicated enough as it was, she didn’t need to add onto it with explaining that neither she nor Sam could die. That they’d been together for centuries, because they couldn’t breathe without each other, see without each other. Simon would be overly curious, Book would call it unnatural, and Mal…Mal wouldn’t be able to handle it. She settled for the easiest way out. “He’s a friend.”
“Friend or client?” asked Mal, his eyes hardening. She looked at him, knowing that client was just another notch on her bedpost, friend was special.
“Sam wouldn’t be able to afford me,” said Inara cynically. Mal blinked at her and slid his chair back, standing up to take his leave. Inara felt tears prickling against her eyes, her throat tightening up as she held them back.
“I’m sorry, Mal,” she whispered to no one. Her voice echoing off the empty kitchen walls. She fixed a plate of food left over from dinner, trying not to linger on Mal too much as she headed back to her shuttle, thankful that she didn’t run into anyone else on the way back.
Sam was sitting on the edge of her bed, shifting through his bag when she walked in, wearing a shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He didn’t look up, but a smile crossed his face, his eyes glittering in a way she hadn’t seen in a long time. Too long.
“I brought some food,” said Inara gently, setting the plate on the table to the side. Sam didn’t make any move to get up, just continued sifting through his things until he stopped and pulled out a small, leather bag. He turned it over in his hands, untying the string holding it together and tipping the contents of the bag out onto his palm. Only one object fell into his hand, a pale gold ring, one she remember so very well, one that had a match somewhere in her shuttle.
“Do you still have yours?” he asked her, not looking up. Her eyes fell onto the dresser by her bed, the drawer that contained her elixir and various other valuables, some of her life on Earth-That-Was, some others.
“Yes.”
“They don’t know you’re married?” asked Sam, finally looking up at her, melting slightly as she felt the heat from his gaze. They. The crew. The guild. But he didn’t mean the guild, of course the guild knew, he was taking about the crew, her friends.
“No,” said Inara, walking past Sam and to her dresser, sliding open the drawer with some difficulty. It had been a long time since she’d been foolish enough to reminisce. Her breath caught on her throat as the edge of a picture caught her eyes, covered with her box of liquid life.
“Do they even know you?” asked Sam with a scoff. He was disappointed in her. “Wow, Inara. When you said you wanted to forget your life for an upgrade you really did a solid job-”
“I could never forget,” said Inara softly. “I just…needed a fresh start. I didn’t want to cry myself to sleep every night hoping that maybe tomorrow will be the same as the day before, and the people I love will stop dying.”
She felt Sam shift on her bed, standing up and padding along in his bare feet until he was behind her, placing his hands on her upper arms. She glanced back into her drawer, feeling slightly more prepared, and caught the flash of gold in the corner of the drawer. She reached in, fingers catching the smooth, cool metal.
“Are you going to wear it?” asked Sam, watching her lift the object between her fingertips until it was eye level. She turned in around in her fingers, watching it catch in the light of the candles.
“Maybe for a while,” she said softly. Sam sighed against her, dropping his cheek against the top of her head.
“You know they’re gonna ask about us,” said Sam softly. “And we’ve to get Dean back to hell. It’s hard enough getting out, he wont go down without a fight.”
Inara slipped her ring onto her finger, clenching and unclenching her hand as the familiar feeling of wearing the sliver of gold came back to her. “Inara?”
“I know,” she said. “When did you say Ruby was meeting us?”
“Whenever we land on Osiris,” said Sam. “I’ve spoken to her, but I don’t know what she looks like now.”
“At least she’s out of the pit,” said Inara. “One of the good ones.”
“I wish Dean was still one of the good ones,” said Sam softly.
“He’s not, Sam. He hasn’t been for a long time. And he made that choice, so don’t start blaming yourself.”
“I won’t,” Sam slid his arms around her, pulling her closer to him out of comfort. “I wont ever let him take advantage of that again.”
Inara didn’t reply, found she really didn’t need too, just let herself be held by Sam for what seemed like an eternity before she told him they needed sleep sometime before morning. Their food left forgotten on the table, but it would taste the same in the morning, at the moment each other was all that mattered, Inara curling into Sam’s chest while one of his arms draped over her waist, the other sliding around the back of her neck, pulling her as close to him as possible. They drifted off to sleep in each others arms, trying to sleep dreamlessly.
Mal had forgotten about Sam the moment he woke up, a bit puzzled by the fact that Kaylee was off in dreamland, humming something to herself as she cooked breakfast for the crew, Shepherd Book at her side. He blinked at them when Kaylee told him to go get Inara and her guest. He tried placing Inara’s latest client’s name and face, but for some reason it just wasn’t comin’ to him. He banged on Jayne’s door on his way past, shouting at him to get his gorram ass out of bed. He reached for Inara’s shuttle and then stopped, remembering she had company and she might not take too kindly to him just barging in on her. But he figured what the hell it wasn’t like he cared anyways.
His mouth opened to shout Kaylee’s offer for breakfast, but felt his voice die in this throat, mouth not bothering to properly close. He stopped dead in his tracks, remembering the events of the night before, and why he had been in such a nasty mood this morning. Inara and her guest were curled around each other, Inara’s hair splayed across Sam’s shoulder, makin’ it abundantly clear that he should have knocked first. His feet wouldn’t move him out of her shuttle however, and he just kept on staring at the image in front of him, his heart cracking into tiny little bits.
“You know you should really knock.”
Mal jumped, hadn’t noticed that Sam was awake and was now truly embarrassed with himself.
“I’m not the type,” said Mal, trying to pass off casual. “Kaylee’s made breakfast, wanted to know if the two of you were hungry.”
“That’s nice of her,” said Sam, pulling an arm off of Inara and looking at the captain. “She seems real cheerful.”
“Oh , that she is,” said Mal. “Just…come out when your decent. I’ll tell Kaylee you’ll be on your way.”
Sam watched Mal retreat out of the shuttle, a frown settling on his face. That man was either very paranoid or very stupid. Most likely both. With a sigh he glanced down at Inara, reaching out to push her hair off her face, the backs of his fingers brushing against her cheek.
“Ready to face the world, star shine?”
Inara cracked open an eye, giving him a look that reminded him she would kick his ass if he ever called her that again and nodded. Sam gave her a smile and climbed out of bed, pulling on clothes and watching as Inara filled up a bowl of hot water, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, telling him she’d be out in a few minutes, but to go on ahead.
Sam grinned at her back and headed out, stretching his arms over his head to get the kinks out, passing by that Jayne man he’d bumped heads with the other day. He nodded in greeting despite that fact and continued onto the kitchen, Kaylee’s face brightening a bit when she saw him walk in.
“’Mornin’,” she said happily, giving him a wave. Her smile was infectious, and he found himself smiling back, feeling considerably better than he had in a long time. Mal was sitting at the table, munching on whatever it was that Kaylee had made for breakfast. Sam took the furthest seat possible from the other man, not wanting to make him uncomfortable or anything.
“So,” started Kaylee, sitting down across from Sam at the table, looking at him sheepishly. “We never got introduced proper. I’m Kaylee.”
“Sam,” he said, then as an after thought. “You must be the mei mei Inara was talking about. Good to have someone out in the black who knows how to smile.”
Kaylee blushed, babbling about how Inara was sweet and now she was embarrassed. Mal interrupted her.
“Kaylee, don’t go making goo-goo eyes at people we don’t know about.”
“You gotta give him a chance, Capt’n,” said Kaylee, smiling brightly at Sam. “I bet you’ve got lots of stories, like how you know Inara-”
“Don’t go gettin’ into their personal lives, little one.”
“It’s fine,” said Sam. “We met a long time ago, kind of fell in love. Then the war started and-”
“You guys couldn’t be together,” finished Kaylee. “That’s so sad.”
“It could have been worse,” said Sam with a shrug. “We’re both alive.”
“Inara was on Sihnon during the war,” said Mal, Sam looked over at him and nodded.
“I know. I’m talking about a different war.”
“Something smells delicious, Kaylee,” they looked up to see Inara walk in, dresses falling around her legs as she headed for the food.
“I suppose your extra curricular activities last night have caused you quiet an appetite,” muttered Mal under his breath, missing the glare both Inara and Kaylee shot at him.
“Just ignore him, Inara. I think Sam’s a sweetie.”
“He is,” agreed Inara, Kaylee frowned at her, watching her hands glitter around the stovetop, making tea. Her eyes got wide as she realized what the shiny thing was, her hand jumping up to her mouth excitedly.
“Inara, you’re married?!” Inara froze, her arm outstretched to grab a clean tea cup. She tilted her hand up to examine the band around her finger.
“I forgot to take it off,” she muttered, glancing up at Sam who shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter to me if you wear it,” he said, his own ring shining on his finger. “I know you love me.”
“You two,” started Mal, his speech failing him a bit as he pointed to and from Sam and Inara. “You two are married?”
“For awhile now,” said Inara, continuing on with her tea making.
“Huh. Well ain’t that somethin’,” muttered Mal, his eyes stopping on Inara who shrugged off his look.
