ficpost: "Nine Travelers Who Never Were Lost"
Title: "Nine Travelers Who Never Were Lost"
Fandom: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer x Firefly
Pairing: Kaylee/Simon
Rating: parents cautioned for nudity and innuendo
Spoilers/Timeline: post a wacky AU S5 Buffy, general spoilers for Firefly but nothing real specific
Words: 4,202
Notes: For _shewalks in the Firefly/Buffyverse Crossover Ficathon. Her requests are at the end. Thanks to the lovely velvetandlace for the beta.
Summary: Landings, lovings, and leavetakings.
Nine Travelers Who Never Were Lost
"What is that?" Mal asked.
"No idea. Should I ask it?"
"Wash! What is that thing? I want to know, and I want to know now."
"It's pretty," Kaylee supplied from her perch on the chair she'd managed to maneuver into the cabin. "Blue an' swirly."
"Pretty or no, I don't want it to be in the path of my ship. Can you steer around it, Wash?"
Wash flipped three levers and tried a maneuver. The ship rocked, and almost knocked Kaylee out of her chair, but their course was fixed. The blue thing was gaining on them quickly, and up close, it didn't look quite so shiny. More menacing black lines scrawled in the blue whirlpools.
Mal was angry, sure enough. "Anyone have any idea what that thing is?"
"I'd better get down to the engine, huh?"
Mal nodded at her once, and she leapt to her feet. They both knew that it wasn't likely she'd be able to fix anything down there, but she'd feel more comfortable if she was listening to her girl thump and whirr. Serenity was comfort, she thought. Comfort and safety. She skipped a little. As she stepped onto the catwalk, Kaylee encountered Simon coming out of his infirmary.
"Is everything all right? The ship lurched."
"There's some kind of obstruction up ahead. I'm on my way to the engine room right now... you want to come with me? You could give me a hand."
"Uh... thanks for the invitation... but I think I'd better stay down here. You know. In case anyone needs me."
"In case there's some horrible danger up ahead that you can't escape from?"
Simon tugged at his collar. "Something like that. If you see River, would you -- would you keep an eye on her?"
Kaylee smiled at him. "Of course."
She was just about to leave him when the ship lurched again, horribly this time, and Simon tilted right into her. She stumbled, tried to regain her footing by clinging to Simon's shoulders, and ended up on the floor underneath him. As soon as she caught her breath again, she laughed. "Guess we'd better head up and see what--"
"No need." Mal's voice. Kaylee pried Simon off her and stumbled to her feet. "We're all heading out. Now."
"What's wrong?"
"We made an emergency landing."
"But where?" Kaylee persisted. "We're hours away from anywhere."
"Not anymore," Mal said with a frown, pausing for a second while he waited for Wash to catch up with him, dragging Zoe behind him. Summoned by the unsettling landing, the nine of them slowly converged in Serenity's cargo bay. They were all there by the time Mal unclenched his jaw long enough to say, "Planet."
"Could you be slightly more specific?" asked Book, coming up behind Kaylee and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Not likely. Seems when we hit that shiny blue light, we ended up somewhere..."
"Else," Wash supplied. "Very, very else."
"Solid ground. We've reached solid land again. Columbus," River said, and Kaylee instinctively reached out for her hand. River had already moved on, though, and was standing right in front of the hatchway. Kaylee's hands brushed air, and River announced, "The travelers return to their point of origin. The wayfarers find a place of refuge."
Simon whispered worriedly, "She sounds..."
"She sounds happy," Kaylee whispered back. "Maybe somethin' good happened when we went through all that blue light."
"Good things can happen to us?"
Kaylee tried to glare at him, but she was too enthralled by Zoe and Jayne slowly lowering the huge metal door. She could just see hints of sky, some tall trees just peeking into her field of vision. When she'd been a little girl, Kaylee had longed to see other planets, and every new one still gave her a little ripple of delight.
They walked together towards the brilliant new planet, and Kaylee felt herself settling gently into that place where worry was replaced with excitement, where nothing could possibly go wrong because they were all nine of them together and the sun was shining happily, like it too was expecting a good day.
++
"Aliens," said Andrew, wonderingly. "Real aliens, and they've chosen us to establish contact with. Let me get my--"
"No," said Jonathan, pulling himself out from under his bed with a flashlight in his hand. "We should really talk to Buffy."
"Is that what Warren would do?"
"Warren's gone," Jonathan reminded him. "He skipped town right after that robot girlfriend of his died. It's just you and me. Comrades in arms?"
"Comrades in arms," Andrew agreed instantly.
"Now, let's go find Buffy."
"Are you sure we couldn't just sneak a peek at the aliens first? See if there are any supple slave girls among their ranks, looking for the touch of a human male?"
"Buffy first," Jonathan insisted, and Andrew, rolling his eyes and complaining, followed him to Revello Drive.
++
"Aliens?" Willow asked, emerging from behind Buffy, who'd opened the door. "What do you mean, aliens?"
"We were observing the night sky, as is our wont --"
"It's daytime," Buffy said.
"All right, we were observing the day sky, and we saw..."
"A ship," Jonathan burst in. "A real spaceship."
"Uh huh. And I care about your sci-fi fantasies because?"
"Buffy?" Willow touched her shoulder gently. "Maybe we'd better listen to them. I mean, even though Glory's gone, this is still the Hellmouth... and we don't know if the portals really closed after she left."
