Remember Me Part 4

Mal’s eyes widened as he looked over at the intruder, blinking in surprise and confusion to see a petite redhead whose plentiful curves still left him wondering to this day whether the Lord had a dark sense of humor about him since said package of feminine abundance was holding what he thought for a moment was his own pistol at his chest. The seductress once known as “Saffron Reynolds” smirked faintly as she registered the look of shock on her erstwhile husband’s face, lowering the hammer on the gun before resting the large weapon against her shoulder lightly.

“You’re getting sloppy, Malcolm. It was far too easy to get this close to you and your crew.”

Saffron grinned coldly as she reached over to dust off Mal’s shirt collar before fixing it for him, clicking her teeth in mock chastisement as she shook her head.

“Even your little crazy girl is more observant than you are, dear. She saw the trap I’d set out, and it wasn’t even well hidden! Really, I had expected more of you, but I suppose I’ve learned my lesson about making such an assumption.”

The auburn-haired con artist sighed and shook her head again, as if she was dealing with a mischievous but dim child. That act was quickly brought to an end as Saffron shifted her gun back to being cocked and aimed at Mal’s chest again with a move that would have impressed Jayne as Zoë moved to step forward.

“Don’t. Please believe me when I say I have no qualms about giving your captain’s innards a brand new skylight.”

Zoë gritted her teeth but stayed put, fighting to avoid noticeably palming the modified stock of her Mare’s Leg.

“What do you want, you jian hu?”

Mal growled his query through gritted teeth at the armed woman, causing Saffron’s eyes to narrow at the insult but refraining from actually doing something like striking the man.

“Be nice, Malcolm. Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

“Old friend?!? Jian ta de gui! What do ya want…Saffron?

The redhead smiled pleasantly at Mal, the slur again ignored.

“About time you asked that question.”

She rolled her eyes, before moving the gun away from Mal’s chest again. Putting one hand on her hip, Saffron looked over the assembled crew with a quick gaze before turning her focus back to the captain.

“I’ll play nice if you place nice, dong ma? I didn’t come here to kill you.”

Mal growled at the last part of the comment, glaring at the diminutive swindler with a look of fury.

“Ni juede wo hen ben ma?!? Then what in the name of Buddha’s shriveled gao wan was the laser trap for?”

“Oh come on, Mal! I was just having a bit of fun! I had figured at least ONE of your crew would find the trap. It’s not like you can ALL be idiots…”

She glanced around at the people gathered outside, smirking faintly at her comment.

“But of course, I’ve been wrong before….but on with business! I’ve got a job for you. Bigger than the last one. And this time? You’re guaranteed cash…mainly because I’m the one paying you.”

Mal raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest and shooting Saffron a doubtful look.

“Really now? And just how much are you puttin’ up to hire me and mine?”

“I…100,000 credits. It’s everything I’ve saved.”

Saffron shifted her stance, putting the gun back in its holster and sighing as she pushed a lock of dark red-gold hair off her forehead. Turning her focus back to Mal, she rolled her eyes as she saw the former soldier was staring at her with his mouth open. Reaching over, she grasped his stubble-laced chin and firmly closed it.

“So…tell me now, yes or no. Will you do the job?”

Mal blinked as he snapped out of his shocked look.

“Ain’t that simple. Don’t even know what the job is.”

“Look Reynolds, it’s “yes” or “no” right now or I’ll find someone else to give that insanely large amount of coin to. Dong ma?”

Saffron gave Mal a moment to respond, before shrugging in supposed defeat and turning to move away. Seeing this, Mal blinked furiously and shook his head as if to clear it.

“Whoa now…never say we wouldn’t take the job! Fine…we’ll take it.”

Saffron nodded and extended her hand to Mal, who took it in his own with a firm grasp and shook it to seal the deal.

“Great! Now…you just need to get to the Core, find where they’re keeping my little sister Elisa, and get her back to me. Without getting caught…or tipping off whoever has her that you’re snatching her back.”

Mal was once again reduced to shocked immobility, blinking slowly as he struggled to process Saffron’s conditions.

“…Huh?”

Back on Serenity, Kaylee was on the warpath as she stomped around the engine room and grumbled under her breath as she repeatedly went over the ship’s engine. The mechanic knew nothing was actually wrong with it, but she felt like she had to do something to keep herself busy. With a loud sigh, the petite woman shook her head faintly in disbelief at how she had said all those nasty things to Jayne, honestly amazed at her own anger towards him for saying such a thing about River. Kaylee cared about River deeply, but she couldn’t figure out why she had reacted so violently to someone thinking River’s life wasn’t worth the effort. Letting a frustrated groan escape her lips, the normally bubbly engineer leant against Serenity’s hull and gently stroked the metal plating beneath her fingers.

