I’m trying something new with this post. This is a collection of vignette’s (posted 10 at a time until we reach 100) that tell their own little story. It begins in the middle of the season, though no specific episode is mentioned. I have purposely left that vague.

The challenge table which gave me the words that prompted each little vignette is listed: Here if you want to see what the upcoming prompts will be.

I don’t expect a lot of people to like or read this because of the tense. It’s hard for me to read much less write. But I wanted to do it just once. Of course, you’d have thought I could choose something other than a 100 PROMPT CHALLENGE to do it with, huh?

I did have fun doing this, but, god I have never been so happy to finish something in my life!

If you make it through all 100, I thank you. I’ve written the prompts so that they create a little series. The first story I saw done like this was one of Mordsith’s. So it is to her I must thank (or curse!) for giving me the idea to try it too!

The last two are listed ‘Writer’s Choice’ but I had my beta give me 10 words which I wrote down on slips of paper and then chose two. It actually worked out really well.

Notes: Mucho thanks to TamSibling for beta’ing this monster that turned into 102 pages by the time I was done with all 100 prompts. Writing in this tense has been one hell of a challenge. One I never wish to ever undertake again.

And thanks to Leighkohl for saving my ass on a few of these prompts and tossing me ideas to keep me going.

For the other parts click here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

------------

Because of You Part 7

-----------

061. Music

The engine turns faster and the containment unit Kaylee has tampered with creates an unsettling reverberation beneath their feet. It is barely safe for them to be standing where they are as the radiation level sits just under acceptable limits.

River can hear the unnatural hum and as they come upon the deformed metallic shells of stolen vessels.

The crew slowly makes their way onto the bridge, their bodies tense, hands clutched at their sides, some clutching weapons – as if they would be of any aid were the abominations on those ships to discover their deception.

River stares unblinking into the black, her lips parted, listening to the oddly hypnotizing musical howl as it echoes through the com. She hears their cries in her head as well, and the two sounds, one internal, one external, create a symphonic counterpoint, the combination and composition of them vibrating within her like the most vile and horrifying beat. Then, added to this symphony of terror and destruction, the hearts of her friends and family and her own, echo powerfully in her ears. It brings a steady rhythm to the chaotic melodies of the horrifying din, creating a contrast her ears are only too happy to hear. This symphony, silent to some, but music to River, is their soundtrack as they wait and watch, flying Serenity into the lion's den. Their heart beats and the screams are joined by the tiny percussiveness of hope and the slow boom of prayers. Hope to reach their destination, Miranda, in one piece; prayers to stay safe. These deadly screams and inhuman sounds echo in River's mind, becoming less like music and more like agony as they enter Miranda's atmo. But then there is nothing, silence, and River cannot determine if the agonizing atonal piece was more eerie than this new stillness that surrounds them. -------------

062. Sound

There is nothing here; nothing but the sound of their footsteps echoing off the concrete. After the revulsion they’d been forced to endure before they landed, the calm, quiet does not make them feel any safer, any more secure.

As they walk, video screens spring to life, obviously set to activate whenever they detect motion beneath them. The feed is old and they don’t stop to listen, they move slowly, cautiously, down the white walled corridor, the sound of the feed following them no matter how far away from it they walk.

When they come upon the skeleton, the sounds of the past, combine with the silence emanating eerily from the body to echo loudly in her head. Her eyes dart to and fro, waiting for it, wanting the images to coalesce in her mind. She can make no sense of them and she can do nothing but spout cryptic words that no one, not even her brilliant brother, can understand.

She can hear the cries of the dead, the dying, but there is no one alive here, not a single soul. There was no massacre, no war, they all simply lay down – and never got up again.

When they reach the homing beacon, River knows what they will find. She cannot put it into words, but the disturbing howls emanate in her head and she knows when she sees what they have come here to find, that they will all understand – finally.

------------

063. Silence

It’s done. It’s over. The battle she has fought for so long. The battle for her very sanity, done. Her mind is clear of the clutter she could not coherently explain, and she is relieved.