Buffy sighed. "Do we have to listen to them? Who are you, anyhow? I recognize Jonathan, but who's the twerp?"
"Andrew," he said at the same time that Jonathan said, "Tucker's brother."
"Ohh," said Buffy. "And again, why should we listen to you?"
"Aliens," Willow prompted her. "Green, scaly things intent on taking over the world? Right up your alley."
"Fine," said Buffy. "Grab me an axe, will ya? I want to make this snappy. There's a movie on Lifetime I want to watch before heading out on patrol tonight. I was not expecting otherworldliness."
++
Kaylee wiped away a droplet of sweat. It wasn't an especially hot day, but they'd been walking -- pointlessly, randomly -- for near an hour, and still no sign of any life other than the trees and the grass. Mostly they were happy, but she could tell that Simon was getting tired of walking. She gave him a little punch to encourage him to keep up. It was one of the good days -- or it would be if it ended with them in the sky again. There was a part of her that was almost afraid they wouldn't get back -- but only a very tiny part.
"Look," said Jayne. "Natives."
"Aliens!" The shout came from amidst the group of people who were hurrying towards them.
"Dunno, they look like people to me," said a pretty redhead.
"That's right," said Mal, drawing his pistol. "Who are you?"
"People, too," the redhead said. "Sorry to bother you. These guys--" she gestured at two young men, one very short, one taller and scrawny -- "thought you were from outer space." She glared. "Sorry for the inconvenience. Where are you guys headed, anyhow?"
"Not sure," Mal said. "Where's the nearest town?"
"We're about half a mile from the center of Sunnydale," said the second girl, a pretty blonde. "Where did you guys come from?"
"We don't like to talk about our past." Mal was getting testy.
"Well, I think we aren't going anywhere until you do talk about it." The blonde was getting testy too. "Where are you from?"
Kaylee had been too busy watching Mal to notice River, who'd circled up behind Simon and was now tilting her head back and forth. "Homefires," she said. "We followed the lights you left out for us, and now we've come home."
"Home?" The blonde gave them a hard look, then turned to the redhead. "Willow, what's she talking about?"
"I don't know. She sounds a little... nutty, huh?"
"We are standing right in front of you," Jayne said.
"But she's crazy, right? Like Dru," Willow muttered. "Buffy, I don't like the looks of this."
"What do you call this planet?" asked Simon, who'd been examining the bark of the nearest tree. "There's something off about the flora."
"You are from space!"
"Andrew, shut up." Buffy's face was defiant, and Kaylee could tell she wasn't about to let them pass. Not that they knew where they were going even if Buffy hadn't been standing in their way. "This planet is called Earth. What's your planet called?"
Kaylee felt her jaw drop, saw Simon spin around out of the corner of her eye. Only River looked totally unmoved by the news. "We found our way home," she said.
"Earth-that-was," Inara finally said in a reverent voice. Book put a hand over his heart, and Zoe reached for Wash's hand.
"Uh, isn't Earth-that-was sort of, you know...?" Jayne trailed off.
"It is," River said. "Hundreds of years ago. But we found our way back to then."
"You're from the future." The redhead, Willow, was the first of them to recover. "Guys, they're from the future!"
Everyone relaxed a little, then, now that they could put a name to the situation. Sure, they still had to figure out how to get back, but at least they knew where they were. Earth-that-was. Home for all of them, the place they came from. For once, Kaylee couldn't even force a smile. She was too overcome with the feeling of home, comforting like prairie grass and her mother's hands.
++
Willow wasn't entirely sure how she felt about keeping visitors in her dorm. It was full enough with just her and Tara, and having Kaylee and Inara curled up on the floor seemed a bit much. Still, there wasn't really much of a choice. Tucker's brother had leapt at the opportunity to host some genuine space heroes, but his basement only had room for Jayne, who'd grumbled about staying with the little twink but eventually conceded. Joyce's illness meant she wasn't exactly up for house guests, although she'd agreed to let Zoe and Wash stay, so long as they were quiet. She'd been... she'd been awfully quiet herself, when she'd said that, and Willow wondered how sick she really was.
Book and Mal were living in Xander's living room, and they'd gotten a hotel room for Simon and River, figuring that no one really wanted the extra burden of a crazy girl in their home. That left Kaylee and Inara, who were content to sleep on the floor at night. It had been three days, and Willow was beginning to feel a little cramped.
"How's it goin'?" Kaylee peered over her shoulder at the computer. "You've got some mighty nice tools."
"Yeah," Willow agreed distractedly. "But they're useless right now. Until we can figure out what kind of wormhole you came through, we won't be able to get you back through another one."
"We got time," Kaylee said with a smile, and Willow had to smile back. It was impossible to be annoyed for long when Kaylee was around. "When's your gal coming back?"
"A couple of hours," said Willow. "You wanna give me a hand?"
"Sure," said Kaylee. "If you want me to. But I was thinkin'... you've been with Tara for awhile, right?"
"A year and a half," Willow said automatically. "Why? Is there something--?"
"It's about Simon," Kaylee said with a blush. "You know, the doctor."
"I think I finally got everyone's names straight at dinner last night," Willow said. "What about Simon?"
"Well, you know, I like him."
"Well, that's cool," Willow said absentmindedly. "Why do you need my blessing?"
"I don't. It's just... he's not exactly... he's not -- forthcoming, if you know what I mean."
