Crossover Fic: Lending a Hand (6/?), Firefly/Doctor Who
Title: Lending a hand (6/?)
Authors: goldy_dollar and hjea
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Rose, implied Ten/Rose, Firefly crew with Mal/Inara and other canon pairings.
Disclaimer: We don’t own DW and/or Firefly. But we do secretly think that RTD is the evil genius offspring of Joss Whedon.
Spoilers/Timeline: Doctor Who: Post-Fear Her, pre-AoG/Doomsday, Firefly: post-Serenity
Summary: Wherever they’d ended up, it was definitely not Sihnon.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1, 726
Chapter Six
River could feel it. She watched them pile in-Rose, the Doctor, Simon, Kaylee, Jayne, Zoe, Inara-and they didn’t notice her. She could spend hours slipping along the ship-melting until she became invisible.
It was inside their heads. All of them. But they couldn’t feel it. Not like… not like River could.
The catwalk was cold as she slipped down the stairs, one hand held out in front of her (to push aside the monsters in the dark?). She could feel them coming. Had to hide.
Maybe crashing Serenity wasn’t such a good idea. She smiled. But fun-fun for those few seconds they hung, weightless, dangling.
Mal winced with every bang of his ship, remembering the last time and knowing River wasn’t as skilled as Wash-not yet. Zoe didn’t care-hadn’t cared about much, not since Wash. And Simon. Only cared about her, all of them, running around fixing injuries.
Simon. She smiled again. She would never, ever let anything happen to him.
She approached the Doctor’s ship, still with her hand out in front of her. Didn’t need to see inside it. Knew already. The ship was inside her head.
But she had to hide. There wasn’t much time left.
***
One tour.
One tour of the Doctor’s ship, and Mal’s crew seemed wholly prepared to accept that he really was an alien who could travel in time. Now they were carrying on, acting like they were about two-year-olds.
On Mal’s left, Rose was talking animatedly to Simon and Jayne, both of whom were watching her with their mouths slightly agape.
“So there I am, middle of London, World War Two, and I’m hanging from a barrage balloon. Germans are dropping bombs all around me, and what am I wearing? Union Jack, all over my chest. Can you picture that?”
“No, uh…” Simon said. “That would be… I mean, I wouldn’t…”
“No problems from me,” Jayne said.
“I thought I was done for,” Rose continued. “Doctor’s nowhere in sight, and I thought-I thought, that’s it, I’m gonna die in the middle of World War Two, fifty-years before I was even born.”
On Mal’s other side, the Doctor and Inara were engaged in a spirited debate about Sihnonise poodles.
“But that’s nothing. A dog that can bring me the paper and the coffee in the morning? Now that is a dog I’d keep on the TARDIS.”
“They’re incredibly smart, Doctor. Really, some of these dogs have been used to help the sick. Many say they can’t live without them.”
“Yeah, but do they talk?”
“Not everything has to talk to provide companionship.”
“Suppose not,” the Doctor admitted after a particularly pained pause. “And you’d be a better judge of that than me. But they shave the tails? Really?”
Mal tuned them out and tapped one food idly against the floor, his scowl deep enough to warn his crew to stay away.
Most of his crew.
“Hey, Cap’n,” Kaylee said, smiling like it was Christmas, like they weren’t stuck on some god-forsaken rock. “Serenity’s doin’ better, ain’t she?”
Well, there was that. Life support was functioning normally, and with it, heat, lights, and electricity. They’d even cleaned up the galley, righted the chairs and table, picked up the broken pieces of glass.
“Best mechanic in the ‘verse,” Mal said.
Kaylee beamed, but then said. “Couldn’t’a done it without the Doctor. He’s got this screwdriver, Cap’n. Never seen nothing like it. Can fix just about anything. Suppose it must be alien technology. Ain’t that just something?”
“Don’t see what’s so special about a gorram screwdriver, Kaylee. Don’t make him the second coming. Don’t even make him an alien.” He paused, and for clarifying sakes, added, “Ain’t no such thing.”