She looks around at the Reavers that lay dead at her feet, bloody and beaten, flesh torn and mutilated. She pity’s them, for what they have become, for what the Alliance had caused them to be.

Time moves slowly and she does not hear the explosion of the wall behind her, does not hear the soldiers file into the room and aim their pulse rifles at her back. Her body is tense, adrenaline coursing through her blood as she waits. She does not hear them, but she can feel that they are there.

Her shallow breathing is all that she can hear as she waits for the electrically charged room to suddenly fill with tension or drain of it. She looks through the blast doors toward her family. They are silent, unspeaking, they look at her with a mixture of awe and fear.

But then her eyes fall on her brother, lying so still, she wants to barrel through the doors to his side. But she cannot. Not yet. She doesn’t move for a moment. She waits – waits for the confirmation. She cannot put them in more danger. When it finally comes, the order to stand down, she bounds through the doors to Simon’s side.

Simon is quiet, unconscious, his breathing shallow. River looks to Inara, who sits on his other side, looking for confirmation of her worst fear.

It was her turn to protect him – he has protected her for so long. She glances at Kaylee, at the worried look in the mechanic’s eyes as she watches the unmoving doctor.

“Simon?” River leans over him and flattens the palm of her hand against his clammy cheek. “Everything will be all right now. We’re safe.”

The only answer she receives is silence and she sinks to her knees beside her brother and finally lets herself cry.

---------------

064. Ocean

A kaleidoscope of fear crashes through her mind as Simon’s hand goes limp in hers. His eyes flutter shut, her name a breathless whisper on his lips, and she feels herself being pulled under in the strong undercurrent of blackness that is now her brother’s mind.

She trembles as they pull her away from him and she calls out to him as medics arrive and kneel beside him. These people, who moments before, were ready to end her life now work frantically to save her brother’s.

Inara holds her tightly and her muscles tense and coil like a spring. She knows the Companion only wants to offer comfort, but there is none to be had. She has seen too much, done too much, to succumb now.

The uncontrolled waves of emotion buffet her so strongly, she can barely remain standing. The adrenaline with which she fought has left her drained – emotionally and physically.

She looks around at her friends, her family, all of them injured in some way, their minds awash with fear and heartache.

Kaylee’s is the worst. Her mind is cluttered with worry for a man she has never been permitted to truly love. River wants to reassure her that she will get another chance, but even she doesn’t know how serious Simon’s injuries are. She isn’t the doctor in the family.

Inara is worried about Mal, but her training has taught her to internalize her fear, and so she has.

Jayne worries only about the Alliance milling about and their doctors so willing to treat his injury.

Zoe remains stoically impassive. She lays there while doctors bend over her, patching up her hurt. What they don’t realize is that they can only heal the physical wound. The emotional pain this day has wrought will never go away.

Mal’s mind is filled with uncertainty, more than a little pain, and a lot of concern. His crew is battered and broken. Two are dead and another has been carried away unconscious and wounded badly. He doesn’t know if Simon will live or die.

In a sea of wildly uncertain emotion, River retreats into the one calm place that is left within her mind. It has stabilized since the information about what happened on Miranda was broadcast and she finds it much easier to locate.

She lets Inara lead her out of the room, and that is all she remembers, as her mind sinks into that calm place – the place where her family is happy and healthy, and she is finally, finally free.

-------------------

065. Vast

They are buried on Haven, along a vast stretch of desert where nothing else lives. Three stone markers all that is left of their beloved friends.

They stand beside them now, giving thanks to what these individuals did in life, and mourning for the huge hole of emptiness they leave with their death.

She can feel it all and she wishes she knew how to block it out. Wild, uncontrollable emotion buffets her and she steps closer to her brother, hoping to tap into his reserve of strength.

Zoe is stoic beneath all of the pain and heartache. Her face reveals none of the anguish in her heart.

Kaylee is not so strong. She clutches Simon’s hand tightly while tears pool in her eyes. Her head is lowered as she watches Zoe light the rocket. Her love is pure, her pain innocent, and River finds solace in her grief.

