Title: The Alliance Spins, Part 6 of 8 Author: CharlieBZ Summary: Inara meets the loan shark. Rating: PG for language Characters: Crew Pairing: Canon, but romantic relationships are not the focus Spoilers/Timeline: BDM spoilers but takes place before the end of the movie. Disclaimer: No money is being made from by me and I certainly don’t own Firefly/Serenity. Author's Note: This fic takes place within my interpretation of post –BDM Firefly. If you’re a little lost see my blog entry here.

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

The Alliance Spins, Part 6

As she painted, Inara honored the dead. She offered prayers not only for the people of Haven and Miranda but also for the soldiers who died fighting the Reavers. She had no antipathy for those who had followed the Operative’s orders. After all, they believed they were fighting for a good cause. Her prayers, however, did not extend to the murderers who had attacked the peaceful Haven community. She well understood the honor involved in following orders but murdering innocents? Inara’s grip on the paintbrush tightened as she tried, again, to understand how a person could possibly justify what those people did. Try as she might, she simply could not comprehend how anyone could slaughter families. Children.

Her hand trembled as she dipped her brush into the red paint, her mind recalling the horror at Haven. The images of the carnage haunted her for it was her first glimpse into the ruthlessness of the Alliance. No, she amended, not the Alliance. The blame rested squarely on those truly misguided officials who committed evil in support of the government. Setting down the brush, she closed her eyes reminding herself that she knew plenty of honorable men and women who served in the military and other arms of the government. Good people who would be mortified by the atrocities carried out in the name of the government they fervently supported.

But what about Miranda? Good people ardently believing they were doing the right thing were behind that disastrous decision. What else have good people done in the name of making the universe a better place? Who out there is making decisions in the interest of the greater good? What right do those people have to force humanity to change for the better? To take boys and girls and alter them, brainwash them, lobotomize them?

Her gaze drifted down to the ground seeking out River. A jolt of pure anger shot through her as she thought about had been done to her and all those other innocent people. Why, why, why? Inara realized her hand had stopped painting and hovered over Serenity’s hull shaking. Trying to still her upset spirit, she stared intently at the ship focusing on one of the imperfections allowing her tears to fall and purging her mind of things of which she had no control.

Once her vision cleared, Inara began etching the lettering for Serenity. Her hand was once more steady as she filled in the letters and characters. Honoring friends and strangers the only way she knew how; with her mind, her love, her art…her tears.

She wished she knew a Christian prayer for the dead for the people who followed that faith. For Shepherd Book; the man whom had made an impression so quickly in all their lives but whom they really didn't know at all. Whoever he was, she loved him for caring for the crew, for befriending Jayne, for his patience with River, for reaching out to Mal, trying to find the soul that Mal no longer believed he possessed, and for pushing him to believe. Those were the Shepherd’s last words to him and Mal had listened but in the quiet aftermath had he lost what little belief he had found?

Giving in to a deep sigh, Inara gathered the painting supplies relieved to be finished. Painting Serenity had been cathartic; she had been happy to contribute something tangible to the restoration of Serenity. Her love for Serenity and her crew was behind every delicate brushstroke and that, she thought sadly, would be all they would have left of her.

***

"May I have those?" River asked pointing to the painting supplies.

Inara, washing out the paint brushes, paused and looked up at River trying not to show her alarm. She tried to visualize Mal coming back to Serenity only to find the cargo bay painted in a Riveresque style.

River sighed dramatically infusing all her exasperation into the exhalation. "Not for Serenity.” She looked very much an aggrieved teenager. “Mr. Gunderson said I could paint his house."

"He still feels guilty about the poison ivy?"

River nodded with a slight grin and looked over the paints. "Brown, yellow, red, orange, white, but I also need…" She scrunched her facing thinking. "…blue and pink." She cast a look behind her toward the front gate. "And purple."

"We probably have some blue and we can make pink but I seriously doubt Mal has anything remotely purple." Inara said giving River a wink.

"Red and blue equals purple."

"Well, there you go."

“Purple is prettier than brown.”

“Don’t let Mal and Zoë hear you say that!” Inara chided putting an arm around River and pulling her close. Together they looked up at the newly painted emblem. "Will it do?" She asked carelessly but studied the emblem with a critical eye. The insignia on Serenity’s hull both amused and irritated her. Leave it to Mal to boldly proclaim who he was on his smuggling vessel. As a criminal, he should try for a little more anonymity but Mal never did do what was expected of him.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice that River’s attention was no longer focused on the ship.

