BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

FIAREYNNE

How I Soar Chapter 4
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

An AU in which Zoe sacrifices her life for Wash... and he must learn to move on.


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2813    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

"River... mei-mei, you're naked," Simon said slowly. River gave him her patented eye-roll. "This is the kitchen."

"Not stupid, Simon," River began.

"Gotcha, you little clothes-stealin' -"

"Jayne!" Simon gasped. "Dear lord, would you put that thing away?"

Jayne's hands flew to cover his man-bits. "Doc. Uh, what you doin', uh, in the kitchen at this hour?"

"Getting a snack," Simon answered. "Thoug I've just lost my appetite. River, what is -"

"Took my clothes!" Jayne blurted out. "I weren't in 'em, an' she - she took 'em. I's just chasin' her to - to get 'em back, see?"

"Okay..." Simon said, confused. "But River, why are you naked?"

"Because I'm not wearing any clothes," River said patiently, looking at Simon as though he were a very small, mentally challenged child.

"Everyone on this ship is going space-crazy," Simon muttered, turning to head back to the bunk he shared with his wife. "The captain won't stop smiling, my sister is naked in the kitchen... either they're losing it or I am."

"Don't forget Kaylee's xiaochi," River called after him.

"Right," he replied, doubling back for the cookies.

"What in the ruttin' hell was that?" Jayne demanded. "Yer a gorram reader, girl. Don't tell me you didn't know you'd run into the doc out here."

River shrugged. "It's of no consequence."

"No consequence?" Jayne repeated. "Why don'tcha care yer gorram brother seen us both naked as jaybirds, when ya won't even ruttin' tell him 'bout us?"

"Planting the seeds," River said airily, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

"No seed's gonna be plantin' 'round here," Jayne frowned. "How you gonna explain a baby when you can't even admit yer sleepin' with me?"

River smiled slowly, deliberately. "That phrase is highly inaccurate. Very little sleeping actually occurs."

"Sleepin', sexin', ruttin' - call it what the hell you want, but there ain't no more of it gonna happen 'til you're ready to come clean."

"I'm very clean," River purred, trying to distract him. "And I always -"

"No more!" Jayne barked, snatching his clothes back from her. "An' this time I mean it."

~*~

"Hey, River," Wash smiled blearily. If he looked like he'd just been woken from a sound sleep, it was because he had, just a few minutes before. "What're you doin' up in the middle of the night, lover's tiff?"

River sniffled and nodded.

"Thought so. Want I should go beat him up for you?" he offered, earning a soggy giggle from the teary-eyed girl.

"Mal hauled you out of bed," River stated. "We're almost there."

"Two points for the pretty girl in... orange?"

"Peach," she replied. "It wasn't him, it was me."

"He still wants to go public, huh?" Wash asked sympathetically. "Can't blame him. Not every day a guy like him - or me - gets a girl like you - or Zoe. It's a point of honor." He sighed. "He thinks you're ashamed of him."

River stared at him, a thoughtful expression on her face. "She wants you to be happy," she said, finally, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her night-dress, looking for all the world like a little girl. "Promise me you'll let yourself be happy?"

Wash looked mildly confused, which was how he usually felt after a conversation with River. "Um... I promise?"

River smiled at him. "That's all she needed to hear," she said, leaving Wash alone to wonder exactly who the word "she" referred to.

"Take us into the gorram world already," Mal growled, appearing on the bridge with two steaming mugs of coffee.

"Yes, sir, Captain Grumpy-Pants," Wash muttered under his breath.

~*~

"Aw, Katie, it's real good to see ya," Kaylee said, folding her childhood friend - her cousin's widow - into a hug. "I was real sorry to hear about Michael, an' even sorrier I didn't make it for the service. How's li'l Hannah holdin' up?"

"Ping, mama," the toddler insisted. "Wan' ping!"

Kate laughed, handing her cherub-faced little girl a bottle of juice. "She's fine. She doesn't remember her daddy none," she added sadly. "She wasn't even walking then; it's been almost a year."

"That long?" Kaylee felt terrible. "I'm awful sorry. I shoulda waved you, seen if you was all right -"

"We're okay, now," Kate smiled. "And someday we'll be all better, right sweetie?"

"All better," the little girl parroted.

"Well, now, Mrs. Tam, you didn't tell me yer cousin was such a looker," Mal said, in a tone more cheerful than he felt. "Malcolm Reynolds," he smiled, offering his hand.

"Kaitlyn Frye," she replied, shaking the offered hand. "Thank you so much for taking us in."

"Think nothin' of it," he said. "This pretty little girl must be Hannah."

"Dada!" Hannah shrieked excitedly.

"No, sweetie, that's not -" Kate began, but the little girl had taken off like a shot and was wrapping her arms around Serenity's baffled pilot. "That ain't Daddy," she told her, firmly. "I'm so sorry, mister -"

"Wash," he smiled. "It's okay. My pantleg has never looked so adorable. "You must be Kaylee's cousin?"

