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Blue Blood – Chapter Eleven
Monday, December 17, 2007

Sheriff? Are you serious?


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2020    RATING: 10    SERIES: FIREFLY

Blue Blood – Chapter Eleven Write makes no claims to Firefly, and receives no money for his efforts. No infringement of any copyright is intended, simply the pleasure of writing. ------------------- “Sheriff?” Inara looked stunned. “Yes,” Mal nodded, still in shock himself. “What did you tell them?” she asked. “That I’d think about it,” Mal admitted, looking at her closely. “I honestly don’t know what to do, ‘Nara. I mean, they made some valid points.” Inara said nothing, still working over in her mind the idea of Malcolm Reynolds, of all people, being the Sheriff. “I mean, it would put me in a good position to know what’s goin’ on, and to stop anyone from trying to come in and grab River, or Simon.” “Yes,” Inara nodded, thinking about it. “It would also ground you. No more taking to the black.” Mal nodded, frowning. “I thought about that, too,” he replied. “But, it would help solidify our place here. In the community, I mean. And make a good home for our children. Was we to have any, I mean,” he hastened to add at the look on Inara’s face. “What are you going to do, Mal?” Inara asked softly, and he looked at her. “It ain’t just my decision, ‘Nara,” he pointed out. “It’s yours, too. That’s why we’re having this talk. I made it clear to both of them that if you objected, then that was it.” Inara looked shocked. “I know,” he chuckled. “Ain’t like me, is it. See what you’ve done to me?” He kissed her lightly, wrapping her in his arms. “Blame it on me,” Inara grumped humorously. “Well, it is because of you,” Mal told her seriously. “I’d not make a decision like this, not anymore, without I ask you. And if you say no, then that’s it. But I don’t know what to do.” “What do you want to do?” Inara asked, curious. “I mean, do you think you’d like to take the offer?” “I ain’t sure,” Mal shrugged helplessly. “I mean, it’s a big job, and like to be rough ‘fore it gets better. And it’d mean puttin’ down strong roots, big tie to the community, takin’ a job such as this.” “You wanted it to be home, Mal,” Inara pointed out. “No better way to make it home, than to bury yourself in the community.” “Become a politician?” he smiled, and she snorted delicately. “How’s that so different from what you do now?” she asked, laughing. “You deal with people nearly everyday, in the course of doing business. And you do a good job, I might add.” “I suppose,” Mal shrugged. “There’s another thing or two to consider, though.” Inara’s eyebrows raised at that. “Have to find a new Captain for Serenity,” he told her. “And a new pilot,” he added with a smile. Inara frowned. “Why a new pilot?” “You don’t think I’m gonna let you go galivantin’ off into the black without me along, do you?” he asked, and she laughed. “Sweet talker,” she hit him lightly on the chest. “Truthfully, Mal, I wouldn’t want to keep flying without you along. I could still make the trip on occasion, keep my license, but I’d rather be near you.” “Might have to move into town,” he added, and she nodded. “I can live with that. Though I’m not going to sit at home all day. I’ll find something to do. Maybe open a dress shop,” she said thoughtfully. “This area doesn’t really have anything like that.” “Well, now that we got that all worked out,” Mal smiled. “Do I take it or not?” ------------------- “Sheriff?” Zoe looked at Mal as if he had lost his mind. “Yes, sheriff,” Mal bristled slightly. “Why is that so hard to believe?” “Sheriff?” she asked again, incredulously. “As in, Sheriff? Law man?” “Are you gonna make a point, Zoe?” Mal asked stiffly. “Or just keep repeatin’ that?” “I. . .I don’t know what to say,” Zoe admitted. “Sheriff?” “Enough with the ‘Sheriff?’ bit, all right?” Mal groused. “It don’t sound no weirder to you than it did to me. Does to me,” he corrected. “And you’re seriously thinking of taking it?” Zoe looked at him dubiously. “Have you seen Simon, Mal? Are you feeling okay? Fever? Headache?” She started to reach up as if checking for a fever. “Zoe,” Mal said warningly, and she relented. Sort of. What she actually did was break down into a fit of laughter. Mal’s face grew red as she howled. “Sheriff?” she gasped, holding her abdomen. “I can just see you as Sheriff!” she wailed. “And what, I’d like to know, is so gorram funny about me being the Sheriff?” Mal demanded hotly. Zoe wiped her eyes, tears rolling freely from her laughing spell. “Nothing, sir,” she tried to revert to her normal stoicism, but one look at Mal’s indignant face sent her into another laughing fit. As she howled in mirth, Jayne and River walked up. Simon had removed her cast, Mal noted. “What’d we miss?” Jayne