VIOLENT HEART (5/6) Chapter Five: Fevered Pitch by DesertDragon

1.

Serenity cut through the silence of stars like a fish, swimming all alone in a great black ocean. The glow from her engines fluttered like fins, bouncing off of nothing.

Nothing except for that one sudden reflection off of a hard surface in the distance, all unseen.

A big dark, gray something that camouflaged itself with Serenity's ocean.

Stalking her like a shark.

2.

She had reached for him in the dark later that night.

The rungs on the ladder leading up had a slow glow about them that only made the deepness of Jayne's bunk that much blacker.

She couldn't have know what would be waiting for her; what was seemingly asleep right there next to her.

How much time had passed then, as Serenity swam in space, all unknowing of the black hole that had opened up inside of her, inside the dark little bunk in the middle of the night.

For Kaylee, surprise came first when the thing there in the dark engulfed her in lust.

Then came the blind power of the thing. The ripping, raw power. Its hunger was the only thing in the room.

It bore into her body. Fierce. Hard. Seeking something that was not her. Seeking a way out. Sucking all the strength he ... no, IT ... had given her; the strength that had bound her to him.

She couldn't stop it. Confusion and numbness prohibited her to. 'Lay still', she told herself, conjuring the image of a lizard in the desert. 'Lay still, blend in. Don't fight the thing that is tearing all the love from inside you. Lock it up.'

Because, deep down ... somewhere ... she knew that the thing that had answered her touch in the dark ... Was. Not. Jayne.

3.

Wash couldn't sleep. Zoe was restless. It made him restless. He sat at Serenity's helm and listened to her hum. Everyone was seemingly tucked away for ship-night. No one to play cards with or tell anymore of his sudo-heroic stories to. He glanced at a tiny, old set of plastic action figures on the console to his left. They stared solemnly back at him, asking for attention.

They seemed to be blinking at him.

...Blinking at him?? Tyen shiao duh?

The console under their little feet blinked a dull green. Wash leaned forward quickly and wiped the toys aside, staring down into the radar screen. The light was fading away and he had missed the coordinates. He waited. Nothing returned. If there had been something out there in the dark, the proximity sensors would've gone off.

Just a glitch then.

Wash sat back in the pilot's chair and continued to watch it, frowning.

4.

A small shattered piece of the Slaughtered Lamb postcard cut itself into Mal's fist as he strode to Jayne's bunk.

As luck would have it, Mal need not bother to knock. There in the darkness, Jayne was climbing out and pulling the door shut. His back turned.

Goody.

Jayne looked up. Mal's fist came furiously at him. Jayne twisted backward as knuckles connected to jaw bone.

Mal's face burned, but he'd barley broken a sweat. "Hwoon Dahn," he growled, and tossed the shard of hologram at Jayne's face as the larger man stood. "What the fuck did I tell you about taking Kay-"

But Mal never had a chance to finish. Although not completely surprised, he lost his footing as Jayne rushed him and threw him up against the metal wall, hands clutching at his throat. His knee caught Jayne in the gut hard, and he roared something unintelligible. Mal saw his chance and threw his whole body into the mercenary, sending them both tumbling down the nearest stair well.

5.

Kaylee sat on the edge of Jayne's bunk. Numb. Naked. She didn't have to see the bruises to know that they were there. She could feel them on her arms. If she would have braved a look, the shapes there may have appeared to be of large hands.

Can't think. Not right. Not Jayne. Not ... No. Just cover them up. It will go away. Can't think about it now. Out of sight. Out of mind.

Her shoulders were sore as she slipped into her coveralls and climbed the ladder. Afraid of whom might see her. And afraid of what she might see.

6.

The yelling had brought Zoe, Book and Simon to the cargo bay, only to find Mal and Jayne deep in blood and bruises of their own. They twisted together, weaponless, on the grate floor, both too far gone to realize they had company. Although one thing was clear.

Mal was no longer fighting out of anger; he was fighting for his life. The thing that looked like Jayne wouldn't stop.

"Book!" Zoe shouted as she and the preacher rushed the pair before they killed themselves. They gripped Jayne and pulled. Mal saw his face in the hanging lights of the hold and he yanked himself back. One eye was completely white, and it looked at him as if still seeing. The same side of Jayne's face was crushed. But that didn't stop the rage. It had suddenly dawned on Zoe that Mal had drawn his gun. She braced herself as he took aim.

