One good day

By Charlotte Summers

* * *

Chapter three ‘Secrets’

* * *

Mal looked better than he’d done in weeks. “Ladies and gentlemen: we got ourselves a job.”

That morning Serenity had arrived at Beylix. Mal, Zoe and Jayne, the regular trio, had gone out to find themselves a job. The crew had hoped desperately this time it was with luck – and Wash had gone a little further in his prayers and hoped they’d find a job that would pay well.

And that, they had. Not only had they found some crime to commit, there was a fair pay attached to it as well. The crew discussed it, gathered in the dining area.

“We’re transporting some stolen goods need be smuggled to the buyer in New Dunsmuir, Beaumonde,” Mal told the crew. “Can get a bit risky, but the pay’ll make up for it.”

“Wait,” Wash said confused. “You say got this assignment from one of the buyer’s little minions. Why don’t they fly this stuff to their boss themselves?”

“Well, that’s what makes it risky,” Mal explained, catching the eye of Bela who was looking at him with a slight frown, seemingly deep in thought. “Buyer – fellow called Dumar – had a slight run-in with some Alliance feds a little while ago.”

At this, Simon rolled his eyes. “Oh, yes, I am shocked.”

Mal ignored him. “Any ship of Dumar or his men that comes is being thoroughly checked by those tah mah de, and as a result they need a third party to bring in the goods. So the Alliance won’t know it’s for him.”

Simon carefully spoke up. “Captain. I know we need the money, but working right under the noses of the Alliance? Don’t you think this job is a little too risky?”

“It’s a simple job, doc,” Mal disagreed. He was standing at the head of the table, and rolled up both sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows before he went to leaning on the table with both hands. “We just take the goods, fly ‘em to Beaumonde, drop ‘em there, get paid. Alliance’ll never even know. And we’ll stay low.”

“Yes, because that part of the plan never fails on us,” Simon replied sarcastically.

Mal wasn’t amused. “If you have a problem with what we do, doc, maybe it’s best you take your sister and you leave. Oh, wait-,” he said suddenly sarcastic, looking up thoughtfully. “Then you would be completely out in the open for the Alliance to find you. Seems you’re even safer from ‘em when you’re on this ship doing this job. Best to stay on board and shut up, then,” Mal finished with a clear voice, looking at Simon directly.

Mal turned back to the crew in general. “Me, Zoe and Jayne – we’re picking up the goods in an hour. Wash, if you could go up to the bridge and set up for a trip to New Dunsmuir? We’ll be on our merry this very evening and be in Beaumonde by the end of the week, drop the goods, and get paid richly.”

Mal straightened and watched as the crew got up and scattered. Then he took off himself. By the time he’d reached the stairs to the common area, he was joined by Bela.

“Captain!”

Mal spun on his heel. “Crew!”

She stopped in front of him and fiddled with her hands. “I was wondering if you’d thought about what I said, before? If there’s a part I can play in this, so I can get a share of the pay?”

Mal studied her for a moment. “Listen darling, I look after me and mine. I treat everyone in my crew equally. Which means, everybody gets paid equally from what we earn, or steal; no matter the part they’ve played. You can be part of this crew, too - if I want you to be. Now, the only way for that to happen is if I like you. And I won’t like you if you don’t do as I say when it comes to a job, and your part is, in this case, to sit this one out. Dong ma?”

“But I-”

“Don’t but me,” he argued, descending the stairs down to the common area, closely followed by Bela. “It’s not like you’ll be alone. Kaylee, Wash, the doc and his sis – they’ll all stay behind on this one, too. Besides, I don’t want any complications,” he added, suddenly stopping and turning around, causing Bela to have to come to a skidding halt not to bump into him. “I don’t know what I can or what I can not expect from you. There isn’t a part you can play in this one, anyhow,” he added before she could argue with him again.

He turned around and headed for the cargo bay, but Bela’s voice stopped him mid-track. “But I’d feel useless,” she near whined. Mal turned around and raised his eyebrows. She took a step in his direction. “I’d feel useless not doing anything, and I’m not comfortable with gettin’ paid without havin’ to do anything for it.”

“Well there’s a surprise,” Mal replied. “There’s not many who would complain about making money without having to do none for it.” Bela shrugged. Mal jerked his head at her. “Besides, who said you were getting paid? You ain’t part of this crew yet.”

“But you-”

Suddenly Mal half-smiled and took a step towards her. “Here’s an idea: maybe you can make some fine meals like you did yesterday evening. If y’feel useless, want to earn your money, see yourself as the ship’s cook for the time being.”

He turned and walked off, leaving Bela feeling fairly annoyed with him. At her right, a high-pitched scream came from the infirmary. Bela didn’t jump up; she merely calmly looked aside and spotted Simon and River inside. After a few seconds, she turned and headed for her room in the passenger quarters.

In the infirmary, River settled down as soon as she had her shot. She looked around the room with a little suspicion and unease, but remained calmly in her chair.