“Well just grab some food and- oh,” the occupants in the room looked up to see Simon and River walk in. River’s eyes flashed from Inara to Sam at the table, but the action went unnoticed by the rest of the crew in mess. Simon blinked around at them and then his gaze fell on the captain.
“Weren’t there two other men here?”
“Left early,” said River, moving to the counter where Inara was standing, picking up a can in one of the boxes sitting there. Inara smiled at her, touching her shoulder gently in a hello and moving to the table to sit next to Sam, a cup of tea in her hands. Sam felt his arm lift up out of old habit, draping around Inara’s shoulders and pulling her closer to him.
“Isaiah,” Sam’s head shot up to Rive who’d taken to unloading supplies out of the boxes when Simon wasn’t looking. Sam blinked at her before very slowly turning to look at Inara.
“Didn’t think you’d tell anyone about him,” said Sam, not quite bitterly. Time had loosened the edge in his voice, but the pain was still there, in his eyes. Inara looked up at him from the tea in her cup, her deep eyes locking onto his, the pain reflected back at him.
“I didn’t,” she said softly. Their eyes snapped back onto the girl as she slammed down cans of food onto the counter, obviously upset with something.
“Blood running down your arms, caking against your skin, cracking with movements. Can’t get out because there’s nowhere to run to. Fucking pit with their tyen-sah duh uh-muo, crawling out with their skin falling off their arms-”
“River.” Simon was back, pulling River’s angry, willowy body away from the cans of food, wrapping his arms around her protectively, whispering soothingly into her ear. She was still muttering incoherently, but it seemed that Mal had been through enough of her outbursts to know that there was a problem. He looked from River to Sam and Inara, neither of them flinching at the accusing way his eyes fell on them.
Sam stood up slowly, his chair scraping gently against the floor. He continued to hold Mal’s gaze, his face stony and void of emotions.
“It’s not his fault,” said River, finally calm enough to stand upright by herself.
“We’ll see about that,” said Mal, but River wasn’t looking at Mal, she was looking at Sam, her dark eyes boring holes into his scull and he thought briefly that if he had only met her when he was 22... The thought amused him slightly, but he let it slide, and turned to head out the door, Mal’s eyes and River’s eyes still boring into him. Inara’s hand had caught his briefly as he passed, silently telling him that this time there was no place to run. He looked at her.
“You first.” he said softly. Inara pulled her hand back, as if touching him had caused her bodily harm. He shook his head when she didn’t reply, continuing out of the kitchen and back to her shuttle.
“What is wrong with you?” Inara’s voice caused him to stop in his tracks. He sighed and hung his head in annoyance. So she wanted this to happen in private? No way. Her friends needed to know exactly who and what she was. Sam turned slowly on the balls of his feet, looking up at her darkly from under his hair.
“Me, Inara?” asked Sam, his voice low. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You are not the same person I-”
“No, Inara. I’m exactly the same,” snapped Sam, his voice rising. “You’re the only one who’s changed. For what? These people?”
“These people are my friends-”
“Some friends,” said Sam, lifting his head up, his eyes dark. Behind Inara he watched River slink into the space behind the stairs, watching them. He had a feeling she knew exactly what was going on, that had been evident from her babblings in the kitchen. “They don’t even know who you are.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way. I’m a private person, Sam-”
“And they wont ever know you like I know you. I’ve got five hundred years on them.”
“Sam, I don’t want to talk about this here,” said Inara, glancing over her shoulder. Sam shrugged.
“Then I guess we’re not talking,” he turned and instead of heading back to her shuttle like he meant to, headed off to the passenger quarters, in serious need of some alone time. He heard someone follow him and assumed it was Inara. She always did like to get things cleared up and shiny. He turned around to tell her off only to find himself staring into two very dark, blank eyes.
“It’s River,” said the girl, her head tilting to the side, combat boots scrapping against the floor. “Dong ma?”
“Yeah,” said Sam slowly. “What do you want?”
“The black’s made you cold,” said River, still staring him in the eye. “Inara makes you warm again, like your innards are all liquefied. Five hundred years is a long time to be cold and broken.”
“Holy crap you’re a psychic,” said Sam, taking a step back, his eyes searching her unsurprised face. He frowned, not recalling any of his previous encounters with psychics sound quite like her. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Broke her,” said River, taking another step closer to him. Sam held his ground. “Dug around in her brain. Some are good days, some are bad. Can’t control anything in her brainpan.”
Sam nodded. He’d heard rumors of something like this, some government project about seeing how special people worked. He’d been tempted to help a group of people trying to help break them out, but he’d been side tracked-
“Not your fault,” said River, shaking her head, a small smile crossing her face. “You were trapped. Had to kill the werewolf.”
“Yeah, on Shadow,” said Sam, remembering the sound of whimpering and silence when he finally managed to end his hunt. Three dead, one werewolf, all in all it was a very good day. “You’re different than most of the psychics I’ve met. Frankly, you’re better.”
“They called me little mouse,” said River, dropping her head and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Sam smiled at her. “You think you can help me.”
He didn’t even blink at her. Yes, he’d been thinking that exactly, at that moment. Yes, he thought he could help her, he thought he might be the only one who could. She seemed so…innocent. Broken. Her brother took good care of her, he could see that as well, but…it wasn’t the right kind of care.
“I know I can.”
“How?” her voice was small, but her eyes were shining with hope when she turned her head up to look at him. Sam smirked at her and nodded into one of the passenger dorms.
“You have to practice.”
“Practice?” River’s head fell into a tilt, like she didn’t believe him.
“You have to learn how to control your abilities.”
“But they broke her, they made it dark-”
“You’re still you,” said Sam. “Inara told me you liked to dance. That’s something no one can take away.”
River went silent, thinking to herself. It must have been hard to shuffle through everything else in her head, because it seemed like an eternity before she spoke again, narrowing her eyes curiously at Sam.
“How do I practice?”
“You embrace it,” said Sam without hesitating. “You’re a gift, River. Your abilities don’t control you, you control them.”
River seemed to consider him, but she didn’t acknowledge that she did. She turned her eyes to the ground and furrowed her eyebrows, then slowly padded to her room. Sam turned his head to watch her go. The com overhead crackled to life and Wash’s voice boomed a little too loud above his head.
“We’re coming in on a little moon, hopefully with a job and alcohol on it. ETA about ten minutes.”
.
Fifteen minutes later Jayne limped back on board, sporting a gunshot wound and told by Mal not to leave again.
It was selfish of him to think about Inara, but he did, and he couldn’t help it. While he was on the rim it took the threat of reavers every ten minutes to keep his mind off Inara. They both made the choice to leave. He left her at Sihnon, and she had made it very clear that she never wanted to see him again, telling him that it was better for the both of them if they forgot about each other, started new lives. She had used the word ‘reborn’. He tried. God, he tried, but it never worked. He found himself falling into the reckless, petty, criminal types. He was good at the petty crimes, and that didn’t seem to help much. Something he managed to do was forget that he was the reason they had to leave Earth-That-Was. One of the reasons.
Well, he’d played a part. Not his gorram fault that Lucifer couldn’t walk on Earth without poisoning everything. God hadn’t helped much. The two clashed something terrible and suddenly everything was white and brilliant and people were dropping dead around them. Falling to the ground with their eyes liquefied, not having any idea what was going on…what their faith had done for them.
The apocalypse was painful and shorter than he imagined. Those who’d gotten fair warning were already off the planet, taking their ‘experimental technology’ and finding out just how well it would work.
Earth-That-Was. Got that right. It was nothing but a fairy tale now.
Sam’s foot scuffed against the metal underneath his feet, catching himself thinking about old times. He shook his head, heading up the ramp into the cargo bay. He was the only one on board, ‘sides Jayne. Captain hadn’t trusted him with a job (not that he blamed him) and Jayne…well, despite what the man said, he could not make a deal for a job with two bullets in his leg.
He found himself pacing the cargo bay, waiting for someone (preferably Kaylee) to get back. He wanted off the boat, but until Mal knew what he and Inara seemed to know he wasn’t going anywhere. Sam slowed his pacing slightly, feeling someone watching him. His back was on the open blast doors, waiting patiently for the return of Wash and Kaylee with some parts for the ship. He swallowed, fingers twitching for his gun.
A woman behind him cleared her throat, and he turned to see two people standing behind him, looking so strikingly like two people he’d thought he lost so fucking long ago-
“Hey, Sammy.”
Sam’s eyes widened in horror, watching hazel eyes flash to black. “Dean-!”
Without so much as flinching, Dean’s flicked his wrist, sending Sam flying through the air, landing hard on the metal staircase, his eyes fluttering closed and his head lolling to the side. Dean tilted his head in the direction of Sam’s unconscious body, no twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Straightening his coat, the demon walked the length of the cargo bay, ignoring the woman behind him who sighed in annoyance.
“He sure wasn’t hard to find,” she said, amusement and superiority dripping off her tongue, even after centuries of being ripped apart in the pit, she still hadn’t lost her edge. Sometimes Dean wasn’t sure if he wanted to admire her or smack her across the face. “Like he wasn’t even trying.”
“He got sloppy for some reason,” said Dean, screwing up his eyes to take in the damage done to his baby brother, watching a trickle of blood slip across this brow and soaking into his hair.
