Ex Turpi Causa 1/1 Simon/Wesley Crossover: Firefly+Angel
Ex Turpi Causa
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove@livejournal.com
A lawyer offers to bring Simon and River their freedom. Simon thinks they'd be better off taking their chances on Serenity.
Simon/Wesley
Crossover: Firefly and Angel.
Hey look, ma! I'm on time!
Written for the Firefly round of the Whedonverse maleslashminis for alixtii, who wanted Simon Tam/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, with checking the encyclopedia and kissing.
Yay, team Fireflyminis! We three, we brave!
Rated a mild R, for sex. Everyone's all grown-up and consensual. No violence. I don't warn for anything else.
Wordcount: 3680
Archiving? Uhh, I have no idea where this would belong. Ask, and I'll say yes.
A huge thank you to seadragonlady, who popped up out of nowhere to offer on-the-spot beta services.
Angel: some parts of season five happened. Some didn't.
Firefly: Some parts of Serenity happened. Not the Simon Tam 007 parts that contradicted the 'River Fed-Ex'd out by strangers' canon.
Firefly and Angel and characters in this story are respectfully thieved from Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Chinese phrases shamelessly smuggled from http://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/phrase.html
Feedback? Uh, sure. This is my first ever finished crossover. My first Angel story. My first Firefly story. My first time writing Simon or Wesley. And I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've written with pov-switching. So I'm not completely sure how much sense it makes, but hey. I'm proud that I had a go.
Ex Turpi Causa
by Dr Squidlove
Simon looked down the hill, to where Mal, Zoe and Jayne were still unloading. "You're saying you had Serenity ship a load of useless boxes halfway across the system just to meet me."
Wesley Wyndham-Price smoothed his suit. "Hardly useless. I'm sure someone on this planet can use..." He surreptitiously checked his data pad, "protein supplement F."
"Do you even know what that is?"
"It..." he tapped the screen a few times... "contains all the essential amino acids, including cysteine which is important for the biosynthesis of glutathione."
It might have been convincing, if he hadn't been looking at his pad and mispronouncing 'glutathione'. "You don't have a comm system?"
Wyndham-Price slid his pad back into his pocket and turned away from the view, to face him. "I didn't wish to speak with Captain Reynolds. I wished to speak with you." The coldness in his dark eyes was unsettling.
"Because you want to be River's lawyer."
"My firm wishes to represent her interests."
"Maybe you should speak to her - you know, she's crazy, she might like your plan."
One eyebrow arched. "And drop a strikethrough on the 'of sound mind' clause? When we make our contract, it will be airtight and incontestable in any dimension. I will have signatures and prints from both of you."
His suit was expensive. Not flashy, not something Jayne would have noticed. But the lines, the cut, it was the sort of thing Simon had only seen on the sort of men his dad used to know. Politicians. Lawyers. And yet here he was on the rim, alone, chasing outlaws for business.
"Mr Tam. At this moment all you can offer your sister is a lifetime on the run, hitching rides with smugglers and thieves, always looking behind you, always wondering when the money or the risk is too high and a friend will turn. I can offer freedom for you both."
"Out of the lawyerness of your heart."
He let out a soft snort, a smile barely touching his lips. "There are laws in this system. Even governments must abide by them."
Simon's mouth opened, and hung there for a moment. "The government cut open my sister's head. Those wahg-ba dan duh biao-tze tortured her. For months. You want to tell me how that was legal?"
"Page 116, paragraph 3, sub-clause d of the school's contract. The client grants the institution guardianship and absolute determination of necessity with regard to medical procedures. The government performed a patented procedure on your sister, and as such her mind is their intellectual property. You stole that property."
"She's a girl!"
"Who was in their guardianship, so in fact theft and kidnapping."
"You're saying they had a right to do what they did?"
His voice dropped, steel creeping in. "I'm saying you didn't have adequate legal representation to argue otherwise."
"But you're here to kindly offer your services. You know we don't have any money, right? You know everything else; you must know that. And if you think our father will-"
"We don't seek money."
Simon blinked. "You don't want money."
"The people who did this - who do this - need to pay, Mr Tam. They don't answer for what they do because the people who aren't cosy with the world they've sterilised are all in hiding or on the run. I admire what your band did with Miranda, but if you think simply exposing the government's abuse of a few distant foreigners will bring about revolution, you need to read a history book."
Simon's fists clenched as that hit home. News waves on the cortex had talked about trouble in the government for a few weeks, minor figures were blamed and dismissed, and then everything had gone on as before. Wash and Shepherd Book died for that.
But Simon didn't know this man, didn't know what was behind the anggui clothes and the angular face. And he didn't believe for a second that he could bring about anything better. They'd already fought for justice; they lost.
"That's a nice speech, Mr Wyndham-Price. I'm sure the locals will thank you for the supplements."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As he came down the hill, Simon felt River fall in beside him, picking her way between the scrub in bare feet.
"Well?" he said at last. "It's not like you need me to tell you everything you just eavesdropped on."
"Grey man in a dark grey world. Wants to ride a white horse but the saddle doesn't fit."