Simon is tense, filled with sadness and a self-blame that River cannot accept. She reaches out to take his hand as the rocket sails into the sky but he does not squeeze it reassuringly in return.

Mal blames himself for their deaths. That is a fact that will never change, regardless of how many people assure him it is not his fault. Inara stands beside him, tears of grief welling in her eyes as well. But she holds them at bay and stands strong beside her friends.

Jayne’s mind is filled with a sadness one would not expect by looking at his gruff exterior. But they were friends, however much he kept them at arms length in life, and he will miss them in death.

They stand and watch the rocket explode into a vast array of multicolored lights, bright against the darkening sky.

------------------

066. Empty

Her heart is empty, broken and hollow; the love of her life gone in the blink of an eye. She tries to forgive the circumstances which took them to this point, but it is difficult. He would be here now if – so many things had not happened, so many decisions had not been made.

She sits in her bunk and stares at the memories that sit so still atop the small dresser; captures of their few short years together rest untouched, her least favorite of his multi-patterned shirts rests beside them, tossed aside during that last harried morning.

A few small dino babies lay atop the nightstand beside the bed waiting for when she will play with them again. She talks to them – just like he used to, makes voices loud and deep to differentiate one from another – and it reminds her of when she first came upon him doing the very same thing. She was disgusted then, thought it was immature for a grown man to speak to plastic toys. But now – now she can not live without those same toys in her life. It is one of the few things she has left that are uniquely Wash.

She never sleeps through the night now. She could – if she went to Simon and asked him for something to knock her out. But she cannot face him, cannot admit that there is something in her life that she cannot control.

But there is another reason why she won’t go to the young doctor, a more painful one; one that she won’t admit even exists. It’s not fair, she knows, but she cannot help the anger that wells in her chest. It will fade; those feelings of betrayal, of remorse, of loss. But she can’t help but believe that if Simon and River had gotten off on Beaumonde, this never would have happened.

She knows Wash wouldn’t blame them but the emptiness in her heart, where he had been, cries out to be filled with something. And right now, sitting beside the heartache and pain is an unnatural anger that the siblings are still on this boat, alive, when her husband is dead.

Her eyes fill with angry tears at the unfairness of it all. River didn’t deserve what had happened to her. Simon didn’t deserve to loose everything in rescuing his sister. But Wash didn’t deserve to die for them either.

Jayne’s words as they traveled toward Haven reverberate in her head. Where is it writ that we have to lay down our lives?

It isn’t written anywhere. It is a choice they all made but if she had to do it over again, she would have made sure she’d died with her husband. Truly, a part of her did.

--------------

067. Choices

They are friends first, lovers second. But the words and their meanings flow so seamlessly into one another that it is nearly impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins.

He draws out every sensation with a touch that is both demanding and gentle. They grope urgently at one another’s clothes, eager to feel hot, flushed skin pressed tightly together.

Maddeningly slow hands touch and tug every strangled cry from her lips. By the time they are ready to take that final step, they are both trembling with anticipation. She slides her fingers into his hair and fastens her mouth to his. The choices they have made have led them to this place. It is their time now – to reap the benefits of what they have sewn.

When their lips meet, he joins their bodies, and their relieved gasps echo within the deep recesses of one another’s mouths. Two halves of the same soul unite finally in the greatest and most pleasurable dance known to man. They have waited a long time for this moment, and their coming together will no longer be denied.

His hands slide beneath her back, lifting her into each and every forward motion. Her hands pull relentlessly at his hair while his mouth finds that soft, delicate place on her neck and persistently tugs at the sensitive skin until she cries out.

River cannot block the emotions spilling out of the room. She closes her eyes but she can still see them. She knows what they are doing. She doesn’t need to watch. But she is drawn to the intensity, the overwhelming pleasure of the act. She wants to feel this one day. She doesn’t know if it will be permitted. But for her brother, it is allowed, and she is happy for him.

Kaylee’s hands slide over his damp shoulders and her nails dig into the firm skin even as she gasps into his ear. She wraps her legs around his hips, meeting each sharp movement with a soft, mewling cry. Tears slide from between her tightly closed eyes; of joy, of pain, of relief, of loss.