“Can we go now, Dean?” she asked, accent tugging on her words in a way that always made him stop and shake his head. Fucking meat sack was too damn similar… She folded her arms across her chest, walking into the ship after he made it very clear that he was ignoring her. “Dean-”
“We’re not going anywhere,” snapped Dean, still looking for changes to his brothers appearance.
“Oh, please-”
“I said no, Bela,” growled Dean, his head nearly swinging around to glare at her, knowing full well that it didn’t effect her in the least. “I’ve waited too fucking long for this. I want to enjoy it.”
“What do ya think yer gorram doin’ down there?” Dean and Bela looked up to the level above them, watching a fairly dangerous looking man pointing a fairly dangerous, face melting gun at them. Bela and Dean shared a look, an almost nervous one.
“What the hell did you do to ‘im?” he asked wildly, looking mildly impressed as he looked over the railing at Sam sprawled on the stairs. Bela cocked her head in his direction, examining the gun in his hands more closely.
“Nice piece,” she said lightly, uncrossing her arms. “What is that, a Callahan fill-bore auto-lock? Customized trigger, double cartridge through gauge…very nice.”
“Yeah,” said Jayne, lowering Vera slightly, giving Bela another (more appreciative) look over. “Yeah it is.”
“It’s nice,” said Bela, slowly. “Too bad it’s going to break your face.”
Poor Jayne didn’t even have time to open his mouth before Bela’s palm shot up in the air. The gun in Jayne’s hands propelled backwards, smashing him in the face and effectively knocking him out. Bela smirked as he went down like a rock before lowering her arm and turning very seriously to Dean.
“Now we have to go.”
“Fine,” spat Dean. He took one last look at Sam, his upper lip twitching involuntarily and his right foot coming out and kicking him hard in the side voluntarily. He turned and walked out of the ship with Bela, disappearing with a blink, leaving the two unconscious men bleeding for the rest of the crew to find twenty minutes later, with Wash and Kaylee riding the mule into the cargo bay.
They didn’t notice either unconscious men until Kaylee was unloading a shiny new engine part, nearly dropping it when she saw Sam lying on the stairs.
“Sam!” Wash looked up, catching Kaylee rushing over to Inara’s…special friend, unconscious on the ground.
“Wuh duh ma,” he muttered, following Kaylee.
“Should we call the captain?” asked Kayle, her fingers brushing along the side of Sam’s face, pulling away blood stained fingers. Wash shook his head.
“Jayne probably got stir crazy and hit him. Inara’s not going to be happy-” Wash stopped as a groan echoed around the cargo bay. They both looked up slowly, seeing a pair of very large feet sticking out from the upper level.
“Jayne?” asked Kaylee carefully, answered by another, louder groan. He crawled his way to the edge of the level looked down at Kaylee and Wash, their faces sort of blury due to the blood caking his face. He didn’t see them wince.
“Aiya,” muttered Wash, straightening up and peering closer at Jayne. “What happened to your face?”
“Gorram psychos attacked me,” said Jayne gruffly, not mentioning the magic or that it was a woman. “I guess they had a beef with Inara’s pet, ‘cause they took him out first.”
“Sam ain’t Inara’s pet,” said Kaylee, sounding insulted. “They’re married-”
“Mal says he ain’t been told nothing’ on how they know each other, so until we figure it out, he goes by ‘pet’.”
Kaylee shrugged, looking back down at Sam as she felt him stir awake. She smile brightly at him as he opened his eyes a crack.
“Don’t you worry. Simon’s gonna be back soon, fix you up and then we’ll figure out what kind of tyen-sah duh uh-muo attacked you.”
“Monsters,” said Sam, chuckling at Kaylee’s words, his voice slurring slightly as he sat up, shaking his head with a wince. “Right. Where’s Inara?”
“I suppose she’ll be back soon too,” said Kaylee. “She’s gonna be awful sorry she left you here-”
“She’s in danger,” Sam muttered, swaying as he tried to stand up. “She needs to get back here now! Everyone does…”
Sam trailed off, starring off into space, Kaylee just staring at him with a shocked, scared expression on her face. Jayne looked at him from over the railing, trying to stand up.
“What the hell do you mean ‘danger’?”
“Call everyone back,” Sam called over to Wash. “We need to go.”
“We ain’t goin’ nowhere,” shouted Jayne, hobbling down the stairs as fast as he could manage. “Not until you tell us what’s gorram goin’ on.”
“Inara-”
“Ain’t here,” Sam felt his blood boil, narrowing his eyes in Jayne’s direction. He knew the man was right. It had gone on too long, had gone too far. It was time everyone knew and fuck Inara if she cared about what these people thought of her. They needed to know what she was getting them into, why she hadn’t just taken off with him in the first place. He swore under his breath, muttering curses in every language he’d learned in the last five hundred years, earning himself looks from Wash and Kaylee.
“What’s going on?” they all turned, looking up to see Inara standing near the corridor to her shuttle, and Sam felt all the anger in him sputter and die. “What happened.”
Sam closed his eyes and dropped his head, placing his hands on his hips.
“Dean was here,” he said, loud enough for her to hear. He felt her swallow back a gasp, her hand fluttering to her mouth to keep herself in check.
“Dean? Who’s Dean?” asked Wash, looking from Inara to Sam and finally setting on Jayne. “Is Dean the one who did that to your face?”
“Hell if I know, there was a woman too.”
“What?” asked Sam loudly, spinning around to look at Jayne, his eyes wide. Jayne shrugged, lifting his hand to his face to touch his nose.
“Wasn’t like she was in charge or nothin’.”
“We need to call Mal,” said Inara. “We need to go.”
“Why are you both so scared?” asked Wash. “I mean, I’d be afraid of anyone who could take out Jayne, but you two are-”
“Maybe we should just go get the captain,” said Kaylee interrupted nervously. “Might be best.”
Mal wasn’t happy to be called back, stomping into the lounge area just itching to hit some folk. He started off about Badger not trusting him in the first place and that they weren’t going to get a job now. Sam frowned and interrupted him.
“Badger? I can get you work from Badger, he owes me a few favors. Now, will someone get this boat up in the air?”
Mal had looked at him funny, noticing for the first time that the side of his head was all bloodied up. Simon was tending to Jayne’s face, setting his broken nose a stitching part of his cheek. Mal looked from one man to the other before demanding to know what happened.
“Whatever the hell it was, it was after him,” shouted Jayne, pointing wildly in Sam‘s general direction, who just rolled his eyes. “And whatever the hell it was,” continued Jayne, a crazy sort of look passing over his face. “Knocked me in the head too, just by association.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you,” said Inara from the door way with a disgusted look on her face, Sam’s arm slung over her shoulder, leaning into her just slightly. “Which they would have.”
“What stopped them?” asked Simon, sounding somewhat disappointed. Inara glanced at Sam out of the corner of her eye, her mouth parting as she tried to form words they would all understand.
“I don’t know,” said Sam softly, the hand he had resting on Inara’s shoulder tightening. “If they wanted to they could have killed us all mei oo’en tee.”
“Again,” started Book calmly from his seat on the couch, looking over at Sam. “What stopped them?”
Sam opened his mouth to answer him honestly but stopped, looking down at Inara with a serious expression. “Inara, this would be a really good time-”
“I said no, Sam,” interrupted Inara, looking at the floor. “That’s final.”
“Yeah, well that was before. This is now, and now we’re all in danger.”
“They wont hurt us.”
“I’m more worried about Mal at this point then Dean,” hissed Sam, glancing over at the captain, who had perked up at his name. Inara followed his gaze and swallowed, moving out of Sam’s arm, heading in the direction of her shuttle, everyone’s eyes on her back.
“Inara,” started Kaylee, getting up to follow her friend but stopping as she got to Sam, looking at him accusingly. “What did you do?”
“It’s complicated,” said Sam softly. “You wouldn’t understand-”
“You seem to know an awful lot about what we would and wouldn’t understand, son,” said Mal. “Maybe you should start explaining why.”
Sam held up his hands in defense, backing away from Kaylee. “Hey, it’s not my place to say. Inara’s made that pretty clear.”
“Running away,” said River on the staircase, her knees pulled up to her chest, looking at Sam. “Scared of the bright light.”
“Would you shut that girl up-”
“She’s right,” said Sam, interrupting Jayne and what was bound to be a very long winded rant full of cussin’ and such. Sam smiled at the girl. “You’re getting better.”
“You call that gettin’ better?” Sam opened his mouth to explain, only to be cut off by Simon, tossing the tools he was finished using to patch up Jayne in the metal pan on his tray, trying not to look put off.
“Something else, we wouldn’t understand I suppose,” he glanced over at his sister who nodded in all seriousness.
“I hope you do someday,” said Sam sincerely, nodding sympathetically to the people in the room and taking his leave without another word, leaving them all staring after with confusion plastered across their pretty faces.
“Tzao-gao I don’t give a good gorram about their ‘special complicated bond’ I want to know what’s going on,” said Mal, standing up from his chair.
“Going to regret it,” River piped up.