asked. “What is so humorous?” River asked. “Mal’s gonna. . .gonna be the new S. . .Sheriff!” Zoe gasped in between laughs. Jayne looked shocked for just a minute, then chuckled. River promptly elbowed him. “Not funny,” she told him, then looked at Mal. “I think BaBa would make an excellent sheriff. I’m very proud of you,” she told him. Mal’s chest puffed out at that. “Thank you, Albatross,” Mal ran his thumbs under his suspenders. “Least someone around here can appreciate me.” “I think it’s a good idea,” Jayne nodded. “Seriously,” he went on, seeing Mal’s shocked look. “You’re a good man, Mal. I’ve always thought that, even when I didn’t like you very much. You always try to do the right thing, no matter what.” “I know, I don’t always agree with that,” Jayne held up a hand to forestall Mal’s reply. “That don’t stop it from being the right thing. And you won’t be on the take, like Grippen was. Be a tough job, most like.” “I done thought about that,” Mal nodded somberly. “Will you do it?” River asked thoughtfully. “I’m thinking on it,” Mal nodded. “I was trying to get advice from the rest of you,” he shot a glare at the still chuckling Zoe. “See what your take on it was.” “Well,” Jayne told him. “You’d have my vote. Can’t think of anyone I’d rather see in the job, myself.” Mal looked at Jayne closely. “You realize, I hope, that was I to take this job, you’d have to reel in that. . .predisposition of yours. Can’t have you running around taking vengeance on everyone that does something you disagree with.” It was the closest Mal had come to asking, or accusing, Jayne of making Grippen disappear. “‘Spect with you as Sheriff, I won’t have to,” Jayne replied evenly, and Mal blinked at that. “Trust you to do what’s right, Mal.” A moment passed between the two men, then. One that Mal would remember long after. Jayne had never actually said anything like that. He’d offered to back Mal’s decisions, told him he’d do whatever Mal decided to do, yes. But never, that Mal could recall, had Jayne said he trusted Mal. Trusted him to do what was right. “Thanks, Jayne,” Mal said quietly, and River beamed in pride. She slipped her hand into Jayne’s and squeezed. She’d never been so proud of him, at that moment. “Don’t get all teary over it,” Jayne muttered, and River giggled. Mal smiled, and the moment was gone. But not forgotten. “Well, then,” he sighed. “I reckon I might just take that job.” River elbowed Jayne again, and he started. She glared up at him, and Jayne remembered why they were there. “Uh, Mal? ‘Fore you go off and get shot,” he started, earning him another elbow from River, and sending Zoe into another gale of laughter. “I mean, ‘fore you head off on your new job, River and I, we’d, um, well. See, thing is, we was hoping that you’d marry us.” Mal’s mouth worked, but no words came out. Zoe’s eyes grew larger, but she smiled. “When?” Mal finally managed. “Before you take your new job, BaBa,” River smiled. “We’d like to be married in orbit, with you officiating. Aboard Serenity.” Mal smiled at that, nearly beaming. “I’d be proud to,” he told her. “Honored.” “Zoe, you will be a bridesmaid?” River asked, and Zoe’s smile grew. “Of course I will, sweetie,” she nodded, and River hugged her. She drew back, grabbing Jayne’s hand. “We must go and tell Simon, and Kaylee.” “You told us first?” Mal asked, surprise on his face. River smiled at him. “A girl always tells her parents, first, BaBa,” she said seriously, then she and Jayne were on their way, leaving a stunned Mal watching after her. “Well,” Mal finally broke the silence. “‘Pears we’ve been adopted, Zoe.” “After all these years,” Zoe deadpanned, and Mal laughed. “I guess I need to go have a word with George.” ----------------- Mal went before the Parish Board that very evening, in an emergency meeting called by none other than Braz Guilford. Mal hadn’t known, until that moment, that the aging business man, and his chief employer, was on the board, essentially the ruling body of the entire Bickford Parish. “I trust, Captain Reynolds,” Mason Bickford, a descendant of the man the parish was named for, “that you’re aware of the seriousness of our. . .current dilemma?” “I am, sir,” Mal nodded politely. “I’ve lived here for just over a year now, and want to make this my home. Make it home for all my family.” Bickford beamed at that. “Based on what George and Braz have told us, I’m prepared to second George’s motion that you be installed as Sheriff of Bickford Parish, until the next scheduled election.” Bickford looked around the room, and several heads nodded. But not all. “I question,” Harmon Fuller spoke, “the wisdom of appointing a man who has been a resident here for so short a time as our chief lawman.” Three others nodded their agreement. Not enough, alone, to prevent Mal’s appointment, but enough to force