Capacity Chapter 7

Rated PG-13

I don't own them, I just like to play with them. I give them back when I'm done.

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"ZhangZi?" Xiaofan gasped. "You've already said that," he said, moving back slightly and sheathing his knife. "Why… Why in heaven's name did you grab me and almost gut me?"

"Blue Sun wasn't sure you were dead. They sent me to make sure. They didn't realize our familial issue." "That explains why you're here, but not why you kidnapped and pulled your knife on me." ZhangZi contemplated. "That is more complicated." "Are you going to kill me?" she asked with out a trace of fear. ZhangZi shrugged. "Officially, you're already dead. Not much point in it." "Lovely, then I'm going." He blocked her exit. "Don't think you're safe, sis. If I can find you…" "You took this job knowing you wee hunting your sister." "I did." "What happened to you, ZhangZi?" Here, he sat casually on a crate and shrugged. "Ma and Ba are dead. And Yeye died recently, like a month ago." She stood, stock still. "Ma and Ba died not long after you went off to the fancy school with all the money Yeye saved for you. Money that should have been used to keep the family afloat. But he didn't think of that. He only thought of his precious baobao." "Yeye… I didn't know… I thought... Laoma sent letters…" she said sadly. "Yeye sent the letters, he didn't want you distracted. Not his precious girl." "I sent money…" "That your Yeye gambled away."

"No he didn't!" At Xiaofan's shocked look ZhangZi smiled. "Not the perfect man you always pictured, huh?" Xiaofan steeled herself. "I sent the money, didn't I? Why didn't you contact me? Let me know things had gone to hell?" "And beg my little sister? You didn't care about us once you got on that Core planet-" "How the hell would you know? You never messaged me, read my letters, anything. If you did you would have known how homesick I was, how much I missed the family." "How much you missed being the bright star on Newhall instead of one of many on Osiris." "I can't change how you feel, brother. But I am going," she said, this time making it by him.

"See you soon, little sis," ZhangZi called after her, laughing. ~~~~~ "Shouldn't we be leaving now, sir?" Zoe asked, getting increasingly annoyed with her captain. "Wash says we can still make it if we leave tomorrow." "I ain't questioning that. I'm asking you why? Why are we waiting an extra day when we don't need to?" Mal stood in silence. The real answer would make him look like a ruttin' nut job and a fake answer would make him look like a fool. He decided to go with the standard. "'Cause I'm the captain, and I say we're stayin' one more day." With that, Mal turned and left the galley, leaving a very confused and irritated Zoe in his wake. ~~~~ She was there in the cantina. Mal would swear it was Ruby. He sat far enough away as to be inconspicuous, but close enough to keep an eye on her. She was sitting at the bar, eating and drinking an mug of ale. He liked her more already. He didn't think that the Ruby Delacroix he knew on Shadow drank, but so much changes in so many years. He was nursing his own beverage, watching her, when a rough started to give her some trouble. "You wanna go back to my place, pretty lady?" the big, plug ugly demanded and leaned down on her. "Shenme?" she asked, "I didn't understand you, what with all the teeth missing." Mal laughed, but didn't get up. If she got in real trouble, he'd be there in a shot, but… He wanted to see. "What did you say to me, you little whore?!" Here, she reached into her coveralls and pulled something Mal, and apparently the brute, didn't see. "I said, you daidaibuhaoqiangbaohaozideqingwacaodeliumang, I'm not interested." Just as the brute roared with rage and was about to tear the little woman to pieces, she pressed the item in her hand into his gut. The bully shook uncontrollably for a moment and then fell to the floor. She took off quickly, hoping none of the man's friends were about. Mal stood and followed her. He rounded a bend and should have seen her, but she appeared to be gone. Suddenly he felt a small point of pressure in his back. "Why do you keep following me?" "Ruby?" He tried to turn around. "Stay put. And I told you, my name is not Ruby. I don't know any Ruby and you need to leave me the hell alone." "Or what?" She paused. "You can turn around." He did and saw a small instrument in her hand. "You see this?" He nodded. "It's to check the voltage in the processors. But a little modification and it does what it did to idiot back in the cantina. You keep following me and you won't even know what happened-" "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're a bad ass. But I've been threatened by worse'n the likes of you. She seethed. "Now, you could just tell me about yourself and then we could be done with this. I'm driving my crew crazy trying to figure you out." "Nothin to figure out. Now, I'm serious-" "Yes, seriously gonna poke me with your buzzy thing. Got it. But, I got one question. How the hell did you get off Shadow, Ruby?" "ReneideFoZu, Malcolm Reynolds…" she stopped, realizing what she just said.

Mal smiled in a smug Mal-like fashion. "I don't recall telling you my name, miss." "Oh, shit." ~~~~~ "Where'd you disappear off to?" Jayne asked, holding onto her packages. "I been huntin' all over this gorram station-"