"Do you think -- does he like you back?" Willow looked up from her computer now. It had been a long time since she'd had a friend who had new romantic possibilities. Buffy was way more interested in making sure her mom was okay than in looking for a Riley-replacement, and Xander and Anya were a done deal. It was kind of exciting to be thinking about matchmaking again.
"Well, sure. I mean, sort of. He's got River to take care of, you know. And he's busy all the time."
"Sweetie, if he's got time for his sister, he's got time for you. And if he likes you, he'd better just make time for you. Or else he's not worth your time."
Kaylee frowned thoughtfully. "But you don't think... don't you think he's awful cute?"
Willow truly smiled, now. It was hard to remember being so young, although Kaylee was only a year or so younger than she was. But Kaylee hadn't spent five years fighting demons, hadn't spent the last year trying to stop a hellgod from getting home -- and failing.
"He is, though. Don't you think? Or do you just think all men are mei yong-duh?"
Willow started a bit; she always did at the bits of Chinese that Kaylee spouted with no difficulty at all, but she didn't say anything or ask for a translation. "No, Simon's great," she said. "What do you say that we do something with him on Saturday? You, me, Tara, and Simon."
"But -- River."
"Inara can watch her, can't she? Or she could come with us. Would you like to go swimming?"
Kaylee's eyes lit up. "Shiny! We never get to swim much. The captain says it's a waste of time and puts us in a vulnerable position."
"Buffy says the same thing," Willow said. "But she's kidding. At least, mostly."
"Everyone's so... calm... around here," Kaylee said. "Never worried, even though there are monsters."
"Well, most people don't know there are monsters. That helps keep them calmer."
"It's like home," Kaylee said. "Where people pay their dues to the Alliance and then just go about their business, pretending like it's okay, like they're free."
Willow nodded. "Do you miss it?"
Kaylee grinned. "Nope. My folks, sometimes, but not home. Serenity and I ain't been parted for more'n a week since we met. She's home now."
Willow smiled as she turned back to her laptop. It was sometimes hard to tell which Kaylee loved more: her boy or her ship.
++
She watches them from a perch on a rock high above the swimming hole. It's a mere hole in a ground, a grotto, the kind of place where people would go to die. It would take her three point eight seconds to get from here to there, but she would break all her bones. So she doesn't. Simon is ashamed. He wishes he'd brought the swimming trunks he used to keep in his closet, but you don't think to bring things like that when you're planning on being shipwrecked. She can't remember what she was planning to be. Where she was planning to be, that's easy. Wherever she is, that's here. Here.
The girls are scheming, scheming, always scheming. It's hard to keep up with so many plans in so many heads, so she starts with the blonde girl, the one they call Tara. Tara is easy to understand. River understands Tara on a different level, and sometimes, she wonders if Tara looks through her and understands. If she knows. If she comprehends. Tara is gold and good.
Kaylee isn't ashamed. Kaylee never has shame, because Kaylee understands that things have insides and outsides and that if you add them together, you're left with the sum of a thing. Kaylee is more than a thing. Kaylee is a person. Her hair shines brightly in the sunlight and the sun glints off her skin. She didn't think to bring a bathing suit; she can't imagine why she would need one.
Willow secretly thinks that's immodest.
River twirls her hair in her fingers. Kaylee's body is smooth and slides into the water easily. She hears Kaylee shriek and knows the shriek is real, because Tara and Willow startle too. Kaylee splashes them until they join her in the water, and then starts to tease Simon. She wants him to come swim with them too. Simon is ashamed, though, and scared. Simon is amused. Simon is confused. River puzzles over this, tries to remember how to detach so she can think it over. Does Simon want to swim naked with Kaylee or not? Does Simon want to stay or go? River doesn't know because Simon doesn't know, and Simon doesn't know because it is not a thing you can know, the inside of your own heart.
Finally Willow grabs Tara's hand and they climb out of the water, pull skirts over their wet bathing suits, and go for a walk. (scheming, scheming.) Then Simon is brave enough to strip down to his undershorts (should River be ashamed for him? for her? she can't remember) and plunge into the cold water. He tries not to scream, but he's cold through to his bones. Kaylee laughs at him and tickles him in the water. River wants to avert her eyes. Some secrets she shouldn't know. But she can't avert her thoughts. Not possible. So she watches them through the branches of an old, old, Earth-that-was tree, as they kiss for the first time, Simon shivering in the cold.
++
Jonathan was secretly relieved when Willow called him and told him they'd figured out how to recreate the dimensional spell.
"Turns out we just needed to call Angel," she said. Jonathan didn't quite remember who that was, but he listened patiently. The visitors from space were going home. "He said they've been working on portals for a month. They've got a crazy Texan librarian on the case. Pretty ironic, huh?"
"Sure," said Jonathan. He wanted to hang up with Willow and call Andrew, tell him that Jayne could go home now. He didn't like the thought that Andrew wouldn't be too pleased with that news. But Andrew was delighted. He squealed a little when Jonathan told him.
"You hear that, Mister Cobb? We're going home!"
"We?" Jonathan had a sick feeling in his stomach.
"Mister Cobb said that I could come with him, once the witches figured out how to get them back to their future."
"You want to go to the future?"
"Of course! There's the evil Alliance, and Captain Reynolds and his brave crew are going to defeat them, and there are cannibals, and lots of gorgeous alien babes. Right?"
