BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

BADKARMA00

The Last Spartan – Chapter Eighteen
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Conversations on the way home


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 1980    RATING: 10    SERIES: FIREFLY

The Last Spartan – Chapter Eighteen Author owns no rights of any kind to Firefly, and writes solely for his own entertainment and that of others, receiving no pay for his work. ------------------------- They were three days out of Londinium when Jayne walked onto the bridge and handed Malcolm Reynolds a bag heavy with coin. “Sufficient, I think, for your services,” he said formally. “If not, then I will make up the difference.” Mal took the bag, eyebrows raised. “This’ll do,” Mal told him shortly. Jayne nodded and turned to go. “Don’t appreciate you trying to steal my crew,” Mal said, stopping Jayne in his tracks. The big man turned to him. “Steal? Why would I need to steal your crew, Malcolm Reynolds, when you are doing such an excellent job of running them off?” Mal flushed at that, fury in his eyes. “How’s that?” he snarled, rising to his feet, fists balled in fury. “You think it wise, Captain, to challenge me physically?” Jayne’s eyebrows rose in question. “You should recall how well that worked out last time.” “I ain’t scared o’ you!” Mal retorted. “Nor have you reason to be,” Jayne replied evenly. “I have not challenged you in any way, nor will I. Your problems with your crew, Captain, are entirely of your own making. If you lose them, it will not be through any act of mine, other than River. And that is no concern of yours.” “You offered them a home with you!” Mal shot back, anger in his eyes. “I offered all of you time at my home,” Jayne corrected him. “Time to rest, to recover, and be at ease. Where no enemy can touch you. You were extended the same courtesy, Captain, and despite my growing dislike for your company, the offer stands.” “I ain’t keen on being obliged to someone like you,” Mal muttered. “Is that it?” Jayne asked him. “That someone, or some thing like me would offer you kindness which you would see as an indebtedness? You can’t possibly be that stupid, Mal. Or that selfish, to deny the people you claim to love as family a few days respite in complete safety.” Jayne’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “Or is that the problem?” he wondered aloud. “That they might like the safety and comfort of staying planet side, rather than following you around the verse, living from hand to mouth, living their lives strictly according to the Rules of Reynolds.” Jayne shook his head in wonder, as the thought grew more firm. “Mal, even I would not have thought you to be that poor of spirit.” “What would you know about me?” Mal shouted. “You ain’t lived the life I have.” “Ah, yes,” Jayne’s voice was withering. “The heart of the matter that is Malcolm Reynolds. War hero for the losing side. Lost everything.” Jayne looked at Mal with something approaching scorn. “Do you think you are the only man who has ever lost a war, Captain? The only man who has ever had to see his home destroyed, while helpless to stop it?” “I have been a soldier for three thousand years. I have fought in more wars than you have had hot meals, mortal. There is nothing you can tell me of the horrors of war. Of loss. I watched Sparta falter from afar, helpless to change it, unable to show my face, lest I be thought a demon.” “I have seen men die on a battle field without ever knowing why they fought. Seen men die a lingering death, in the days when there was no medicine, no hospitals. And I have seen the women and children left to fend for themselves when their men did not return.” “You are a fool, Captain,” Jayne’s voice cut like a whip. “Surrounded by people who love you, follow you all too blindly, and too blind yourself to see it. Your need to control them will drive them from you. You are a sad and pathetic little man, Captain, and that is the shame of it all. You have more potential that any man I have met in the last two hundred years. Yet you squander that potential in your desire to, how do you put it? Oh yes. ‘Stick a thorn in the Alliance’s paw.’” Jayne looked at him with something approaching pity. “You didn’t lose the war, Malcolm. The Independents lost the war. Instead of trying to find a way to make a difference, a real difference, you fly about in your ship, refusing to accept defeat. It is time to stop, and consider what it is you want from life, and then take it.” By the time Jayne had finished, Mal appeared on the verge of apoplexy. “Get off my