Simon wrinkled his nose. "Okay..."
She tipped her head at him. "He wants to see you naked."
Simon stopped, staring after her as she wandered through the cargo, running her hands over boxes of supplements. "Good taste isn't proof of good or evil," he called after her. He really hadn't being paying attention in all the banter, but he supposed... if he thought about it, Wyndham-Price had been a good-looking man, well-bred and intelligent, just the sort Simon would have made a fool over himself for, back on Osiris.
Jayne wiped a sweaty arm across his face. "I'll say this for your pretty Core folk. They pay right."
Mal strode past. "Had a good chat with Price, up there? Didn't conjure I'd ever meet a prissier hua-hua- go-ngzi than you, Doc."
Wyndham-Price wanted to see him naked? He looked back up to where the man stood, utterly out of place on a Rim world.
Simon didn't fit out here the way Mal and Zoe did, but he wasn't that anymore, either. He didn't want the things he used to want.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wesley watched Simon walk back into Serenity. He had him, he was sure of it, but it could all come apart with the girl. There was no way of predicting her. Her procedures ought to have given her a heightened ability to read situations, motives, possibilities, but in quite typical bureaucratic fashion, they'd failed to make her not stark raving mad.
Simon Tam. He'd been a child, the last time Wesley saw him. Already bright and unashamedly fond of his sister, but there'd been no imagining the lengths he would go to for her. Wesley slid his pad out of his pocket, thumbing to the well-viewed file of their exploits. It was difficult to believe this one came from Gabriel's genes. The most recent photo was from an arrest for loitering in a blackout zone, looking young and angry.
Wesley wanted him. The man was wasted, patching bullet wounds on a ship of aimless brigands. The exposure of Miranda notwithstanding - and Wesley had got a rare chuckle out of the mess that made - these people were drifters. With stable ground beneath his feet and the certainty that his sister was safe, Simon would be a force to be reckoned with.
The comm system beeped, and Wesley pulled up Captain Reynold's image. "Looks like everything's settled here, Mr Price."
Wesley's stomach twisted. "But I..."
Simon was standing behind the captain, stone-faced.
"We don't like to stick around once business is done, so we'll be on our way. You ever have further business; you know how to find someone who can find someone who'll find us."
Simon shook his head, just slightly, just enough.
The screen went black, and through the window, Wesley watched Serenity's engines fire.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wesley didn't swear when he saw Simon, but it was a near thing. It was a near thing that he didn't deliver a swift kick to the officer with the grazed knuckles.
Simon's mouth opened in shock at seeing Wesley, but Wesley jumped in before he could start talking. "My client has been beaten."
"Injuries sustained in his attempted escape."
Wesley crossed the interrogation room and slid two fingers under Simon's chin, lifting his face to the light. He skimmed a finger over the swelling under his eye. "This is a fist mark. From a left-hander. Male." He darted a look at the officer's swollen left hand. "And this one's an elbow. I assume I'll find more beneath his clothes. Every injury will be catalogued and prosecuted."
"The man's a kidnapper."
"Mr Tam was protecting a valuable Alliance asset that had fallen into corrupt hands. You've given a beating to a hero of the Alliance."
Simon jerked his head away, about to speak.
"As your counsel I advise you to say nothing further until I am fully briefed."
Wesley stared him down, and after too long a moment, anger at the Alliance won out over suspicion of Wesley, and Simon closed his mouth. Smart man.
Wesley got the guards out, and then sent a pointed look towards the camera. Simon returned something that pointedly said he wasn't an imbecile, and then said,"I don't remember calling you."
"We keep a close ear on the Fed waves."
"I turn you down and a month later my crew is bound. How convenient for you."
"It most certainly is not. Our resources are broad, but not infinite. I did not load your ship with illegal beagles."
Simon lifted his eyes to the camera
Wesley cleared his throat. "Alleged beagles."
"I can't think of a single reason why I'd trust you."
Wesley didn't like having conversations inside Alliance Cruiser interrogation rooms. "Perhaps I should have dealt with Captain Reynolds. Instead of baiting me right now, he'd be using me to get out of here."
"I can assure you that's not true. He'd be baiting you and using you. He multi-tasks."
There was a knock, and the door opened. "Sir, your paperwork has cleared. Mr Tam, you are released pending further investigation."
Wesley gestured to the door, half-expecting Simon would refuse to go. But the man wasn't completely without sense, thank the gods, and after a moment he took the invitation.
Wesley led the way down to the docking decks, was halfway up the ramp of his ship when Simon's steps slowed. "Where's everyone else?"
Wesley kept walking, hoping Simon would follow far enough to seal the door, but he didn't budge. "I'm not here for them."
"Hun dan... You left them in there?" Simon looked behind him, like he was ready to walk back into the lion's mouth.
"River's safe with Ms Serra."
"But Mal, Zoe, Kaylee? Jayne?"
"Two browncoats, your ex-girlfriend and the man who sold you out on Ariel for pocket change?"
Simon didn't blink at the knowledge Wesley had just dropped. "I'm not leaving without them."