“Serenity. Now why do you suppose he calls her that?”

Inara was startled by the female voice behind her. She squeezed River's shoulder as her mind processed who the speaker may be. In the span of an instant, she registered the timbre, the accent, and the inflection of the voice. Short analysis: the speaker was female, not formally educated, and very arrogant.

Deliberately, Inara turned around slowly indicating to the unknown speaker that she wasn't alarmed. Her face showed not the slightest surprise except for an imperceptible raising of one eyebrow. Inara, however, was wholly unprepared for the sight in front of her - the voice did not match the colorfully dressed woman who stood so commandingly in front of her. No matter, Inara thought, the voice and all it unwittingly betrayed was truth. Inara knew better than anyone, including this woman, the deception of appearances.

“I beg your pardon?” Inara asked politely offering a curious, benign smile. It took a little effort to keep amusement at the woman’s garish appearance from showing but her effort was for naught as the woman continued gazing up at the ship pointedly ignoring Inara. Ah, so that's how you wish to play. A mistake, to be sure, for it gave Inara more opportunity to study the woman whom Inara strongly suspected was a business associate of Mal's. Possibly the loan shark?

Inara softly pushed River away not wanting her to be around the stranger. River frowned but did as Inara silently asked picking up the paints and walking to the dilapidated workshop. Inara watched her walk away and nodded her head indicating to River that she get out of sight. River flashed a look that told Inara she could take care of not only herself but Inara, too. Inara's eyes narrowed slightly in chastisement telling River to stay away.

As she waited for the woman to acknowledge her, Inara continued her observation of the stranger. She estimated her age to be in her late fifties. The woman’s short, poorly colored hair only highlighted the woman's age instead of concealing it as was the intention. The black hair was too severe for the woman’s pale face - as was the over-the-top purple business suit. The suit looked to be a better made knock-off of a Calista suit that been all the rage in the Sihnon business world three years ago. The shimmery material was floral but the woman was all steel.

As were the two large men who stood silently behind the woman. They, too, were attractively attired in suits of a color that complemented their employer. She would have indulged herself in an inward laugh at the efforts of color coordination had she not observed the faint outlines under their suits; these men were well armed. Inara met River's eye across the Yard.

She smiled at her conveying a silent question with a slight narrowing of her eyes but River shrugged and went off to begin painting. Neither of them sensed that they were in any immediate danger.

In an attempt to establish dominance, the woman continued ignoring Inara. Inara, tired of the waiting game, made a show of pulling her hair off her neck and winding it into a deliberately casual knot at the nape of her neck. As expected, the woman's attention was now focused on her. That's better, Inara thought. Acting as if she had forgotten Inara’s presence, the woman walked closer. Her eyes roved over Inara taking in every detail. Inara met the woman’s gaze not showing the slightest embarrassment at her less than stellar attire.

“The firefly. Why Serenity?”

“It’s a nice name, don’t you think?”

“I would have thought that would be the last thing Mal needs to be reminded of.” Inara wasn’t expecting the woman to be aware of Mal’s history. Interesting.

“I’m sorry, but are you a friend of his?” Even though Inara had a strong suspicion whom she was addressing, the vanity she observed in the other woman needed to be respected.

“I’m the one bankrolling this whole sorry project.”

“I’m Inara.” She offered her hand pointedly ignoring the woman’s disparaging comment. The woman presented a practiced smile and lightly shook Inara's hand.

“Sunny. Sunny Dae." She stood looking at Inara waiting for an answer to her original question.

"You'll have to ask the Captain the reason he calls his ship Serenity."

"The Captain?" Sunny mocked lightly. "So, what are you doing travelling with 'the Captain'? You his girlfriend?”

The sound of Kaylee's laughter rang out. She and Simon were standing on Serenity's ramp holding hands – their heads bent close together. Even from this distance, the two were obviously oddly paired. Sunny's eyes narrowed with interest as she studied the couple.

“No. Just a friend of the crew." Wanting to distract the woman, Inara moved so that she blocked the view. Not a subtle move, Inara acknowledged to herself, but a necessary one. She wanted the woman’s attention to remain focused on her. She smiled sweetly allowing a trace of seduction to enter her smile. "Is there something I can help you with?”

Finally seeing that a stranger was in their midst, Simon rushed over to River. Inara inwardly cringed at his obvious alarm as he hurried to his sister. Kaylee, however, remained on Serenity’s ramp. She smiled a guileless smile and waved a greeting to Sunny.

Sunny waved back at Kaylee. “I just wanted to see the ship that Mal is so in love with that he’d take out a loan with me.”