Kaylee appeared and lingered in the doorway. Simon looked up and managed to smile. “Oh, hello, Kaylee.”

The mechanic walked in. “She ain’t putting up a fight as usual. ‘Bout being ‘ere, gettin’ her shots.”

“Yes…” Simon said, putting away the syringe and dabbing his sister’s arm with alcohol where he’d inserted the needle. “I think it’s a combination of getting used to it and being a little dulled from the meds.”

“She didn’t seem dulled strippin’ us all naked of our money yesterday, with that card game,” Kaylee said with a smile, pointing at River, who was intently studying the wall at her left, scratching her arm where the needle had punctured the skin.

Simon just smiled at her and tended to River.

“She makes up stories…” the young girl said softly.

“What is it, River?” Simon asked, and his sister turned her head to him.

“She makes up stories,” River repeated. “Makes them up, tells them to us, but doesn’t write them down.”

“Who does?” Simon caressed her hair.

River looked at her brother intently. “Makes her a liar, and we don’t believe her. He doesn’t believe her. He wants to, though he’s aching to find out what’s underneath. What’s real…”

River turned her head away again and returned to non-understandable mumbling. Simon caught Kaylee’s questioning look, and the look he returned to her said that most of the time, he didn’t understand River and her talking any better than she did, or anyone else on the ship did for that matter.

A short silence. “So… are you two sitting this one out, too?” Kaylee asked, then realizing the obvious. “Yeah – ‘course you are,” she laughed, not receiving much response from Simon but a half-forced smile. “Obviously…”

They were left in an uncomfortable silence.

* * *

With his hands in his pockets, Mal looked for a moment how Zoe and Jayne were loading up the mule with the last of the crates: the goods supposed to go to Beaumonde. He turned back to Dumar’s guy in front of him, going over the last bits of the plan.

“So we fly straight to New Dunsmuir, take the goods to Dumar’s ourselves.”

“That’s right,” Dumar’s guy replied. “When they all arrive intact and complete, you lot’ll be paid cash right there and then.”

“We’ll get the goods there whole and well, just as we’ve received them here,” Mal assured him with a serious voice. “So you just make sure they are ‘intact and complete’ now.”

“Dang-ran.” The guy made a little bow.

“Good, then. Everything shiny.”

Mal jumped onto the mule next to Zoe, and as soon as he sat, she took off.

* * *

Malcolm Reynolds wanted to feel like there was nothing about that day that bothered him now tonight. Slumped down in a large chair in the sitting corner of the dining area, a drink in his hand, feeling completely alone even though all of his crew was asleep in their bunks or rooms only a few feet from where he was sitting.

He figured he best get some sleep himself, at this ridiculously late hour of the night. He wanted to be clear-minded and bright when pulling off that job tomorrow. But he couldn’t go to sleep just yet. Besides, he probably couldn’t bring himself to sleep either if he tried. Because he kept thinking about these past few days, these past few weeks, which had been horrible in various ways. So right now, Mal should’ve felt pleased, because a few days ago they’d finally found a new passenger and today, finally a new job. He wanted to feel like there was nothing wrong.

So how come he was so bothered?

Mal took a large drink. Truth was, he still hadn’t gotten used to the absence of Inara and it affected him more than he cared to say. He knew damn well he was always darker whenever she wasn’t around. That she lighted up the room for him. What had always soothed him was the idea of having her close, knowing she’d always be there. Never once had he allowed himself to consider the possibility that one day, maybe he couldn’t take her presence for granted anymore, because she simply wouldn’t be around any longer. Until that day she announced she’d be leaving.

With Inara’s absence and them being unemployed for so long, Mal felt life had been hard on him lately. Frankly, all he wanted right now was just one good day.

Suddenly, noises sounded in the dining area. Mal sat up straight and looked at the radio lying on the table in front of him. He didn’t smile.

Mal pushed himself to get up and he emptied his drink. Part of him really just wanted to go to bed, but his legs took him down the stairs to the common area instead. He liked walking around the ship when he couldn’t sleep. It comforted him, put his mind to rest, knowing she, Serenity, was the one thing he could always rely on. The one thing that would always be there for him – unlike Inara, he thought bitterly - and allowed him to escape, allowed him freedom.

But tonight even Serenity didn’t seem able to give him a little peace inside his head. If he wasn’t thinking about Inara, he was thinking about the job they’d picked up in Beylix – there was just something about it he didn’t trust, he figured it from the attitude of Dumar’s guy, and… well, he didn’t have solid reasons. It was just something about it that seemed fishy to him. And part of him wondered if it had anything to do with the fairly strange behavior of –

Bela was down here in the cargo bay. Mal watched how she wandered around the crates of goods supposed to be delivered to Dumar in Beaumonde tomorrow. She slid a hand across the top of one of the crates, eyeing them intently. Then she turned around and –

“Wuo de ma!” she breathed with her hand over her heart after being completely startled, finding Mal standing behind her, only an inch away, hands folded behind his back.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Mal asked casually.