Simon kisses them away; his soft lips ghost over her flushed skin even as his hands slide into her hair to cradle her head. He murmurs into her ear, so softly River cannot understand. She doesn’t need to hear the words. She knows his heart.

Kaylee knows it too. He laid it bare in the midst of a battle neither of them expected to survive. And only now, after the physical wounds have healed is he able to show her.

Their cries are drowned out by the hum of Serenity’s rebuilt engine. Anguished cries of love mixed with the horrible pain of loss reverberate through their bodies as Kaylee trembles in Simon’s arms, brought to her end by his gentle touch and even more persistent mouth.

Once his lover is satisfied, the ever efficient doctor pulls her even closer, so close to his fall that his body shakes above her, anticipating, with each sharp snap of his hips. When he buries his face in her neck and cries out her name, the deed is done.

River leans back against the bulkhead panting, her body trembling from the sudden burst of emotion she can not control and she has no way to block.

------------

068. Lost

It doesn’t matter where they are. The last few days have been a blur of wondrous emotion and incredible passion; of discovering one another’s likes and dislikes, of finding the perfect pressure points that make her scream with incredible abandon.

They haven’t left her bunk or his for much more than meals but it hasn’t mattered. No one has needed them.

They struggle to contain their coy glances and heated looks at mealtimes because they know the pain of loss still reverberates through the crew. They don’t wish to flaunt their newfound relationship in Zoe’s face especially. They don’t want her to see that what she has lost, they have finally found.

They are in Kaylee’s bunk this time and her mouth is open, her head arched back as a soundless scream emanates from her lips. Her hands tug at his dark, damp hair and her hips shift restlessly against the mattress.

They spent the morning talking and cuddling, touching and teasing, and now that action has had the expected consequences.

She bites her lip to contain a scream as his tongue replaces his fingers, darting out to touch and lick at her most sensitive place.

The cool air pebbles her nipples into firm peaks and she trembles as his fingers brush across them gently closing and pinching in rhythm with his insistent mouth.

His name is a breathless whisper on her lips as her body tenses. Her fingers constrict, her toes curl and then she is falling, a blissful moment when her mind goes blank, and there is nothing but the exquisite feeling of being well and truly sexed.

But he is not done – not yet. Before she has even finished her fall, her body still trembling, his name still an echo on her lips, he slides into her. There is no resistance, just a tightening and a filling; of two bodies and souls becoming one.

Kaylee gasps at the sudden intrusion and meets his forward motion, mewling sounds of complete and utter satisfaction spilling from her lips. His desire built slowly as he teased and taunted her, and now there is no holding back. There are no words exchanged, only burning gazes and even hotter kisses and a tightening so deep within his belly that he knows will break him once released.

She wraps her body around him, holding him tight, waiting for that moment; that moment when his body pulses so strongly and so hotly she thinks he will burn her. It is the most exquisite feeling, to feel the release of his desire, to know that she has brought him to his fall in the most explosive way possible.

It is the same every time – yet different. With each joining of their bodies their spirits heal a little bit more and they grow closer. The wait was worth it, and yet not, knowing that they could have had this months ago. But they don’t dwell on the past, it is far too painful. With every ounce of strength in their bodies, they look to the future, one that they will spend together.

--------------

069. Found

In each other they find a respite, a refuge from the loss and heartache that fill the ship.

They lay together in a mess of tangled and sweaty limbs, and talk about their hopes, fears and the lingering sadness that they cannot escape.

Simon holds her tightly in his arms, her cheek pressed against his chest. While his fingers absently twirl strands of her honeyed hair and her warm breath cools his sweat damped skin. He knows she cries sometimes, he can feel the drops settle into the hollow where her head rests. He says nothing, there are no words left to comfort her.

When she will permit it, he kisses away the salty tears so softly that she barely notices what he’s done. But then his mouth travels, to her cheek, her neck, that spot there that instantly sends a tremor down her spine. He knows her body, how it works, how to make it respond to his gentle demands.