Jonathan heard affirmative grunting in the background. He bit his lip. So it was true. Andrew, his last friend, the only friend he'd made since high school who wasn't just using him for his ability to help with homework, was leaving. Because he'd decided it would be a good idea to tell the Slayer that aliens had landed in the woods. He hung up the phone quickly. Let Andrew and his new friends celebrate the good news.
++
"I can't go with you, you know." Simon was tipping back his third drink of the evening. "There's no reason for us to go. This is what we wanted. A safe harbor. No one will ever find River here, and I can probably start a practice... we can be safe."
"Safe," Mal repeated, not taking his eyes off Buffy, who was carefully pouring him a glass of Scotch.
"Safety can be a mighty tempting thing," Book said. "Not necessarily a bad one, either."
"I for one will be glad to have them off the ship," Jayne put in.
"We heroes don't need to be looking after runaways all the time," Andrew echoed, not moving away from Jayne's side.
"That's right," Jayne agreed, sounding surprised that Andrew was still there. "Heroes. Like us."
"We'll miss you," Mal nodded. "But I reckon you're right. Can't underestimate safety."
Kaylee didn't wait to hear the rest of the conversation. She raced upstairs to Buffy's bathroom, familiar after nearly two weeks of spending most of her afternoons here. Simon leaving them. Or, her leaving him. She'd go back to Serenity, Simon would stay here, and she'd... someone was knocking on the door. "Come in," she warbled. When had she started to cry?
"What's wrong?" Zoe, the last person she'd expected. "Is it about Simon?"
Kaylee nodded.
"Do you love him?" Zoe's voice was smooth.
"Of course! I mean, he's... he's Simon. And we... we kissed. Once. Or twice. Or maybe a lot. So I know he likes me too. But he hasn't even asked me if I want to stay with him. It would be awful presumptuous of me. And I don't want to leave you, or the Captain, and Serenity needs me."
Zoe didn't say anything, but she put a comforting hand on Kaylee's shoulder, and Kaylee smiled through her tears. She hadn't had a heart-to-heart with Zoe in near long enough. "It's your decision," Zoe said finally. "But if you truly love him, you should know -- there's nothing rarer than love, and nothing more precious. I didn't always know that, and it took my husband to teach me."
Kaylee nodded. That meant stay with Simon. That was good advice. Time to settle down. Her ma had always said you had to settle down eventually. Naturally, she hadn't believed a word of it, but maybe it was true. Maybe it was time to make that choice.
She wandered back downstairs and was waylaid by Mal. "You thinkin' about leaving?" he asked. Never small talk with the captain.
"Thinkin' only," she said. "I'd never make a decision without askin' you."
"You're free," Mal said. "Always will be. But I want you to think long and think hard before you decide to settle down with your fancy rags doctor and his crazy sister."
"You're supposed to say you'll miss me," Kaylee said with a grin.
"Goes without saying. Now scoot. Go get drunk."
Even if Kaylee had wanted to stop thinking about it, she wouldn't have been able to. Tara and Willow were preparing the spell that would hurtle Serenity and her crew five hundred years into the future, and whenever they double-checked the herbs, Kaylee got a twisted feeling in her stomach. She wasn't used to this much uncertainty. Willow wanted her to stay and said as much. Inara whispered in her ear that no man was worth it. And finally, one evening at the hotel, while River was helping Book pack his few things into boxes, Simon managed to ask her to stay.
"So I was thinking," he said.
"You never stop, do you?"
"I was thinking maybe you could stay with us, too."
"Oh? Why do you think I'd want to do that?"
"Well," Simon cleared his throat, "I thought maybe you'd like to settle down with me. That maybe you'd appreciate having someone... steady."
Kaylee cocked her head. "That all?"
"Also... also, I'd really love for you to stay. I mean, if you want to. Of course. If you don't want to, then..."
"If I don't want to, then I won't," Kaylee said, but she was deep in thought again. She didn't like being at loose ends, not knowing which way she was going. It made her frown through the day that should have been one last happy day with her friends -- because, regardless of which way she chose, one set of friends would be lost forever.
++
Kaylee didn't have a lot of things, and she could always buy more, wherever she was, but she held her small satchel and stood between Serenity and Sunnydale, thinking about people and things and leaving some of them behind. Willow was clinging to Tara, and both of them wore sad looks. Zoe and Wash were already hurrying onto Serenity, hands full of boxes. Andrew was trying to lug a huge box into the cargo hold, and Jayne was telling him he couldn't bring his action figures and helping him maneuver the box into place.
River, standing by Simon's side, looked solemn and beautiful. Inara had combed her hair for hours that morning, and Kaylee was a little sad, because she knew that Inara would miss having someone to take care of, doubly so if she didn't come back.
She thought about kissing Simon, about the way she tingled when he was in the room, about the way he made her laugh. She thought about never having to worry about the Alliance, about never having to shoot at anyone again. She thought about the beautiful tapestries hanging in Tara and Willow's room. She looked at Serenity and thought about the rumbling of the engine when it needed to be greased.
She looked at Simon, then at Mal, then back at Simon, who was holding River's hand and watching Kaylee nervously. Then Mal again, his face unreadable. She thought she might get dizzy from so much back and forth, so she looked up at the sun, shining down on all of them, looking, once again, like it thought it was going to be a happy day.
Kaylee's face broke into a smile, and she made up her mind.
++++
_shewalks wanted: Kaylee/Simon, Willow, wackiness ensuing and some romance between Kaylee/Simon. No Willow being all angsty about her magic.