“And why’s that, darlin’?” not really caring why, he was just askin’ out of habit.
“Wont like the answer,” she said, her head swiveling back to where Sam had left. “It’s inevitable.”
“Well, I want my answers now,” said Mal, taking off out of the lounge in the direction of Inara and her shuttle, bursting in like he always did only to stop and frown, not seeing anyone there, which was confusin’. He looked around for a moment, confirming that there was no one in Inara’s shuttle and he turned to go, when a partly opened drawer caught his attention. He turned back, staring at the table beside Inara’s bed, decided it wouldn’t hurt anyone to peek. It was probably just companions stuff, like vitamins or tea or… bondage.
His fingers brushed along the edge of the drawer, slipping inside and pulling it open. He glanced inside, doing a double take as shiny things caught his gaze. What kind of looked like a silver radio, a bag labeled ‘salt’, few other trinkets that looked more familiar and a couple photographs. Mal reached in, picking up the photos and examining them. There were only four. The first was of Inara and two other men, maybe father and son. The younger one had his arm slung over Inara’s shoulder, a lazy grin cast over his features, emanating in his posture. The older man just looked like he was there, comfortable enough with the other two to smile along. The next picture was of Inara, the younger man from the first photo and Sam, who looked a good deal younger than he did now. The third was a photo of a car, a nice gorram lookin’ car, but still a car, and the fourth-
He stuffed the last photo into the pocket of his coat, tossing the other three back in the drawer where they belonged and turned back to see Inara walking into her shuttle. She gave him a look.
“What are you doing in my shuttle?”
“Nothin’,” said Mal. “Thought I wanted to talk with you, but turns out I don’t.”
“What have I told you about coming into my shuttle unannounced??”
“Don’t tell me…something about it being caveman like.”
“It was more like don’t.”
Mal shrugged casually, seemingly unaffected by her as he headed out of her shuttle, ignoring her narrowed eyes on his back as he made his way to his bunk, the photo in his pocket burning a whole against his leg. He let himself fall against bed, his back hitting the wall as he pulled out the glossy photo, turning it over in the light. It was just a normal, still photograph, the kind they made for poorer folk nowadays. He looked at the faces: Inara with a smile on her face, curly hair framing her face, wearing a pair of jeans instead of the dresses he was so used to, not looking at the camera, sitting on the ground with her hand threaded through Sam’s, sitting next to her, holding a little boy, maybe two years old in his lap, so obviously their child it made his heart ache.
So this was the big secret. This was Isaiah.
* translations - go se - crap / bai dou an jing - please I beg you, be quiet / mei mei - little sister / tyen-sah duh uh-muo - goddamn monsters / dong ma - understand / wuh duh ma - mother of God / mei oo’en tee - no problem / tzao-gao - damn it
Author(s): darkmagic-luvr
Crossover: Supernatural/Firefly
Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly or Supernatural. Any characters you don't recognize are my own and should not be used without my permission.
Type: het
Word Count: Part II - 8,674
Characters/Pairings: Part II - Inara Serra, Mal Reynolds, Sam Winchester, Simon Tam, River Tam, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, Shepherd Book, Zoë Alleyne Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Dean Winchester, Bela Talbot
Warnings: sex, lanuage, violence, death
Spoilers: the Firefly 'verse and through the beginning of season 4 of Supernatural
Artist: quiet-reble
Link to Art: here
Summary: Inara never wanted to die, and with the help of the Winchesters she hadn't for over 500 years. When an old friend and lover walks back into her life, she has to open her closet and face her skeletons, whether either of them want to.
Author’s Notes: And now we have a plot. I'm pointing out now that I've only seen the first few episodes of season 4 for Supernatural. Chinese translations at the bottom.
(PART II)
The beeping sound of her comm shook Inara out of her easy sleep; it had become easier over the decades to get to sleep, she had found that incense did wonders, as did sex. Inara blinked and sat up, pushing the thin silk sheets off her body and slipping out of bed, reaching for her golden colored robe to cover her naked body as she headed for her comms, shifting the drapes that hid the cockpit of her shuttle. Suppressing a yawn out of habit than actual weariness, she pressed a button and waited for Mal to speak his piece, glancing out her window as Serenity broke atmo on Persephone.
“Good you’re up.”
Inara rolled her eyes at the false sardonic tone in Mal’s voice, a smirk gracing her features as her captain rattled off the time they were leavin’ and to get her respectable ass back on his ship before they left or she’d have hell to pay. Inara rolled her eyes again, something she’d found become a habit with her on this ship, with this captain. Pressing the same button again, and effectively shutting off Mal’s voice she turned and proceeded to dress, making sure her protection charm was securely placed in her hair, glittering like an ornament. No one would be the wiser.
She hesitated a moment, debating on whether she really wanted customers on this specific trip. Mal had told her they would be sitting until Kaylee got the new parts she needed to fix the gorram ship. Mal had finally caved after he managed to set them drifting for a good hour before Inara suggested something that lit up the girl’s eyes, silently thanking Dean and John for their obsession with their cars and the resemblance the Impala had with Serenity…in ways.
She pulled the curtain covering a screen on the wall and proceeded to filter through her mail, trying to find a face that suited her. She wanted comfort, she wanted to be treated like a person, not a princess. She wanted…something she hadn’t had in a long time. After what felt like hours of videos, smiling, pompous faces. Glittering eyes that held nothing but shyness and desire and possession. She shook her head. It was would be a wasted trip on her part. Nothing she could gain. With a sigh she decided it wasn’t worth leaving her family and turned away from her monitor, heading for the cargo bay to see if Kaylee had managed to sweet talk anyone interesting into flying with them.
Inara felt her hand connect with the metal of the rail, her eyes cast downwards as she concentrated on her steps. She wanted to make an impression when she met new passengers. However the eyes she felt on her seemed to bore into her. Like they knew what she was hiding under the heavy material and the jewels along her hands. She looked up under her eyebrows, opting for dark, mysterious and sexy as she swept her eyes over the newcomers. Typical inbred sacks of meat. Monkeys wearing clothes. A scruffy looking bald man with a knife the size of her foot was standing too close to Kaylee for Jayne’s comfort, and next to him was an equally irritating, almost-as-bald-but-not-quite-there-yet man with a pistol in his hand, twirling it around as he gave every woman in the ship a once over. Jayne was looking from one man to the other, an inner battle raging behind his eyes as he decided who to take out first.
Neither of them however, were looking at her like they actually saw her. They saw her naked, they were pigs, but it wasn’t what she was feeling. Her gaze continued to sweep along the cargo bay. Wash was loading boxes off the mule, Zoë’s fingers itching for the gun on her hip, trying desperately to ignore the new passengers on board. Mal staring at Simon, who promised to keep River out of the way until the slime balls they picked up were gone.
Inara felt her foot connect to the landing, her eyes stopping on the last person in the bay. A pair of hazel eyes stared back at her, glinting in the hanging lights. She felt her chest tighten, the people who had caught her form walking down the stairs were now staring at her, as she stared at-
“Hi, Inara.”
The voices in the room stopped. Mal and Simon turning their heads to stare at Inara and their newest stranger. Inara looked…to say the least, like she had been slapped in the face. Not angry, but defiantly not all that coherent.
“Sam.” She breathed his name, more than said it. The letters rolling off her tongue, like a forgotten drug she longed to have back. Everyone was staring at her. All she noticed were glinting hazel eyes, tall muscular frame, and hair that seemed even more shaggy than she remembered. She blinked twice, trying to quickly shake off her feeling of gods in heaven you have a sick, twisted, ironic mind.
Sam took a step forward, his hand sliding over the strap of his bag, slung over his shoulder casually. Inara swallowed, tears blurring her eyes. She found herself walking toward him quickly, hands reaching out to clutch his shirt, bringing his face down to hers, crashing her mouth against his. She absently heard his bag slide to the ground, the contents thunking against the metal ground, rattling what she could only assume was hunting go se. The sound, the thought, brought her back down to her little slice of petty earth, and she pulled away from Sam, swallowing the lump in her throat and taking a step away from him. She glanced down at the bag, then back up at Sam.
“You expect me to go with you?” she asked harshly. She knew the crew was watching her, completely confused as to what the hell she was doing, thinking. Who the hell she kissed without a second thought. Sam’s eyes lost their twinkle, immediately becoming dark. It was an expression she was used to, his lips bruised and red and still wanting her.
“It’s Dean, Inara,” said Sam, watching her breath catch in her throat again. “He crawled out of the pit.”
Her heart stuttered for a moment then sped up, taking her breath with her, hyperventilating. Sam reached out to her, only to have a gun shoved into his face by Jayne, that man with the girls name who sort of reminded him of Dean. Sam’s eyes snapped onto the gun, hands coming up and disarming the taller man without even blinking, leaving him on the ground and tossing his gun after him. Jayne motioned to stand up, but felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Inara standing next to him, not looking at him, but staring up at Sam.
“No, Jayne,” she said softly. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Jayne opened his mouth to protest, but found him unable to say anything remotely coherent or smart sounding. He closed it again and grabbed his gun, fuming as he stood up and backed away from Inara and her toy.
