Title: The Gift Rating: PG Synopsis: River is assigned to distract Simon and Kaylee while the rest of the crew put together a gift. Timeline: Takes place 13 months after Serenity, the movie. Notes: Next part of a series beginning with : And So It Begins, Kiss Me, Coming Together, Tell Me, What’s Proper?, Tears , Peekaboo, Impatient, Waking Up is Hard to Do, The Talk, I See You, Exhaustion,.Moving Day, Celebration, Surprise , Vacation, Reunion, Manipulation, Baby Talk, A First Time for Everything, The Way It Is, A Special Day, Girl Talk, The Gift Disclaimer: This story is not meant to infringe on the copyright of any person or company related to the trademarked characters and situations depicted in the Serenity movie or Firefly series. I make no money from this. Only done for fun – and a desperate craving to have more stories told about this wonderful ‘verse Joss Whedon created.

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“Mal?” Inara approached the cockpit cautiously, as if she expected him to turn around and snap at her at any moment. After two years of grousing at one another, it would take a lot more time to get used to speaking like civil human beings. Of course, their arguments now tended to lead to far more fun things.

“Inara, to what do I owe this pleasure?” His eyes were warm and inviting, with just a hint of a spark of something behind them.

“I, well –“ she looked at the flight plan. “Where are we headed?”

“Simple delivery. Should be in and out in a few hours.”

Inara nodded, distracting herself with the blinking lights on the console in front of her. “I wanted to talk about the wedding.”

Mal chuckled and the simple sound caused gooseflesh to pebble her arms. “Isn’t this something you should be talking about with Kaylee or Simon?”

“Eventually,” Inara looked down the hallway to make sure no one would overhear them. “I need your help.”

Mal raised a concerned eyebrow and reached out to touch her hand. It was a simple gesture but it held far more meaning than any casual observer would realize. “Is something wrong?”

The touch sent a tremor down her spine. “Not if you help me.” She favored him with the sweetest smile he had ever seen and at that moment she had him wrapped around her finger.

~*~

Kaylee rolled over and yawned, stretching against the warm body sound asleep next to her. She flattened her hand atop Simon’s chest, over his heart, and smiled when the glint of metal on her hand caught her attention. She closed her eyes and sighed contentedly when his arms came down around her shoulder. He mumbled incoherently in his sleep and she stifled a giggle at the cute face he made.

Just as she pressed her lips to his chest, the alarm sounded above their heads. Kaylee swore beneath her breath and Simon groaned, throwing one arm over his eyes in a feeble attempt to stop the sound.

Kaylee giggled at the annoyed look that spread across his face and leaned up to send the alarm back into quiet mode. On her way back down she snuggled against his chest and kissed him gently on the mouth.

“Time to get up already?” Simon mumbled.

Kaylee licked her lips as she bent down and began to nibble on his neck.

He inhaled sharply and pulled her against him as her warm, wet mouth moved confidently over his skin. “Much better way to wake up.”

“Mmm, don’t want to get out of bed.” Simon muttered as her mouth hit a particularly sensitive spot and he sucked in a shaky breath.

Her response was muffled and Simon could feel his body respond to every soft flutter of her lips against his neck. But then she lifted her head and stared at him with bright, expressive eyes. “We promised River we’d take her shopping.”

“She does need some things,” Simon admitted with a heavy sigh. One of these days he would be able to give his sister and his soon-to-be-wife everything they could possibly want. Somehow. “And I need to administer a few injections this morning, so I suppose we need to get up.”

Kaylee wrinkled her nose and absently rubbed at her arm. She hated those shots.

~*~

“Why’d you let Crazy in on the secret?” Jayne frowned as they convened in Inara’s shuttle.

River rolled her eyes at him. “Because you think so loud that even if I didn’t want to know, there’d be no way I couldn’t.”

“Oh, enough you two.” Mal turned to River. “You’re clear on the plan?”

“Yes. Keep them out shopping all day.”

“And they think they is taking Crazy shopping?” Jayne asked with a short laugh.

River clasped her hands in front of her and adopted an innocent demeanor. “Yep. My brother and soon to be sister are taking little River shopping for some things she desperately needs.” She tilted her head toward the door and smiled knowingly. “They’re done now. Better go wait for them downstairs.”

Mal groaned wishing he didn’t have to know any of the intimate details of his mechanic and medic’s sex life.

River rolled her head from side to side, enjoying the fact that even if she was lying –this time, she still got the same reaction out of Mal when she revealed anything that had to do with Kaylee and her brother’s sex life.

Inara simply laughed delicately and let her hand linger a bit longer on Mal’s arm as she passed him and joined River. “I’ll go with you and make sure everything is ready for when you return.”

~*~

“How about this, River?” Simon pointed out a pretty little airy dress that, surprisingly, River liked.

But she turned her nose up at the dress and shook her head. She had a mission today. To keep Simon and Kaylee occupied. And that meant not letting Simon buy her the first dress she actually liked.

After spending hours looking around the bazaar, River finally picked out something that she liked – and that they could afford. It irked her a bit that Simon was spending what little money he had on her. He should be saving it to get something nice for Kaylee. But she had a part to play, and she wasn’t going to ruin the surprise. She’d leave that to Jayne.

“Let’s find something for Kaylee too,” River suggested after they’d purchased her a dress.

