Firefly: "What My Heart Will Be Is A Tower" by Alizarin
Title: What My Heart Will Be is a Tower
Author: Alizarin
Fandom: Firefly and Serenity
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Kaylee & Inara & River
Written for: The Female Gen Ficathon: for settiai who requested Kaylee.
“No. What my heart will be is a tower,
And I will be right out on its rim.”
--Rainer Marie Rilke
There was a tall, tall tower in the distance. Kaylee could just make it out if she squinted. It jutted up out of the bare earth and scratched the sky. The sky was the only other thing she could see, and it was blue, deep, purple-blue, like the sky would look in late afternoon on any terraformed planet. Soon it would be closer to dark, and then it would be dark.
And when it was dark, she would start to panic.
When she’d been shot in the stomach that one time on board Serenity, it had hurt, but it hadn’t hurt this bad. There was shock then, and there were distractions. Everyone was yelling. And there was Simon, and even though she didn’t know him, she knew he’d take care of her. He was a doctor and a real nice man.
Simon wasn’t here now. Nobody was here. It was just her, shot through twice and bleeding, lying in the middle of a dusty prairie. She’d wound a strip of her shirt around her knee but it wasn’t good for walking, not by a long shot. She held her hand up to her shoulder, pressing hard like Simon taught her, but she could feel her back soaked through with blood and could envision her pulse pushing out even more of it onto the dry earth.
She was well and truly humped.
Mal’s plan had been one of his usual stupid ones. Even Jayne said so. But they carried it out, to the letter. Kaylee would normally have stayed on board, keeping Serenity happy and ready to go at a moment’s notice. But this time, part of the deal had included fixing Shep Dunleavy’s pirate boat, a piece of junk if Kaylee’d ever seen one.
Once she had it up and running, Dunleavy’s crew had shut the doors and blown away, leaving Mal and Zoe in the mule, saddled with the goods they’d failed to trade and minus one mechanic.
Once they’d landed, Kaylee’s escape attempt went to hell. They shot her in the back as she ran down the ramp and another bullet ripped through her knee as she spun ‘round.
They left her for dead. But she wasn’t near dead yet and that wasn’t no blessing.
***
Inara was seated under a parasol when River came running up. River was unpredictable at the best of times, and she backhanded Inara’s teacup right out of her hands. It flew so far there was actually time for Inara to count a few beats before she heard the crackle-splatter of one of her favorite traveling cups.
She wasn’t the least surprised to hear that Mal’s stupid plan had gone wrong. River had been spying, as she was wont to do, being fascinated with the whole life of crime thing. She babbled incoherently for a few moments and Inara sat patiently, her hand still in mid-air where it had suffered its slapping indignity.
When she heard about Kaylee, she rose, quickly and quietly, and followed River to the center of town, away from her shady, tree-lined solitude. Jayne was there, running to and fro like a madman and Inara put a calming hand on his giant bicep and got him to focus.
“Mal and Zoe said they took off,” Jayne said. “Not even getting the goods they was supposed to pay us for, and Kaylee still on board.”
“What’s Mal’s plan?”
“Plan, plan, there ain’t no plan!” Jayne said, momentarily confused. “Get Kaylee back, that’s it.”
“How to capture a bird in flight with our little worm in its mouth?” River asked quietly, almost to herself.
“Mal’s already taken off, Wash and Zoe aboard, no time to collect the rest of us.”
“He’s taken off?” Inara asked, chagrined.
“He’s giving chase and we just got to all wait here ‘til he gets back. With Kaylee.” Jayne motioned them to the nearest bar and headed inside, not waiting to see if they were following.
River sidled up to Inara and tugged on the sleeve of her long yellow sari. “As the crow flies, we’ll beat them if we start now.”
“Speak plainly, River,” Inara said. She knew by instinct that River was the one to tell her what to do when she was so panicked, and not Jayne.
“Well.” River backed up and motioned for Inara to follow. “There’s a cry for help. I can hear it. It’s not on board any more. Mal’s gone on a wild goose chase. We follow the breadcrumbs and we’ll be first to tend to the broken winged bird.”
Inara nodded and rolled her eyes. Someday, someone would create a dictionary just for River’s way of talking. In the meantime, River was backing up quickly and Inara followed her. Either way, the girl would go where she would and it was best that Inara be there to protect her.
***
Beauty rode sidesaddle and she looked like a queen. River couldn’t stop admiring her and her perfect grace. Even though she only had one subject and the horses.
“Horses count,” River told her. “They are your loyal subjects too.” Beauty was gracious and stroked the horse like a lover.
They weren’t really breadcrumbs, not really. Screams were breadcrumbs.