Bela ran a hand through her wavy hair, trying to get herself together. She still looked like she’d seen a ghost. “As a matter of fact, no.” “Right,” Mal nodded, and jerked his head toward the crates. “So you decided to give these crates of valuable goods a nice long stare, hoping you might find yourself getting sleepy?”

Bela shook her head. “Are you implying I-”

“Just find it a weird alternative to, say, a warm drink from the kitchen, is all.”

Bela took a step back, getting a little more space in between her and him. “I was in the common area, if you like to know. Went off to bed but I must’ve gotten turned around because I ended up here instead of in the passenger dorm.”

“Now you see, you’re not even trying,” Mal said calmly but with a dangerous tone in his voice. “Besides the fact a five year old can come up with a better excuse than that fei hua, you’re not even trying to sound convincing. So what are you really up to in the deep of night? And don’t give me any of your stories.”

Mal looked at her, and as she was looking straight back into his eyes, it seemed like she was hesitating, wanting to say something but was restrained by whatever thought or motivation. It seemed to last a minute – but then Bela sighed a little and said casually, “I’m just wondering if you’re doing the right thing. Taking on this job. I… I’m worried it might go down wrong.”

“I think you better leave the worrying about our crime to the professionals – but was that really what you were going to say?”

The brunette walked around him and muttered, “I’m going to bed.”

She didn’t get far, because Mal grabbed her tightly by the arm and turned her back around, his face close to hers to give a bit more effect to his speech. He told her clearly and seriously, “I know you’re not a ‘writer’. I know you can’t tell a Le Mat revolver from a Winchester just ‘cos your daddy took you hunting. Frankly, I don’t care much ‘bout who or what you really are, but you try to cross my crew, you try you cross me, you gonna wish your ass stayed behind on Persephone. Dong ma?”

Bela’s bright eyes flickered; she looked affected by his words, but didn’t say a thing, and didn’t break eye contact either until Mal let go of her arm. She looked into his eyes for another few seconds, and then marched out off the cargo bay.

“There’d better not be anything missing,” he muttered under his breath. He took a quick look at the crates but didn’t notice anything suspicious. For some reason he didn’t expect she’d taken anything, and frankly, he could look inside the crates, but he wouldn’t be able to tell anyway. He didn’t even know what he was transporting, let alone how much of it. What was important was the fact that Bela had taken the bait. Any person in their right mind would’ve figured thieves hid their stolen goods and didn’t leave them lying around in the cargo bay, ready for the taking. But apparently, Bela hadn’t found it suspicious. She hadn’t realized Mal had left them there on purpose, just to see if she’d come and take a look.

Mal walked past the crates and kneeled to the ground. From behind the mule he grabbed the hidden radio, which was in direct contact with the one lying on the table in the dining area upstairs, and he turned it off with a sigh.

He sat there for a moment, kneeled, confused, not knowing what to expect or what to think of this new passenger. Whether she was up to something serious or was just in it for the drama, Bela could really mean trouble – and that meant another concern to Mal’s already long list of concerns. The Captain ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair, then headed off for his own bunk and bed as well – never noticing the crate Bela had slid her hand across only minutes ago had been opened, but apparently not sealed closed again too well in one single corner.

* * *

They arrived a short while earlier in Beaumonde than expected, halfway through the afternoon. Not many of the crew was gathered in the cargo bay, since Mal had decided the day before it probably wasn’t wise for any of the crew to walk around town and risk attracting any form of attention; with the Alliance so close on this case, Mal figured it was best to just drop the goods and take off, not take any risks.

Though she agreed with his reason, Kaylee was a little disappointed she couldn’t go out, and so she stood in the cargo bay to watch Mal, Jayne and Zoe leave. Wash was there as well to tell his wife to be careful, and finally, Bela was among the group, looking a little worn around the eyes.

Bela was standing with arms crossed, not watching how Zoe got onto the mule or how Jayne tied up the last crate real good; but she was focused on Mal instead, who was standing in between her and the mule, a few feet removed from both. When he seemed to walk up to the ride, Bela instinctively quickly moved forward and stopped him by grabbing his lower arm.

He turned and looked at her questioningly.

“Do you even know what you’re transporting?” she asked with a lowered voice.

Mal raised his eyebrows. “Do you?”

She narrowed her eyes but ignored that comment.

“I never do ask,” Mal said honestly after a moment of silence. Again, he found her wearing that look, as if she wanted to say something but was holding back. Finally Bela let go of his arm and Mal turned to head for the mule.

“Just – zhu tamin ya min zhu yi,” Mal suddenly heard her say softly to his back, making him stop in mid-walk and after a moment turn around. Bela was already walking away from him, out of the cargo bay.

Mal stared at her retrieving back, his eyes a little wide. Watch your back. He felt confused and surprised at her words – and not because she’d said it with concern for him or worry; but because she’d said it with a sincere, warning undertone. As if she knew more than he did.