Fandom: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer x Firefly
Pairing: Kaylee/Simon
Rating: parents cautioned for nudity and innuendo
Spoilers/Timeline: post a wacky AU S5 Buffy, general spoilers for Firefly but nothing real specific
Words: 4,202
Notes: For _shewalks in the Firefly/Buffyverse Crossover Ficathon. Her requests are at the end. Thanks to the lovely velvetandlace for the beta.
Summary: Landings, lovings, and leavetakings.
Nine Travelers Who Never Were Lost
"What is that?" Mal asked.
"No idea. Should I ask it?"
"Wash! What is that thing? I want to know, and I want to know now."
"It's pretty," Kaylee supplied from her perch on the chair she'd managed to maneuver into the cabin. "Blue an' swirly."
"Pretty or no, I don't want it to be in the path of my ship. Can you steer around it, Wash?"
Wash flipped three levers and tried a maneuver. The ship rocked, and almost knocked Kaylee out of her chair, but their course was fixed. The blue thing was gaining on them quickly, and up close, it didn't look quite so shiny. More menacing black lines scrawled in the blue whirlpools.
Mal was angry, sure enough. "Anyone have any idea what that thing is?"
"I'd better get down to the engine, huh?"
Mal nodded at her once, and she leapt to her feet. They both knew that it wasn't likely she'd be able to fix anything down there, but she'd feel more comfortable if she was listening to her girl thump and whirr. Serenity was comfort, she thought. Comfort and safety. She skipped a little. As she stepped onto the catwalk, Kaylee encountered Simon coming out of his infirmary.
"Is everything all right? The ship lurched."
"There's some kind of obstruction up ahead. I'm on my way to the engine room right now... you want to come with me? You could give me a hand."
"Uh... thanks for the invitation... but I think I'd better stay down here. You know. In case anyone needs me."
"In case there's some horrible danger up ahead that you can't escape from?"
Simon tugged at his collar. "Something like that. If you see River, would you -- would you keep an eye on her?"
Kaylee smiled at him. "Of course."
She was just about to leave him when the ship lurched again, horribly this time, and Simon tilted right into her. She stumbled, tried to regain her footing by clinging to Simon's shoulders, and ended up on the floor underneath him. As soon as she caught her breath again, she laughed. "Guess we'd better head up and see what--"
"No need." Mal's voice. Kaylee pried Simon off her and stumbled to her feet. "We're all heading out. Now."
"What's wrong?"
"We made an emergency landing."
"But where?" Kaylee persisted. "We're hours away from anywhere."
"Not anymore," Mal said with a frown, pausing for a second while he waited for Wash to catch up with him, dragging Zoe behind him. Summoned by the unsettling landing, the nine of them slowly converged in Serenity's cargo bay. They were all there by the time Mal unclenched his jaw long enough to say, "Planet."
"Could you be slightly more specific?" asked Book, coming up behind Kaylee and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Not likely. Seems when we hit that shiny blue light, we ended up somewhere..."
"Else," Wash supplied. "Very, very else."
"Solid ground. We've reached solid land again. Columbus," River said, and Kaylee instinctively reached out for her hand. River had already moved on, though, and was standing right in front of the hatchway. Kaylee's hands brushed air, and River announced, "The travelers return to their point of origin. The wayfarers find a place of refuge."
Simon whispered worriedly, "She sounds..."
"She sounds happy," Kaylee whispered back. "Maybe somethin' good happened when we went through all that blue light."
"Good things can happen to us?"
Kaylee tried to glare at him, but she was too enthralled by Zoe and Jayne slowly lowering the huge metal door. She could just see hints of sky, some tall trees just peeking into her field of vision. When she'd been a little girl, Kaylee had longed to see other planets, and every new one still gave her a little ripple of delight.
They walked together towards the brilliant new planet, and Kaylee felt herself settling gently into that place where worry was replaced with excitement, where nothing could possibly go wrong because they were all nine of them together and the sun was shining happily, like it too was expecting a good day.
++
"Aliens," said Andrew, wonderingly. "Real aliens, and they've chosen us to establish contact with. Let me get my--"
"No," said Jonathan, pulling himself out from under his bed with a flashlight in his hand. "We should really talk to Buffy."
"Is that what Warren would do?"
"Warren's gone," Jonathan reminded him. "He skipped town right after that robot girlfriend of his died. It's just you and me. Comrades in arms?"
"Comrades in arms," Andrew agreed instantly.
"Now, let's go find Buffy."
"Are you sure we couldn't just sneak a peek at the aliens first? See if there are any supple slave girls among their ranks, looking for the touch of a human male?"
"Buffy first," Jonathan insisted, and Andrew, rolling his eyes and complaining, followed him to Revello Drive.
++
"Aliens?" Willow asked, emerging from behind Buffy, who'd opened the door. "What do you mean, aliens?"
"We were observing the night sky, as is our wont --"
"It's daytime," Buffy said.
"All right, we were observing the day sky, and we saw..."
"A ship," Jonathan burst in. "A real spaceship."
"Uh huh. And I care about your sci-fi fantasies because?"
"Buffy?" Willow touched her shoulder gently. "Maybe we'd better listen to them. I mean, even though Glory's gone, this is still the Hellmouth... and we don't know if the portals really closed after she left."
Buffy sighed. "Do we have to listen to them? Who are you, anyhow? I recognize Jonathan, but who's the twerp?"