“I must be losin’ it, girl…I’ve never yelled at anyone like that before! Can’t even calm me down this time…”

She exhaled loudly and rested her head against the wall gently. It was in this position that River found her friend as she silently entered the engine room, bare feet quiet on the metal floors but still full of ethereal grace. What the teen’s mind was unable to remember, her body recalled with perfect clarity as her movement had not lost an ounce of its fluid elegance.

“You’re not losing it…though…I am surprised at your anger. She did not expect such defense from you though…she…I was happy to hear it. I…can’t remember anything about you…but you still treat me as a friend. She wishes she could remember…I don’t deserve your kindness.”

River whimpered softly, hanging her head in embarrassment. Kaylee, having jumped away from the wall when River had started speaking, sighed sadly as her anger melted away at the sight before her. Features softening, she moved over the troubled girl and gently slid a hand under her chin, guiding the psychic’s chocolate gaze to look at the older girl.

“Don’t you ever say that, dong ma? You’re my friend! No one has the right to talk about ya like that. And EVERYONE deserves to be happy…”

A small smile ghosted across River’s face, before she bit her lip and look at Kaylee again.

“…Even empty-headed moonbrains?”

Kaylee grinned softly, smoothing River’s wild mane of hair back gently as her nose wrinkled faintly.

“Especially empty-headed moonbrains…”

River grinned at Kaylee, looking happier than the mechanic had seen her since before the psychic had been injured, and moved to hug the older girl. Blinking quickly as she something within her twinge a bit, she felt like she should be remembering something but the thought refused to surface. The teen grunted in frustration at the sensation, causing Kaylee to pull back and look at her.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I…I can almost remember something…but it won’t come when I call it.”

River grits her teeth, hands rising to repeatedly strike her forehead and to pull at her hair, anger radiating off her in waves.

“Useless, always useless! Too crazy to remember…”

She berated herself for a few moments, until Kaylee could grab her hand and stop River from re-injuring herself.

“No…River…stop! Don’t beat yourself up; none of this is your fault…you did nothing to deserve this. If anything…you deserve better! None of this should have happened to you...you’re a smart, beautiful, brilliant young woman…”

The older girl spoke softly as she stroked River’s cheek gently, keeping eye contact with the distressed teen throughout her entire speech. River blinked slowly before tilting her head to regard the mechanic better.

“You…you think I’m beautiful…?”

River’s voice came out in a surprised whisper as she looked back up at Kaylee, biting her lip slightly after seeing the young woman’s expression. Chocolate orbs searched emerald ones, before shifting to see the flush tinting her friend’s face with a shade of bright pink. Clearing her throat, the engineer let her hand drop away from the other girl’s face and stepped back to stand beside the engine.

“Well…uh…yeah, far as women go, I suppose…”

Kaylee shrugged and shifted in her position, keeping her back to River. The other girl squirmed faintly in her spot, sensing the discomfort coming off her friend; sighing softly, River just nodded at Kaylee’s back and quietly left, heading through the ship until she paused by the sealed hatch of Jayne’s bunk. Leaning tiredly against the wall, the young woman reached up to hold her head, struggling against the feeling of her skull pounding violently. She could tell that…something…was there, in her mind, since she could almost see it but it kept getting snatched away at the last minute by the fog in her mind. The psychic groaned and slid down the wall until she was sitting on the deck, her forehead resting on her newly-exposed knees as she heaved a frustrated sigh to follow the groan.

“She wants to remember…she wants to…I want to…”

Grunting in frustration, River struck the floor with her palms and levered herself to her feet. Making her way outside, she sat down in the dirt with another pitiful sigh and leaned back on her hands to stare up at the sky. Closing her eyes as the wind blew across her face, she allowed herself to relax and enjoy the beautiful day; mind emptying slowly, her frustration and pain seemed to ebb out into the warm soil beneath her. Thoughts of the last few days floated across her mind, the fog of what her life had been before she had woken up in the secret infirmary causing her frustration and pain to return in force as she once again struggled to recall a single memory of what things had been like before she was mysteriously shot and beaten. Sometimes, the psychic thought, it felt like she could almost get through the hazy barrier in her brain, but the metaphysical cloud kept shifting away; for all of River’s attempts to just let things come at their own pace, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something…important…she should remember from the time before she had been injured. Driving her efforts to make at least some minor headway with recalling her life was the fact she felt like if she couldn’t come up with an answer soon, something bad would happen to the crew….meaning something bad would happen to Kaylee. The very thought of her strawberry peace being harmed because of a failure on her part to act made River’s heart jump into her throat, adding to the existing feeling of nausea over her inability to understand why Kaylee’s safety was so tantamount when compared to the rest of the crew’s welfare. Exhaling sadly, the teen reclined all the way and let an arm fall over her eyes, blotting out the sun’s joyful brightness. Soon, the young woman had slipped into troubled sleep filled with dreams of a past she couldn’t recall while she was awake.