The pirates were going to the tower because that’s where they kept their booty. River read it off of them when they set down with Mal and Zoe in the tavern. And when the princess didn’t want to be on the pirate ship any longer, she ran to the tower. That’s what princesses do.
She didn’t make it to the tower, if these screams in River’s head are any indication. River thinks they are. She is seldom wrong about these things; they just come about in a different way than what other folks think is right. Right, wrong. They’re only words and they don’t mean anything.
Only Beauty understands that the wrong way is the most likely way to right the wrong.
And there was no time to convince anyone else.
***
Kaylee’s breath was short and shallow. Though the sun was going down, she felt hot and dry. Her throat was a long line of hot embers trailing from behind her eyes down to her stomach. Her head pitched and roiled even though she hadn’t moved from the same prone position where she collapsed soon after realizing that one knee went one way and the other knee went the other.
That was a hard moment.
Kaylee never thought she’d see her own limbs as separate from herself. What a shocker to realize that the lower half of her left leg now seemed to have a non-life of its own. It neither moved nor cooperated with the rest of her. It was a bloody, pulpy thing, not fit to belong to her body. Shattered bone and muscle did indeed deserve to be left behind on the desert floor, to be eaten by wild animals.
The wild animals would come out in the dark, drawn by the smell of blood.
If Simon had been there, he’d give her some drugs to make her happy and sleepy.
If Mal had been there, he’d crush her hand tight in his and say “now, you hang on little girl. Help is on the way.”
If Zoe had been there, she and Wash would move heaven and earth to get her where she needed to be, and Zoe would help her stanch the wound and would remove her clothing so’s she could be operated on.
If Book were there… but then she realized that Book would never again read from his Bible to her while she was hurting or sick. And that Wash would never again speed her through the heavens to land her safely where help and happiness could be found.
And she’d of given anything to see any one of their faces right now. Even Wash’s or the Shepherd’s because at least then she’d know she would be okay and could let go.
She didn’t want to die alone.
When it was dark, then she would start to panic.
***
Inara didn’t care for the particular hardships of life. But what she’d been through and what she could actually endure, were completely different and separate things.
If she could lie still while a man pounded into her, believing that he was pleasing her with his graceless thrusts and animal grunts -- because she let him believe that -- then she could pretty much endure such things as long horse rides into the vast wasteland of an outer rim planet with not so much as an escort save a very young, temperamental, unstable girl.
So she said nothing, when time and time again, she had to stop and squat to relieve her bladder of the copious tea she’d drunk. There was very little brush and none of it tall enough to hide her, so she dropped down near the horse and pretended that River wasn’t stretching and leaning over to watch her.
“Just relieving myself, River, nothing to get excited about.”
“Everything done with such beauty is worth watching,” River answered, eyes wide like tea saucers, as if Inara were performing a particularly complicated juggling act.
“Whatever makes you happy, dear,” Inara replied. She didn’t feel particularly beautiful at all. Nor graceful, when the horse startled her by snorting and pacing and she broke her concentration, getting a few drops of urine on her smooth, butter-yellow sandals.
The horses kept up a fair pace, despite the heat and the rough terrain. Inara was a good rider, but hadn’t had the opportunity to ride a horse in a very long time. And when she’d had the opportunity, it was sidesaddle and purely for show, not for travel.
River seemed to handle it well; she knew nothing about riding, clearly, but was constantly whispering in the horse’s ear and the horse, bless him, seemed to understand her and was therefore eager to press his hoof-marks in the dry concrete earth to bring them ever closer to their goal.
When Inara looked up again there was a tall white tower on the horizon, sticking straight up out of the bare valley floor. River nodded at her and they broke into a gallop.
***
Kaylee had never known anyone half so pretty as Inara Serra. And for certain, she hadn’t never seen a sight so beautiful as Inara’s face, upside down, moving into her field of vision and saying her name. She figured she was seeing things. But a dusty sweat drop fell right on her face from Inara’s perfect brow and she knew Inara must be realer than real. Kaylee’s eyes filled with tears and she said, “’Nara.”
“Hush, Mei-Mei, don’t try to talk,” Inara said. “River,” she called out behind her, “We need something to put Kaylee on to carry her to shelter.” Inara began to fuss with Kaylee’s makeshift bandages, but was hardly able to bring herself to touch the bloody half-assed tourniquet on her leg. In what seemed but a moment, River was back, dragging a big door behind her like she was a gorram mule.
“Tower’s open for business,” River said gleefully.
Inara and River shifted Kaylee to the door as carefully as they could and then made their way to the tower, struggling and wobbling, with Kaylee between them. Kaylee hung on as long as she could but she couldn’t help the screaming and couldn’t help the blacking out neither.
