Right and Wrong

Part Three

Shortly after Serenity docked, the crew set out to find Anya. Inara and Simon both wanted to come and stand by Kaylee’s side. However, Mal didn’t think having more people come than necessary was a good idea. There was no talking Simon out of coming. He was too concerned about Kaylee. Inara decided to stay on Serenity with Book and Wash who agreed to look after River.

After asking a few locals for directions, the crew found their way to the place called, “Annabellas”.

Kaylee took a deep breath and walked inside. Simon was right behind her and Mal behind him. It was sometime around noon and the bar was jam-packed with the lunch mob. Kaylee searched the crowd looking for Anya.

Jayne and Zoe made their way inside. Jayne grabbed the closet empty table and yelled for service. “What does a man gotta do to get some service ‘round here?”

“Jayne, do you think you can control your ape like behavior for Kaylee’s sake?” Simon knew he could be overly proper at times, but he thought there was no excuse for how overly improper Jayne could be.

“Meimei, do you see your friend?” Mal kept one hand on his gun…he had no idea what to expect…and placed the other on Kaylee’s shoulder.

“I don’t…” Before she finished her sentence, she saw the girl behind the bar. “It’s Anya.” The crew didn’t know who Kaylee was pointing at, but once she ran to the bar and plopped down in a stool, they figured the bartender must be her.

“Anya…” Kaylee sounded excitedly terrified. She was ecstatic to see an old friend, yet at the same time petrified of the trouble her friend gotten herself into.

“Kaylee?” Anya sounded shocked. “Is it really you?” A single tear fell down her cheek.

“Course it’s me, Anya.” Kaylee placed her hand on top of Anyas’ who was busy wiping down the bar top. “What’s goin’ on?”

Anya was relieved Kaylee was able to come for her. She hoped she would come… prayed that she would come, but some part of her never expected she would. She couldn’t imagine any captain changing his schedule and possibly endangering his crew to help out a stranger. “I can’t…not here.”

By this time Mal and Simon had pulled up stools, one on each side of Kaylee. “So I take it you must be Anya?” Mal ran his eyes up and down the girl examining her. She looked innocent enough…but so did Saffron at first. “As I understand it, you need a ride?”

“Yes…” She was talking softly. She didn’t want anyone to overhear their conversation. “Sorry, I didn’t get your name?”

“How rude of me!” Kaylee chimed in. “This here is the captain of Serenity, Malcolm Reynolds and this here is the ship’s doctor, Simon Ta...Simon.” She trusted Anya, but with everything going on, she thought it was best not to use Simon’s last name.

Anya was too worried about her own problems to even notice. “Pleased to meet you both. Malcolm, Simon, can I get you fellas a drink?”

“Just call me, Mal. So where can we take you?” He didn’t know what to think of her. Obviously she was hiding something, but he knew that before he came here. Something just didn’t feel right.

“As I told Kaylee, anywhere far from here will do.” She leaned in towards Mal as if she was going to whisper him a secret. “As long as we stay on Calentuk, I am not safe…Kaylee is not safe…your crew is not safe.”

“Then I reckon’ we best be leaving soon.” Mal turned around and motioned for Jayne and Zoe to come forward. “Are you ready to leave now, Anya?”

“Yes, I have one small bag in the back. That’s all I need.”

“Zoe, go in the back with Anya and help her get her stuff. Jayne, put that gorram drink down before you get drunk.”

* * * *

As soon as everyone boarded Serenity, Mal ordered Wash to take off. The cargo bay was silent.

“So what did you do?” Jayne always had a special way of breaking the ice.

“I…I…” She was trying so hard to fight away the tears forming in her eyes. “I…”

“Jayne!” Kaylee smacked him in the arm. “Give the girl a minute. I’m sure whatever it was…it was…well it was somethin’ that’s not so easy to say.” She walked over to Anya and gave her a hug. “Come on, sweetie. Let me take you to your room. You can get your stuff settled and then we’ll talk.” Kaylee and Anya headed up the stairs to the guest corridors.

“Sir, don’t you think you should have found out what she did before you agreed to take her onboard?” Zoe had a way of always saying what Mal didn’t want to hear…he didn’t want to hear it because he knew she was right.

“I trust that Kaylee wouldn’t do anything to put us all in danger.”