7.

The green light from the radar kept flickering at him, teasing him. Pissing him off.

Wash was bored enough to run a diagnostic. Something wasn't right. Nothing in the sky as far as the eye could see.

8.

Kaylee came into the cargo hold just as Mal raised his gun at Jayne, and heard Mal mutter, "This ain't natural," as a bullet exploded into Jayne's knee, shattering bits onto the three that held him.

Before she could react, Mal was calling to Simon. "Doc, think we're gonna need a pop!"

"On it!"

Somehow still standing, Jayne bellowed, hardly subdued, and Kaylee concentrated on Book's voice, although she seemed to have gone deaf momentarily. Book was trying to talk some sense into Jayne like he'd done this all before, but to no effect. Suddenly Simon was there again, pressing a steel instrument into Jayne's neck and firing it. Jayne rocked against them, and everyone braced themselves.

Kaylee's brain whimpered to itself; no more.

Jayne fell to his knees, oblivious to the shattered bone and pool of blood. His lids fluttered. He coughed and something dark trickled from the corner of his mouth. River broke the strained silence from the doorway; Inara right behind her.

"Just a game."

And that's when it happened. Jayne looked right at Kaylee, and it was as if a thick blanket had been pulled away. It was as if he could suddenly see all of her, all her sorrow, and a flood of humility and comprehension covered his face. As if he knew what he had done.

"Oh God," came the strangled groan, and up with it came a rush of blood and bile from his lips that would not stop.

"Let him get it out!" Simon shouted, and only Book didn't seem confused.

A white cocoon like thing fell from Jayne's mouth in the last of it and he collapsed, all unconscious before the writhing thing ever hit the floor.

9.

Wash was under the front console searching for why the proximity sensors were blocked when he heard the gunfire, bashing his head, and swearing loudly.

"What the hell???"

He stumbled to his feet, fighting vertigo to find the door, and ended up facing the large stretch of window and space instead.

He blinked to clear his vision. Beside him, all ignored, the radar lit up bright green. A sparkling line of all things shiny filled the window.

"Holy sh-" Wash dove for the pilot controls.

They were about to crash headfirst into a Scrap Belt.

10.

While Zoe and Book got Jayne to the infirmary, Mal and Inara watched repulsed as Simon crouched down to examine the dying parasite that had escaped from Jayne's weakened body. It was about the size of a large carrot, but flat and transparent like something from a long lost ocean.

Kaylee kept her distance.

Mal, who could've lent a guess as to what it was, but chose not to, had his gun still exposed and at the ready. He'd blast the gorramn thing on principle alone if he had any such inclination. His question for Simon died on his lips as he looked at the young doctor. "You know what this is."

Simon looked hard at the captain, and then in the general direction of the infirmary. " I think so. And if I'm right, we all should be dead."

With a violent jerk, the whole ship twisted crazy. Bodies went flying and Kaylee was tossed sidelong into a pile of carefully stacked crates. Seconds later, she felt Simon's steady hands and worried expression helping her back to her feet.

Mal got his bearings and headed for the bridge. "This day keeps getting better and better."

11.

Serenity's power flickered dangerously, threatening to cut out completely. Kaylee could feel her winding down, the life leaving her. She struggled under the console, searching frantically for a solution, listening to Mal and Wash argue above her over choice in flying technique. It was just the three of them on the bridge.

"Someone's been screwing with the sensors, Mal!" Wash exclaimed once Serenity was a safe viewing distance from the ship graveyard.

"Not sure that explains a scrap belt sneaking up on us."

"It's more than the sensors that have been tampered with."

Mal turned his attentions to Kaylee's coverall-clad legs sticking out from under the console.

"Is it fixable?"

"Possibly not from here. But, I'm trying, Captn," came the distant reply.

Just as her words faded on the air, the power dimmed completely, killing the strobe effect inside the ship.

Mal turned to the hard plas of the cockpit window above them. Cold starlight was all that poured back at him. Until something else besides scrap and space inched into view and was obviously closing in on his ship. His body tensed.