“Inara, you know I need you,” said Sam, taking a step closer to her, the heat coming off him, hitting Inara in waves. She couldn’t say no… “God, I missed you…”
His fingertips against her cheek snapped the tolerance she had built up against him. Her eyes locked onto his and suddenly they were the only two people on the ship, the planet, the universe. Her eyes slid halfway closed, leaning into his touch.
She missed him. It hurt how much she wanted this. To feel him again. Her bottom lip trembled slightly, tongue running over it, eyes flickering up into Sam’s, dark with lust and something else. It was always something else.
She took his hand on her cheek and turned on her heel, heading for the staircase, Sam following behind her, watching her. Reading her mind.
Sam slammed her against the wall of her shuttle, his mouth devouring her, their teeth clicking together as they fought to get each other undressed. Inara found her fingers going down the path they had memorized too many years ago, lucky and not surprised that he hadn’t blended with the times. He didn’t have trouble with her dress, untying the belt holding the fabric to her body and sliding his hands along her sides, gripping at the skin his found, turning it to fire. Inara whimpered against his mouth, her hands flying over his chest, down his stomach and working on his pants. Sam tore his mouth away from hers, biting his way down her jaw, neck, settling his teeth into the space above her collarbone, marking her, they way he had so many times.
His name on her lips was like breathing, she found it so easy to pick up and she found she needed it. To say his name, over and over and over until her throat was hoarse. Sam’s tongue slid over the teeth marks on her neck, soothing the damage he caused. His gesture went by unnoticed, she didn’t expect him to be gentle with her. His hands moved from her waist, sliding down her hips and along her thighs, leaving goose bumps along her skin. He hoisted her up against the wall, her legs sliding around his hips, settling against him in an oh so familiar way that she ached at night to feel again. His erection teased her.
Inara felt him smirk against her neck, the deep rumble of his voice making her whimper. “Don’t you have to charge extra for foreplay?”
Her fingers twirled into his hair, nails digging into his scalp. Inara didn’t reply, her mouth drifting away from his, hanging open as his nose buried into her neck, breathing in her sent. Her legs managed to push down his jeans, pooling around his ankles. She missed his skin, she missed the feel of him. Foreplay she could care less about, it was foreplay with him she missed. Inara cried out involuntarily as Sam lowered her onto him, snaking one hand around her backside, cupping her ass and rocking against her. He shut his eyes tightly, nuzzling his face into the slope of her neck. It had been too. God. Damn. Long.
Sam, god, please, Sam, seemed to be the only words her tongue could form. Nails dragging down his back, causing him to hiss, thrusting into her, slamming her back against the wall, the back of her head hitting the metal, the sound echoing around them for what seemed like eternity.
Sam was shaking by the time he came, grunting into her hair, long dark strands clinging to the sweat on his face. Inara was trembling, one hand splayed against his back, had been feeling the muscle tense and move whenever he would move, while her other hand was still buried in his hair, fingers tangled and knotted in dark, silk locks. He moved his face from her neck, moving his mouth over hers, brushing his lips over her, sliding the side of his nose along her, breathing her air for eternity.
“I missed you,” said Inara, her eyes fluttering, a content, blissful smile sliding onto her face. Sam didn’t smile back, still hadn’t relearned that trait he lost so long ago, but his eyes lit up. He didn’t need his smile to light up the room, his eyes were enough.
“We never should have separated in the first place,” he said softly, pressing his lips to the side of her mouth, kissing her gently, kissing the smile off her face. She leaned into him, her dress hanging off her shoulders. His skin was warm against her cheek, the musky smell of him bringing back memories she’d buried and forgotten. This was going to be hard. This was going to be painfully hard.
Jayne was fuming. He’d been taken out by a man who looked nearly half his age with boyish looks and puppy dog eyes that only made him want to punch him in the face, nothin’ to do with how he hated dogs or nothin’. But when he was taken out, after he threatened puppy man threatening Inara, there was this darkness that flickered in them, made him rethink mighty quickly about layin’ a hand on the younger man. The man making Inara scream in her shuttle, gettin‘ him off just picturing her usually composed face twisted up in lust and such. Everyone heard it. Kaylee couldn’t keep the blush off her face, muttering about the two of ‘em bein’ romantic and other sorts of crap that he didn’t really think too much of. Wash had said something inappropriate, Mal tried to pass off disinterest, and Kaylee kept her eyes on Inara’s shuttle, a dreamy look on her face, like she was readin’ some sort of children’s book with them happy endings.
He’d been only too happy to take his pissed off attitude out on the slime who’d touched Kaylee’s hair when she wasn’t payin’ him any attention. No one touched Kaylee. Mal had nearly let him toss them both out the air lock, but he waited until they paid him first. It was an hour before Jayne heard Inara or that puppy dog man say anything more than monosyllables, both of ‘em sounding happier than when they saw each other. Jayne stopped near Inara’s shuttle, examining his gun as he pretended not to eavesdrop on their conversation. Puppy man sayin’ something about a pit and someone crawling out of it. Sounded gruesome.
However, Jayne’s attention span could only stretch so far, especially after they got all quiet. Then Mal had to spoil his fun by shoutin’ at him to get his ass to the kitchen because dinner was ready.
“What about Inara?” asked Jayne, not bothering to keep his voice down anymore, enjoying the uncomfortable look that passed over the captains face.
“She can take care of herself, and her guest.”
They didn’t show up for dinner, figured there’d be too many questions, and damn did everyone have questions. Kaylee for one couldn’t stop talking about it, telling River everything about Inara and that the man she was with. River listened quietly, probably knowing full well what exactly was going on between the two.
“They have time,” said River after Kaylee had finished her gossip.
No one really gave her heed, turning instead back to their dinner, waiting for the silence to pass so they could go about their business.
Mal was the only one left at the table, long after everyone went to bed before Inara walked into the kitchen, draped in a gold robe, her curly hair tied up with a pair of chopsticks, fallen curls hanging along her shoulders. She jumped as she spotted Mal sitting at the table, his plate still sitting in front of him. He just stared at her.
“Mal,“ she started breathlessly. She shook off her surprise and moved towards the cabinets, trying to act nonchalant. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“Suppose I should,” said Mal, but made no move to get up. “You going to explain who that man was?”
“I suppose I should,” said Inara, mocking him only slightly. In truth, she really did want to tell Mal about Sam. She had wanted to tell them all about him and who he was. She knew they wouldn’t be able to handle it. Their lives were complicated enough as it was, she didn’t need to add onto it with explaining that neither she nor Sam could die. That they’d been together for centuries, because they couldn’t breathe without each other, see without each other. Simon would be overly curious, Book would call it unnatural, and Mal…Mal wouldn’t be able to handle it. She settled for the easiest way out. “He’s a friend.”
“Friend or client?” asked Mal, his eyes hardening. She looked at him, knowing that client was just another notch on her bedpost, friend was special.
“Sam wouldn’t be able to afford me,” said Inara cynically. Mal blinked at her and slid his chair back, standing up to take his leave. Inara felt tears prickling against her eyes, her throat tightening up as she held them back.
“I’m sorry, Mal,” she whispered to no one. Her voice echoing off the empty kitchen walls. She fixed a plate of food left over from dinner, trying not to linger on Mal too much as she headed back to her shuttle, thankful that she didn’t run into anyone else on the way back.
Sam was sitting on the edge of her bed, shifting through his bag when she walked in, wearing a shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He didn’t look up, but a smile crossed his face, his eyes glittering in a way she hadn’t seen in a long time. Too long.
“I brought some food,” said Inara gently, setting the plate on the table to the side. Sam didn’t make any move to get up, just continued sifting through his things until he stopped and pulled out a small, leather bag. He turned it over in his hands, untying the string holding it together and tipping the contents of the bag out onto his palm. Only one object fell into his hand, a pale gold ring, one she remember so very well, one that had a match somewhere in her shuttle.
“Do you still have yours?” he asked her, not looking up. Her eyes fell onto the dresser by her bed, the drawer that contained her elixir and various other valuables, some of her life on Earth-That-Was, some others.
“Yes.”
“They don’t know you’re married?” asked Sam, finally looking up at her, melting slightly as she felt the heat from his gaze. They. The crew. The guild. But he didn’t mean the guild, of course the guild knew, he was taking about the crew, her friends.
“No,” said Inara, walking past Sam and to her dresser, sliding open the drawer with some difficulty. It had been a long time since she’d been foolish enough to reminisce. Her breath caught on her throat as the edge of a picture caught her eyes, covered with her box of liquid life.
“Do they even know you?” asked Sam with a scoff. He was disappointed in her. “Wow, Inara. When you said you wanted to forget your life for an upgrade you really did a solid job-”
“I could never forget,” said Inara softly. “I just…needed a fresh start. I didn’t want to cry myself to sleep every night hoping that maybe tomorrow will be the same as the day before, and the people I love will stop dying.”
She felt Sam shift on her bed, standing up and padding along in his bare feet until he was behind her, placing his hands on her upper arms. She glanced back into her drawer, feeling slightly more prepared, and caught the flash of gold in the corner of the drawer. She reached in, fingers catching the smooth, cool metal.