Wesley walked back, grabbed his elbow and hauled him inside. "Do you think this was a simple Allallamin spell?" He jabbed the button to close the door. "The resources I've used to free you- Do you have any idea how long Cobb's criminal record is alone? I've served briefer depositions. He may be your friend-"
"Jayne is not my friend."
"But you'll willingly put his life ahead of your sister's? Reynolds, Washburne, Frye - you'll place them all ahead of your sister?"
"They've protected both of us this long, dong le ma?"
Wesley wasn't truly surprised, but he didn't have time for this. "They can continue protecting her by staying right here."
"You are one cold bastard."
"So I've been told." Though it had been a while since it stung to hear it, and Wesley couldn't help the anger creeping into his voice. "Do you understand, River wasn't alone in that institution?"
Simon hid his surprise too well. It had to have occurred to him before. "Then why her? Why are you chasing us across the system? You can't pick someone else less-wanted to be your test-case?"
Wesley wanted to shake him. He wanted to wrap his fingers around those arms and press the sense into him. "Countless young men and women have entered the Academy. Every one of them had parents who signed their children over and then looked the other way. Only River had a brother like you. Do you still not get it? River isn't unique. You are."
That knocked Simon off his guard, but he still shook his head. "The crew. And if you can do that, then we'll talk."
Wesley fought the urge to rub his hands over his face. They couldn't afford to have the firm's fingerprints all over the Serenity crew's release dockets. And this whole process would be easier without Simon's loyalties divided.
Wesley was standing too close, fogging his brain. Simon could smell him. Clothing softeners. Faint cologne. Scents of the men Simon used to know, before River's letters and Serenity and Kaylee.
"I can't do it, Simon."
He looked tired, Simon realised, the first crack he'd seen in the whole freshly-pressed package. He was vulnerable.
Simon kissed him.
Wesley pulled back, one hand coming up to Simon's chest. "I can't do it." For the first time there was actual honest regret in his voice. Simon kissed him again, and this time he held on, gripping Wesley's sleeves until Wesley kissed back.
Suddenly there were open mouths and Wesley's tongue was chasing his, and hands were fisting in Simon's pullover. Simon hadn't thought much beyond the kiss but Wesley was thinking way beyond, hands already burrowing under Simon's clothes until they found the skin of Simon's waist and pulled him closer, delicate soft hands trailing sparks and there was a cock jammed into Simon's groin, up and planning to take this all the way. Simon's cock hardened against him.
Teeth followed Simon's jaw, rough and eager as those hands pushed at his clothes, determination in Wesley's eyes and then a grimace as he pushed Simon's shirt off his shoulders, baring the bruises left by Ensign Bennett.
This was more than he'd planned, but Simon didn't know how to stop it, wasn't fully sure he wanted to. The romance with Kaylee had been short-lived, and it had been a long time since he pressed against a man. Good or evil or in between, Wesley's hands and mouth were making him throb.
"What about you?" Simon asked.
"I'm not such a pretty sight." He caught Simon's hand and pulled him through a door into a cabin with a full-size bed. He threw a hand back to throw off the main light so the room was all shadows and grey.
Wesley pulled off his jacket and vest before Simon stepped in, but Simon had his shirt, took his time unbuttoning. The chest beneath felt pretty enough. Buttons undone, Wesley pulled it off and waited.
Simon traced the jagged line over Wesley's shoulder. A set of lines across his chest. The dip on his abdomen - that one was a bullet wound. "Where have you been?"
"Hell, once or twice. A few stops along the way that weren't noticeably different." Wesley kissed him like he wanted Simon to shut up, so Simon obliged, biting Wesley's lip as his mind raced. He'd thought Wesley was Core through and through but the scars... like he'd seen a war or two and been patched up on planets without even the barest supplies. No weaves - those cuts were stitched with needle and thread, something Simon had only ever seen in Med History. Alliance soldiers didn't carry scars like this. Some of them looked deliberate. Torture.
Simon had lost track of what Wesley was doing until a hand squeezed around his cock, sending sweet shock through his body. Wesley drove him back until his legs hit the bed and they fell together. Simon couldn't believe he'd thought this man cold, couldn't imagine it with the heat blazing in him now, the wet mouth that never rested on Simon's neck and shoulders, the cock pressing Simon's through their trousers, the look in his eyes as he lifted a hand to trace the split down Simon's lip.
Simon caught his breath at that look.
Wyndham-Price the creepy Core lawyer had become a survivor of the war and now suddenly Wesley in love with Simon, all in the space of minutes. He didn't even know Simon.
Wesley didn't know what he'd given away, too busy fumbling with Simon's belt.
And all at once, Simon realised two things were certain. Wesley was going to free Mal and the crew. And Simon was going with him back to Osiris.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Simon wasn't going to Osiris. This was a bad idea. "I'm not leaving her behind."
"She's safest with Serenity. This is preparation work; she doesn't need to come. Your captain already said he'd take care of her."
"Oh, yes, Mal babysitting. Wonderful." Simon looked back to Mal, standing with his arms folded and his eyebrows up. "No offence."