The ship slinked out of the scrap belt, as if it had been waiting in a most unkindly manner. He saw the grate of the grapplers and the huge rust colored bulk of metal that served as a private salvage class ship. A ship he knew. His immediate thought was not on the why. Or the who. It was of Jayne, and how he'd been right all along. Someone had gotten to his crew.

They had gotten to Jayne.

Would he have known they were being shadowed if he hadn't lost control of the mercenary?

Mal clenched his jaw in pain, and decided not to answer that. Instead, a soft voice behind him did -

"I know that ship."

12.

While Simon calmly hurried about the infirmary, with the aid of Book and Zoe, patching up Jayne's gunshot wound, Inara stood at the unconscious man's side, watching him in silence.

Jayne didn't seem to be completely under the anaesthetic. He wasn't awake. But he was fighting it. A soft anguish covered his hard features. It was something Inara never thought she'd see, and probably would never see again after today once he was awake. If he ever could wake up.

Through it all, he was rambling. Gibberish, mostly. But some of it she was able to decipher. "Followed", she was able to catch, and "not safe."

But mostly what he kept repeating was Kaylee's name.

The others in the room were seemingly oblivious for the moment. But when Inara looked up, River hovered in the doorway, her face blank and unreadable as she met her gaze.

Inara stared at her from sometime before Simon's voice broke her concentration.

"He's going comatose."

Inara glanced down and laid a hand gently on Jayne's now-still form.

Her prayer was for both he and Kaylee.

13.

"I know that ship."

Mal turned to Kaylee. She had crawled out from under the console and had been absently wiping her hands on her coveralls. Now she stood quietly, gazing, with what Mal could only assume was resignation, out at the SS Walden.

"What?" he asked. "How could you possibly - ?"

But Kaylee did get her chance to explain right away. Three things happened simultaneously:

The power came on. The proximity sensors went off. And the Walden stopped in its tracks.

She watched as the two very large magnetic grapplers that had been reaching for Serenity hesitated and froze, outstretched, in the sudden wake of Serenity's power.

It was a grim reality that Kaylee could relate to.

Wash quieted the sensors and turned to Mal. "Should I -,"

"No," Mal replied, not taking his eyes off Kaylee. "Don't hail them. Now that they know we're not dead in the water, let them alone to re-think their actions."

Kaylee returned Mal's gaze in wonderment. "You know who they are, don't you?" she asked.

Mal rested his hands on her shoulders. "They ain't anything but a bunch of scavengers, Kaylee … Scavengers who think that Serenity owes them something, sure. 'Though that don't change the fact that we've just made their job a little harder by not being dead already."

Mal saw the struggle on her face to ignore all the ugly theories behind that loaded statement, and settled on his next question. Although, somewhere deep down in his gut, he was already cold with the answer.

"Where'd you last see that ship, Kaylee?"

A small tremor past over her and was gone before she answered him. "Outpost 10."

Mal turned from her and back to the Walden. It was keeping its distance for now. But that didn't make it any less trustworthy. Gorramn Jayne. What had he gotten them into back on that damn planet? He had a better head for danger than that. He'd been trying to tell him something at the tavern in Holy City Zoo, that someone was tailing him. Then he disappeared in the way back to the ship …

He'd been mugged and drugged. That was obvious. Even then they'd known he was drugged.

But by the crew on the Walden? That was Mal's past. Not Jayne's. He'd been so nervous that night; almost as if he'd had a ghost chasing him. His own ghosts. Jayne didn't know the crew of the Walden. Did he? Yet suddenly Mal had to wonder - hated to even admit - that maybe the Walden was just an unhappy coincidence. They were in a Scrap Belt, after all.

Too many questions.

"Are we runnin'?" The question could've come from either his pilot or mechanic. He knew they were waiting for his decision. But it was Kaylee who asked. He looked at her evenly over his shoulder.

"Are we able?"

"I think I've made her ready enough. Serenity can out run that pile of gos se, no doubt about that, Captn."

Mal smiled at the pale twinkle in her eye, and realized that a lovely blood red gunfight was out of the question this time, despite his gut reaction to the contrary. He'd just have to deal with Captain McDowell of the SS Walden some other firefight.

--- To be continued … Please review. Thanks.