“Sir, Kaylee would never intentionally put us in danger…”

“I’ll keep an eye on the new girl.”

“That’s very kind of you, Jayne” Book made his way into the cargo bay.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Shepard.” Mal glared at Jayne. “He doesn’t do anything without expectin’ to get something in return.”

“Well, I called her first.”

“You called her, Jayne?” The look Zoe gave Jayne was enough to make any grown man wet himself.

“Don’t gimme that look. It ain’t everyday a good-lookin’ girl boards Serenity. The doc already took Kaylee away from me…I ain’t lettin’ no one take this one.”

“There are so many things wrong with that statement, Jayne.” Zoe clenched her fists. It would be so easy to walk over to him and punch him. She knew that, but she restrained herself.

“Jayne, you never ‘owned’ Kaylee and why she never fell in love with your charm is a mystery, but I think she has made her choice.” The longer Simon was on Serenity, the more inclined he became to speak his mind. “As for Anya, I think she has been through a lot already and doesn’t need to deal with your advances.”

“Jayne, stay away from Anya. Zoe, go check on Wash. Make sure we should have no problems gettin’ this girl out of here. Simon… just keep an eye on Kaylee and her friend.” In one long breath Mal barked out his orders and headed to his bunk. He needed time to think.

* * * *

“Hey ladies,” Simon walked into the common area, “Mind if I join you?” Without even waiting for a response, Simon plopped himself down in the chair Kaylee was sitting in. The two didn’t really fit side by side, so he readjusted her so she was in his lap.

“Cap’n tell you to keep an eye on us?” Kaylee didn’t mind Simon being there. She didn’t mind that he sat in her chair…she actually enjoyed the fact she was now sitting on his lap, but she also wanted some time alone with Anya.

“He might have hinted at it.” Simon grinned as he kissed the tip of her nose.

“Well, Kaylee, I guess I don’t need to ask how things are going for you.” It was the first time Anya smiled in weeks. She was glad to see her friend so happy.

“Oh Anya,” Kaylee was blushing, “If you only knew what I had to go through to get this…” She was cut off by Simon poking her in the side. “It was worth it.” She was beaming from ear to ear.

Another awkward moment of silence filled the room. “Well…” Anya said, “…I guess you probably want to know what I got myself into.” She scooped up a nearby pillow into her arms holding onto it as if she was trying to protect it.

“Sweetie…whatever you did…”

She cut Kaylee off. “Things were so different when I left. I never felt more alive in my life. I kissed my parents goodbye, we had that great going away party where Mac and I hooked up…”

“Mac?” Kaylee did not mean to interrupt her story, but it just came out. She was shocked. “You hooked up with Mac? My brother, Mac?”

Now it was Anya’s turn to blush. “I guess I never told you…”

“That certainly explains why he was in such a good mood after you left. I thought he was bein’ an insensitive jerk.”

“Nah, Mac was the sweetest.” Anya was glowing. “Sometimes I thought about what would have happened between Mac and me if I never left.” Kaylee smiled. She was picturing her brother and her best friend together. They would make a cute couple. “Marriage, babies, pretty much everything we said we didn’t want.”

This time it was Simon who interrupted. “You don’t want to get married and start a family someday?” His words were filled with a hint of disappointment.

“I did...still do want a husband and lots of little babies runnin' around, but I wanted some time to be me first.” Simon forced a half smile. He wasn’t fully satisfied with her answer. When would enough time pass for her to be her? The thought of marriage never crossed Simon’s mind, but now that it has, he wanted to know that Kaylee would be his wife, the mother of his kids…whenever… if ever... that day came, of course.

“I guess that’s where I first went wrong. I conveniently forgot about all the things I said I was going to do and all the things I wanted to be…all because of him.”

“Vincent?” Kaylee’s fingers were tangled up with a loose thread from her shirt.

“Yeah…the one and only Vincent Aarons swept me off my feet.” She let out a laugh. “It figures I would be so shallow to get caught up in the limelight of the Core. He was rich…so rich. He showed me things I never even knew existed. He took me to the finest restaurants. We went to plays and balls. I felt like a princess. Soon enough I didn’t even recognize myself. I was Mrs. Vincent Aarons and when I wasn’t being referred to as the Mrs. I was called Arabella.” She paused, rolling her eyes. “His parents thought Krestanya sounded too…well improper I guess. Apparently Arabella is the name of some royal princess from long ago, so without me even getting a vote, I was Arabella.”