"Now why should I take offence at that?"
Wesley pressed on. "Do you really want to drag her back into the midst of the Alliance?"
Simon really didn't, but he hadn't been more than a few hours away from her since Mal cracked open her cryo, and he didn't know if he could.
"He's afraid of me."
Wesley jerked around to see River behind him, giving himself away. "You're not the first super-powered girl I've dealt with. I might surprise you."
"Afraid I'll see what's inside. The things you've done." She stalked closer, circled around him, but Wesley wouldn't flinch again. "You've hurt people."
Simon watched his face for offence, or denial, but there was nothing.
"I've hurt quite a lot of people."
They stared into each other's eyes.
"You don't think I'll see the good man under it all, because you can't see him anymore. You don't try to make people like you because you don't believe they ever will."
His gaze dropped at that, and River leaned in and whispered in his ear, and suddenly his eyes were on Simon, blazing blue.
River was smirking as she pulled away. "I want to come to Osiris."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
River's fingers dug into Simon's hand as Osiris grew on the screen. Home. The Nephthys Sea. The Opera House. Somewhere in that cluster was the hospital where he qualified as a surgeon. And then around, heading to the other hemisphere.
Simon was waiting for a fleet of Fed ships to scurry out and surround them, but all the traffic continued as it always had, like it didn't matter a jot whether River and Simon were here or there. Capitol City came up on the horizon and closer, until they were headed towards one of the tallest buildings.
"Your firm's in there?" Simon tried not to let on that he was impressed, but he was pretty sure he failed. It wasn't the downtown noir he'd expected. He needed to stop expecting things, with Wesley.
Wesley guided the ship towards a docking station at the base. "This building is the firm." A moment later, he added, "The Osiris branch."
Wesley was pretty sure his mouth opened then, and didn't close as the dock attendant greeted Mr Wyndham-Price, or as they passed through the lobby to a chorus of "Good morning, Mr Wyndham-Price," and "Morning, Sir," and "Welcome back, Mr Wyndham-Price."
"Gwai-gwai long duh dong!" Simon whispered. He looked back at River. "Did you know about this?"
"This is a surprise," she said, staring up at the distant ceiling.
And then there was the rocketing elevator ride up to the office. And the office, which, judging by the way Wesley swung his jacket over the chair behind the desk, was Wesley's office. Wesley's enormous office.
River was staring open-mouthed at the wall, floor-to-ceiling books, more books than Simon had ever seen in one place.
"You got them here. Colour me impressed." A woman with a neat brown bob and an expensive suit walked in, and dropped on the couch.
"Simon, River, this is Dawn Summers. She'll be your lawyer."
Simon snapped his attention back from the books. "I thought you were our lawyer."
Dawn laughed, which got her a glare from Wesley. "I'm not a lawyer. I'm simply a member of the firm."
Simon looked around the rest of the office, noticing the Earth-that-was artifacts spicing up the decor. "An important member." And Dawn, watching them like this was a big joke. "Is she old enough to practice law?"
"Miss Summers wrote the laws."
"That's an exaggeration." She straightened her skirt. "But newsflash: at the central authority, you wouldn't want Mr Surly-Pants as your guy to charm the judge."
River was stepping towards Dawn, head cocked, and her narrow eyes suddenly widened, and then turned on Wesley, seeing something new. Simon's stomach lurched, awaiting the next revelation. These two were Feds, or swindlers, or married. God, not the last.
"You're old," River exclaimed.
Wesley slumped against his enormous desk. "Perhaps the time has come to explain some details."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Simon had followed him from the guest rooms to Wesley's own apartment, which Wesley was taking as a hopeful sign, but Simon closed the door and leaned against it, coming no further. "You're old."
"Yes."
"Like... ancient."
"Yes." Right now, Wesley felt it.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"That I was a refugee from Earth-that-was? That I was born before they built the first inter-stellar ship? Would you have believed it?"
"I'm still not sure I do."
Wesley crossed to him, stopping an arm's length away. "Yes, you do." River believed it, and that would be enough for Simon. He couldn't understand it, yet, but he knew it was true.
He swallowed. "I must seem like a child to you."
"Most of them do." Wesley waved towards the window. "Ephemeral lives, burdened with trivia. So very few find their quest." He risked that last half-step closer, his fingers along Simon's jaw. "You're not like them. We're going to expose them. Bring down the Academy and save all the Rivers. And then you're going to walk away a free man." Partly true, the last. They were all long promises, but Wesley believed them, and he needed Simon to believe him.
The room had dimmed as the sun slid through the sky, and Simon's face was shadowed, unreadable.
It wasn't enough. Wesley had lost more battles than he could count over the centuries, but it didn't get easier. He didn't want to lose this one.
Wesley jumped when Simon finally moved, wasn't prepared when Simon kissed him, and it was the kiss Wesley had been waiting for, wanting, since the first.
---
end
Feedback? Yes please!
I haven't updated my website in a very long time, but I finally made all my Joss fics (ie all the Buffy, and this) more accessible through my userinfo page.