"Kate," she answered. "And you must be the hotshot flyboy Kaylee's told me about?"

"That's what they say," he laughed. "I hear you've taken it upon yourself to fatten us up a bit?"

"Well, our folks always used to say Kaylee and I had our destinies mapped out for us; hers led to the garage and mine led to the kitchen. I was going to culinary school, actually, when Hannah decided to make her grand entrance."

"If you're half as good a cook as Kaylee is a mechanic," he said, walking in circles to the delighted shrieks of the small child attached to his leg like a leech, "we'll all be fat and happy in no time flat."

"Wash don't look nothin' like Michael," Kaylee half-whispered to Mal. "Poor li'l thing don't even remember her daddy," she sighed.

"Hm," Mal said thoughtfully. "They say it's a wise child as kens his own pa."

"Up, dada," Hannah pleaded, and Wash obliged with amusement.

Kate sighed. "Baby girl, that's not -"

"It's okay, really," Wash insisted. "She's not a bother. Probably just scared, being so far from home, and if calling me Daddy makes her feel better, I'm all for it."

"Not a bother," Kate grimaced. "Clearly you weren't on the shuttle from Elspeth."

"Wash," Mal interrupted. "Kate's things need seein' to, and since Jayne's off doin' some grocery shoppin' an' Simon's restockin' the infirmary, it's down to you an' me. Katie, why don't I show you an' li'l Hannah to your rooms?" He gestured to Wash to grab the other end of a large trunk, and just as they picked it up, a certain blonde toddler plunked herself down on it for a ride.

"She's a lovely child," Inara smiled, watching them. "And her mother is very attractive. Kaylee's home planet must be known for their exceptional beauty," she told River.

"Do you think Jayne would be a good father?" River asked, out of the blue.

Inara's jaw dropped. "What?"

~*~

"Don't go," River whispered. "It's too fast, and you won't see it until it's too late."

"Don't know what yer talkin' 'bout," Jayne said, strapping a large, nasty-looking knife to his leg. "Ain't a man out there better in a fight than me, an' with Zoe gone somebody's gotta watch Mal's back."

"Please," she begged, dropping to her knees. "She'll go instead. She'll do anything to keep her Jayne!"

"'Cept tell a single soul alive 'bout us," Jayne sighed. She could see the pain in his eyes.

"If you go, you won't come back whole," River warned. "You might not come back at all, and she can't live without him!"

"Cut the dramatics, River, I'm goin' an' that's final."

~*~

"All I'm sayin' is it ain't fair, Mal." Jayne insisted. "You ain't once let me get cereal with marshmallows in."

"I can't believe we're having this conversation," Mal groaned. "She's two. Are you jealous of a two-year-old, Jayne"

"Depends," Jayne smirked. "She still breastfed? Her mama's easy on the eyes."

Mal turned his head to glare at him. "Here's a thought; how 'bout we have this conversation another time, say, when we ain't crawlin' through three inches of raw sewage?"

"You ain't no fun," Jayne muttered. "'s it just me, or does rich people's shit stink worse than normal folk's?"

"Couldn't say," Mal gritted his teeth. "Tryin' not to smell it my own self, which is gettin' harder an' harder with you talkin' 'bout it." Mal stopped at a ladder leading up out of the sludge. "This is it. This'll put us right into Philips' basement."

"Why's he got a ladder goin' into his house from the sewer?" Jayne asked.

"If you're tryin' to prepare me for the terrible twos, you can quit it," Mal grunted, lifting the manhole cover over his head and pushing it aside. "Reckon the point isn't to get in from the sewers, it's to get into the sewer system from the house, for repairs an' the like."

"Oh," Jayne said. "Makes sense."

"You gonna shut up now, or do I gotta duct tape yer mouth closed?" Mal asked. "Philips has some fancy dinner party or somethin' goin' on right now, an' we gotta make it through a house fulla rich people smellin' like go se."

"Such language, captain," Inara smiled down at him.

"'Nara," Mal said, surprised. "You gonna fink on us?"

"No," she beamed. "I'm going to help you."

The Mandarin: mei-mei - sister xiaochi - snack ping - bottle go se - shit

COMMENTS

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 10:27 AM

SHEPARDGHOST


Really good. Super funny with simon walking in on naked river and jayne.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 3:12 PM

BELLONA


"Do you think Jayne would be a good father?" River asked, out of the blue.
Inara's jaw dropped. "What?"

i can totally see river just informing a random crew member like that...

b

Friday, December 30, 2005 8:20 PM

MISSKITTEN


LMAO on the Jayne and River nakedness at the beginning and awwww at lil' Hannah. And River's comment on Jayne being a good father... MAN that got me LAUGHING!


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