Determined: Chapter Three Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: All belong to Joss. I got nada. Paring: Jayne/Kaylee Rating: PG-15, for profanity Setting: Post BDM Word Count: 1700-ish

A/N: Set on the same world as my Faith Trilogy. Hover for translation. Loved it? Hated it? Let me know what you think. Thanks. X-posted from my LiveJournal

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DETERMINED

Chapter Three First Evening, Serenity

Inara Serra knelt in a pool of candlelight before a low dark carved table. A sheet of handmade paper lay before her, along with the ceramic dish which held her ink block and a small dish of water. She studied the characters she had lettered, the very act of drawing them a meditation, and reflected on the circumstances that had brought her to Serenity. A soft knock on her shuttle door caused the Companion to look up.

“Ching jin,” she responded softly.

As soon as she saw Simon’s face, she knew that something was very wrong and silently offered a prayer for Mal’s safety.

Simon’s voice was polite but tense. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but I thought you’d want to know. They’re overdue. River’s been scanning the local broadwaves and we have reason to believe that Mal and the others have been taken into custody and are being held at the Newhall lockup. We have to decide what to do.”

“Of course, Simon.” She rose gracefully and followed him to the cockpit.

River sat in the co-pilot’s chair, her bare feet tucked up under her and earphones pressed to one ear as she manipulated the radio dial with slender fingers, scanning for more information. Her luminous eyes darted to her brother and her face was filled with distress.

“Pigs in a pokey. All locked up, waiting for a ride.” She glanced at Inara. “Not much time.”

“They’ll have called in an Alliance transport unit.” Inara looked sharply at Simon. “I have an idea. Do you have any sort of strong sedative in powder form?”

“Certainly!”

“Go get it and meet me in my shuttle.”

As the young doctor started to head for the infirmary, he turned. “Mèimei, I need you to stay with the ship and continue to monitor the transmissions. Can you pull up coordinates for the jail and transmit them to Inara’s shuttle?”

River nodded gravely. “I understand, Simon. Already have.”

* * *

Simon bent over the lemon curd pie that he and Inara had purchased from a local bakery shortly before, and carefully sprinkled a fine white powder over the filling.

Using a plastic knife she’d picked up on the way out of the store, the Companion carefully stirred the potent sedative into the tangy yellow filling.

Simon smiled at her. “This was a great idea, Inara. The filling should cover any medicinal taste, and they won’t have to consume more than a few bites. The drug’s very fast acting -- they’ll be out cold within fifteen minutes. Now we just have to hope the guards have a taste for sweets.” The young doctor eyed the Companion’s elegant navy dress appreciatively. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in ‘ordinary’ clothing before.”

Inara smiled. “It’s not something I have many occasions to wear, but there are times when it’s better not to advertise my status and a registered Companion would be just too conspicuous in Newhall, don’t you think?”

“Definitely.”

* * *

“Sir?” Zoë nudged Mal. “I think you better see this.” Both craned their necks to peer down the cell aisle.

In her hat, long gloves and well-tailored dress, Inara looked the picture of prim domestic respectability. She smiled charmingly at the Alliance private who admitted her to the reception area of the lockup and held out the pie to the young man.

“The Newhall Ladies Auxiliary is most impressed by the wonderful job you gallant gentlemen are doing to protect our town from bandits and riff-raff, and we just wanted to express our appreciation. I made this fresh just this afternoon after hearing about your heroic capture of those petty criminals.”

At the far end of the cell row, Mal glared across at Zoë, his face the picture of righteous indignation, and whispered “Petty?”

The young private licked his lips and then glanced uncertainly at the other man on duty. “Think we oughta, Briggs?”

“Can’t hurt nothing. Missed supper, anyway.”

Zoë leaned closer to Mal. “Since when did Inara take up baking, sir?”

He cocked an eyebrow. ”Don’t rightly know she has. What the hell the woman up to?”

Inara set the pie on the desk and sliced it down the middle with the plastic knife then produced napkins and a pair of forks. The savory aroma filled the lockup. “Please eat it now -- it’s best while still warm,” she chided.

The taller guard smiled. “Thanks, Ma’am. This is real nice of you.“ Then he and his buddy tucked into the pastry with obvious relish.

“Again, thank you and enjoy yourselves, gentlemen. I can let myself out.” Inara turned and exited the building.

“Now that was right peculiar,” said Mal, thoroughly puzzled.

Within half and hour the pie was gone and both guards were crumpled on the concrete floor, out cold. The heavy lock-up door swung open and Simon and Inara returned.

“Did you see where they put the cell keys?” the doctor called out.

“In the desk!” Zoë answered and soon Simon was unlocking their cell.