S.
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove@livejournal.com
A lawyer offers to bring Simon and River their freedom. Simon thinks they'd be better off taking their chances on Serenity.
Simon/Wesley
Crossover: Firefly and Angel.
Hey look, ma! I'm on time!
Written for the Firefly round of the Whedonverse maleslashminis for alixtii, who wanted Simon Tam/Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, with checking the encyclopedia and kissing.
Yay, team Fireflyminis! We three, we brave!
Rated a mild R, for sex. Everyone's all grown-up and consensual. No violence. I don't warn for anything else.
Wordcount: 3680
Archiving? Uhh, I have no idea where this would belong. Ask, and I'll say yes.
A huge thank you to seadragonlady, who popped up out of nowhere to offer on-the-spot beta services.
Angel: some parts of season five happened. Some didn't.
Firefly: Some parts of Serenity happened. Not the Simon Tam 007 parts that contradicted the 'River Fed-Ex'd out by strangers' canon.
Firefly and Angel and characters in this story are respectfully thieved from Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Chinese phrases shamelessly smuggled from http://fireflychinese.kevinsullivansite.net/phrase.html
Feedback? Uh, sure. This is my first ever finished crossover. My first Angel story. My first Firefly story. My first time writing Simon or Wesley. And I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've written with pov-switching. So I'm not completely sure how much sense it makes, but hey. I'm proud that I had a go.
Ex Turpi Causa
by Dr Squidlove
Simon looked down the hill, to where Mal, Zoe and Jayne were still unloading. "You're saying you had Serenity ship a load of useless boxes halfway across the system just to meet me."
Wesley Wyndham-Price smoothed his suit. "Hardly useless. I'm sure someone on this planet can use..." He surreptitiously checked his data pad, "protein supplement F."
"Do you even know what that is?"
"It..." he tapped the screen a few times... "contains all the essential amino acids, including cysteine which is important for the biosynthesis of glutathione."
It might have been convincing, if he hadn't been looking at his pad and mispronouncing 'glutathione'. "You don't have a comm system?"
Wyndham-Price slid his pad back into his pocket and turned away from the view, to face him. "I didn't wish to speak with Captain Reynolds. I wished to speak with you." The coldness in his dark eyes was unsettling.
"Because you want to be River's lawyer."
"My firm wishes to represent her interests."
"Maybe you should speak to her - you know, she's crazy, she might like your plan."
One eyebrow arched. "And drop a strikethrough on the 'of sound mind' clause? When we make our contract, it will be airtight and incontestable in any dimension. I will have signatures and prints from both of you."
His suit was expensive. Not flashy, not something Jayne would have noticed. But the lines, the cut, it was the sort of thing Simon had only seen on the sort of men his dad used to know. Politicians. Lawyers. And yet here he was on the rim, alone, chasing outlaws for business.
"Mr Tam. At this moment all you can offer your sister is a lifetime on the run, hitching rides with smugglers and thieves, always looking behind you, always wondering when the money or the risk is too high and a friend will turn. I can offer freedom for you both."
"Out of the lawyerness of your heart."
He let out a soft snort, a smile barely touching his lips. "There are laws in this system. Even governments must abide by them."
Simon's mouth opened, and hung there for a moment. "The government cut open my sister's head. Those wahg-ba dan duh biao-tze tortured her. For months. You want to tell me how that was legal?"
"Page 116, paragraph 3, sub-clause d of the school's contract. The client grants the institution guardianship and absolute determination of necessity with regard to medical procedures. The government performed a patented procedure on your sister, and as such her mind is their intellectual property. You stole that property."
"She's a girl!"
"Who was in their guardianship, so in fact theft and kidnapping."
"You're saying they had a right to do what they did?"
His voice dropped, steel creeping in. "I'm saying you didn't have adequate legal representation to argue otherwise."
"But you're here to kindly offer your services. You know we don't have any money, right? You know everything else; you must know that. And if you think our father will-"
"We don't seek money."
Simon blinked. "You don't want money."
"The people who did this - who do this - need to pay, Mr Tam. They don't answer for what they do because the people who aren't cosy with the world they've sterilised are all in hiding or on the run. I admire what your band did with Miranda, but if you think simply exposing the government's abuse of a few distant foreigners will bring about revolution, you need to read a history book."
Simon's fists clenched as that hit home. News waves on the cortex had talked about trouble in the government for a few weeks, minor figures were blamed and dismissed, and then everything had gone on as before. Wash and Shepherd Book died for that.
But Simon didn't know this man, didn't know what was behind the anggui clothes and the angular face. And he didn't believe for a second that he could bring about anything better. They'd already fought for justice; they lost.
"That's a nice speech, Mr Wyndham-Price. I'm sure the locals will thank you for the supplements."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As he came down the hill, Simon felt River fall in beside him, picking her way between the scrub in bare feet.
"Well?" he said at last. "It's not like you need me to tell you everything you just eavesdropped on."
"Grey man in a dark grey world. Wants to ride a white horse but the saddle doesn't fit."