"Andrew," he said at the same time that Jonathan said, "Tucker's brother."
"Ohh," said Buffy. "And again, why should we listen to you?"
"Aliens," Willow prompted her. "Green, scaly things intent on taking over the world? Right up your alley."
"Fine," said Buffy. "Grab me an axe, will ya? I want to make this snappy. There's a movie on Lifetime I want to watch before heading out on patrol tonight. I was not expecting otherworldliness."
++
Kaylee wiped away a droplet of sweat. It wasn't an especially hot day, but they'd been walking -- pointlessly, randomly -- for near an hour, and still no sign of any life other than the trees and the grass. Mostly they were happy, but she could tell that Simon was getting tired of walking. She gave him a little punch to encourage him to keep up. It was one of the good days -- or it would be if it ended with them in the sky again. There was a part of her that was almost afraid they wouldn't get back -- but only a very tiny part.
"Look," said Jayne. "Natives."
"Aliens!" The shout came from amidst the group of people who were hurrying towards them.
"Dunno, they look like people to me," said a pretty redhead.
"That's right," said Mal, drawing his pistol. "Who are you?"
"People, too," the redhead said. "Sorry to bother you. These guys--" she gestured at two young men, one very short, one taller and scrawny -- "thought you were from outer space." She glared. "Sorry for the inconvenience. Where are you guys headed, anyhow?"
"Not sure," Mal said. "Where's the nearest town?"
"We're about half a mile from the center of Sunnydale," said the second girl, a pretty blonde. "Where did you guys come from?"
"We don't like to talk about our past." Mal was getting testy.
"Well, I think we aren't going anywhere until you do talk about it." The blonde was getting testy too. "Where are you from?"
Kaylee had been too busy watching Mal to notice River, who'd circled up behind Simon and was now tilting her head back and forth. "Homefires," she said. "We followed the lights you left out for us, and now we've come home."
"Home?" The blonde gave them a hard look, then turned to the redhead. "Willow, what's she talking about?"
"I don't know. She sounds a little... nutty, huh?"
"We are standing right in front of you," Jayne said.
"But she's crazy, right? Like Dru," Willow muttered. "Buffy, I don't like the looks of this."
"What do you call this planet?" asked Simon, who'd been examining the bark of the nearest tree. "There's something off about the flora."
"You are from space!"
"Andrew, shut up." Buffy's face was defiant, and Kaylee could tell she wasn't about to let them pass. Not that they knew where they were going even if Buffy hadn't been standing in their way. "This planet is called Earth. What's your planet called?"
Kaylee felt her jaw drop, saw Simon spin around out of the corner of her eye. Only River looked totally unmoved by the news. "We found our way home," she said.
"Earth-that-was," Inara finally said in a reverent voice. Book put a hand over his heart, and Zoe reached for Wash's hand.
"Uh, isn't Earth-that-was sort of, you know...?" Jayne trailed off.
"It is," River said. "Hundreds of years ago. But we found our way back to then."
"You're from the future." The redhead, Willow, was the first of them to recover. "Guys, they're from the future!"
Everyone relaxed a little, then, now that they could put a name to the situation. Sure, they still had to figure out how to get back, but at least they knew where they were. Earth-that-was. Home for all of them, the place they came from. For once, Kaylee couldn't even force a smile. She was too overcome with the feeling of home, comforting like prairie grass and her mother's hands.
++
Willow wasn't entirely sure how she felt about keeping visitors in her dorm. It was full enough with just her and Tara, and having Kaylee and Inara curled up on the floor seemed a bit much. Still, there wasn't really much of a choice. Tucker's brother had leapt at the opportunity to host some genuine space heroes, but his basement only had room for Jayne, who'd grumbled about staying with the little twink but eventually conceded. Joyce's illness meant she wasn't exactly up for house guests, although she'd agreed to let Zoe and Wash stay, so long as they were quiet. She'd been... she'd been awfully quiet herself, when she'd said that, and Willow wondered how sick she really was.
Book and Mal were living in Xander's living room, and they'd gotten a hotel room for Simon and River, figuring that no one really wanted the extra burden of a crazy girl in their home. That left Kaylee and Inara, who were content to sleep on the floor at night. It had been three days, and Willow was beginning to feel a little cramped.
"How's it goin'?" Kaylee peered over her shoulder at the computer. "You've got some mighty nice tools."
"Yeah," Willow agreed distractedly. "But they're useless right now. Until we can figure out what kind of wormhole you came through, we won't be able to get you back through another one."
"We got time," Kaylee said with a smile, and Willow had to smile back. It was impossible to be annoyed for long when Kaylee was around. "When's your gal coming back?"
"A couple of hours," said Willow. "You wanna give me a hand?"
"Sure," said Kaylee. "If you want me to. But I was thinkin'... you've been with Tara for awhile, right?"
"A year and a half," Willow said automatically. "Why? Is there something--?"
"It's about Simon," Kaylee said with a blush. "You know, the doctor."
"I think I finally got everyone's names straight at dinner last night," Willow said. "What about Simon?"
"Well, you know, I like him."
"Well, that's cool," Willow said absentmindedly. "Why do you need my blessing?"
"I don't. It's just... he's not exactly... he's not -- forthcoming, if you know what I mean."