Mal clapped the younger man on the shoulder. “We appreciate the rescue aplenty, Doctor. You heard from Jayne an’ Kaylee?”

“No. We assumed they’d been taken when you were.”

Mal frowned. “Nope. Ain't seen ‘em since we split up this morning. I’m wonderin’ if they saw what was going down, decided to hang back, maybe try to find another way back to the ship. Who’s watchin’ the boat?”

There were only two possibilities and Mal didn’t care for either one bit.

Seeing Mal’s look of concern, Simon reassured him, “River’s monitoring the local transmissions. Don’t worry, Captain, she won’t disappear with your precious ship.”

The thought of River alone on Serenity made Mal all measure of uneasy, but what was done was done. He accepted his gunbelt from Zoë, who’d retrieved their weapons from the locker up front and they both set about re-arming themselves.

“How ‘bout them?” Mal nodded toward the guards, who hadn’t so much as twitched.

“They’ll be out for hours,” Simon reassured him, “maybe until the next shift comes in.”

Zoë spoke up. “We’d best get out of here, sir. Now that it’s dark, should make movement easier.”

The four of them quietly exited the lockup. “Where’s your shuttle, Inara?” Mal asked, warily scouting the quiet street.

“Down the dock from yours, Mal. With only a single guard posted on the spare, we should be able to recover it with little problem.”

The captain was again grateful for the Companion’s quick mind and keen powers of observation. Woman’s got a good mind for crime, she ever decides to give up whorin’, he thought.

Mal glanced at his crew members. “Go quiet as mice, now, an’ we should be fine. Once we can suss out the situation, I intend to take out that guard, so we can get both shuttles back to the boat.”

* * *

In the end it was a simple matter of Inara serving as a lovely distraction while Mal clubbed the unwitting guard over the head with his gun butt and eased the unconscious man to the ground. Mal gestured to Simon. “Doc, you go with Inara; Zoë, with me. Let’s get our tails back over the mountains to Serenity so’s we can figure out where our wayward babes might be.”

As soon as both shuttles had safely docked in their recesses aboard the Firefly, Mal headed for the bridge, the others in tow. River was hunkered over the comm panel, scanning wavelengths.

“Nothing,” she stated flatly without even looking over her shoulder at the others. “Glad you’re back, Simon.”

Mal arched an eyebrow at the doctor, bemused. “Nice to know she missed one of us, anyways.”

* * *

Up on the bridge, River twirled a strand of her long, dark hair around her finger and mumbled to herself as she twisted the dial, listening to the gibbering mix of static and voices. “Scan, scan. Have to find the right wave. In there somewhere, hiding, same as out in plain sight.”

Then, just before dawn, a sequence of static bursts, evenly spaced caught her attention. Eleven pulses, then twenty-six. 11-26, 11-26. “Simon’s birthday -- must be them! I found their signal. Comes and goes.”

Her voice startled Mal from where he’d finally nodded off in the pilot’s chair in the hours before dawn. The captain ran his hand through his hair and tried to clear his head. “That’s good, but where the hell are they?”

“Not sure. I need to triangulate. May take some time.” She looked at him. “They’re somewhere west, high up. Cold and hungry, especially the big one.”

River quickly keyed in a command and the NavCom illustrated a topo map for the region. A few more keys and the image had zoomed in on the mountainside west of Serenity, the cursor blinking brightly on the screen. River pointed. “They’re on the move, trying to come home.”

“Wake the others. I want the doc and Zoë ready to go, mǎshàng!” Mal whirled and headed for Inara’s shuttle. Without bothering to knock, he pushed the door open and walked right in.

Inara lurched upright, startled and elegantly disheveled, clutching the ruby silk sheet to her body. “Mal!” she exclaimed. “Have you lost your mind? I’m in bed.”

“So I see. Figured you’ve probably had plenty a that. How ‘bout roustin’ your pretty self? We need your shuttle.” He explained, “To the best of my knowledge, you don’t have any clients on Newhall, and besides, we’ve found Kaylee an’ Jayne, or hey -- if I’m lucky, maybe just Kaylee. Looks like they somehow made it over the mountains, but slow as they’re movin’, must be on foot.”

Inara slipped from her bed and slid a garnet velvet robe over the luminous satin gown that embraced her form, ignoring the hungry sidelong glance Mal cut her way.

“I’m takin’ Zo and figured the doc best go along with you, since we don’t know what might have happened. He’s gettin’ his medical gear together, oughta be back in a tic.” The captain headed out into the airlock that linked the shuttle to Serenity.

“But Mal…I’m in my nightgown!”

“The boy won’t mind a bit, I feel right sure.”

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To be continued…