a debate. “Chief Deputy Milam,” Fuller indicated the deputy sitting in the front row of the seats set up for observers, “is a life long resident of the Parish. Knows the people, and the problems that we face. I should think he would be a more viable, and successful, candidate, than a ship captain who has no background, whatsoever, in law enforcement.” “We’ve been over all that, Harm,” Braz said patiently. “With no offense to Deputy Milam,” Braz nodded politely at the frowning deputy, “we face a serious challenge, one that has to be met head on, and without delay. And, again with no disrespect to Deputy Milam, the current department has allowed this travesty to unfold. Surely, as second in command to Sheriff Grippen, Deputy Milam was in a position to at least inform this body of what was occurring, even if unable to prevent it.” A round of murmurs went through the crowd, and Milam’s face went beet red. He started to get to his feet, but a warning glance from Fuller stopped him. “That seems a bit. . .convenient, Braz, for your captain. Who, until roughly two years or so ago, was a wanted fugitive.” Fuller had intended to score big on that one, but Braz was ready. “Yes,” Braz nodded, smiling. “A fugitive from Alliance justice. Justice served out on a hero of the War. An Independent Hero, in fact. It might interest you all to know,” Braz addressed the small crowd, “that Captain Reynolds, was in fact at one time Sergeant Reynolds. Of the 57th Overlanders. He commanded the Independent forces in Serenity Valley for much of the time during the battle.” Mal’s head dropped at the mention of Serenity Valley, images of the terrible time rushing through his mind. The crowd’s reaction, however, was much different. Argo was about as Independent as it got. “Good for you, Reynolds!” “Gave’em what for, you did!” “Couldn’t ask for a better qualified Sheriff!” Braz looked back to Fuller, smiling. Fuller raised his hands in defeat, acknowledging that he had lost. For now. “Are there any other objections?” Braz asked the board. There were none. “Then I believe that a motion has been made, and seconded, that Malcolm Reynolds be appointed as Sheriff of Bickford Parish, his term to be the remainder of the term left vacant by the disappearance, and presumed demise, of Sheriff Grippen. All in favor?” ------------------- “Congratulations, Sheriff,” George Harwell smiled, shaking Mal’s hand. “Thanks, I think,” Mal smiled uncertainly. “I didn’t realize there’d be so much. . . opposition.” “Ah,” Braz waved his free hand disparagingly. “Pay that no mind. Milam is Fuller’s nephew. He had to fight for him, to save face. And even if he believed that the boy would make a better sheriff, the rest of us know better.” “I hope you’re right,” Mal said somberly, the badge weighing heavy in his hand. “I am,” Braz smiled. “One thing, though, Sheriff Reynolds,” his old eyes twinkled. “It might be a good idea to speak to that man of yours. Cobb, I believe? With you now the chief lawman of the parish, he may want to take more care with his. . .activities, so to speak.” Mal’s mouth opened and shut several times, but no words were forthcoming. “No need for a reply,” Braz assured him, squeezing Mal’s arm lightly. “Nor for explanations. See, I’m rather fond of the young man, really. He did me a great service, and I got some of my own back, living vicariously through him, you might say.” Braz Guilford would be the one to understand how Jayne thinks, Mal realized, looking at the old man with a new respect. “Just make sure that he doesn’t make you look. . .ineffective,” the older man pointed out, and Mal nodded, having figured out what Braz meant. “We already, um, discussed that, sir.” “Excellent. I understand that he and Miss Tam are to be married soon?” The change in subject caught Mal off guard. He nodded. “Yes, sir, day after tomorrow. They asked me to marry them, in orbit, aboard Serenity.” “Very good,” Braz nodded. “I assume you can make room for a few more guests?”

COMMENTS

Monday, December 17, 2007 3:41 AM

JANE0904


>“Well,” Mal finally broke the silence. “‘Pears we’ve been adopted, Zoe.”

>“After all these years,” Zoe deadpanned, and Mal laughed.

Loved this exchange! And there's going to be a wedding ... flulff or are the old deputies going to try something they shouldn't and cause the new Sheriff to have to come down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks?

Monday, December 17, 2007 9:43 AM

KIMBER


I love the talk between Mal and Inara, especially when he pointed out that they make desicions together...genius! - do we get the part when they actually have their child? I'm very glad that the bastard died *smirk* as for Mal being the sherrif...I think that my reaction was pretty much like Zoe's ;)

Keep flying ;)


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