Capacity Chapter 6

Joly

Rated PG-13

A stopover at Abaddon Station leads to some issues.

I don’t own the crew or the ‘verse, I just like playin’ in it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were Abaddon Station again. Picking up mail, the crew getting a chance to enjoy the carnival like atmosphere, generally just enjoying some R&R before starting another run.

Mal passed through the crowd, alert and edgy. He came to the postal kiosk and signed for the crew’s mail and packages. No unusually large packages this time, much to his relief. He stuck everything in a large bag he was carrying and headed back to the ship.

Something caught his eye, a flicker in the crush. Long brown hair, somehow familiar. He changed course and followed the flicker. The woman made her way through the crowd, slipping deftly away.

“Gorramit,” Mal breathed and stopped.

She was gone.

~~~~

“When are we leaving, Mal?” Wash called from the top of the catwalk as Mal entered the ship.

“You in a hurry?”

Wash just smiled, “My wife, your second, wants to see the sunset on Clayborne, which is next on our schedule. You know how loathe I am to keep her from something she wants.”

Mal, by this time, had joined the man on the catwalk.

“Plus, might be a hormone thing…”

Mal stopped in his tracks.

“You sayin’ Zoe’s pregnant?”

Wash grinned from ear to ear.

“I’m not saying anything. Ask her yourself.”

Mal narrowed his eyes at his pilot and headed further into the ship.

“She’s on the bridge,” Wash called to Mal’s retreating figure.

~~~~

“You pregnant?” Mal asked immediately upon coming across his first mate.

“I’m fine, sir. And you?”

“Zoe.”

She shook her head, smiling.

“I am.”

Mal sat in the co-pilot’s seat, stunned.

“Don’t look so surprised. You knew Wash and I were trying.”

Mal looked up.

“It’s not that… Thinking about it is one thing, thinking about the ‘mights’. I just never saw it in my head. Zoe Washburn, soldier, first-mate… mother.”

Zoe sat back in Wash’s chair, reclining peacefully.

“I almost couldn’t see it either. All the death and destruction… I’d almost given up hope that I could create anything worthwhile.” She closed her eyes, smiling. “Then I met Wash, and fight as I did, I couldn’t fight myself, what I wanted. A husband, lover, a family.”

Mal was moved and, let’s face it, mildly disturbed, by Zoe’s confession. It was a side of her he rarely saw. A part of her she saved solely for Wash.

Mal pulled himself out of his reverie.

“So, you’re saying you are definitely knocked up?”

More smiling from Zoe as her hand went to her abdomen.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He stood to leave. At the exit he turned back towards his friend. “Congratulations, by the way.”

“Thank you, sir.”

~~~~~

“This place doesn’t have the mutated cow fetus?” Simon asked, trailing behind Kaylee, River in the lead.

“No, Simon, that was a different station,” Kaylee replied, pulling him along.

“They have a maze,” River said, “Just up ahead.”

“We’re going to a maze?” Simon asked.

“It’ll be fun,” Kaylee said.

“Getting lost in a maze on a luh suh space station is going to be fun?”

“Simon!” Kaylee chided, “Where’s you’re sense of adventure?”

Simon just walked into the maze behind the two women.

“Back on Osiris…”

~~~~~

Xiaofan was in the med bay, cataloguing, updating the needs list and generally avoiding everyone. She was the sixth toe doctor on a ship that already had a Core-trained physician. By accident, but there it was.

She could afford to pay her passage almost indefinitely, but then what? Would she become part of the crew? In what capacity? Simon was a gifted doctor, they didn’t really need her for that. Jayne Cobb’s love slave? Not a position that would garner much respect.

She had a vast knowledge of the illegal drug trade, and that might be helpful. If they knock over an Alliance hospital again. But as it stood, Captain Reynolds had a full dance card on the job front and her specific qualities weren’t needed.

‘A damn sixth toe,’ she thought, marking the list of supplies.

“You hidin’ again, Xiao?” Jayne asked, walking into the infirmary.

She turned to him and smirked.

“Not hiding, attempting to be useful. Simon is out with Kaylee and River, so I decided to do his supply list. You know, be helpful.”

“You need any help with anything, Doctor Lo?” Jayne asked, glint in his eye.

Xiaofan smiled seductively.

“Why yes, Mister Cobb, I do.”

When Jayne moved to embrace her she shoved a list in his hand.

“We need to go see how much of this we can find on the station.”

Jayne let out his breath in a rush of disappointment.

“And you can buy me an ice-e treat. I like raspberry.”

~~~~~~~

“River? Kaylee?” Simon called, completely lost in the Abaddon maze. All he heard was a giggle. “River, you knew how to get out of this maze before we got in it, help me!”

“I told you he’d be a spoilsport,” Kaylee said, entering his view, hand in hand with River.

“No, he’ll have fun,” River said, “Part two…”

River let go of Kaylee’s hand and rushed off into the maze.

“River!” Kaylee and Simon called, almost in unison. But she was gone.

They looked at each other.

“Have you ever been through this maze before?” Simon asked.

Kaylee just shrugged.

“Never had anyone wanted to go with me before.”

Simon took a deep breath.

“My sister is a brat.”

~~~~~~~

Mal was back on the station. He told Zoe he would do her supply run, supposedly to give her a chance to get used to her delicate condition, but ultimately to see if he was a complete loon.

He walked the corridors, glancing at the stalls and shops occasionally. Concentrating more on the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of the glimpse he’d gotten the other day.

He’d talked himself out of interrogating shopkeepers, assuming that would be too conspicuous.

He’d almost given up hope when he caught sight of her. He followed her avidly this time, willing the crowd to part so he could keep her in his eye-line. He saw her profile, her hair tied up, dressed in the coveralls of a station engineer.

He was almost upon her when she disappeared. Mal cursed to himself and spun around, searching the crowd.

“You looking for me?” a woman’s voice asked from behind him.

Mal turned.

“Ruby?”

“Who?” she asked, looking confused.

“Ruby Delacroix… You… You lived on Shadow…”

She continued to look perplexed.

“You must have me confused with someone else. My name is Kiran. I grew up on Whitefall.”

“You… You look just like…”

“Sorry, not her,” the woman said, before disappearing into the crowd again.

~~~~~~

Xiaofan didn’t know what hit her.

He was stealth, moving through the crowd, into the shop. He had his hand over her mouth and pulled her into the backroom before she could take a breath to scream. He had her cuffed and gagged just as quickly.

He stood over Xiaofan, hand on his blade, face masked. She pled with her eyes for her life. The blade was unsheathed, he advanced. She screamed behind the gag, calling on whatever deity would hear her.

He knelt before her, blade tip resting against her skin at her ribcage. She nearly fainted.

He pressed the knife slightly and pulled away his mask. He yanked the gag from her mouth.

“ZhangZi?” she cried.

“Sister,” he replied.