“Anya…” Kaylee could see the disgust in Anya’s eyes.

“So I played along. I let myself be a little princess. We stayed married nine months before…” Her eyes became dark. “…before I decided I needed to be me again.”

“So what did you do?” Kaylee asked softly. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt Anya’s hurt. Simon felt the tension soar through Kaylee’s body. He knew why. He knew he couldn’t help…not right now. He just held her tight, comforting her.

“I thought about just leaving, but I couldn’t do that. Even though I started dating Vincent for all the wrong reasons, when I got to know him, I really fell in love with him. So, one night when we were supposed to go to this fancy dinner party with his parents and the congressman, I told him everything.”

Kaylee chewed on her bottom lip. The anticipation of Anya and Vincent and whatever trouble was about to come was intense.

“I was so shocked. He said ‘I choose you.’ It wasn’t about the money he said. He could be happy without a dime in his pocket as long as he had me. It was the sweetest thing he ever said to me. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me…too bad it was all a lie.”

“A lie?” Kaylee was sitting on the edge of Simon’s lap.

“It was never me. As far as he was concerned I was only part of his goal to driving his parents crazy. Could you imagine the looks on their faces when he brought me home and they found out where I came from? His mother actually fainted. Vincent never expected me to play along…”

By this time Mal walked into the lounge. “How’s everything goin’ in here?” The girls were practically in tears and even Simon looked troubled. Mal sat down in the chair across from Kaylee and Simon.

“Anya was just telling us about…”

“Mr. Rey…Mal…I think it is about time you know why I so desperately needed to ask Kaylee for help.”

“I do like knowin' what dangers I am in the risk of runnin’ into.”

“I own ‘Annabellas’. She was my baby. I put so much hard work into scarping up enough cash to buy her and keeping her running. I had no idea Vincent had been using her as a meeting place for some of his business clients. Turns out Vincent was running a rather illegal business. Drugs, medicine, Alliance goods….you name it and he smuggled it. Well, not so much he himself smuggled it. Really he was just the middleman. He found buyers and sellers, set up the meeting times, negotiated the price …all that junk nobody likes doing.”

“Well, lil’ Anya, if that’s what your runnin’ from, I got some bad news for ya…we are sort of in the transport business ourselves.” Mal knew that wasn’t the reason for her troubles, but he wanted to stop her story…just for a minute. The poor girl looked like she was going to break.

“There was more, Mal. About three weeks ago…that’s when I got myself involved with something…something big.”

“And that would be?” By this time Zoe had walked into the room. She didn’t like the idea of having Anya on the ship and she sure as hell wanted to know what the crew had gotten themselves into. Something bugged her so much about this whole situation. She just couldn’t explain it.

“Murder…”

Kaylee gasped. “Murder?” She knew Mal and Zoe had killed people, but that was Mal and Zoe…and it wasn’t so much murder as it was the business. Murder involved something more.

“I always thought I was pretty. When Vincent first met us I figured he would take a liken’ to me. Every boy I ever met couldn’t resist. I have been so arrogant with men. It’s never a question of them wanting me, its always been do I want them. Be that as it may, when I said ‘I do’ I committed to something. Maybe I didn’t know what I was committing to at the time, but when Vincent gave up the Core life for me…”

“I thought that was a lie?” Simon felt for Anya. He could imagine the look on his mothers face if he brought Kaylee home. Things in the Core were just so different from the Black.

“Sorry, I guess I am jumping around with my story.”

“How about telling us who you murdered?” Zoe crossed her arms and starred intently at Anya.

“His name was Brutus.” Mentioning the name brought anger to her voice. “I had no idea about Vincent’s side business. It was very late one night and he came into the bar asking to see Vincent. I told him he wasn’t there. He hung around till closing. I was alone that night…my bouncer Al called in sick. I told him it was time to lock up, but he wouldn’t leave the bar…I asked nicely…then I asked meanly…I threatened to call for help… He just wouldn’t leave.”

“So you killed a man for not leaving?” Zoe knew she was being harsh, but the feeling in her stomach was telling her something was wrong... very, very wrong.

“No, I killed a man for raping me…and to be honest…that’s not why my life is in danger…why I needed to leave Calentuck so badly. There's more...”

To be continued…