Out to the black Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. I’m just playing. No money being made.

This is my first Fan Fic ever. Constructive reviews are shiny.

This fic takes place two years after Serenity (BDM) and has the established couples of Simon/Kaylee and Mal/Inara along with a Jayne/River friendship.

A/N Another kinda long boring chapter. More action is in the works… I promise.

Out to the black

Chapter Eight – Interest

Allan awoke with a groan to Kaylee’s chipper voice announcing breakfast over Serenity’s com system. “How can that girl be so damn chipper this early in the morning.” He groused.

A soft knock on his door brought Allan more awake. Slowly swinging his feet to the floor, Allan shuffled to the door. As he slid it open, he found River standing outside holding a glass of water and a small bottle of pills.

“I think you will need this”

“Huh,”

“A mild analgesic and water for your hangover.”

Allan took the water and popped two small pills into his mouth. “Thanks River.” Allan whispered, his head pounding “How did you know?”

Gazing at Allan with her patented ‘you’re a boob’ expression, River tapped her temple with her index finger.

“Oh yeah, sorry” Allan chuckled, and then groaned as his head seemed to explode.

“Hurry up, Captain Daddy is waiting” the girl said as she spun in place and ran off towards the galley.

Dressing as quickly as he could, Allan slowly dragged himself to the galley. Entering he saw the rest of the crew around the table, Jayne in particular looked about like Allan felt.

“Good morning” Zoë said as Allan entered the room, a smile on her usually stoic face. It looked like she had cooking duty this morning.

“Uh, mornin” Allan said a bit surprised. Zoë had barely spoken to him all the time he’d been on Serenity.

“Nothin’ good bout’ it,” Jayne growled from his place at the table.

River plopped another pill bottle in front of Jayne. “Here Ape Man”

Jayne looked at his diminutive partner and mumbled something that sounded like “thanks.”

“Looks like you and my Merc tied one on last night” Mal said looking at Allan, not quite smiling.

“He had more than me, I don’t usually drink the hard stuff. I’m more of a beer kinda guy.”

“What were you two doin?” Zoë asked, as she started to serve breakfast.

“Booze and blues” Allan replied.

“Huh?” Mal grunted.

“Me an Jayne both play guitar. Stayed up to the wee hours drinking and playing the blues.”

“I see, well, back to the matter’s at hand,” Mal said. “Have you thought on my offer Allan?”

“I have” Allan said simply.

“And?” Mal asked a bit nervously.

Zoë had finished serving the food and sat down across from Allan. Mal looked at her since it wasn’t her usual spot. She returned his gaze with a look that said “What?”

“I have a few conditions,” Allan continued.

“Such as?” Mal Asked.

“I’m not cooking every meal. Put me on the rotation like everyone else. However you all can raid my supplies for the ingredients,” Allan said with a small smile. Continuing on, “I won’t be needing the pay. Split it between the rest of the crew. With the uh, items of monetary value you know I have. I’m pretty well off. I just need to convert it to the local currency.”

“That it?”

“Yes”

Mal smiled wide, Inara and Zoë joined him. River and Jayne shared a look since Jayne had guessed what Mal’s offer was the previous night and River had read it from the Captain. Only Kaylee and Simon were confused.

“What’s goin on Capn’?” Kaylee asked.

“Well, Kaylee, say hi to Serenity’s newest crewmember”

Kaylee squeaked “You stayin with us Allan?”

“Yep” Allan smiled at the young mechanic.

“That’s so shiny!” Kaylee bubbled as she reached over and gave Allan a hug. “Imagine’ what th’ two o’ us can do to make Serenity run better”

“Hold on there, Kaylee girl” Mal said quickly, “First off I need’s River to get him up to speed on flyin’ Serenity so’s she’s available dirt side for more jobs”

Kaylee deflated a bit at that. Simon didn’t look thrilled that his sister was going to be going on jobs more often.

“Not to worry Kaylee,” Allan said to the girl. “I need to learn the ships systems before I can help you out with repairs. Do you have any manuals I can borrow?”

Kaylee brightened again “Sure ‘nough Allan”

“I’ll stop by the engine room later to get them”

“Shiny”

“Iff’n we’re all done eatin, best be getting to work. River take Allan to the bridge and get started on his flyin lessons” Mal said, “Zoë n’ me’ll take care of the dishes.

River jumped from her seat, “Come fledgling, time to fly,” she giggled as she headed for the bridge.

“Yes Ma’am” Allan replied following the young girl.

Allan spent the rest of the morning learning Serenity’s controls and bridge systems. Allan’s biggest hurdle was the fact that many of the displays were in Chinese. River took pity on him and reconfigured the displays to read only in English. Once done, Serenity was very intuitive to fly. After a few hours of basic ship maneuvers, River locked out the co-pilots console and set it up with a simulator program that let Allan practice takeoffs and landings. Once mastering that, River set him to learning atmospheric departure and re-entry.

River was amazed at how quickly Allen had picked up the basics of flying a Firefly Class Transport. Already after only a few hours of practice she was confident that in an emergency, Allan could already handle Serenity well enough to make a safe landing.

“Allan?” River asked from the Pilot’s chair.

“Mmm, hmm” Allan mumbled, not taking his eyes from the screens in front of him as he practiced a complex entry sequence.

“You seem to be a natural pilot, more so than me even,” the young psychic commented.

“In the genes I guess,” Allan said as he concentrated on the current scenario on the computer. “Fourth generation pilot.” Sparing a quick glance at his young instructor, “I was the first one to fly in space though.”

“An impressive linage”

“Great Grand Dad flew airliners, my Grandfather was a military pilot… Flew fighters. My Dad flew corporate charters and my Mom flew military transports in the reserves as well as charters with my Dad.”