He stopped, seeing the look in her eyes. "No where. I've got to talk to Simon." Jayne followed her down corridors and around corners before he put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her mid stride. "Don't put your hands on me!" she shouted and pulled away, making Jayne drop the packages. "I don't claim to understand women folk, very much. But you ain't pulled away from me in a while. What's happenin', Xiao?" "Not here," she said, trying to sound less tense. "Back on the ship." "You promising' to tell what bee's in your bonnet?" "Yes, but please…" she whispered. "Come on," Jayne said, grabbing her bags and following her back to the ship. ~~~~~~~ "Where's Mal?" Jayne asked, entering the common area, finding Zoe and Wash. "Off somewhere on the station, being mysterious and broody," Wash replied irritably. "If he doesn't drag his carcass back soon, we'll have to leave with out him." "Never mind that. Where's Simon?" Xiaofan asked, distressed. Zoe perked up. "Someone hurt?" "No, no, no. Just…" "Is he here?" Jayne asked. "In the infirmary," Zoe replied. Jayne and Xiaofan took off like a shot. "I don't know about you, husband, but I'm getting tired of the secrecy hanging around this ship." "I agree, wife," Wash said, standing, "Let's eavesdrop." "Let's do," she said, standing up and following him. ~~~~~~ "You gonna give him the long story or the short one?" Jayne asked Xiaofan. She gave him a look. "You assume there is a short story?" "Damn, how bad is it?" "Can you just hush! I'm scared and…" "And you needed to come talk to Simon?" Jayne asked irritably. Xiaofan blew out her breath and had a complete meltdown. "My brother, now a mercenary for hire, abducted and almost killed me in the back room of a shop, told me my parents and grandfather are dead and that Blue Sun is not entirely sure I am dead. And he may or may not come back to kill me because he's turned into a sociopathic loon!" She took a deep breath and screamed, "Danaosiwangdouyanweisuihundanerzibiaozifangpi!" Simon and Jayne sat in silence. Xiaofan stood there on the verge of tears and hysterics. Simon finally spoke. "What do you need from me?" Xiaofan drew in a deep breath. "I need a new face." More silence. "What?" Jayne finally said. "ZhangZi, my brother, found me because he knew who he was looking for. And for that matter, there really aren't that many Chinese women with blondish hair and blue eyes. I stand out." "You could always dye your hair and wear contact lenses…" Simon attempted to be helpful. "They know my face. My face needs to change. Then the blond and blue will seem normal." "You're talking about delicate cosmetic surgery…" "I know, we'd need a hospital, or private practice with the necessary equipment." Jayne finally piped up. "So, it weren't enough?" "Wha-?" she said, looking over at Jayne as he leaned against the med bed. "Killed that guy, bribed that clerk…"

Xiaofan's eyes softened and some of her own fear blew away. "It's not your fault. How would we know they would send my brother, of all people? Why would I even think for a second my fish catching and processing brother would be a mercenary?" she asked, putting her hands on his shoulders. "And a sociopath," she added with a distressed shrug. "Technically, I killed the guy," River said, walking in, Zoe and Wash followed. "Is every-gorram-body going to take part in my affairs?" Xiaofan asked, annoyed. "You're ours now, we have the right to meddle," Wash said, "Plus, we were listening the whole time. The only person not here is Kaylee." Xiaofan turned to Simon, "I'm sure you'll update her later?" "She's my girlfriend… I'll have to if want to continue to…" he stopped. "Have sex," River said, "He has to tell her so she will continue to pleasure him o-" "That's enough, River," Simon said firmly. "Where's Mal?" Simon asked. "He'd be the one handling things." "Good question," Xiaofan replied. ~~~~~~ Mal and Ruby sat on a catwalk at the highest part of the station with breathable air. "This your quiet place?" Mal asked. "Better than all of that mess," she replied. "It's good to be away from it, be by myself." He turned to her. "Why'd you lie?" She just shook her head. "That terrible?" he asked. "Bad enough." "Couldn't be. I'm captain of a vessel, taking jobs, legal or not. Been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, poisoned, beat over the head, almost beat to death… You getting' me?" She snickered. "Possibly you could be saying that you suck at staying out of trouble." Mal laughed.

"That I do. Seem to go lookin' for it, sometimes." "Not me." She shok her head. "I want to stay as far away as possible." "Didn't look that way in the cantina." She pulled out her spanner. "This little thing?" She handed it to him. "It really just does have a small pulse to make sure the processors are running at the correct voltage. But I fiddled a bit and added a larger power source. If I set the instrument to maximum and it can take out a pretty big guy." "So, how have you been taking care of yourself?" "Since the mass evac?" she turned her head away from Mal, "Got separated from Ma and Daddy, put on a different transport. Found out theirs didn't make it off the planet." "What," he said, alert. "Why not?" "The story is the Feds disabled some ships, but no one knows for sure. Maybe it was just bad luck…" "How did you end up on Abaddon?" "Freighter coming this way, hitched a ride. Learned the trade on the job, got good at it. Not much else to say."

He didn't bother to hide the consternation. "Ruby Delacroix, our families were neighbors all our young lives, you were my first kiss, we went to school together. I looked like hell for you and Shep and Fan as soon as I could…" "They all made it off, got families of their own. But I heard about you. Something about how you fought even when the Independents surrendered. At Serenity Valley." "That was a long time ago…" "Same here." A call crackled through her personal comm. "Kiran!" She answered. "Get your pigu to the boss' office, dong ma?" "Yeah, I'm coming." She sighed, "Crap." "Trouble?" Mal asked. "I think I tazed the wrong guy." "How so?"

"You remember that big thug in the cantina, yes?"

He nodded. "My boss' son." "Could be a problem," Mal said smirking. "I'm probably fired." "Seems likely." She stood up and headed for the lift, he scrambled after her. "So what are you going to do?" he asked. "Get fired and try to get passage off this whirling piece of feihua." "I think I can help with the last bit." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ZhangZi- literally means first born son

Laoma- another word for mother

Daidaibuhaoqiangbaohaozideqingwacaodeliumang- stupid, no good, monkey raping, frog f**king, son of a bitch. (My favorite phrase, lol.)

ReneideFoZu- Merciful Buddha

Danaosiwangdouyanweisuihundanerzibiaozifangpi- (in reference to her brother) Brain dead, cross-eyed, aborted, bastard, son of a whore fart. I just thought it was a funny thing for her to swear.