That was all the opening Inara needed. “Ms. Dae. May I present an offer?” She tilted her head slightly in what she knew would be a deferential look.

“You may.” Sunny's attention was back on Inara.

“If the Captain…,” Inara deliberately faltered. “If the Captain falls behind in his payments to you, would you…consider notifying me before you find it necessary to resort to the…usual collection practices?”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. “You sure you’re not his girlfriend?”

Inara quickly debated whether it would be best for Sunny to think she was intentionally withholding that information. She decided that was a little too close to the truth. “I am.”

Sunny studied Inara before responding. “He’s out six plus interest. You think you can cover that?”

“If necessary.”

“Honey, if you got that kind of coin at your disposal what are you doing out here on that flying death trap?”

“I like to travel.” Inara smiled warmly. “How about I give you an address where you may contact me?”

Sunny beckoned one of the men behind her who presented Inara with a datapad. After entering the information she returned the pad to Sunny.

Sunny scanned the info. “This isn’t the ship’s frequency?”

“No, a private service. If you leave a message there, I will contact you.”

“You won’t be on the ship?”

Inara paused for the briefest moment. “No,” she said hoping Sunny had not noticed her hesitation.

“Mal won’t like this,” Sunny said.

Inara shrugged appearing indifferent to making Mal angry. “He doesn’t need to know.”

“Why would a pretty lady such as you want to help a crazy smuggler?”

“I was a passenger for a short while. His crew and I became good friends.” Inara clasped her hands and looked down at them. Her mind furiously calculated the best way to convey concern without appearing to care too much. She didn’t want Sunny to understand the depth of the crew’s attachment to one another. “If something happens to him, well, I would hate to see the crew scatter to the ends of the ‘verse.”

Sunny gave her a disbelieving look which Inara found irritating and unacceptable. "Don’t worry about your Captain, honey. I like making money more than I like having to remove people's limbs. Well, most of the time at least." She gave Inara a wink. "So I'll keep you in mind." She cast another condescending look at Serenity and started to walk away.

The meeting was not ending to Inara’s satisfaction. She had played the last part of this charade wrong and the woman had formed the wrong impression of Inara – well, not the impression Inara wanted her to leave with. How to salvage?

“Oh, Sunny,” she called out. The woman turned back to look at her; the mockery still evident in her eyes. Inara smiled infusing all her culture and sophistication into her eyes, the tilt of her head, and into her charming smile. She needed this woman to see her as the Core sophisticate that Sunny obviously aspired to be. “Love the suit.”

As expected, the woman nearly giggled her pleasure at the compliment. Sometimes the simplest lies were the most effective. The ruse was obvious but Inara suspected the woman was too pleased with her own appearance to care.

“This old thing?” Sunny looked down at her outfit with pride. Tossing her head in a youngish fashion, she gestured to her goons signaling an end to the meeting. “Happy travelling, Inara.” She set off with her bodyguards following five paces behind.

Inara kept the smile on her face until the woman and her thugs walked out of her sight. Her smile faded as she mentally replayed the meeting.

“Who was that?” Kaylee asked.

“A business associate of Mal.”

“Well, he must be movin’ up in the world. She looks much nicer than the others.”

“Hmmmm,” Inara muttered but her thoughts were not on Kaylee’s observation. She was suddenly very worried about what Mal was doing for this woman.

"The flowers were ugly. The suit was ugly.” River said as she and Simon approached.

“Oh, I liked it! Big pink and red flowers on the shiny purple. Real pretty,” Kaylee said.

“What kind of business would she have with the Captain?” Simon asked. Inara heard the slightly condescending emphasis on ‘she.’ He, too, had recognized the tackiness of the woman. “Maybe she isn’t…”

“She is,” Inara said. She didn’t want Simon to dismiss the woman simply because he perceived her as a vulgar social climber type. “She masks her danger well behind her…colorful clothes.” Inara carefully chose her words avoiding openly disparaging the woman’s outdated and loud fashion choices.

“Soulless,” River said casting a contemptuous look toward where she had last seen Sunny. “A slimy frog! Ribbet." She hopped toward Kaylee sticking out her tongue. "Frogs eat fireflies.”

Kaylee, Inara, and Simon just looked at her.

"I'm going back to paint Mr. Gunderson's house. I made purple!” River hopped away.

"Stay away from the bushes!" Simon called out then looked sheepishly at Kaylee and Inara, "I guess she probably knows that."