Observing his sister lying down outside, Simon opted to leave her as she was as he knew she needed the rest…and that he wasn’t in a state to argue with River about what was best for her, due to her inability to even remember she had a brother. Deciding he wanted to check on Kaylee, seeing as he had not seen her since her surprisingly vitriolic rant at Jayne concerning his sister’s worth, he walked past his mei-mei’s slumbering body and into Serenity. Unaware that River had just come from such a task, the young doctor entered the engine room and found the mechanic looking at the ship’s beating heart with tools in hand but doing nothing but staring off into space with a troubled look in her eyes, causing Simon to frown.

“Uh…Kaylee? Are you feeling alright…?”

Kaylee blinked as she was startled out of her thoughts, smiling as she looked over at Simon and recovered her bearings.

“Sure thing, Doc! Right as rain…just thinking is all. I should probably go apologize to Jayne…really went off at him.”

Simon shook his head in gentle amazement.

“You really don’t have to, Kaylee. If you hadn’t done it, one of us would have…and if Mal or I had said something, it would have been a lot ruder than what you said to him. One of us would have hit him as well, so you did all of us a favor.”

He smiled gently at her, reaching over to take Kaylee’s hand almost shyly. Blushing as her heart fluttered lightly, Kaylee looked down at their joined hands. Simon stroked her knuckles softly with his thumb.

“I think what you did was pretty amazing…defending River like that…thank you.”

Kaylee smiled and blushed harder, causing her to duck her head before shrugging slightly and taking a firmer grip of Simon’s hand. Simon shifted his stance, moving his body closer to hers in order to reach over with his free hand and cup her chin gently, lifting her head so she could look at him. He stroked her cheek gently with his thumb at first before trailing the digit along her lips softly, causing the target of his attention to draw in a slow, shaky breath and close her eyes at the feeling. Turning her head a bit to follow the movement of his hand, she kissed his fingers softly without realizing it but in the back of her mind, something felt…off…about the whole situation. Kaylee dismissed the thought immediately, as she had been waiting for several months for the young doctor to come around to her like this, so she was happy to see he was finally returning her attentions. Lightly snagging his thumb between her teeth, the petite mechanic looked up at him through her eyelashes, causing Simon to swallow softly before gently moving his hand up to cup the back of Kaylee’s head. Stepping closer to her, the young man leant down and kissed her hesitantly, surprising the young woman with how soft they were for a man’s lip though still firm; Kaylee shivered lightly, the kiss sending a pleasant hum from her head to the tips of her toes and causing her to step even closer to Simon so their bodies brushed against one another’s delicately. Simon broke the kiss soon afterwards, clearing his throat before looking down at his feet, causing Kaylee to bite her lip.

“Sorry…”

“N-no…don’t be sorry…I liked it…just maybe a bit too much.”

Simon blushed a deep shade of red and cleared his throat again, squirming a bit before stepping away from Kaylee. Once a few steps away, he began tugging on his vest as if he could straighten it further.

“I’m ah…I’m gonna go down to my room and…get something…yeah so um, I’ll check in on you again later…”

“Simon…”

Simon waved back at Kaylee after turning around and walked away from the engine room quickly, heading down to the passenger dorms. After watching her would-be beau beat a hasty retreat, Kaylee groaned sadly and slumped against the wall again.

“Great! Scared him off…why’s he gotta be so…so…proper!?!”

A huff of frustration slipped out of the petite engineer’s mouth, as she began to think on her situation. Most boys woulda been all over me by now! But o’ course the one I finally set sights on comes from an uptight Core family…why couldn’t Simon just cut loose and all normal-like for once?!? Gotta say…getting a might tired of him always scampering off any time we get a moment alone. River wasn’t scared of getting close… It was this thought that brought Kaylee up short, causing her to blink the second that thought cross her mind. Since when do I compare Simon an’ River like that…?”

“Wo de Tian…I must need rest more than I thought! Sorry girl…I know I promised ya a make-over, but I think I’d better go lay down in my bunk for a bit. But I’ll be back later…”

She rubbed the engine housing lightly and shut it securely as she spoke, setting her unused tools back with the others and heading off to her bunk.

Ni juede wo hen ben ma? – ‘Do you think I’m an idiot?’ Gao wan – balls