***
Folks were coming, leaves on the wind. Straight over the tower, both.
River could hear them in the distance. One was the cavalry, sure enough, but one was the pirate ship, all black smoke and spoiling to shoot more girls in the back.
River wondered if she could find that space inside her again, the one that fought the Reavers. She didn’t want to -- never again -- but there was that piece inside that was a switch, off and on, triggered once by the pain on Kaylee’s face, the thought of never seeing Simon again, and the idea of Beautiful Companion having a man inside her that she hadn’t invited in.
These things were once a lightening bolt that sizzled down her spine, waking up nerves and circuits not meant for everyday use. Rusty with disuse now, but razor sharp all the same.
Worse, though, if the lightening didn’t strike in time.
“Run up the flag, Beauty,” River said, pulling on Inara’s saffron-yellow sari. “Color of the coward, but brave today!”
Beauty gave her the Look, which meant River had to roll her eyes and try again. She pointed to the staircase that wound up inside the tower like a snake.
“Serenity’s coming,” she said. “Flag ‘em down.” So Beauty went, because she had brains as well, and River would have stood admiring that for a while, but she had treasure to discover and Kaylee.
***
Inara flung her sandals into a corner and ran up the stairs in her bare feet. She unwound her sari as she went. She banged open the whitewashed wooden trap door and emerged on top of the tower. She could suddenly see for miles.
It was a special kind of freedom she felt as she unfurled her dress, made of the most beautiful and expensive material known to the Core planets, and tied it to a rusted flagpole. She watched the tiny dark orange designs that were finely stitched into it fade out and blur as it became one color in the last bit of light the horizon had to offer.
Two ships blazed out of the evening sky overhead and she raised her arms, stretched out to one in entreaty. Two women were below; two women she loved like sisters, the way she’d loved Nandi when they’d studied together, and she’d be damned if she’d let either one come to harm.
She found herself suddenly praying out loud to any deity that would hear her. Save her, she said. Give us this one. We need her. We need to find a way to be free from the weight of the world and this grief. Save us. She jumped up and down, waving, shouting like a madwoman. She didn’t care that she now wore only a chemise that barely skimmed the tops of her thighs. The night wind coming up was warm and exhilarating on her skin.
She shouted into the air, her hair flying, and everything was free.
***
Kaylee came ‘round again just in time to see her kidnappers coming right through the door. She’d have screamed, had she thought they was real, but they were no more real than ‘Nara, because ‘Nara wouldn’t have left her and Kaylee couldn’t see her now, so she musta been a dream.
She recoiled as a big blast echoed throughout the room she was in and the fella at the door blew back, right outside where he belonged.
“And there’s more where that came from!” River was gloating just off to Kaylee’s right side and sure enough, there she stood, with a gun that was bigger than she was.
Kaylee looked down and saw that she was covered in a blanket, a white bandage was covering her shoulder and she felt woozy, like she’d been shot up with one of Simon’s painkiller thingies. “Shenme?” She asked, to no one in particular.
“Shao deng!” River called. “Be with you in a moment, my treasure!”
Kaylee didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry that River was here with her, holding a gun that’d give Vera a run for her money, but she couldn’t think too well, what with the bleeding and all so she stayed still and watched the doorway with wide eyes.
Inara came down the stairs half-naked and Kaylee thought it was kinda inappropriate that she be entertaining when here Kaylee was all shot up and there was kidnappers at the door. Inara screamed as the wall behind her exploded in gunfire. She hit the ground, hollering at River fit to bust. Kaylee wanted to reach her hand out and invite Inara in under the blanket where it was warm and safe, but Inara had hauled herself up and now she had a gun, a tiny one, and she was propping up the door they’d busted down and was aiming over it.
“It’s like a real old-fashioned Rim shootout,” Kaylee murmured as she dropped off to sleep, “Only with gals and stuff ‘stead a fellas.”
***
River was tired after all the shooting. She was glad Mal and Zoe had come by to clean up the rest of the mess. She felt the lightening tingle, but it didn’t ignite, and she was glad of that. It wasn’t necessary after all, even though Mal looked really angry and Zoe’s full lips were zipped up in a tight, thin line.
Mal swept up Beauty in his arms and her bare legs swung around like crazy doll’s legs. Blood trailed down her face and into her ink-black hair.
“It’s okay,” River told him gently. “A scratch from stone. She’d never get shot. She’s too small and whispery.” Mal just looked at her with the Look. So River rolled her eyes at him and repeated everything, using different words. “Shrapnel. Stone. From the tower. She’s bleeding but the blood isn’t the kind that hurts.”