Kaylee studied him worriedly, rocking back and forth on her heels. “Maybe you’re just jealous.”
Mal’s head whipped up. “Excuse me?”
“Well!” Kaylee said. “Look at him, getting alone with everyone better’n you do. Fixed the ship right up in hardly no time at all! And now he’s flirtin’ with Inara-”
“Shénme?” Mal said. “Kaylee, that is not even…”
“Yep,” Kaylee said, frowning in a sympathetic way. “You think he’s replacing you.”
“That is-I do not-”
“But that ain’t going to happen, Cap’n,” Kaylee said, smiling so sweetly it momentarily threw Mal off. “Always gonna be you we look up to.”
Mal swallowed and rose to his feet. “Might not be the best idea,” he finally said. “Following me ain’t done any of us a whole lot of good lately.”
“That ain’t so, Cap’n,” Kaylee said. “Sides, it’ll get better. Always does.”
“Hope so, mei-mei,” he said.
***
For an alien, the Doctor looked remarkably human. Inara was embarrassed to admit that she’d always had a storybook image of aliens-green and slimy, with two heads and claws. But the Doctor was indistinguishable from any other human being. Truthfully, it was a little unnerving. It meant there could be any number of aliens living among them, and there would be no way to tell.
Mal could be an alien. Perhaps it would even explain a few things about him.
Inara turned her face to hide her smile behind her wrist, and coughed a few times muffle her laughter.
If the Doctor noticed her amusement, he didn’t let on, prattling away about something or another on Sihnon, somehow under the impression that her experiences were of the outmost authority.
And Inara, who hadn’t set foot in Sihnon in years and had no intention of ever doing so again, felt absurdly grateful for the opportunity. There was certainly no one else on Serenity she could reminisce with-not even Simon, whose time in the Core still left him with mixed feelings.
“Do they still do the winter carnival every year? With the ice sculptures? And the little… what are they-”
“Marionette dancers?” Inara suggested. “Yes.”
“Love those,” the Doctor said. “There’s no strings. You can’t see strings anywhere. And believe me, I’ve tried. Genius. I was hoping to take Rose, maybe even try a few of those Sihnoise snow cones.”
The Doctor leaned back against the kitchen counter, legs crossed in front of him. To Inara, it looked like a hideously uncomfortable way to stand, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“-Rose would’ve gotten such a kick out of Marionettes, but here we are, I suppose. Going where the trouble is. Crashed ships, abandoned planets-that’s us.” The Doctor paused, thinking over what he’d just said. He scratched his chin. “Not that you’re not all lovely company, of course.”
He trailed off long enough to meet Rose’s eyes on the other side of the room and give a small wave. She beamed back at him, sharing some sort of inside joke with a small tilt of her head and a smile.
The Doctor grinned back, and then pushed off the counter, focusing on Inara again. “But an Alliance Companion traveling on a ship like this, now that’s a mystery if I ever saw one.”
“Well, I…” Inara stuttered, caught off guard. “I wanted to expand my client base.”
The Doctor looked disappointed, and then perked up again, raising one hand. “No, no, no, no, don’t tell me.” He paused to think. “Does it involve a jar of honey and a very angry bear?”
Inara cracked a smile, but before she could answer, Mal came up beside her, gracing the Doctor with an expression he usually reserved for people he was about to shoot.
“Doctor.”
The Doctor blinked, and then mimicking Mal’s tone, said, “Captain Reynolds?”
They eyed each other, and Inara cleared her throat. “Mal?”
Mal twisted his neck around. “Yeah, huh, what?”
She raised her eyebrows in warning, but the Doctor seemed to get the hint (mostly from Mal’s death glare), and backed away. “Oh, look at the time. Ship’s calling me. Best be off doing something… alien.”
The Doctor deposited his half-empty tea mug into Mal’s arms before he could protest.