“Oh, no, sweetie, you still need other things. We ain’t shopped for you in a long time.” Kaylee’s arm was laced through Simon’s and her smile and bubbly demeanor made River smile.

“And you need a drawing pad. I know you’re out of paper.” Simon led them toward another shop and River walked along beside them, smiling happily when Kaylee mimicked her hold on Simon and laced her hand around her arm, linking the three of them.

After walking around for a few more hours, River was all set with her purchases and deemed it safe to return to the ship. But as they passed the end of the bazaar, Kaylee caught sight of a fruit cart.

She let go of Simon’s arm and skipped over to it, smiling happily as her eyes skimmed over the lush red strawberries. Kaylee counted her remaining money and bit her lip when she realized she wouldn’t have enough to get any.

When Simon pulled out what money he had left and joined Kaylee, River felt a pang of regret that they’d spent so much on her. But together, they had enough and so they combined their money so that Kaylee could get her strawberries. River forced her mind back to the reason they were out here in the first place and a smile re-appeared on her face.

“All shiny! We can go back now!” Kaylee tucked the small box beneath her arm and held Simon’s hand with the other.

As they walked back to the ship, River stole glances at the couple and smiled when she caught Kaylee looking at Simon from beneath her eyelashes. She could feel the rush of desire emanate in waves off her brother and bit back a giggle when Kaylee smiled triumphantly at his reaction.

They would enjoy their surprise tonight. River had no doubt they would miss dinner.

~*~

“If you two don’t hurry up, it won’t be done by the time they get back!” Inara stood outside Simon and Kaylee’s bunk, watching Mal and Jayne working inside.

“For gods sakes woman, stop rushin’ us!” Came Mal’s sharp retort followed by a long string of Chinese swears as he hit his finger.

“We’re almost done anyway,” came Jayne’s voice from far deeper in the room. “This place reeks of sex, can’t wait to get this done.”

Inara rolled her eyes. “It does not. You’re just jealous.”

Jayne didn’t answer and a few minutes later the men emerged from the room, tools in hand.

Inara smiled widely as she looked into the room and clasped her hands together with glee. “It’s beautiful. They’ll love it.”

Mal’s heart tumbled over itself when he noticed the happy look on Inara’s face. He knew would do anything in the ‘verse to keep it there.

“Maybe lil’ Kaylee won’t keep getting’ her head smacked into the wall now.” Jayne smirked.

At that unexpected remark, Mal tore his eyes from Inara’s pretty face and stared at Jayne. “I don’t even want to know how you know that.”

“Probably not,” Jayne grunted as he picked up the larger pieces of wood and carried them into the cargo bay to dispose of them properly.

“Now for the finishing touches,” Inara grabbed her things and got to work while Mal helped Jayne with the rest of the debris.

When Simon, Kaylee and River returned, River led the two straight to their bunk with an excited smile.

They stopped short when they noticed, Kaylee, Zoe, Jayne and Mal standing between them and the door to their room.

“Have a nice day?” Inara asked with a secretive smile.

“Yep, was shiny!” Kaylee’s bubbly demeanor spilled into the room and brought a smile to everyone’s face.

“Well, we have something for you.” Mal said and motioned for River to join the barricade of people standing in front of the door.

Simon and Kaylee exchanged a confused look.

“An engagement gift.” Inara smiled happily as she stepped back beside Mal and slid her hand into his.

Simon dropped his hand to Kaylee’s lower back and let her precede him toward their bunk as everyone stepped away from the open door.

Kaylee’s jaw dropped when she noticed the change that had come over their room and Simon simply stared in shock before turning to look at the people gathered in the hallway. He stared at his sister who grinned mischievously back at him.

“You knew about this?”

River simply nodded.

Everything suddenly clicked in his mind. “You took us shopping today.”

River simply smiled while Simon glanced back into the room and back at his family again.

“I – “ He truly didn’t know what to say. “Thank you seems very inadequate.”

“It’s an engagement gift – from all of us.” Inara smiled as Kaylee let go of Simon’s hand and launched herself into the older woman’s arms.

“I well know they are far too small for two people,” Zoe added with a knowing smile.

“Thank you!” Kaylee hugged each one of them in turn, leaving Mal for last. When she hugged him, she kissed his cheek, saying with a smile bright enough to light up a starless galaxy, “I love my Captain.”

Simon thanked everyone as well and when he got to his sister, he tenderly kissed her cheek. “Thank you mei mei.”

But River wasn’t in the mood for sweet and sappy. She smiled evilly at her brother instead. “Won’t squeak as much now.”

“An poor lil’ Kaylee won’t come to breakfast every morning lookin’ like you’ve rammed her head into the wall one too many times,” Jayne added with a sly grin.

Simon groaned and everyone laughed as they filed down the hallway toward the galley.

“Now that we’ve wasted most of the day getting that in there, we’ve got work to do,” Mal said as Zoe pushed Jayne down the hallway. Mal and Inara followed with River bringing up the rear.

Just as she reached the steps, she called down to her brother and Kaylee. “We won’t set a place for you at dinner.”

Simon shot her an annoyed look as River skipped up the steps and disappeared. When he turned back to Kaylee, his heart somersaulted in his chest at the sultry look she shot him from beneath her eyelashes.

Moments later, she bounded into the room and hurled herself onto their new, and much bigger, bed.

THE END