"Do you think -- does he like you back?" Willow looked up from her computer now. It had been a long time since she'd had a friend who had new romantic possibilities. Buffy was way more interested in making sure her mom was okay than in looking for a Riley-replacement, and Xander and Anya were a done deal. It was kind of exciting to be thinking about matchmaking again.
"Well, sure. I mean, sort of. He's got River to take care of, you know. And he's busy all the time."
"Sweetie, if he's got time for his sister, he's got time for you. And if he likes you, he'd better just make time for you. Or else he's not worth your time."
Kaylee frowned thoughtfully. "But you don't think... don't you think he's awful cute?"
Willow truly smiled, now. It was hard to remember being so young, although Kaylee was only a year or so younger than she was. But Kaylee hadn't spent five years fighting demons, hadn't spent the last year trying to stop a hellgod from getting home -- and failing.
"He is, though. Don't you think? Or do you just think all men are mei yong-duh?"
Willow started a bit; she always did at the bits of Chinese that Kaylee spouted with no difficulty at all, but she didn't say anything or ask for a translation. "No, Simon's great," she said. "What do you say that we do something with him on Saturday? You, me, Tara, and Simon."
"But -- River."
"Inara can watch her, can't she? Or she could come with us. Would you like to go swimming?"
Kaylee's eyes lit up. "Shiny! We never get to swim much. The captain says it's a waste of time and puts us in a vulnerable position."
"Buffy says the same thing," Willow said. "But she's kidding. At least, mostly."
"Everyone's so... calm... around here," Kaylee said. "Never worried, even though there are monsters."
"Well, most people don't know there are monsters. That helps keep them calmer."
"It's like home," Kaylee said. "Where people pay their dues to the Alliance and then just go about their business, pretending like it's okay, like they're free."
Willow nodded. "Do you miss it?"
Kaylee grinned. "Nope. My folks, sometimes, but not home. Serenity and I ain't been parted for more'n a week since we met. She's home now."
Willow smiled as she turned back to her laptop. It was sometimes hard to tell which Kaylee loved more: her boy or her ship.
++
She watches them from a perch on a rock high above the swimming hole. It's a mere hole in a ground, a grotto, the kind of place where people would go to die. It would take her three point eight seconds to get from here to there, but she would break all her bones. So she doesn't. Simon is ashamed. He wishes he'd brought the swimming trunks he used to keep in his closet, but you don't think to bring things like that when you're planning on being shipwrecked. She can't remember what she was planning to be. Where she was planning to be, that's easy. Wherever she is, that's here. Here.
The girls are scheming, scheming, always scheming. It's hard to keep up with so many plans in so many heads, so she starts with the blonde girl, the one they call Tara. Tara is easy to understand. River understands Tara on a different level, and sometimes, she wonders if Tara looks through her and understands. If she knows. If she comprehends. Tara is gold and good.
Kaylee isn't ashamed. Kaylee never has shame, because Kaylee understands that things have insides and outsides and that if you add them together, you're left with the sum of a thing. Kaylee is more than a thing. Kaylee is a person. Her hair shines brightly in the sunlight and the sun glints off her skin. She didn't think to bring a bathing suit; she can't imagine why she would need one.
Willow secretly thinks that's immodest.
River twirls her hair in her fingers. Kaylee's body is smooth and slides into the water easily. She hears Kaylee shriek and knows the shriek is real, because Tara and Willow startle too. Kaylee splashes them until they join her in the water, and then starts to tease Simon. She wants him to come swim with them too. Simon is ashamed, though, and scared. Simon is amused. Simon is confused. River puzzles over this, tries to remember how to detach so she can think it over. Does Simon want to swim naked with Kaylee or not? Does Simon want to stay or go? River doesn't know because Simon doesn't know, and Simon doesn't know because it is not a thing you can know, the inside of your own heart.
Finally Willow grabs Tara's hand and they climb out of the water, pull skirts over their wet bathing suits, and go for a walk. (scheming, scheming.) Then Simon is brave enough to strip down to his undershorts (should River be ashamed for him? for her? she can't remember) and plunge into the cold water. He tries not to scream, but he's cold through to his bones. Kaylee laughs at him and tickles him in the water. River wants to avert her eyes. Some secrets she shouldn't know. But she can't avert her thoughts. Not possible. So she watches them through the branches of an old, old, Earth-that-was tree, as they kiss for the first time, Simon shivering in the cold.
++
Jonathan was secretly relieved when Willow called him and told him they'd figured out how to recreate the dimensional spell.
"Turns out we just needed to call Angel," she said. Jonathan didn't quite remember who that was, but he listened patiently. The visitors from space were going home. "He said they've been working on portals for a month. They've got a crazy Texan librarian on the case. Pretty ironic, huh?"
"Sure," said Jonathan. He wanted to hang up with Willow and call Andrew, tell him that Jayne could go home now. He didn't like the thought that Andrew wouldn't be too pleased with that news. But Andrew was delighted. He squealed a little when Jonathan told him.
"You hear that, Mister Cobb? We're going home!"
"We?" Jonathan had a sick feeling in his stomach.
"Mister Cobb said that I could come with him, once the witches figured out how to get them back to their future."
"You want to go to the future?"
"Of course! There's the evil Alliance, and Captain Reynolds and his brave crew are going to defeat them, and there are cannibals, and lots of gorgeous alien babes. Right?"
