BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

THEGREYJEDI

Grey and Brown, part 3
Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The crew gets a guest.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 3104    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

"I don't like it, sir." An amazon of a dark woman in tan pants, matching brown leather vest and boots over a deep blue shirt stood on a ledge overlooking the cargo bay of a Firefly class tranpsort ship. Her right hand rested firmly on the butt of a heavily modified lever-action carbine at her hip. A taller man with dark brown hair and a rust colored long coat shook his head beside her.

"I don't like it either. Two preachers?" Zoe looked up at him incredulously.

"That's not what I meant-"

"I know what you meant. But he's got hard currency. And what's the odds of TWO preachers with dark secretive pasts being on the same ship?" The man, Malcolm Reynolds, smiled.

"Sir, I don't think-"

"Really, though. Think about it. Even if Book's friend's a preacher what's got some secrets, the sheer mathematical anamoly...ness..." Mal trailed off as an older black man in the traditional black pants and grey shirt with white collar insert walked up the open cargo ramp, a younger white man in similar attire walking behind carrying a large duffle bag. Similar, but not exact. His collar insert was black, and the collar notched in the front. Book looked up at Mal and smiled, motioning to his friend.

"Captain, this is Greyson Jude. I trust there aren't any problems with his travelling with us for a spell?" Mal eyed the passenger carefully. Something seemed familiar about him.

"No, no problem. Just make sure he knows the rules." Books smiled and nodded. He led Greyson to the passenger rooms, spelling out Mal's simple, if direct, rules.

"Don't like it, sir."

"I know, Zoe. But it's hard currency. And that speaks to me more than any secrets what he might be carrying with him." Mal said more to himself than to his first mate as he made his way towards the cockpit. He didn't want to spend any more time on Persephone than he had to. Stepping up into the cockpit, he saw his pilot, a blond man in a flight suit and one of his many colorful, ridiculous hawaiian print shirts, sitting at the con with his dinosaurs. "Wash."

"Gah! Cap'n! Knock next time! Who knows what I might be doing in here. Rar!" Wash played as though his t-rex was attacking Mal's arm and then promptly stopped. "Um, right. Inara is docked and ready to go. I'm just waiting for the final launching clearance before-"

Ding!

"-we're ready to go when you are." Wash cleared his throat. Something was bothering Mal, he could tell.

"Go ahead and get us in the sky. It's a lot safer out there." Wash nodded and started the pre-flight sequences.

Greyson sat down on the bed and closed his eyes. He was lucky that he had managed to finally get in touch with his old teacher. He was in a bind and Book had once again been there for him. He took a glance at the room around him. Small, but in a cozy kind of way. A knock came at his door.

"Yes?" The door slide back. A man not too many years younger than himself slid the door open. He had dark hair and light eyes, and was, oddly, well-dressed to be one such a ship as the Serenity. He nodded, a little stiffly.

"My name's Simon. I'd like to speak with you about something if I could, Father." Greyson motioned he could enter.

"Sure, Simon. And it's Brother. Or just Greyson. I was never comfortable with the title Father. Though, I'm surprised you could spot the difference. But what's on your mind?" Simon sat down in the chair across from him.

"Well, I grew up on Osiris. The Catholic church was based there. Though the black band is something I've never seen." Greyson shrugged, but said nothing else. "Anyway. I have a favor to ask. I need to ask for your asylum and protection. My sister and I are fugitives. I don't want to get into why right now. But I ask that you not reveal our location to the authorities. We just want to live in peace."

"Asking a man of God to keep criminals from justice is asking a lot. But what you have confessed is safe." Simon nodded and made for the door. He turned back to Greyson.

"Thank you. Dinner will be ready soon." Simon walked out. An apparition of dark hair slowly eased its head into the still open doorway. Dark eyes looked out at him, into him, through him. His pale eyes looked back out at her, into her, through her. Her eyes widened.

"You are the Grey One." He looked into her gaze a moment longer.