Simon wrinkled his nose. "Okay..."
She tipped her head at him. "He wants to see you naked."
Simon stopped, staring after her as she wandered through the cargo, running her hands over boxes of supplements. "Good taste isn't proof of good or evil," he called after her. He really hadn't being paying attention in all the banter, but he supposed... if he thought about it, Wyndham-Price had been a good-looking man, well-bred and intelligent, just the sort Simon would have made a fool over himself for, back on Osiris.
Jayne wiped a sweaty arm across his face. "I'll say this for your pretty Core folk. They pay right."
Mal strode past. "Had a good chat with Price, up there? Didn't conjure I'd ever meet a prissier hua-hua- go-ngzi than you, Doc."
Wyndham-Price wanted to see him naked? He looked back up to where the man stood, utterly out of place on a Rim world.
Simon didn't fit out here the way Mal and Zoe did, but he wasn't that anymore, either. He didn't want the things he used to want.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wesley watched Simon walk back into Serenity. He had him, he was sure of it, but it could all come apart with the girl. There was no way of predicting her. Her procedures ought to have given her a heightened ability to read situations, motives, possibilities, but in quite typical bureaucratic fashion, they'd failed to make her not stark raving mad.
Simon Tam. He'd been a child, the last time Wesley saw him. Already bright and unashamedly fond of his sister, but there'd been no imagining the lengths he would go to for her. Wesley slid his pad out of his pocket, thumbing to the well-viewed file of their exploits. It was difficult to believe this one came from Gabriel's genes. The most recent photo was from an arrest for loitering in a blackout zone, looking young and angry.
Wesley wanted him. The man was wasted, patching bullet wounds on a ship of aimless brigands. The exposure of Miranda notwithstanding - and Wesley had got a rare chuckle out of the mess that made - these people were drifters. With stable ground beneath his feet and the certainty that his sister was safe, Simon would be a force to be reckoned with.
The comm system beeped, and Wesley pulled up Captain Reynold's image. "Looks like everything's settled here, Mr Price."
Wesley's stomach twisted. "But I..."
Simon was standing behind the captain, stone-faced.
"We don't like to stick around once business is done, so we'll be on our way. You ever have further business; you know how to find someone who can find someone who'll find us."
Simon shook his head, just slightly, just enough.
The screen went black, and through the window, Wesley watched Serenity's engines fire.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wesley didn't swear when he saw Simon, but it was a near thing. It was a near thing that he didn't deliver a swift kick to the officer with the grazed knuckles.
Simon's mouth opened in shock at seeing Wesley, but Wesley jumped in before he could start talking. "My client has been beaten."
"Injuries sustained in his attempted escape."
Wesley crossed the interrogation room and slid two fingers under Simon's chin, lifting his face to the light. He skimmed a finger over the swelling under his eye. "This is a fist mark. From a left-hander. Male." He darted a look at the officer's swollen left hand. "And this one's an elbow. I assume I'll find more beneath his clothes. Every injury will be catalogued and prosecuted."
"The man's a kidnapper."
"Mr Tam was protecting a valuable Alliance asset that had fallen into corrupt hands. You've given a beating to a hero of the Alliance."
Simon jerked his head away, about to speak.
"As your counsel I advise you to say nothing further until I am fully briefed."
Wesley stared him down, and after too long a moment, anger at the Alliance won out over suspicion of Wesley, and Simon closed his mouth. Smart man.
Wesley got the guards out, and then sent a pointed look towards the camera. Simon returned something that pointedly said he wasn't an imbecile, and then said,"I don't remember calling you."
"We keep a close ear on the Fed waves."
"I turn you down and a month later my crew is bound. How convenient for you."
"It most certainly is not. Our resources are broad, but not infinite. I did not load your ship with illegal beagles."
Simon lifted his eyes to the camera
Wesley cleared his throat. "Alleged beagles."
"I can't think of a single reason why I'd trust you."
Wesley didn't like having conversations inside Alliance Cruiser interrogation rooms. "Perhaps I should have dealt with Captain Reynolds. Instead of baiting me right now, he'd be using me to get out of here."
"I can assure you that's not true. He'd be baiting you and using you. He multi-tasks."
There was a knock, and the door opened. "Sir, your paperwork has cleared. Mr Tam, you are released pending further investigation."
Wesley gestured to the door, half-expecting Simon would refuse to go. But the man wasn't completely without sense, thank the gods, and after a moment he took the invitation.
Wesley led the way down to the docking decks, was halfway up the ramp of his ship when Simon's steps slowed. "Where's everyone else?"
Wesley kept walking, hoping Simon would follow far enough to seal the door, but he didn't budge. "I'm not here for them."
"Hun dan... You left them in there?" Simon looked behind him, like he was ready to walk back into the lion's mouth.
"River's safe with Ms Serra."
"But Mal, Zoe, Kaylee? Jayne?"
"Two browncoats, your ex-girlfriend and the man who sold you out on Ariel for pocket change?"
Simon didn't blink at the knowledge Wesley had just dropped. "I'm not leaving without them."