bridge,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to see you again till we hit Londinium.” “That will be difficult, as the ship is quite small,” Jayne told him flatly. “But I will do what I can to avoid you. Meanwhile, think on what I have told you. Not with your emotions, but with your mind.” With that, Jayne whirled about, and was gone. Leaving a furious Malcolm Reynolds alone on ‘his’ bridge. ------------------- “Jayne, do you have a minute?” Jayne looked up at the sound of Simon’s voice. “Of course, Simon,” he nodded. Jayne was sitting in the crash circle, thinking about Mal. Simon was a welcome distraction. “I, I don’t really know how to ask this, but I feel I have to,” Simon began. “It’s not that I don’t. . .” “You wish to know my intentions toward your sister,” Jayne smiled. Simon hesitated a second, then nodded. “It is a valid question, as you are her only family,” Jayne nodded. “As to the answer, I think it is no longer a question of my intentions, but of hers. She is a very willful woman, and, I suspect, accustomed to having her way.” Simon had to smile at that. “I’m afraid that’s very true,” he agreed. “For a time, it will be necessary for me to teach her about her new . . . abilities, shall we say? After that, the matter will be entirely in her hands. I will confess to you, alone, that my feelings for her run very strong. Something I have not allowed myself to do in a very long time.” “But I will not presume to know the future. It may be that, in time, she will find herself feeling very differently toward me. If that happens, then . . . ” Jayne broke off with a helpless shrug. “I don’t think that will happen, Jayne,” Simon told him plainly. “I find myself hoping you are right,” Jayne smiled. “The thought of her at my side is . . . more than just comforting, Simon. I cannot explain it better than that, at least not now. I, myself, need time to explore my own feelings. My own desires. I will tell you that she and I will talk of this, and more, very soon. Probably before we reach Londinium.” “That is her intention, at least. And, as I said, she is accustomed to getting what she wants,” Jayne finished with a smile. “It’s just that, when you called her the Lady of Taste of Sparta,” Simon replied. “It sounded, well, a lot, or at least a little, like you were, well. . .” “Proposing?” Jayne asked with a smile. Simon nodded. “I suppose in a way I was,” Jayne admitted. “The truth is that she will be just that, for as long as she chooses to remain there. That does not mean that she will. But I will never send her away, Simon, if that is what you fear.” “She’s not hurt anymore,” Simon said. “I know that she’ll be fine, now. She’s more than capable, with the damage that Blue Sun did to her repaired, of making her own way, and caring for herself. I just. . .I don’t want her to have to, if she doesn’t want to. Do you understand?” “I do,” Jayne nodded. “And you are to be admired for that. Not all siblings express such interest in another’s well being. The ‘verse might well be a different place if they did.” Simon blushed at the praise. “It’s hard to accept that she’s. . .” “Like me, now?” Jayne smiled again, knowingly this time. “I know. And while she seems to be fine with it now, there will come a time when she hates it. May hate me for it. When that happens, I will be there for her, for so long as she will allow.” “Thank you, Jayne,” Simon said, rising from his chair. “I. . .I needed that reassurance.” “Not at all,” Jayne replied. “If I might ask, have you and Kaylee decided what you will do?” “We’ll stay with you,” Simon said at once. “At least for a while. I think the only one who hasn’t decided to stay yet is Inara. She’s torn between wanting to stay with Mal, and hoping that things will work out, and leaving before he gets any worse.” “I tried speaking with him, earlier,” Jayne informed the young doctor. “It did not go well.” “It hasn’t for anyone else, either,” Simon told him mournfully. “Kaylee is crying over him one minute, and angry with him the next. And Zoe is just crushed, I think. Mal hasn’t spoken to her in days.” “He is a fool,” Jayne said suddenly. “Few men are so fortunate as to have a group of people around him that genuinely care for him. To have such, and destroy it, is the act of a madman.” “Well, he’s mad, I grant you,” Simon nodded. “But it’s the angry mad, not the twisted, sick mad. I feel sorry for him, to be honest.” “As do I,” Jayne nodded. “But we cannot save him from himself, Simon. If he refuses to heal, we cannot heal him.” “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Simon pondered the statement. “But it