“Are you going to wear it?” asked Sam, watching her lift the object between her fingertips until it was eye level. She turned in around in her fingers, watching it catch in the light of the candles.
“Maybe for a while,” she said softly. Sam sighed against her, dropping his cheek against the top of her head.
“You know they’re gonna ask about us,” said Sam softly. “And we’ve to get Dean back to hell. It’s hard enough getting out, he wont go down without a fight.”
Inara slipped her ring onto her finger, clenching and unclenching her hand as the familiar feeling of wearing the sliver of gold came back to her. “Inara?”
“I know,” she said. “When did you say Ruby was meeting us?”
“Whenever we land on Osiris,” said Sam. “I’ve spoken to her, but I don’t know what she looks like now.”
“At least she’s out of the pit,” said Inara. “One of the good ones.”
“I wish Dean was still one of the good ones,” said Sam softly.
“He’s not, Sam. He hasn’t been for a long time. And he made that choice, so don’t start blaming yourself.”
“I won’t,” Sam slid his arms around her, pulling her closer to him out of comfort. “I wont ever let him take advantage of that again.”
Inara didn’t reply, found she really didn’t need too, just let herself be held by Sam for what seemed like an eternity before she told him they needed sleep sometime before morning. Their food left forgotten on the table, but it would taste the same in the morning, at the moment each other was all that mattered, Inara curling into Sam’s chest while one of his arms draped over her waist, the other sliding around the back of her neck, pulling her as close to him as possible. They drifted off to sleep in each others arms, trying to sleep dreamlessly.
Mal had forgotten about Sam the moment he woke up, a bit puzzled by the fact that Kaylee was off in dreamland, humming something to herself as she cooked breakfast for the crew, Shepherd Book at her side. He blinked at them when Kaylee told him to go get Inara and her guest. He tried placing Inara’s latest client’s name and face, but for some reason it just wasn’t comin’ to him. He banged on Jayne’s door on his way past, shouting at him to get his gorram ass out of bed. He reached for Inara’s shuttle and then stopped, remembering she had company and she might not take too kindly to him just barging in on her. But he figured what the hell it wasn’t like he cared anyways.
His mouth opened to shout Kaylee’s offer for breakfast, but felt his voice die in this throat, mouth not bothering to properly close. He stopped dead in his tracks, remembering the events of the night before, and why he had been in such a nasty mood this morning. Inara and her guest were curled around each other, Inara’s hair splayed across Sam’s shoulder, makin’ it abundantly clear that he should have knocked first. His feet wouldn’t move him out of her shuttle however, and he just kept on staring at the image in front of him, his heart cracking into tiny little bits.
“You know you should really knock.”
Mal jumped, hadn’t noticed that Sam was awake and was now truly embarrassed with himself.
“I’m not the type,” said Mal, trying to pass off casual. “Kaylee’s made breakfast, wanted to know if the two of you were hungry.”
“That’s nice of her,” said Sam, pulling an arm off of Inara and looking at the captain. “She seems real cheerful.”
“Oh , that she is,” said Mal. “Just…come out when your decent. I’ll tell Kaylee you’ll be on your way.”
Sam watched Mal retreat out of the shuttle, a frown settling on his face. That man was either very paranoid or very stupid. Most likely both. With a sigh he glanced down at Inara, reaching out to push her hair off her face, the backs of his fingers brushing against her cheek.
“Ready to face the world, star shine?”
Inara cracked open an eye, giving him a look that reminded him she would kick his ass if he ever called her that again and nodded. Sam gave her a smile and climbed out of bed, pulling on clothes and watching as Inara filled up a bowl of hot water, sitting cross-legged on a cushion, telling him she’d be out in a few minutes, but to go on ahead.
Sam grinned at her back and headed out, stretching his arms over his head to get the kinks out, passing by that Jayne man he’d bumped heads with the other day. He nodded in greeting despite that fact and continued onto the kitchen, Kaylee’s face brightening a bit when she saw him walk in.
“’Mornin’,” she said happily, giving him a wave. Her smile was infectious, and he found himself smiling back, feeling considerably better than he had in a long time. Mal was sitting at the table, munching on whatever it was that Kaylee had made for breakfast. Sam took the furthest seat possible from the other man, not wanting to make him uncomfortable or anything.
“So,” started Kaylee, sitting down across from Sam at the table, looking at him sheepishly. “We never got introduced proper. I’m Kaylee.”
“Sam,” he said, then as an after thought. “You must be the mei mei Inara was talking about. Good to have someone out in the black who knows how to smile.”
Kaylee blushed, babbling about how Inara was sweet and now she was embarrassed. Mal interrupted her.
“Kaylee, don’t go making goo-goo eyes at people we don’t know about.”
“You gotta give him a chance, Capt’n,” said Kaylee, smiling brightly at Sam. “I bet you’ve got lots of stories, like how you know Inara-”
“Don’t go gettin’ into their personal lives, little one.”
“It’s fine,” said Sam. “We met a long time ago, kind of fell in love. Then the war started and-”
“You guys couldn’t be together,” finished Kaylee. “That’s so sad.”
“It could have been worse,” said Sam with a shrug. “We’re both alive.”
“Inara was on Sihnon during the war,” said Mal, Sam looked over at him and nodded.
“I know. I’m talking about a different war.”
“Something smells delicious, Kaylee,” they looked up to see Inara walk in, dresses falling around her legs as she headed for the food.
“I suppose your extra curricular activities last night have caused you quiet an appetite,” muttered Mal under his breath, missing the glare both Inara and Kaylee shot at him.
“Just ignore him, Inara. I think Sam’s a sweetie.”
“He is,” agreed Inara, Kaylee frowned at her, watching her hands glitter around the stovetop, making tea. Her eyes got wide as she realized what the shiny thing was, her hand jumping up to her mouth excitedly.
“Inara, you’re married?!” Inara froze, her arm outstretched to grab a clean tea cup. She tilted her hand up to examine the band around her finger.
“I forgot to take it off,” she muttered, glancing up at Sam who shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter to me if you wear it,” he said, his own ring shining on his finger. “I know you love me.”
“You two,” started Mal, his speech failing him a bit as he pointed to and from Sam and Inara. “You two are married?”
“For awhile now,” said Inara, continuing on with her tea making.
“Huh. Well ain’t that somethin’,” muttered Mal, his eyes stopping on Inara who shrugged off his look.
“Well just grab some food and- oh,” the occupants in the room looked up to see Simon and River walk in. River’s eyes flashed from Inara to Sam at the table, but the action went unnoticed by the rest of the crew in mess. Simon blinked around at them and then his gaze fell on the captain.
“Weren’t there two other men here?”
“Left early,” said River, moving to the counter where Inara was standing, picking up a can in one of the boxes sitting there. Inara smiled at her, touching her shoulder gently in a hello and moving to the table to sit next to Sam, a cup of tea in her hands. Sam felt his arm lift up out of old habit, draping around Inara’s shoulders and pulling her closer to him.
“Isaiah,” Sam’s head shot up to Rive who’d taken to unloading supplies out of the boxes when Simon wasn’t looking. Sam blinked at her before very slowly turning to look at Inara.
“Didn’t think you’d tell anyone about him,” said Sam, not quite bitterly. Time had loosened the edge in his voice, but the pain was still there, in his eyes. Inara looked up at him from the tea in her cup, her deep eyes locking onto his, the pain reflected back at him.
“I didn’t,” she said softly. Their eyes snapped back onto the girl as she slammed down cans of food onto the counter, obviously upset with something.
“Blood running down your arms, caking against your skin, cracking with movements. Can’t get out because there’s nowhere to run to. Fucking pit with their tyen-sah duh uh-muo, crawling out with their skin falling off their arms-”
“River.” Simon was back, pulling River’s angry, willowy body away from the cans of food, wrapping his arms around her protectively, whispering soothingly into her ear. She was still muttering incoherently, but it seemed that Mal had been through enough of her outbursts to know that there was a problem. He looked from River to Sam and Inara, neither of them flinching at the accusing way his eyes fell on them.
Sam stood up slowly, his chair scraping gently against the floor. He continued to hold Mal’s gaze, his face stony and void of emotions.
“It’s not his fault,” said River, finally calm enough to stand upright by herself.
“We’ll see about that,” said Mal, but River wasn’t looking at Mal, she was looking at Sam, her dark eyes boring holes into his scull and he thought briefly that if he had only met her when he was 22... The thought amused him slightly, but he let it slide, and turned to head out the door, Mal’s eyes and River’s eyes still boring into him. Inara’s hand had caught his briefly as he passed, silently telling him that this time there was no place to run. He looked at her.
“You first.” he said softly. Inara pulled her hand back, as if touching him had caused her bodily harm. He shook his head when she didn’t reply, continuing out of the kitchen and back to her shuttle.
“What is wrong with you?” Inara’s voice caused him to stop in his tracks. He sighed and hung his head in annoyance. So she wanted this to happen in private? No way. Her friends needed to know exactly who and what she was. Sam turned slowly on the balls of his feet, looking up at her darkly from under his hair.
“Me, Inara?” asked Sam, his voice low. “What’s wrong with me?”