River caught a flash of sadness as Allan said the last. “They were killed weren’t they?”

“Yeah… I was twelve.” Allan said his voice tense, “Rookie Alliance controller vectored them into the middle of a class four thunderstorm…Plane went in… and shredded aluminum came out the bottom,” Allan finished his eyes hard.

“I understand your animosity towards the Alliance.”

“I don’t have as much as you do,” Allan said. He quickly regretted it, seeing the look on River’s face. “I’m sorry, that was very unkind of me.”

“It’s alright Allan, Maybe it’s time for a break, we’ve been at this for hours”

“I think you’re right. Lunch would hit the spot I think.”

“Let’s go,” River said smiling.

The pair entered the galley, Zoë, Inara and Jayne were making sandwiches, Jayne’s sandwich looked too big to fit in his mouth. “Looks like someone found the cold cuts in my food crates” Allan laughed.

“Can’t let good food go ta’ waste” Jayne mumbled with his mouth full of sandwich.

Allan and River made sandwiches for themselves and sat at the table. River rolling her eyes as she saw her Brother and Kaylee sitting in the lounge feeding each other bits of food.

As Allan ate he didn’t notice Zoë staring at him from time to time. River and Inara did though. Inara looked amused and River tried not to giggle. Allan finished his sandwich and looked to River.

“If we’re done with the flying lesson’s for a while River, I think I’ll go grab a shower and a nap. Seems I didn’t have a chance to get one last night since a certain pair of lovebirds were… saving water last night.” Allan finished glancing at the couple in the lounge with a knowing smile.

Kaylee giggled at Allan’s comment, Simon looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching car. Jayne laughed at him.

Giggling, River agreed. Allan excused himself and left the galley. Zoë’s eyes following him all the way out the door. Jayne got up as well and left the room muttering something about cleaning the bay.

Once Allan and Jayne were out of earshot, River spoke up looking directly at Zoë. “And what, pray tell are you doing?”

“Nothing little one” Zoë said nonchalantly.

“Uh, huh” Inara added, “Sure, nothing at all. You were just undressing Allan with your eyes when he left the room.”

“Was not!”

“Were too,” River giggled.

“No peekin’ there Mei Mei”

“Not peeking. You are broadcasting loud and clear,” River said with humor in her voice.

“He is rather swai. “ Zoë admitted quietly, looking down at the mug in her hands.

“He is at that,” Inara said with a smile.

Zoë’s expression darkened suddenly as she thought about her behavior regarding their newest crewmember. She had been ogling the man like a giddy schoolgirl. Inara noticed the change and squeezed her friend’s hand.

“It’s alright Zoë, It’s okay to look… Or more, if you want” Inara said sincerely. “Wash wouldn’t want you to be alone forever.”

“I feel like I’m betraying his memory.”

“If you remember Wash with love, it’s not betrayal.” Inara finished. “You have come far.”

“I’m not sure what I want,” Zoë admitted.

“Why don’t you try being friends Zoë? As smart as he is, Allan’s still lost in the woods with his limited knowledge of the ‘verse. He could use a helping hand.” River said knowingly.

“Okay little one,” Zoë smiled, “I can’t believe I’m taking relationship advise from you”

“I am a genius you know” River said causing the three women to start laughing.

The next two days went quickly for Allan. He had spent another half day with River, who afterwards, declared Allan fully qualified to fly Serenity. Kaylee had also contributed to Allan’s education. After bringing him up to speed on the ship’s systems. Allan found some new updates he could do to his own ship as well as pointing out some modifications Kaylee could make to Serenity.

A new tradition on Serenity began after dinner the second night as well. Once the evening meal was concluded, the crew gathered in the bay for an impromptu concert. Kaylee had rigged an adaptor letting Allan power his guitar amplifier as well as charge the battery in his laptop computer. Allan had installed a high tech karaoke program on his laptop. It displayed both the lyrics and musical notes on the screen from any song played from his extensive collection. The program then allowed for selective removal of any instrument or voice from the song file. This let Allan’s own playing and singing to take the place of the original.

At first only Allan and Jayne played. Allan on his Fender Stratacaster and Jayne on his acoustic guitar. The evening of music began with some of the blues tunes they had played previously. Before long, River had joined in on Allan’s Second electric guitar, a vintage Gibson Les Paul. Soon the trio backed by the laptop computer began to rock the house so to speak. Zoë amazed everyone with her strong singing voice as she sang along to Heart’s ‘Barracuda’.

After a couple of hours, Mal had to bring the party to a close as it was getting late, much to the grumbles of the rest of the crew. Mal pointed out that they were due to land on Aberdeen at eight AM ships time for the cargo drop. Reluctantly, the crew made their way to bed.

Making his before bed turn around the ship, Mal thought on how well the evening had gone. Allan seemed to be a good influence on Jayne. The Merc and Simon were getting along almost civilized and Zoë seemed happier than Mal had seen... Well, since before Wash had died. Inara had dropped a not so subtle hint that Zoë liked Allan a bit and that Mal should arrange for them to spend some time together.

Mal had originally balked at the idea. Inara pointed out that Zoë just wanted a friendship for now, so Mal reluctantly agreed. He had decided that after the drop, Zoë and Allan would go out to pick up supplies. Something simple for Allan to do to get his feet wet off ship with Zoë along to keep him out of trouble, or from getting lost.

Wondering again on who really was in charge on his ship, Mal made his way past his bunk heading for the cargo bay and Inara’s shuttle. Images of Inara were at the forefront of his thoughts but one little doubt lingered in the back of his mind. Things were going so well at the moment, something just had to go pear shaped sometime. He just hoped it was later rather than sooner.

TBC