Kaylee met Inara’s eye indicating that she wanted to talk. They both turned their attention to Simon who looked at them blankly for a few moments until he got the message that they wanted to speak alone. "I'll just…"

"We'll keep an eye on her," Kaylee told Simon giving him a wink. He looked like he wanted to give her a kiss but his eyes darted toward Inara and he self-consciously shrugged his shoulders and went back to the ship.

Kaylee and Inara gazed at one other for a few moments. Each still nursing hurt feelings over their argument almost a week ago.

“Hey,” Kaylee finally said.

“Hey, you.” Inara fell back to their old greeting signaling to Kaylee that she harbored no hard feelings.

Inara waited for Kaylee to talk but the young woman was uncharacteristically shy.

"How are you doing, Kaylee?"

"Me? Great. Got Serenity back to life. Me and Simon are doin'... good. Thank you for, you know, keeping River company. We’ve been spendin’ a lot of time together. He's a lot of fun. And so polite---"

"I mean, how are you really?" Inara knew Kaylee didn’t really want to talk about her new beau. Well, not right now. She could see that she had deeper things on her mind.

Kaylee sighed and looked up at Serenity before meeting Inara’s steady gaze. "I'm scared, Inara. Been so busy fixin' Serenity and being with Simon I just ain't been thinkin' 'bout…you know. Not that I'm forgetting! It's just so …" Shaking her head, she gave Inara a helpless look. "Meant what I said earlier. And I ain’t lookin’ for another fight.” She reached out and lightly rubbed Inara’s arm.

Inara laid a hand over Kaylee’s and squeezing it tenderly. Their estrangement had affected her, too.

“But, it’s just…going back to the Black. Back to business. It's gonna seem more real. Flyin' around without him. Dinnertime." Her eyes filled with tears. "Can't imagine what Zoë'll do. She and him spent all their time together."

Inara brushed Kaylee’s tears away and held her close. Kaylee sniffed and gave Inara a brave smile then went in to get the lawn chairs for them to sit.

Kaylee set down the chairs in a spot where could see River’s head and arms moving as she painted the side of an old ship that Harvey called home. They were content to let River go about her project on her own. The young woman had too many people fawning over her and they figured that a little alone time would be good for her.

“Waved Zoë today.”

“Oh?”

"Yeah. Told her the inspection is scheduled for the day after tomorrow. She said she'll be back for that."

"How did she sound?"

"Just like Zoë."

“She’ll be alright,” Inara assured.

“Really?” Kaylee sounded doubtful.

Inara had seen her fair share of death in her life and could sympathize with Zoë's grief. The confusion and despair at the realization that you would never see a loved one again…

“Really.” If she had survived, then Zoë, who was a much stronger woman than she could ever hope to be, certainly would.

They sat in companionable silence until Kaylee spoke again. The sun began to set and Simon ventured back out of Serenity. Kaylee offered her chair to Simon and then, to his surprise, plopped down on his lap.

Inara looked on in amusement as Kaylee wiggled about on his lap trying to find a comfortable position.

"What do you think she’s painting?" She asked trying for some conversation to ease Simon’s nervousness. Inara smiled as she watched him try to look natural. Kaylee was going to have a difficult time getting Simon to be as comfortable with spontaneous, open, physical intimacy.

"Whatever it is, it should be an improvement." Simon said relaxing a little.

"I don't know.” Kaylee looked oblivious of Simon’s awkwardness. “The whole place has a decided charm. Puts me in mind of my Aunt Livy's. Boy, her place was a regular dump! Only wasn't no shipyard, neither. Woman just somehow ended up with stuff everywhere!"

"Ok! I'm done!" River rushed to them. "Come look!" She pulled Kaylee off Simon's lap.

They followed her to where a ship looked like it had crashed head first into the ground. The roof was missing and now the only remaining bulkhead was painted in a riot of colors. River used mostly brown and yellow. They seemed to swirl around each other dominating the pink, orange and white. A sqiggly blue line was on the edge with a prominent red circle on the top. Surrounding the picture was a thick purple border.

"Well, River, it's…interesting." Simon said peering warily at the picture.

"I love your use of colors.” Inara asked pleased with River's attempt at art. She looked at it closely trying to discover what River was attempting to say. “How you show the colors to almost be in a fight. What does each color symbolize?"

"I don't know."

"What’s it supposed to be?" Kaylee asked. "And why'd ya splatter red on all the other colors but not the brown and yellow? Does that mean somethin'?"

River shrugged. "I don't know. Do you like it?"

"Yes," they all replied.

River rolled her eyes. “Liars.”

Part 7