“Uh-” Mal started, but the Doctor walked away, hands jammed into pockets. Mal looked down at the half-empty mug. “How did-”
Inara took the mug out of his hand and placed it on the counter. She glanced at the Doctor, and then back at Mal, whose look was of the outmost suspicion.
“You two were talking,” Mal stated. He said the word “talking” like he used to say the word “client.”
“Yes,” Inara said. She felt a stir of pity at the look on his face and decided she was too tired for a fight. “There’s no harm in being friendly, Mal. They’ve been good to us.”
Mal grunted in an ambiguous sort of way, but looked reassured. She took a place next to him and watched as the Doctor interrupted Simon and Jayne, easily drawing Rose’s attention. She grinned at him, and they left the galley arm-in-arm, giggling and chatting in not-so-quiet voices.
Mal shook his head. “Don’t see how she can do that. Up and leave her family behind and go traipsing about the ‘verse-”
“-and through time,” Inara added. Mal eyeballed her, and she added, “I just… time and space. That’s a little more than your average vessel is capable of.”
“That is not…” Mal paused, and then tried again in a more authoritative tone. “Just don’t seem right. Acting like it ain’t anything outside of normal.”
Inara shrugged. “Well, she doesn’t seem to have any regrets. I suppose making a few sacrifices for someone you care about is nothing in the grand scheme of things. And they do… seem very close.”
Inara stopped, suddenly aware of the way Mal was looking at her.
“Yeah, well,” Mal said, cutting his eyes away.
“Yes,” Inara said, clearing her throat. “I should…”
“Yeah-no, there’s-getting late,” Mal said.
“It is,” Inara said. She moved to go around him, and almost collided with him instead. She pulled back, flustered, and then noticed the smirk tugging at his mouth.
“Coffee?”
“Mal, it’s… it’s practically the middle of the night,” she said.
He shrugged. “So? Ain’t got much else in the way to drink. ‘Sides, I ain’t set to sleep. You?”
The question probably should not have made her flush the way it did. “I-no,” she managed. “Coffee would be nice.
***
Authors: goldy_dollar and hjea
Characters/Pairings: Tenth Doctor, Rose, implied Ten/Rose, Firefly crew with Mal/Inara and other canon pairings.
Disclaimer: We don’t own DW and/or Firefly. But we do secretly think that RTD is the evil genius offspring of Joss Whedon.
Spoilers/Timeline: Doctor Who: Post-Fear Her, pre-AoG/Doomsday, Firefly: post-Serenity
Summary: Wherever they’d ended up, it was definitely not Sihnon.
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1, 726
Chapter Six
River could feel it. She watched them pile in-Rose, the Doctor, Simon, Kaylee, Jayne, Zoe, Inara-and they didn’t notice her. She could spend hours slipping along the ship-melting until she became invisible.
It was inside their heads. All of them. But they couldn’t feel it. Not like… not like River could.
The catwalk was cold as she slipped down the stairs, one hand held out in front of her (to push aside the monsters in the dark?). She could feel them coming. Had to hide.
Maybe crashing Serenity wasn’t such a good idea. She smiled. But fun-fun for those few seconds they hung, weightless, dangling.
Mal winced with every bang of his ship, remembering the last time and knowing River wasn’t as skilled as Wash-not yet. Zoe didn’t care-hadn’t cared about much, not since Wash. And Simon. Only cared about her, all of them, running around fixing injuries.
Simon. She smiled again. She would never, ever let anything happen to him.
She approached the Doctor’s ship, still with her hand out in front of her. Didn’t need to see inside it. Knew already. The ship was inside her head.
But she had to hide. There wasn’t much time left.
***
One tour.
One tour of the Doctor’s ship, and Mal’s crew seemed wholly prepared to accept that he really was an alien who could travel in time. Now they were carrying on, acting like they were about two-year-olds.
On Mal’s left, Rose was talking animatedly to Simon and Jayne, both of whom were watching her with their mouths slightly agape.