He is a doctor, trained to understand the workings of the human form, and he puts that knowledge to such good use, she wonders if every other woman he has touched in this way mourns the loss of it now.

Kaylee gasps when his long fingers flutter across her abdomen and move steadily lower. He teases her until she can no longer resist his touch, and lifts her hips to close that distance between them.

He has the power to distract her so completely that her sadness is forgotten as he slips between her folds, testing, teasing. She cries out her frustration and he grins satisfactorily against her neck.

Before she can say another word, he is where she wants him to be, pushing deeply, filling her mind, body and soul enough to forget the sadness.

They rock together slowly, setting a languid pace. In and out, their breath mingles, their hearts beat as one. She murmurs words of love and affection and he echoes them in the throes of growing passion.

Their world consists of them at this moment in time. The love and adoration they have found with one another.

As their pleasure peaks and crests, she screams his name into the air, unable to hold it in. But it doesn’t matter, the bulkheads are thick, no one will hear. He lifts her weakened body into his arms and closes his eyes against the burst of pleasure so profound, it steals his very breath.

They collapse against one another yet again and fall into an exhausted, sated slumber. When they wake, they will begin again, loose themselves in one another and their growing love, keeping hidden the guilt they feel at finding incredible happiness in the face of nearly insurmountable loss.

------------------

070. Full

After three days, Inara is not surprised to see Kaylee poke her head into her shuttle, a big bashful smile on her lips.

“And where have you been since we left Persephone, hmm?” Inara scolds teasingly.

She notices Kaylee’s hands fold together, and her body swaying as she steps closer. “Been kinda busy.”

Inara nods knowingly as she sits on the new couch that has recently been placed inside. The shuttle has been redecorated and again resembles a home. “Well, I wonder with what?” She regards Kaylee with a raised eyebrow and a grin. “The ship was repaired at the docks and everything is all new and –“ She stops and chuckles at the younger girl, seeing that she is just about ready to burst. “Simon, hmm?”

Kaylee exhales a huge puff of air and then settles onto the couch beside her friend. “Oh ‘Nara, it’s been so good. He’s so sweet and swai and –“ she trails off, a dreamy look passing across her face.

“As long as you’re happy, I don’t need to know the details.” She says the word in such a way as to encourage Kaylee to continue, but she needn’t have resorted to verbal manipulation, the young mechanic is positively glowing with the anticipation of revealing everything.

“ – so-o good.” Kaylee finally finishes with a giggle.

Inara raises an amused eyebrow. “Our Simon? The shy, quiet –“

“He ain’t shy when he’s in the middle a sexin’ me senseless,” Kaylee discloses and then shrugs. “But he is quiet.”

“You’ve both been fairly quiet, mei mei. I’ve not heard anyone complain of noises in the night.”

“Or the morning, or the day or the evening,” Kaylee finishes with a wide smile.

Inara laughs and takes Kaylee’s hands, squeezing them happily. “I’m so glad you two are getting along so well.”

“Very well,” Kaylee sighs and leans back against the couch.

Inara notices Kaylee’s face flush and reaches up to touch her cheek. “And what thought has embarrassed the rarely self-conscious Kaylee?”

“We had ta stop this mornin’ ‘cause,” Kaylee’s cheeks flush even more as her eyes drop to their joined hands.

Inara can’t help but wonder what the two of them had done and raises her eyebrows encouraging her friend to continue.

“’Cause we was so sore.”

Inara laughs and squeezes Kaylee’s hands. “Simon’s a doctor, I’m sure he has some kind of treatment for that sort of thing.”

Kaylee nods. “He says a less – invasive treatment will work just fine for a few days.”

Inara laughs at the double-meaning and wonders if Kaylee understood it as she did – and as Simon probably meant.

Kaylee wiggles her eyebrows and licks her lips, a sure sign that she understood perfectly what Simon had meant. “I ain’t sure if I like the old way, or this less – invasive, way better.”

TBC

----------

Liked it? Hated it? Have some constructive criticism? Leave a review and let me know. No reviews, no next part :)

There's 30 prompts left and not all is going to be happy and rosey for our BDH's.