seems to fit. I don’t know why he has to be this way.” “He fears what he cannot control, Simon. It is the way of men such as he. He must control the things, and people, around him, or they must go. It is a sad and lonely way to live.” --------------------- River was walking the rails on the catwalk again. She smiled as she thought of the times that everyone had warned her not to, that she could fall and injure herself, even be killed. That, at least, was no longer a problem. “I see some things never change.” River was startled from her thoughts by the sound of Jayne’s voice. So startled that she lost her balance, and leaned over the cargo bay dangerously. Before she could be afraid, before she could react, she felt a pair of strong hands about her waist, and then she was being pulled to safety. “There are easier ways to test the theory of immortality,” Jayne’s voice rumbled in her ear. She smiled up at him. “I wasn’t testing, my love,” she told him. “You startled me, and I over corrected when I lost my balance.” “That will happen to you for a while,” Jayne told her, setting her gently on the floor. “You will find that your reaction speeds are increased by a great deal, along with other surprises.” “I await them with great eagerness,” she beamed. “We should talk of that,” Jayne said, turning serious. “Yes, you owe me a conversation,” River replied, looking pleased. “Very well, we shall talk of that, as well. You first. What is it you wish to say?” “I want to know what happens to me, now,” River said plainly. “You know how I feel about you, Jayne,” she looked into his eyes. “It is only fair that you share your feelings with me.” Jayne nodded. “I suppose that is fair. Very well, then. My feelings for you are mixed, to be honest.” She frowned at that, and he smiled at the sight. “Let me finish. On the one hand, I am now your teacher. The path you have been set upon is not an easy one. It will take you some time to adjust to your new life, River. Not all the transition will be easy.” “On the other hand? Well, let us see. I find you extremely attractive, which I am sure you know. I find you desirable, which should not be a surprise. But I also find myself enjoying your companionship. Your presence. This indicates that my feelings for you are beyond simple physical attraction.” “You are a rare flower, meus exquisitus rosea, and I value you, treasure you, above all else in the ‘verse.” River’s head was swimming. “Beautiful rose,” she murmured. “Your beautiful rose. Implies possession, ownership.” “It does,” Jayne nodded, not bothering to correct her. “I like that,” River leaned against him. “I know you do not love me, Jayne,” she admitted. “Not as I love you. But in time, perhaps?” She looked up at him. “In time, perhaps, you will grow to love me?” “I do not love you?” Jayne looked at her in confusion. “River, had I not loved you, I would never. . .I would not have risked your hatred to save you, meus decorus era, did I not already love you.” River gasped at that. He loved her? “Jayne, do you mean that? You aren’t saying it because I want to hear it?” “I say nothing I do not mean,” he assured her. “I fear you, little one. You have the power to do me great harm, to hurt me beyond all proportion to your small size. At some point you have gained possession of my heart, the most closely guarded emotion I have.” He looked at her intently. “I have loved many times, River, over the span of my life. Always in disappointment, as the years took them from me. But, until now, I have not loved as I loved my Verana. Until now, I have never met her equal. Yet now, perhaps, I have met one greater than she, I believe.” River’s eyes were filled with tears as she listened. She had felt the depth of his love for Verana, the strong, beautiful Spartan woman who had claimed his heart so long ago. How could she possibly compete with that? “Jayne, I . . . ” he shushed her with his fingertips. “It is all right,” he told her softly. “You will, eventually, move on. You will become tired of me, feel complacent, and leave me. On that day, I will die within. Of that I am certain. But until that day? Until that day, River, I will love you as I have loved no other. Be it one year, or a thousand.” He lowered his lips to hers, and kissed her. Gently, passionately. “I will never leave you,” she whispered as their lips parted. “Never.” As he embraced her, Jayne found himself hoping that would be the case.

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Thursday, November 8, 2007 5:20 PM

BLAZESOLO


WOW!!!! Is there more?!?!


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