Jonathan heard affirmative grunting in the background. He bit his lip. So it was true. Andrew, his last friend, the only friend he'd made since high school who wasn't just using him for his ability to help with homework, was leaving. Because he'd decided it would be a good idea to tell the Slayer that aliens had landed in the woods. He hung up the phone quickly. Let Andrew and his new friends celebrate the good news.
++
"I can't go with you, you know." Simon was tipping back his third drink of the evening. "There's no reason for us to go. This is what we wanted. A safe harbor. No one will ever find River here, and I can probably start a practice... we can be safe."
"Safe," Mal repeated, not taking his eyes off Buffy, who was carefully pouring him a glass of Scotch.
"Safety can be a mighty tempting thing," Book said. "Not necessarily a bad one, either."
"I for one will be glad to have them off the ship," Jayne put in.
"We heroes don't need to be looking after runaways all the time," Andrew echoed, not moving away from Jayne's side.
"That's right," Jayne agreed, sounding surprised that Andrew was still there. "Heroes. Like us."
"We'll miss you," Mal nodded. "But I reckon you're right. Can't underestimate safety."
Kaylee didn't wait to hear the rest of the conversation. She raced upstairs to Buffy's bathroom, familiar after nearly two weeks of spending most of her afternoons here. Simon leaving them. Or, her leaving him. She'd go back to Serenity, Simon would stay here, and she'd... someone was knocking on the door. "Come in," she warbled. When had she started to cry?
"What's wrong?" Zoe, the last person she'd expected. "Is it about Simon?"
Kaylee nodded.
"Do you love him?" Zoe's voice was smooth.
"Of course! I mean, he's... he's Simon. And we... we kissed. Once. Or twice. Or maybe a lot. So I know he likes me too. But he hasn't even asked me if I want to stay with him. It would be awful presumptuous of me. And I don't want to leave you, or the Captain, and Serenity needs me."
Zoe didn't say anything, but she put a comforting hand on Kaylee's shoulder, and Kaylee smiled through her tears. She hadn't had a heart-to-heart with Zoe in near long enough. "It's your decision," Zoe said finally. "But if you truly love him, you should know -- there's nothing rarer than love, and nothing more precious. I didn't always know that, and it took my husband to teach me."
Kaylee nodded. That meant stay with Simon. That was good advice. Time to settle down. Her ma had always said you had to settle down eventually. Naturally, she hadn't believed a word of it, but maybe it was true. Maybe it was time to make that choice.
She wandered back downstairs and was waylaid by Mal. "You thinkin' about leaving?" he asked. Never small talk with the captain.
"Thinkin' only," she said. "I'd never make a decision without askin' you."
"You're free," Mal said. "Always will be. But I want you to think long and think hard before you decide to settle down with your fancy rags doctor and his crazy sister."
"You're supposed to say you'll miss me," Kaylee said with a grin.
"Goes without saying. Now scoot. Go get drunk."
Even if Kaylee had wanted to stop thinking about it, she wouldn't have been able to. Tara and Willow were preparing the spell that would hurtle Serenity and her crew five hundred years into the future, and whenever they double-checked the herbs, Kaylee got a twisted feeling in her stomach. She wasn't used to this much uncertainty. Willow wanted her to stay and said as much. Inara whispered in her ear that no man was worth it. And finally, one evening at the hotel, while River was helping Book pack his few things into boxes, Simon managed to ask her to stay.
"So I was thinking," he said.
"You never stop, do you?"
"I was thinking maybe you could stay with us, too."
"Oh? Why do you think I'd want to do that?"
"Well," Simon cleared his throat, "I thought maybe you'd like to settle down with me. That maybe you'd appreciate having someone... steady."
Kaylee cocked her head. "That all?"
"Also... also, I'd really love for you to stay. I mean, if you want to. Of course. If you don't want to, then..."
"If I don't want to, then I won't," Kaylee said, but she was deep in thought again. She didn't like being at loose ends, not knowing which way she was going. It made her frown through the day that should have been one last happy day with her friends -- because, regardless of which way she chose, one set of friends would be lost forever.
++
Kaylee didn't have a lot of things, and she could always buy more, wherever she was, but she held her small satchel and stood between Serenity and Sunnydale, thinking about people and things and leaving some of them behind. Willow was clinging to Tara, and both of them wore sad looks. Zoe and Wash were already hurrying onto Serenity, hands full of boxes. Andrew was trying to lug a huge box into the cargo hold, and Jayne was telling him he couldn't bring his action figures and helping him maneuver the box into place.
River, standing by Simon's side, looked solemn and beautiful. Inara had combed her hair for hours that morning, and Kaylee was a little sad, because she knew that Inara would miss having someone to take care of, doubly so if she didn't come back.
She thought about kissing Simon, about the way she tingled when he was in the room, about the way he made her laugh. She thought about never having to worry about the Alliance, about never having to shoot at anyone again. She thought about the beautiful tapestries hanging in Tara and Willow's room. She looked at Serenity and thought about the rumbling of the engine when it needed to be greased.
She looked at Simon, then at Mal, then back at Simon, who was holding River's hand and watching Kaylee nervously. Then Mal again, his face unreadable. She thought she might get dizzy from so much back and forth, so she looked up at the sun, shining down on all of them, looking, once again, like it thought it was going to be a happy day.
Kaylee's face broke into a smile, and she made up her mind.
++++
_shewalks wanted: Kaylee/Simon, Willow, wackiness ensuing and some romance between Kaylee/Simon. No Willow being all angsty about her magic.