“So there I am, middle of London, World War Two, and I’m hanging from a barrage balloon. Germans are dropping bombs all around me, and what am I wearing? Union Jack, all over my chest. Can you picture that?”
“No, uh…” Simon said. “That would be… I mean, I wouldn’t…”
“No problems from me,” Jayne said.
“I thought I was done for,” Rose continued. “Doctor’s nowhere in sight, and I thought-I thought, that’s it, I’m gonna die in the middle of World War Two, fifty-years before I was even born.”
On Mal’s other side, the Doctor and Inara were engaged in a spirited debate about Sihnonise poodles.
“But that’s nothing. A dog that can bring me the paper and the coffee in the morning? Now that is a dog I’d keep on the TARDIS.”
“They’re incredibly smart, Doctor. Really, some of these dogs have been used to help the sick. Many say they can’t live without them.”
“Yeah, but do they talk?”
“Not everything has to talk to provide companionship.”
“Suppose not,” the Doctor admitted after a particularly pained pause. “And you’d be a better judge of that than me. But they shave the tails? Really?”
Mal tuned them out and tapped one food idly against the floor, his scowl deep enough to warn his crew to stay away.
Most of his crew.
“Hey, Cap’n,” Kaylee said, smiling like it was Christmas, like they weren’t stuck on some god-forsaken rock. “Serenity’s doin’ better, ain’t she?”
Well, there was that. Life support was functioning normally, and with it, heat, lights, and electricity. They’d even cleaned up the galley, righted the chairs and table, picked up the broken pieces of glass.
“Best mechanic in the ‘verse,” Mal said.
Kaylee beamed, but then said. “Couldn’t’a done it without the Doctor. He’s got this screwdriver, Cap’n. Never seen nothing like it. Can fix just about anything. Suppose it must be alien technology. Ain’t that just something?”
“Don’t see what’s so special about a gorram screwdriver, Kaylee. Don’t make him the second coming. Don’t even make him an alien.” He paused, and for clarifying sakes, added, “Ain’t no such thing.”
Kaylee studied him worriedly, rocking back and forth on her heels. “Maybe you’re just jealous.”
Mal’s head whipped up. “Excuse me?”
“Well!” Kaylee said. “Look at him, getting alone with everyone better’n you do. Fixed the ship right up in hardly no time at all! And now he’s flirtin’ with Inara-”
“Shénme?” Mal said. “Kaylee, that is not even…”
“Yep,” Kaylee said, frowning in a sympathetic way. “You think he’s replacing you.”
“That is-I do not-”
“But that ain’t going to happen, Cap’n,” Kaylee said, smiling so sweetly it momentarily threw Mal off. “Always gonna be you we look up to.”
Mal swallowed and rose to his feet. “Might not be the best idea,” he finally said. “Following me ain’t done any of us a whole lot of good lately.”
“That ain’t so, Cap’n,” Kaylee said. “Sides, it’ll get better. Always does.”
“Hope so, mei-mei,” he said.
***
For an alien, the Doctor looked remarkably human. Inara was embarrassed to admit that she’d always had a storybook image of aliens-green and slimy, with two heads and claws. But the Doctor was indistinguishable from any other human being. Truthfully, it was a little unnerving. It meant there could be any number of aliens living among them, and there would be no way to tell.
Mal could be an alien. Perhaps it would even explain a few things about him.
Inara turned her face to hide her smile behind her wrist, and coughed a few times muffle her laughter.
If the Doctor noticed her amusement, he didn’t let on, prattling away about something or another on Sihnon, somehow under the impression that her experiences were of the outmost authority.
And Inara, who hadn’t set foot in Sihnon in years and had no intention of ever doing so again, felt absurdly grateful for the opportunity. There was certainly no one else on Serenity she could reminisce with-not even Simon, whose time in the Core still left him with mixed feelings.
“Do they still do the winter carnival every year? With the ice sculptures? And the little… what are they-”
“Marionette dancers?” Inara suggested. “Yes.”
