Title: The Hunt: Chapter 3 Author: Dani Fandom: Firefly Characters: Kaylee Prompt: 12. Nails Word Count:2689 Rating:Lets go with M here? Author's Notes: The Hunt is a sequel to the 50 Darkfics story co written with spacemonkey43 The Question. You can view that story at the prompt table HERE. This story is not betaed. Okay WARNING: this story takes kind of a creepifying edge. These are the dark fics, it was a little further than I would have taken it and the only reason I went as far as I did was because of the prompt and my lack of inspiration. There is some self mutilation in this chapter, if that freaks you out, DON'T READ.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

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"I only left her for a minute!" Jayne said, his eyes scanning the supply store furiously.

"That was a minute too long, Jayne," Mal snapped, doing the same and coming up with nothing.

"Ain’t like she is a gorramn puppy, didn’t think gettin’ one drink while she grabbed supplied would hurt none," Jayne said defensively.

"What the hell were you thinkin’?" Mal asked, lowering his voice. "You knew we were in a tight spot with the feds. After the last job we pulled none of us should have been leaving the ship. Only reason I let Kaylee go was I didn’t figure they’d have her tagged and I though YOU would be watching out for her." The captain shook his head and turned, heading out of the general store.

"Told you, she’s gone," the clerk called from behind the counter. "Them officer came right up and took her."

"You sure that was Kaylee?" Jayne asked, pausing at the door.

"Little brown haired girl in a jump suit? Yeah, it was her," the man nodded. Mal swore, running a hand through his hair before looking back at Jayne.

"I should riddle you with hole right now," Mal spat.

"I’ll find her," Jayne said, shaking his head.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Mal sat up, rubbing the sweat off his face. Sometimes he wondered if it was even worth it to sleep anymore. Faces haunted his dream, soldiers he hadn’t been able to lead back, crew he had let get killed or taken. It was so much that most nights he would just get up and walk the ship, try and clear his head, clear his thoughts.

The hardest parts about the dreams weren’t that they were scary or gruesome, but were true. He’d let so many people down, let some many people die, people he was supposed to take care of. His dreams were more than just dreams, but memories. That was the tough part.

He had a second chance though. Kaylee was that second change, he just wasn’t sure what to do with it. He had lost her, but she was here now. If he could just find a way, to help her, to fix this, then maybe he wasn’t worthless after all. Mal never thought he would feel so akin to Simon as he was feeling at that moment. Kaylee might not have been his blood, she was more of a sister to him than just about any person he’d known. He’d find a way to help fix what was broken. Alliance plant or no, he was going to get his gorramn mechanic back.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ain’t normal to be that quiet when you sleep," Jayne commented as he stared down at Kaylee. She was passed out on the floor of one of the passenger dorms. He’d tried everything to get her to sleep on the bed, but she just kept complaining on how soft it was. He’d finally just given in and let her sleep on the floor like she wanted. Made him sick thinking about what a person might have to do to make that girl think one of those hard cots were too soft.

"It’s normal, not everyone can snore as loudly as you do," Simon said quietly as finished packing up his medical bag.

"Very funny. We can take this outside if you want. You go ahead and I’ll meet you there," Jayne growled. Simon only shook his head and closed his bag up.

"The smoother I gave her should last a couple of hours, give her some time to rest. Zoe should be by in a couple hours to take over watching her."

"I’ll be here," Jayne said, slouching in his chair, though never really letting his guard down. Simon moved to leave but paused, turning back towards Jayne.

"Did you really volunteer to watch over Kaylee?" Simon asked.

"I ain’t babysittin’ River for you, if that is what you’re getting at," Jayne said quickly.

"No, I just meant…I’m surprised is all," Simon said.

"Whatever," Jayne rolled his eyes as he focused on Kaylee laying there on the ground. Simon nodded before turning and leaving the room. The mercenary let out a breath when he was finally gone. Doc couldn’t be too surprised about him wanting to keep an eye on the girl. It’d been him who lost her in the first place. Wasn’t even a good enough tracker to find her and bring her back. If watching after her, making sure she didn’t hurt no one and that no one hurt her was all he could do, then he would do it.

~*~*~*~

River touched her bare feet to the cool metal grating. The hum of the engine spoke to her. A stranger was on board. River didn’t need Serenity to tell her that. She didn’t get to close, it was dangerous to get too close, but River crept along the hallway until she could see into the passenger dorm. Jayne watched over the stranger, sorry for what he had done. He’d lost her, but now he had her again. He intended to keep her. She hoped for Jayne’s sake he wouldn’t have to kill her. It was a distinct probability, one that had to be factored into all equations.