"You...are the Freed One." She stepped fully into the doorway, her head still cocked semi-sideways.

"Dinner's ready." She spun to her side with unnatural grace and pranced off towards the kitchen. Grey closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. That beef he brought was being well cooked. One of Book's recipes. But not cooked by Book. He stepped out into the hallway. He spied Book coming out of his room.

"Dinner's ready, Book." Book looked at him quizzically. A young woman came bounding around the corner in a pair of brown coveralls, a large teddy bear on the left thigh, a pink t-shirt underneath.

"Hey guys, dinner's ready." She put herself in front of Greyson and stuck her hand out. He took it and gave it a good shake. He smiled, depsite his best efforts. She was infectious, this girl. "I'm Kaylee! I keep this ship runnin' when the cap'n can afford the parts. But then I keep the ol' girl runnin' when he can't, too!"

"Well, Kaylee, my name's Greyson Jude, but you can call me Grey." He nodded a sort of bow. She grinned so wide he thought her mouth might explode in a cloud of tickled and teeth.

"Well, Grey, I hope I did that meat you brought justice!" She jumped up the steps two at a time after Book. He walked up the steps towards the kitchen. He got into the doorway and saw many people he'd not met yet.

"Who the hell is that?" A man about Greyson's size, only several years his senior sporting a goatee, khakis, a green t-shirt and a large knife, stood at the pot with the spaghetti. Book, holding the spoon for the sauce behind him, spoke up.

"Jayne, this is Greyson. An old student, and an older friend, of mine." Jayne walked up to Greyson with his plate in one hand, a lump of garlic bread in the other. He stuffed the bread in his mouth and stuck out his hand, shaking Greyson's firmly. A little too firmly.

"Preesa meefa, Rayfunnh." He sat at the table beside the woman he saw earlier and a blonde man in a hawaiian print shirt. The man stood up. More hand shaking.

"I'm Wash, and this is my wife, Zoe." Greyson raised an eyebrow.

"Wife?"

"Why is it that no one gets that?" Wash shrugged to himself and sat back down. There was a clatter behind Greyson. He turned and saw Simon and the girl from earlier fighting over a tin cup.

"River! It's just a cup!"

"Don't like it! It's cold...grey..." She caught his eyes and calmed down a bit. She grabbed a blue plastic cup and fixed her drink and plate as though nothing happened.

"River..." Greyson muttered to himself.

"I see we have a guest. Another preacher, too...hmm..." He turned to see an exotic woman with dark curly hair and dark eyes just behind him in the doorway. She was dressed in a very form flattering purple dress. A Companion. He extended his hand.

"Just a humble Wanderer." Trepidatiously she extended her hand to him. He bowed a little, and kissed the top of her hand. As soon as he had, he realized the extent of his mistake.

"That was a bit forward, especially for a man of the cloth." Inara smirked.

"Not too forward, I hope. It was how I was taught to greet someone such as yourself in my youth." Inara was puzzled by this, wondering at the meaning of his words, but pushed it aside to think of later. Mal coughed from the table.

"Now that everyone has met our temporary new member, can we get to the meal at hand?" There was a moment of awkward silence before Book cleared his throat.

"Indeed. Thanks to my recipe, Greyson's kind gift and Kaylee's skill at frying dead animal flesh, we have a fine meal. And I, for one, am quite hungry." Everyone chimed in with agreement with Book, or at least a nod of approval as they all sat down to the mighty fine meal before them.

COMMENTS

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 11:16 PM

RAT


Nice! Even better then the first two!

Thursday, March 31, 2005 2:06 AM

AMDOBELL


Hmm, methinks Grey isn't a preacher at all. More like a disguise of some sort and what's with the black insert instead of white? Be interesting to see where you are going with this. Ali D :~)
You can't take the sky from me

Monday, April 4, 2005 1:15 PM

SOULOFSERENITY


This story takes yet another turn! I'm really intruigued now.

- Soul


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