Wesley walked back, grabbed his elbow and hauled him inside. "Do you think this was a simple Allallamin spell?" He jabbed the button to close the door. "The resources I've used to free you- Do you have any idea how long Cobb's criminal record is alone? I've served briefer depositions. He may be your friend-"
"Jayne is not my friend."
"But you'll willingly put his life ahead of your sister's? Reynolds, Washburne, Frye - you'll place them all ahead of your sister?"
"They've protected both of us this long, dong le ma?"
Wesley wasn't truly surprised, but he didn't have time for this. "They can continue protecting her by staying right here."
"You are one cold bastard."
"So I've been told." Though it had been a while since it stung to hear it, and Wesley couldn't help the anger creeping into his voice. "Do you understand, River wasn't alone in that institution?"
Simon hid his surprise too well. It had to have occurred to him before. "Then why her? Why are you chasing us across the system? You can't pick someone else less-wanted to be your test-case?"
Wesley wanted to shake him. He wanted to wrap his fingers around those arms and press the sense into him. "Countless young men and women have entered the Academy. Every one of them had parents who signed their children over and then looked the other way. Only River had a brother like you. Do you still not get it? River isn't unique. You are."
That knocked Simon off his guard, but he still shook his head. "The crew. And if you can do that, then we'll talk."
Wesley fought the urge to rub his hands over his face. They couldn't afford to have the firm's fingerprints all over the Serenity crew's release dockets. And this whole process would be easier without Simon's loyalties divided.
Wesley was standing too close, fogging his brain. Simon could smell him. Clothing softeners. Faint cologne. Scents of the men Simon used to know, before River's letters and Serenity and Kaylee.
"I can't do it, Simon."
He looked tired, Simon realised, the first crack he'd seen in the whole freshly-pressed package. He was vulnerable.
Simon kissed him.
Wesley pulled back, one hand coming up to Simon's chest. "I can't do it." For the first time there was actual honest regret in his voice. Simon kissed him again, and this time he held on, gripping Wesley's sleeves until Wesley kissed back.
Suddenly there were open mouths and Wesley's tongue was chasing his, and hands were fisting in Simon's pullover. Simon hadn't thought much beyond the kiss but Wesley was thinking way beyond, hands already burrowing under Simon's clothes until they found the skin of Simon's waist and pulled him closer, delicate soft hands trailing sparks and there was a cock jammed into Simon's groin, up and planning to take this all the way. Simon's cock hardened against him.
Teeth followed Simon's jaw, rough and eager as those hands pushed at his clothes, determination in Wesley's eyes and then a grimace as he pushed Simon's shirt off his shoulders, baring the bruises left by Ensign Bennett.
This was more than he'd planned, but Simon didn't know how to stop it, wasn't fully sure he wanted to. The romance with Kaylee had been short-lived, and it had been a long time since he pressed against a man. Good or evil or in between, Wesley's hands and mouth were making him throb.
"What about you?" Simon asked.
"I'm not such a pretty sight." He caught Simon's hand and pulled him through a door into a cabin with a full-size bed. He threw a hand back to throw off the main light so the room was all shadows and grey.
Wesley pulled off his jacket and vest before Simon stepped in, but Simon had his shirt, took his time unbuttoning. The chest beneath felt pretty enough. Buttons undone, Wesley pulled it off and waited.
Simon traced the jagged line over Wesley's shoulder. A set of lines across his chest. The dip on his abdomen - that one was a bullet wound. "Where have you been?"
"Hell, once or twice. A few stops along the way that weren't noticeably different." Wesley kissed him like he wanted Simon to shut up, so Simon obliged, biting Wesley's lip as his mind raced. He'd thought Wesley was Core through and through but the scars... like he'd seen a war or two and been patched up on planets without even the barest supplies. No weaves - those cuts were stitched with needle and thread, something Simon had only ever seen in Med History. Alliance soldiers didn't carry scars like this. Some of them looked deliberate. Torture.
Simon had lost track of what Wesley was doing until a hand squeezed around his cock, sending sweet shock through his body. Wesley drove him back until his legs hit the bed and they fell together. Simon couldn't believe he'd thought this man cold, couldn't imagine it with the heat blazing in him now, the wet mouth that never rested on Simon's neck and shoulders, the cock pressing Simon's through their trousers, the look in his eyes as he lifted a hand to trace the split down Simon's lip.
Simon caught his breath at that look.
Wyndham-Price the creepy Core lawyer had become a survivor of the war and now suddenly Wesley in love with Simon, all in the space of minutes. He didn't even know Simon.
Wesley didn't know what he'd given away, too busy fumbling with Simon's belt.
And all at once, Simon realised two things were certain. Wesley was going to free Mal and the crew. And Simon was going with him back to Osiris.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Simon wasn't going to Osiris. This was a bad idea. "I'm not leaving her behind."
"She's safest with Serenity. This is preparation work; she doesn't need to come. Your captain already said he'd take care of her."
"Oh, yes, Mal babysitting. Wonderful." Simon looked back to Mal, standing with his arms folded and his eyebrows up. "No offence."