Jayne’s thoughts were like a dull beacon, a comfort of sorts and something she had become used to. All of the crew was like that. But Kaylee…Kaylee was silent. Strain as she might, River could feel nothing from the former mechanic. It frightened River. She had often cursed her gifts, wishing she wouldn’t have to feel everything, but the emptiness was cold—chilling. She wanted it to go away, she wanted to sun to rise again, but dusk had passed long ago and dawn was not on the horizon.

Why had they let her come back? She should know, River should know, but all she knew was emptiness. Cold, nothingness that threatened to overwhelm her. She backed away, it was too much. She raised her hands up, taking a few steps back, attempting to shield herself from the silence. She had to go away, far away. Turning, River ran, brushing past a body in a dead run, not even turning to acknowledge them.

~*~*~*~

Zoe stopped mid step when River came running around the corner. The younger girl slammed right into her shoulder, knocking the first mate back. Zoe’s eyes followed her as she ran before turning back and looking towards the passenger dorm. Truth be told part of Zoe wanted to run away with that girl too. Something too strange about the way Kaylee came back for Zoe to like it much. She didn’t back down from a battle though, and if there was any bit of the old Kaylee left there, she knew they had to find it.

Knocking on the door, Zoe slid it open, looking down to see Jayne’ eyes so intent on Kaylee he didn’t even hear her come in. "Jayne?" she asked. The mercenary jumped, looking at Zoe like she was the bogeyman.

"Where the hell you come from?" he asked. She raised an eyebrow and he shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind. "Nevermind, girl ain’t made a peep since Doc put her out.." He rose, giving Zoe a grim look before stepping out of the room, leaving the first mate with Kaylee. Zoe took a deep breath. This was going to be a long night.

~*~*~*~*~

Kaylee could feel her in the room, her attention didn’t waver any, Zoe’s focus was always on Kaylee. Such concentration, she admired it. It was too bad though. If Zoe slipped it would make the whole thing go a lot easier. Kaylee yawned, stretching her body some before slowly sitting up.

"Morning," the first mate said quietly. Kaylee nodded and licked her lips. She started to rise and watched Zoe rise with her. The woman was cautious and always on guard, but Kaylee could see immediately she expected no trouble coming from Kaylee. That was good. No it’s not good. You can’t do this. Kaylee shook the thought from her head, it was pointless to argue with it, reason always won out in the end.

"I need to…uh…bathroom," Kaylee said, wrapped her arms around herself calmly.

"I’ll walk you there," Zoe nodded. Kaylee gave her a small smile and stepped forward. Now was the only chance she would get. As she stepped closer to Zoe, the mechanic’s smile faded. The first mate knew what was happening instantly but it was already too late. Kaylee swung her fist out, watching as Zoe attempted to catch the punch. Kaylee anticipated the move, grabbing the woman’s forearm with her other hand and twisting her around with surprising force, turning Zoe and shoving her face first into the closed door. Kaylee had to get to the engine room, take the pieces apart, break her so she couldn’t be fixed.

"Kaylee!" the woman screamed out. Stop this! Kaylee screamed in her mind. Her hands let go of Zoe and she backed away as quickly as she could, her heart pounding in her chest. What had she just done? The first mate had blood all over her face, maybe even a broken nose. Finish her she tried to tell herself, but Kaylee forced her limbs immobile. It gave Zoe enough time to draw her gun and point it up at her.

"I’m sorry," Kaylee whispered, her voice cracking. She backed up against the wall and closed her eyes, pushing the thoughts away. "I’m sorry…I’m so sorry."

~*~*~*~*~*

"The programming?"

"It works."

"Can you be sure?"

"It works!"

"Then why hasn’t she waved us. She is ten hours off schedule. Her mind will start breaking down the behavioral modifications in 12 more hours. She needs to complete the mission or we need to find a way to reach out to her, reset the modifications."

"Give her time, sir. They may not full trust her yet."

"We don’t have any time."

"The tracker?"

"It’s transmitting."

"Let me know when they land."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaylee leaned her head against the wall, her hands gently pulling at the handcuffs. They didn’t trust her, but that was okay. Maybe now they would understand, make her leave and go somewhere where she couldn’t hurt anyone. Her hands tugged idly at the cuff, feeling a strange twinge every time she did. She stopped, her eyes looking down at the top of her right wrist. It was all wrong.