“Love those,” the Doctor said. “There’s no strings. You can’t see strings anywhere. And believe me, I’ve tried. Genius. I was hoping to take Rose, maybe even try a few of those Sihnoise snow cones.”
The Doctor leaned back against the kitchen counter, legs crossed in front of him. To Inara, it looked like a hideously uncomfortable way to stand, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“-Rose would’ve gotten such a kick out of Marionettes, but here we are, I suppose. Going where the trouble is. Crashed ships, abandoned planets-that’s us.” The Doctor paused, thinking over what he’d just said. He scratched his chin. “Not that you’re not all lovely company, of course.”
He trailed off long enough to meet Rose’s eyes on the other side of the room and give a small wave. She beamed back at him, sharing some sort of inside joke with a small tilt of her head and a smile.
The Doctor grinned back, and then pushed off the counter, focusing on Inara again. “But an Alliance Companion traveling on a ship like this, now that’s a mystery if I ever saw one.”
“Well, I…” Inara stuttered, caught off guard. “I wanted to expand my client base.”
The Doctor looked disappointed, and then perked up again, raising one hand. “No, no, no, no, don’t tell me.” He paused to think. “Does it involve a jar of honey and a very angry bear?”
Inara cracked a smile, but before she could answer, Mal came up beside her, gracing the Doctor with an expression he usually reserved for people he was about to shoot.
“Doctor.”
The Doctor blinked, and then mimicking Mal’s tone, said, “Captain Reynolds?”
They eyed each other, and Inara cleared her throat. “Mal?”
Mal twisted his neck around. “Yeah, huh, what?”
She raised her eyebrows in warning, but the Doctor seemed to get the hint (mostly from Mal’s death glare), and backed away. “Oh, look at the time. Ship’s calling me. Best be off doing something… alien.”
The Doctor deposited his half-empty tea mug into Mal’s arms before he could protest.
“Uh-” Mal started, but the Doctor walked away, hands jammed into pockets. Mal looked down at the half-empty mug. “How did-”
Inara took the mug out of his hand and placed it on the counter. She glanced at the Doctor, and then back at Mal, whose look was of the outmost suspicion.
“You two were talking,” Mal stated. He said the word “talking” like he used to say the word “client.”
“Yes,” Inara said. She felt a stir of pity at the look on his face and decided she was too tired for a fight. “There’s no harm in being friendly, Mal. They’ve been good to us.”
Mal grunted in an ambiguous sort of way, but looked reassured. She took a place next to him and watched as the Doctor interrupted Simon and Jayne, easily drawing Rose’s attention. She grinned at him, and they left the galley arm-in-arm, giggling and chatting in not-so-quiet voices.
Mal shook his head. “Don’t see how she can do that. Up and leave her family behind and go traipsing about the ‘verse-”
“-and through time,” Inara added. Mal eyeballed her, and she added, “I just… time and space. That’s a little more than your average vessel is capable of.”
“That is not…” Mal paused, and then tried again in a more authoritative tone. “Just don’t seem right. Acting like it ain’t anything outside of normal.”
Inara shrugged. “Well, she doesn’t seem to have any regrets. I suppose making a few sacrifices for someone you care about is nothing in the grand scheme of things. And they do… seem very close.”
Inara stopped, suddenly aware of the way Mal was looking at her.
“Yeah, well,” Mal said, cutting his eyes away.
“Yes,” Inara said, clearing her throat. “I should…”
“Yeah-no, there’s-getting late,” Mal said.
“It is,” Inara said. She moved to go around him, and almost collided with him instead. She pulled back, flustered, and then noticed the smirk tugging at his mouth.
“Coffee?”
“Mal, it’s… it’s practically the middle of the night,” she said.
He shrugged. “So? Ain’t got much else in the way to drink. ‘Sides, I ain’t set to sleep. You?”
The question probably should not have made her flush the way it did. “I-no,” she managed. “Coffee would be nice.
***