“You are not the same person I-”
“No, Inara. I’m exactly the same,” snapped Sam, his voice rising. “You’re the only one who’s changed. For what? These people?”
“These people are my friends-”
“Some friends,” said Sam, lifting his head up, his eyes dark. Behind Inara he watched River slink into the space behind the stairs, watching them. He had a feeling she knew exactly what was going on, that had been evident from her babblings in the kitchen. “They don’t even know who you are.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way. I’m a private person, Sam-”
“And they wont ever know you like I know you. I’ve got five hundred years on them.”
“Sam, I don’t want to talk about this here,” said Inara, glancing over her shoulder. Sam shrugged.
“Then I guess we’re not talking,” he turned and instead of heading back to her shuttle like he meant to, headed off to the passenger quarters, in serious need of some alone time. He heard someone follow him and assumed it was Inara. She always did like to get things cleared up and shiny. He turned around to tell her off only to find himself staring into two very dark, blank eyes.
“It’s River,” said the girl, her head tilting to the side, combat boots scrapping against the floor. “Dong ma?”
“Yeah,” said Sam slowly. “What do you want?”
“The black’s made you cold,” said River, still staring him in the eye. “Inara makes you warm again, like your innards are all liquefied. Five hundred years is a long time to be cold and broken.”
“Holy crap you’re a psychic,” said Sam, taking a step back, his eyes searching her unsurprised face. He frowned, not recalling any of his previous encounters with psychics sound quite like her. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Broke her,” said River, taking another step closer to him. Sam held his ground. “Dug around in her brain. Some are good days, some are bad. Can’t control anything in her brainpan.”
Sam nodded. He’d heard rumors of something like this, some government project about seeing how special people worked. He’d been tempted to help a group of people trying to help break them out, but he’d been side tracked-
“Not your fault,” said River, shaking her head, a small smile crossing her face. “You were trapped. Had to kill the werewolf.”
“Yeah, on Shadow,” said Sam, remembering the sound of whimpering and silence when he finally managed to end his hunt. Three dead, one werewolf, all in all it was a very good day. “You’re different than most of the psychics I’ve met. Frankly, you’re better.”
“They called me little mouse,” said River, dropping her head and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Sam smiled at her. “You think you can help me.”
He didn’t even blink at her. Yes, he’d been thinking that exactly, at that moment. Yes, he thought he could help her, he thought he might be the only one who could. She seemed so…innocent. Broken. Her brother took good care of her, he could see that as well, but…it wasn’t the right kind of care.
“I know I can.”
“How?” her voice was small, but her eyes were shining with hope when she turned her head up to look at him. Sam smirked at her and nodded into one of the passenger dorms.
“You have to practice.”
“Practice?” River’s head fell into a tilt, like she didn’t believe him.
“You have to learn how to control your abilities.”
“But they broke her, they made it dark-”
“You’re still you,” said Sam. “Inara told me you liked to dance. That’s something no one can take away.”
River went silent, thinking to herself. It must have been hard to shuffle through everything else in her head, because it seemed like an eternity before she spoke again, narrowing her eyes curiously at Sam.
“How do I practice?”
“You embrace it,” said Sam without hesitating. “You’re a gift, River. Your abilities don’t control you, you control them.”
River seemed to consider him, but she didn’t acknowledge that she did. She turned her eyes to the ground and furrowed her eyebrows, then slowly padded to her room. Sam turned his head to watch her go. The com overhead crackled to life and Wash’s voice boomed a little too loud above his head.
“We’re coming in on a little moon, hopefully with a job and alcohol on it. ETA about ten minutes.”
.
Fifteen minutes later Jayne limped back on board, sporting a gunshot wound and told by Mal not to leave again.
It was selfish of him to think about Inara, but he did, and he couldn’t help it. While he was on the rim it took the threat of reavers every ten minutes to keep his mind off Inara. They both made the choice to leave. He left her at Sihnon, and she had made it very clear that she never wanted to see him again, telling him that it was better for the both of them if they forgot about each other, started new lives. She had used the word ‘reborn’. He tried. God, he tried, but it never worked. He found himself falling into the reckless, petty, criminal types. He was good at the petty crimes, and that didn’t seem to help much. Something he managed to do was forget that he was the reason they had to leave Earth-That-Was. One of the reasons.
Well, he’d played a part. Not his gorram fault that Lucifer couldn’t walk on Earth without poisoning everything. God hadn’t helped much. The two clashed something terrible and suddenly everything was white and brilliant and people were dropping dead around them. Falling to the ground with their eyes liquefied, not having any idea what was going on…what their faith had done for them.
The apocalypse was painful and shorter than he imagined. Those who’d gotten fair warning were already off the planet, taking their ‘experimental technology’ and finding out just how well it would work.
Earth-That-Was. Got that right. It was nothing but a fairy tale now.
Sam’s foot scuffed against the metal underneath his feet, catching himself thinking about old times. He shook his head, heading up the ramp into the cargo bay. He was the only one on board, ‘sides Jayne. Captain hadn’t trusted him with a job (not that he blamed him) and Jayne…well, despite what the man said, he could not make a deal for a job with two bullets in his leg.
He found himself pacing the cargo bay, waiting for someone (preferably Kaylee) to get back. He wanted off the boat, but until Mal knew what he and Inara seemed to know he wasn’t going anywhere. Sam slowed his pacing slightly, feeling someone watching him. His back was on the open blast doors, waiting patiently for the return of Wash and Kaylee with some parts for the ship. He swallowed, fingers twitching for his gun.
A woman behind him cleared her throat, and he turned to see two people standing behind him, looking so strikingly like two people he’d thought he lost so fucking long ago-
“Hey, Sammy.”
Sam’s eyes widened in horror, watching hazel eyes flash to black. “Dean-!”
Without so much as flinching, Dean’s flicked his wrist, sending Sam flying through the air, landing hard on the metal staircase, his eyes fluttering closed and his head lolling to the side. Dean tilted his head in the direction of Sam’s unconscious body, no twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Straightening his coat, the demon walked the length of the cargo bay, ignoring the woman behind him who sighed in annoyance.
“He sure wasn’t hard to find,” she said, amusement and superiority dripping off her tongue, even after centuries of being ripped apart in the pit, she still hadn’t lost her edge. Sometimes Dean wasn’t sure if he wanted to admire her or smack her across the face. “Like he wasn’t even trying.”
“He got sloppy for some reason,” said Dean, screwing up his eyes to take in the damage done to his baby brother, watching a trickle of blood slip across this brow and soaking into his hair.
“Can we go now, Dean?” she asked, accent tugging on her words in a way that always made him stop and shake his head. Fucking meat sack was too damn similar… She folded her arms across her chest, walking into the ship after he made it very clear that he was ignoring her. “Dean-”
“We’re not going anywhere,” snapped Dean, still looking for changes to his brothers appearance.
“Oh, please-”
“I said no, Bela,” growled Dean, his head nearly swinging around to glare at her, knowing full well that it didn’t effect her in the least. “I’ve waited too fucking long for this. I want to enjoy it.”
“What do ya think yer gorram doin’ down there?” Dean and Bela looked up to the level above them, watching a fairly dangerous looking man pointing a fairly dangerous, face melting gun at them. Bela and Dean shared a look, an almost nervous one.
“What the hell did you do to ‘im?” he asked wildly, looking mildly impressed as he looked over the railing at Sam sprawled on the stairs. Bela cocked her head in his direction, examining the gun in his hands more closely.
“Nice piece,” she said lightly, uncrossing her arms. “What is that, a Callahan fill-bore auto-lock? Customized trigger, double cartridge through gauge…very nice.”
“Yeah,” said Jayne, lowering Vera slightly, giving Bela another (more appreciative) look over. “Yeah it is.”
“It’s nice,” said Bela, slowly. “Too bad it’s going to break your face.”
Poor Jayne didn’t even have time to open his mouth before Bela’s palm shot up in the air. The gun in Jayne’s hands propelled backwards, smashing him in the face and effectively knocking him out. Bela smirked as he went down like a rock before lowering her arm and turning very seriously to Dean.
“Now we have to go.”
“Fine,” spat Dean. He took one last look at Sam, his upper lip twitching involuntarily and his right foot coming out and kicking him hard in the side voluntarily. He turned and walked out of the ship with Bela, disappearing with a blink, leaving the two unconscious men bleeding for the rest of the crew to find twenty minutes later, with Wash and Kaylee riding the mule into the cargo bay.
They didn’t notice either unconscious men until Kaylee was unloading a shiny new engine part, nearly dropping it when she saw Sam lying on the stairs.
“Sam!” Wash looked up, catching Kaylee rushing over to Inara’s…special friend, unconscious on the ground.
“Wuh duh ma,” he muttered, following Kaylee.
“Should we call the captain?” asked Kayle, her fingers brushing along the side of Sam’s face, pulling away blood stained fingers. Wash shook his head.
“Jayne probably got stir crazy and hit him. Inara’s not going to be happy-” Wash stopped as a groan echoed around the cargo bay. They both looked up slowly, seeing a pair of very large feet sticking out from the upper level.