She shifted her eyes around the small room before sitting up and using her left hand to feel around her wrist. It took a few moments to find, but her probing fingers found a small abnormality. It wasn’t supposed to be there, the bump, she knew it didn’t belong. Gently she scratched her nails over the pale skin, leaving disappearing trail marks. With each scratch though she pushed a little harder, dug a little deeper, drawing dark, angry red line where the disappearing marks had been. It wasn’t supposed to be there, It didn’t belong. It wasn’t enough, her nails weren’t enough though. She scratched and clawed as hard as she could, drawing pink droplets of blood, but not breaking the thick layer of skin. Bringing her wrist up to her mouth she pinched the flesh between her teeth and pulled. She cried out, the pain more than she would have ever though. Blood poured out of her slicking her skin and making it hard to get a grasp on the now open flesh. Her fingers dug in, looking for it, wanting it to be out of her. She had to find it, she had to make it stop.

"Kaylee no!" a voice from above her called.

"She tryin’ t’kill herself?" a second voice asked. Large hands grabbed her own, trying to pull them apart but she snatched them away, she could almost feel it.

"Wait," she yelled, her fingers hitting the warm metal and grasping it between her finger pads. She pulled it out just as Jayne pulled her hands apart again.

"I found it," she whispered.

"We need to get her to the infirmary before she bleeds to death," Simon said and Mal moved Jayne out of the way to take the cuffs off.

"I found it," she repeated, looking between the captain and Simon. She lifted her fingers up, showing them a small metal rod. Mal looked at the tiny device like he was seeing an alien. The rod was covered in her blood and about a half an inch in length. Its width was about as wide as a coin side.

"What is that?" Mal asked.

"I don’t know," Simon said taking the small device and handing it off the Jayne. "I don’t know but we need to stop this bleeding right now."

~*~*~*~*~

"It’s a tracking device," River said.

"It’s more than that," Simon added. "I did some research last night. It’s a time release capsule, though this one is much more advanced than the one I read about. It releases something into her blood stream, I’m not sure what. Either way, as long as we have this here, whoever sent her knows exactly where."

"And if we get rid of it we ain’t got no clues on who sent her," Mal argued.

"The alliance sent her," Simon shook his head.

"That ain’t what I meant. I’m talking ‘bout the people, the specific people who took her and sent her and probably the same people who took River. As long as we got this, they still think Kaylee’s their girl. Whatever they put into her, it ain’t in there no more, least it wont be soon. Maybe we got a chance of doing something about this," Mal said. "There anything else you can tell me about this thing?"

"When she sleeps it releases a double dosage, when she wakes…well the drugs are very strong in her system. It was probably why she attacked Zoe when she did. There were some drugs still in the capsule, I’m going to study them, see if I can’t figure out what they were putting into her." Simon looked down over at the infirmary bed. Kaylee was asleep, her wrist stitched up as best as he could manage, cleaned out and dressed. She’d lost a lot of blood but medically would be fine.

"There’s one other this, Captain," Simon said, his eyes watching Kaylee for a long moment. "When she comes out of this…there may be withdrawal symptoms. If they have had her on this drug for two years, its very likely her body with react to not having it."

"I’ll be on the look out, Doc," Mal nodded. Simon let out a breath and moved to take a seat on his stool. "Why don’t you go lie down, Simon. I can watch after her for a bit," Mal offered. Simon looked ready to protest but in the end he just nodded and left. River followed after, pausing in the doorway.

"It isn’t finished," she said quietly. "They still have their hold."

"How’s that, little one?" Mal asked, taking a deep breath and looking up at the young genius. She seemed perplexed and finally just shook her head.

"I-I don’t know." She gave one last fleeting glance towards Kaylee before stepping out into the corridor and following Simon.

"I sure wish you did," Mal sighed. He turned in his stool, facing Kaylee’s unconscious body. Doc had given her something to make her sleep through the night, least the girl would get some rest. He didn’t know how it was a person could tear open their own flesh like that, so many things hand changed about his mechanic, he wondered if the real Kaylee was in there at all. He reached out and took her hand in his, holding it, remembering the feel of it. Her head turned slightly, a smile twitching at her lips. He remembered the smile, no one had one like she did. He’d missed seeing that smile. Mal guessed maybe deep down there Kaylee was still there, hiding, waiting to come out when it was safe.

"It’s safe, mei mei," he promised. "It's safe."