"Now why should I take offence at that?"
Wesley pressed on. "Do you really want to drag her back into the midst of the Alliance?"
Simon really didn't, but he hadn't been more than a few hours away from her since Mal cracked open her cryo, and he didn't know if he could.
"He's afraid of me."
Wesley jerked around to see River behind him, giving himself away. "You're not the first super-powered girl I've dealt with. I might surprise you."
"Afraid I'll see what's inside. The things you've done." She stalked closer, circled around him, but Wesley wouldn't flinch again. "You've hurt people."
Simon watched his face for offence, or denial, but there was nothing.
"I've hurt quite a lot of people."
They stared into each other's eyes.
"You don't think I'll see the good man under it all, because you can't see him anymore. You don't try to make people like you because you don't believe they ever will."
His gaze dropped at that, and River leaned in and whispered in his ear, and suddenly his eyes were on Simon, blazing blue.
River was smirking as she pulled away. "I want to come to Osiris."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
River's fingers dug into Simon's hand as Osiris grew on the screen. Home. The Nephthys Sea. The Opera House. Somewhere in that cluster was the hospital where he qualified as a surgeon. And then around, heading to the other hemisphere.
Simon was waiting for a fleet of Fed ships to scurry out and surround them, but all the traffic continued as it always had, like it didn't matter a jot whether River and Simon were here or there. Capitol City came up on the horizon and closer, until they were headed towards one of the tallest buildings.
"Your firm's in there?" Simon tried not to let on that he was impressed, but he was pretty sure he failed. It wasn't the downtown noir he'd expected. He needed to stop expecting things, with Wesley.
Wesley guided the ship towards a docking station at the base. "This building is the firm." A moment later, he added, "The Osiris branch."
Wesley was pretty sure his mouth opened then, and didn't close as the dock attendant greeted Mr Wyndham-Price, or as they passed through the lobby to a chorus of "Good morning, Mr Wyndham-Price," and "Morning, Sir," and "Welcome back, Mr Wyndham-Price."
"Gwai-gwai long duh dong!" Simon whispered. He looked back at River. "Did you know about this?"
"This is a surprise," she said, staring up at the distant ceiling.
And then there was the rocketing elevator ride up to the office. And the office, which, judging by the way Wesley swung his jacket over the chair behind the desk, was Wesley's office. Wesley's enormous office.
River was staring open-mouthed at the wall, floor-to-ceiling books, more books than Simon had ever seen in one place.
"You got them here. Colour me impressed." A woman with a neat brown bob and an expensive suit walked in, and dropped on the couch.
"Simon, River, this is Dawn Summers. She'll be your lawyer."
Simon snapped his attention back from the books. "I thought you were our lawyer."
Dawn laughed, which got her a glare from Wesley. "I'm not a lawyer. I'm simply a member of the firm."
Simon looked around the rest of the office, noticing the Earth-that-was artifacts spicing up the decor. "An important member." And Dawn, watching them like this was a big joke. "Is she old enough to practice law?"
"Miss Summers wrote the laws."
"That's an exaggeration." She straightened her skirt. "But newsflash: at the central authority, you wouldn't want Mr Surly-Pants as your guy to charm the judge."
River was stepping towards Dawn, head cocked, and her narrow eyes suddenly widened, and then turned on Wesley, seeing something new. Simon's stomach lurched, awaiting the next revelation. These two were Feds, or swindlers, or married. God, not the last.
"You're old," River exclaimed.
Wesley slumped against his enormous desk. "Perhaps the time has come to explain some details."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Simon had followed him from the guest rooms to Wesley's own apartment, which Wesley was taking as a hopeful sign, but Simon closed the door and leaned against it, coming no further. "You're old."
"Yes."
"Like... ancient."
"Yes." Right now, Wesley felt it.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"That I was a refugee from Earth-that-was? That I was born before they built the first inter-stellar ship? Would you have believed it?"
"I'm still not sure I do."
Wesley crossed to him, stopping an arm's length away. "Yes, you do." River believed it, and that would be enough for Simon. He couldn't understand it, yet, but he knew it was true.
He swallowed. "I must seem like a child to you."
"Most of them do." Wesley waved towards the window. "Ephemeral lives, burdened with trivia. So very few find their quest." He risked that last half-step closer, his fingers along Simon's jaw. "You're not like them. We're going to expose them. Bring down the Academy and save all the Rivers. And then you're going to walk away a free man." Partly true, the last. They were all long promises, but Wesley believed them, and he needed Simon to believe him.
The room had dimmed as the sun slid through the sky, and Simon's face was shadowed, unreadable.
It wasn't enough. Wesley had lost more battles than he could count over the centuries, but it didn't get easier. He didn't want to lose this one.
Wesley jumped when Simon finally moved, wasn't prepared when Simon kissed him, and it was the kiss Wesley had been waiting for, wanting, since the first.
---
end
Feedback? Yes please!
I haven't updated my website in a very long time, but I finally made all my Joss fics (ie all the Buffy, and this) more accessible through my userinfo page.
S.