“Jayne?” asked Kaylee carefully, answered by another, louder groan. He crawled his way to the edge of the level looked down at Kaylee and Wash, their faces sort of blury due to the blood caking his face. He didn’t see them wince.
“Aiya,” muttered Wash, straightening up and peering closer at Jayne. “What happened to your face?”
“Gorram psychos attacked me,” said Jayne gruffly, not mentioning the magic or that it was a woman. “I guess they had a beef with Inara’s pet, ‘cause they took him out first.”
“Sam ain’t Inara’s pet,” said Kaylee, sounding insulted. “They’re married-”
“Mal says he ain’t been told nothing’ on how they know each other, so until we figure it out, he goes by ‘pet’.”
Kaylee shrugged, looking back down at Sam as she felt him stir awake. She smile brightly at him as he opened his eyes a crack.
“Don’t you worry. Simon’s gonna be back soon, fix you up and then we’ll figure out what kind of tyen-sah duh uh-muo attacked you.”
“Monsters,” said Sam, chuckling at Kaylee’s words, his voice slurring slightly as he sat up, shaking his head with a wince. “Right. Where’s Inara?”
“I suppose she’ll be back soon too,” said Kaylee. “She’s gonna be awful sorry she left you here-”
“She’s in danger,” Sam muttered, swaying as he tried to stand up. “She needs to get back here now! Everyone does…”
Sam trailed off, starring off into space, Kaylee just staring at him with a shocked, scared expression on her face. Jayne looked at him from over the railing, trying to stand up.
“What the hell do you mean ‘danger’?”
“Call everyone back,” Sam called over to Wash. “We need to go.”
“We ain’t goin’ nowhere,” shouted Jayne, hobbling down the stairs as fast as he could manage. “Not until you tell us what’s gorram goin’ on.”
“Inara-”
“Ain’t here,” Sam felt his blood boil, narrowing his eyes in Jayne’s direction. He knew the man was right. It had gone on too long, had gone too far. It was time everyone knew and fuck Inara if she cared about what these people thought of her. They needed to know what she was getting them into, why she hadn’t just taken off with him in the first place. He swore under his breath, muttering curses in every language he’d learned in the last five hundred years, earning himself looks from Wash and Kaylee.
“What’s going on?” they all turned, looking up to see Inara standing near the corridor to her shuttle, and Sam felt all the anger in him sputter and die. “What happened.”
Sam closed his eyes and dropped his head, placing his hands on his hips.
“Dean was here,” he said, loud enough for her to hear. He felt her swallow back a gasp, her hand fluttering to her mouth to keep herself in check.
“Dean? Who’s Dean?” asked Wash, looking from Inara to Sam and finally setting on Jayne. “Is Dean the one who did that to your face?”
“Hell if I know, there was a woman too.”
“What?” asked Sam loudly, spinning around to look at Jayne, his eyes wide. Jayne shrugged, lifting his hand to his face to touch his nose.
“Wasn’t like she was in charge or nothin’.”
“We need to call Mal,” said Inara. “We need to go.”
“Why are you both so scared?” asked Wash. “I mean, I’d be afraid of anyone who could take out Jayne, but you two are-”
“Maybe we should just go get the captain,” said Kaylee interrupted nervously. “Might be best.”
Mal wasn’t happy to be called back, stomping into the lounge area just itching to hit some folk. He started off about Badger not trusting him in the first place and that they weren’t going to get a job now. Sam frowned and interrupted him.
“Badger? I can get you work from Badger, he owes me a few favors. Now, will someone get this boat up in the air?”
Mal had looked at him funny, noticing for the first time that the side of his head was all bloodied up. Simon was tending to Jayne’s face, setting his broken nose a stitching part of his cheek. Mal looked from one man to the other before demanding to know what happened.
“Whatever the hell it was, it was after him,” shouted Jayne, pointing wildly in Sam‘s general direction, who just rolled his eyes. “And whatever the hell it was,” continued Jayne, a crazy sort of look passing over his face. “Knocked me in the head too, just by association.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you,” said Inara from the door way with a disgusted look on her face, Sam’s arm slung over her shoulder, leaning into her just slightly. “Which they would have.”
“What stopped them?” asked Simon, sounding somewhat disappointed. Inara glanced at Sam out of the corner of her eye, her mouth parting as she tried to form words they would all understand.
“I don’t know,” said Sam softly, the hand he had resting on Inara’s shoulder tightening. “If they wanted to they could have killed us all mei oo’en tee.”
“Again,” started Book calmly from his seat on the couch, looking over at Sam. “What stopped them?”
Sam opened his mouth to answer him honestly but stopped, looking down at Inara with a serious expression. “Inara, this would be a really good time-”
“I said no, Sam,” interrupted Inara, looking at the floor. “That’s final.”
“Yeah, well that was before. This is now, and now we’re all in danger.”
“They wont hurt us.”
“I’m more worried about Mal at this point then Dean,” hissed Sam, glancing over at the captain, who had perked up at his name. Inara followed his gaze and swallowed, moving out of Sam’s arm, heading in the direction of her shuttle, everyone’s eyes on her back.
“Inara,” started Kaylee, getting up to follow her friend but stopping as she got to Sam, looking at him accusingly. “What did you do?”
“It’s complicated,” said Sam softly. “You wouldn’t understand-”
“You seem to know an awful lot about what we would and wouldn’t understand, son,” said Mal. “Maybe you should start explaining why.”
Sam held up his hands in defense, backing away from Kaylee. “Hey, it’s not my place to say. Inara’s made that pretty clear.”
“Running away,” said River on the staircase, her knees pulled up to her chest, looking at Sam. “Scared of the bright light.”
“Would you shut that girl up-”
“She’s right,” said Sam, interrupting Jayne and what was bound to be a very long winded rant full of cussin’ and such. Sam smiled at the girl. “You’re getting better.”
“You call that gettin’ better?” Sam opened his mouth to explain, only to be cut off by Simon, tossing the tools he was finished using to patch up Jayne in the metal pan on his tray, trying not to look put off.
“Something else, we wouldn’t understand I suppose,” he glanced over at his sister who nodded in all seriousness.
“I hope you do someday,” said Sam sincerely, nodding sympathetically to the people in the room and taking his leave without another word, leaving them all staring after with confusion plastered across their pretty faces.
“Tzao-gao I don’t give a good gorram about their ‘special complicated bond’ I want to know what’s going on,” said Mal, standing up from his chair.
“Going to regret it,” River piped up.
“And why’s that, darlin’?” not really caring why, he was just askin’ out of habit.
“Wont like the answer,” she said, her head swiveling back to where Sam had left. “It’s inevitable.”
“Well, I want my answers now,” said Mal, taking off out of the lounge in the direction of Inara and her shuttle, bursting in like he always did only to stop and frown, not seeing anyone there, which was confusin’. He looked around for a moment, confirming that there was no one in Inara’s shuttle and he turned to go, when a partly opened drawer caught his attention. He turned back, staring at the table beside Inara’s bed, decided it wouldn’t hurt anyone to peek. It was probably just companions stuff, like vitamins or tea or… bondage.
His fingers brushed along the edge of the drawer, slipping inside and pulling it open. He glanced inside, doing a double take as shiny things caught his gaze. What kind of looked like a silver radio, a bag labeled ‘salt’, few other trinkets that looked more familiar and a couple photographs. Mal reached in, picking up the photos and examining them. There were only four. The first was of Inara and two other men, maybe father and son. The younger one had his arm slung over Inara’s shoulder, a lazy grin cast over his features, emanating in his posture. The older man just looked like he was there, comfortable enough with the other two to smile along. The next picture was of Inara, the younger man from the first photo and Sam, who looked a good deal younger than he did now. The third was a photo of a car, a nice gorram lookin’ car, but still a car, and the fourth-
He stuffed the last photo into the pocket of his coat, tossing the other three back in the drawer where they belonged and turned back to see Inara walking into her shuttle. She gave him a look.
“What are you doing in my shuttle?”
“Nothin’,” said Mal. “Thought I wanted to talk with you, but turns out I don’t.”
“What have I told you about coming into my shuttle unannounced??”
“Don’t tell me…something about it being caveman like.”
“It was more like don’t.”
Mal shrugged casually, seemingly unaffected by her as he headed out of her shuttle, ignoring her narrowed eyes on his back as he made his way to his bunk, the photo in his pocket burning a whole against his leg. He let himself fall against bed, his back hitting the wall as he pulled out the glossy photo, turning it over in the light. It was just a normal, still photograph, the kind they made for poorer folk nowadays. He looked at the faces: Inara with a smile on her face, curly hair framing her face, wearing a pair of jeans instead of the dresses he was so used to, not looking at the camera, sitting on the ground with her hand threaded through Sam’s, sitting next to her, holding a little boy, maybe two years old in his lap, so obviously their child it made his heart ache.
So this was the big secret. This was Isaiah.
* translations - go se - crap / bai dou an jing - please I beg you, be quiet / mei mei - little sister / tyen-sah duh uh-muo - goddamn monsters / dong ma - understand / wuh duh ma - mother of God / mei oo’en tee - no problem / tzao-gao - damn it