yah, part two is waaaay longer...

***

“Wash, how close are we to Haven?”

“Not that far, Captain, that little spec right there should be it in a few minutes,” Mal grabbed the microphone.

“This is your captain speaking, we’re approaching Haven, and I want everyone looking spiffy and prepared to unload in fifteen minutes tops. Minimal weapons, please,” he added as and afterthought. No good to him if his clients thought they were being ambushed when they simply wanted a deal.

“Who’s the new kid?” Zoë asked as she entered the cockpit. “Wash found her half dead on, er… whatever that last planet was,”

“Dust Planet,” Wash said shortly.

“Yeah. Whatever,” Mal retired to his room to wash his face.

***

Analith was digging the dirt out from under her nails, and River watched with unblinking eyes.

“What are you here for, then?” River stared.

“Did they find you starvin’ to death on a desert planet too, or what?”

“My brother brought me on,”

“Who’s your brother?”

“Simon,”

“Oh. Is there a sink around here?” River’s gaze shifted, and settled on the sink on the wall nearby. “Oh,” Analith said again, and stood, and then nearly fell back on the bed again.

“Your foot,” said River, looking at it.

“Yeah. It’s tender…” Analith gingerly limped over to the sink and washed her hands and face. River watched her for a moment, but then she was gone. Ana looked around the infirmary, then limped out into the hallway-like area outside. She could hear voices coming from the engine room and the cockpit. The kitchen was empty. She was also picking up sounds from what she didn’t know to be Mal and Kaylee’s rooms. She went over to a door in the wall, opened it, and crept with absolute silence inside.

There was a bed, a screen, everything one needed to get on inside, and someone was in another part of the room, and a faucet was running. She picked up a pair of pajama pants off the bed, and looked at them thoughtfully. The water stopped.

“Jesus!” Mal said when he walked outside the bathroom cranny of his room, putting his face to his hands. Ana stood there, holding the pajama pants.

“Sorry. This your room?”

“Yeah, and those are my pants,”

“Sorry,”

“That’s… fine…” He took the pants and held them almost defensively.

“I don’t get a room?”

“There isn’t another one,”

“Huh…”

“We’ll work something out. Don’t you have any clothes other than that?”

“I don’t have anything other than this and my gun, and where it that, speak of?”

“Oh, Simon’s keeping it. You might need it if you’re going out with us,”

“Haven?”

“Yeah,” Her look was distant, and then she snapped back to reality.

“I’ll find Simon, then. Where’s he at?” Mal smirk was knowing, and Ana knew something or another was afoot- whether important or not, it was afoot.

“Ten bucks says the engine room,”

“Uh huh…” Analith didn’t hear Mal laughing as she exited and went into the engine room, where she found Simon on top of another girl.

“Whoa!” The two of them scrambled to their feet, thankfully still clothed. “Sorry,” said Simon and the other one simultaneously.

“My fault… or maybe the Captain’s fault… he’s the one who sent me over here to find you, Simon…”

“Don’t worry about it. This is Kaylee,” he said casually. She smiled, her cheeks lobster pink, and said, “Hi,”

“Simon, I need my gun,”

“Oh, yeah, here, it’s in my room… follow me,”

“Wait!” Kaylee called. “You didn’t tell me her name!” But they were gone.

***

The bar was dimly lit, and the screen behind it was flashing many brilliant neon colors, the Chinese music blaring out of it. The people were all dusty and half hidden in shadows, like they were all here on some terribly illegal assignment, which they probably were. Analith followed Simon, her closest friend as yet, and River walked beside her, and they were followed by Zoë, Wash, Jayne (who was examining Analith’s back end) and Kaylee. All of them were following Mal.

“Alright, Zoë and Wash, I want you two to come with me. The rest of you… have a drink,” he said, and they made their way to a table where a rather scruffy-looking man was seated along with a woman dressed in black. Analith followed Simon and River to the bar, where neither had a drink and Kaylee bought a beer. Ana eyed the suspicious people around her, scanning for any familiar faces. At first, there were none.

“Don’t you want a drink?” Kaylee asked.

“Don’t have any money,” she replied, still looking around.

“Oh. What was your name again? You never said,”

“Analith,”

“Analith? Can I call you Ana?”

“Please do,”

“Alright!” She went happily back to her beer, but Ana was having suspicions about this bar. Something wasn’t right…

Suddenly, she saw him. Luke, of all people to run into, was sitting at a table in a dark corner of the room, with two women at his sides. “Oh, no,” she murmured under her breath.

“What?” asked Simon.

“An old friend of mine is in here,”

“That’s bad?”

“For me, yes. For you, probably not as much. But then, he always was a real asshole…”

“Who?” But Luke wasn’t there anymore. Ana’s head spun wildly around, her eyes searching.

“He’s gone!”

“No, I’m not, love,” He was at the other end of the bar, a rough but handsome British man in roguish, rather pirate-esque garb. The two women who were with him had vanished. Ana’s pistol was out in a flash, but his was already in his hand.

“No, no, no, m’ dear, no guns, please. I want to resolve this like civilized people,”

“But you’re not a civilized person, Lukey boy,” His mouth curled up like a snarling animal’s.

“Do NOT call me that! You ai ya traitor, I should’ve found a more isolated rock to drop you on!”

“Oh, come off it, Lukey boy. You know that I would die of starvin’ rather than shoot myself. You gave me a weapon, too, which wasn’t too bright of ya,” Luke looked the slightest bit rattled by this.

“It doesn’t matter. You versus me and my two lovely body guards isn’t exactly in your favor, love,”

“Hwooh dahn, stop calling me love!” Her pistol was up and shot was fired in a second flat, and one of the two body guards who had been hidden in the corner behind him fell to the floor, deader than a doornail. The two of them were in a dual stance almost before Mal reacted to the sound.