When Mal finally understood, he set her down carefully. Beauty was bleeding into the dirt, but that was okay. Her blood would always be better than the ground she walked on.
Simon came in and tried to hug River and she pushed him away. “Don’t be an idiot,” she said, disentangling herself. “Kaylee needs you right now. She wants to walk again. You have to help.”
She knew that Simon would do everything in his power to get Kaylee back to herself. The hard part was over. River saved her life; how Kaylee chose to see it out would be up to her and Simon now.
Inara woke up and Zoe helped her up and back to Serenity. Simon got his funny cart with wheels for Kaylee. Only Jayne was missing out, back there in the tavern, getting drunk and feeling lonelier than he’d ever felt before. River rolled her eyes again as she let her mind take stock of Jayne’s feelings. All the way out here. She could hear his whining all the way out here.
She grinned. There was one more thing she had left to do, so she turned to Mal.
“Pirates got treasure, you know. I figure we’re about as good as next of kin, don’t you?”
***
When Inara entered the dining area, everyone seated around the table clapped loudly.
“What’s this?” She inquired shyly.
“Just a round of applause in appreciation for what you done down there, saving Kaylee and all,” Mal said, smiling and bowing and pulling out a chair for her to sit down in.
“It’s not necessary, you all…” Inara blushed. “Really, it was River. Wo bu zhidao wo yinggai gan shenme, really.” She gazed around in amazement at the wonderful meal set out before her. The pirates had hidden treasure, all right. The food and ammunition stored in that tower were fit for a king. Or a Firefly and her crew. They had so many guns she thought Jayne would never stop groaning in ecstasy, and enough food for a year, in addition to a comfortable cache of medical supplies and blankets and clothes. Kaylee’d be very pleased with the parts they’d stripped from the very ship that kidnapped her.
“Way I hear tell, you had a lot to do with it,” Jayne said to Inara. “Kaylee can’t stop goin’ on about you and River, Wild Women of the Wilderness, way she tells it.”
“That’s sweet,” Inara said. River grinned and ducked behind her veil of hair. Mal looked at her with pride. She knew she still had a big red scar on her face, but she looked at him straight and didn’t try to hide it. “I’m just glad Kaylee can talk about it at all.”
“I sure can,” Kaylee said, her voice filling the room like a bright ray of sunshine. “Nothin’ better than a good story with a happy ending.”
Then they were all on their feet, watching Simon maneuver her carefully through the door. Her leg stuck out straight in front of her, braced and immobilized, her arm was cradled close in a bright pink sling. They all applauded and cheered. “Wouldn’t a missed this celebration for the world!” Kaylee crowed, her smile as pretty as a sunrise.
Inara said grace before their meal that night, following what she’d heard Shepherd Book say on occasion. She said thanks for Kaylee’s life and for River’s bravery and for the comfort of home and hearth. Even Mal bowed his head.
**end**
.
.
.
Author: Alizarin
Fandom: Firefly and Serenity
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Kaylee & Inara & River
Written for: The Female Gen Ficathon: for settiai who requested Kaylee.
“No. What my heart will be is a tower,
And I will be right out on its rim.”
--Rainer Marie Rilke
There was a tall, tall tower in the distance. Kaylee could just make it out if she squinted. It jutted up out of the bare earth and scratched the sky. The sky was the only other thing she could see, and it was blue, deep, purple-blue, like the sky would look in late afternoon on any terraformed planet. Soon it would be closer to dark, and then it would be dark.
And when it was dark, she would start to panic.
When she’d been shot in the stomach that one time on board Serenity, it had hurt, but it hadn’t hurt this bad. There was shock then, and there were distractions. Everyone was yelling. And there was Simon, and even though she didn’t know him, she knew he’d take care of her. He was a doctor and a real nice man.
Simon wasn’t here now. Nobody was here. It was just her, shot through twice and bleeding, lying in the middle of a dusty prairie. She’d wound a strip of her shirt around her knee but it wasn’t good for walking, not by a long shot. She held her hand up to her shoulder, pressing hard like Simon taught her, but she could feel her back soaked through with blood and could envision her pulse pushing out even more of it onto the dry earth.
She was well and truly humped.
Mal’s plan had been one of his usual stupid ones. Even Jayne said so. But they carried it out, to the letter. Kaylee would normally have stayed on board, keeping Serenity happy and ready to go at a moment’s notice. But this time, part of the deal had included fixing Shep Dunleavy’s pirate boat, a piece of junk if Kaylee’d ever seen one.
Once she had it up and running, Dunleavy’s crew had shut the doors and blown away, leaving Mal and Zoe in the mule, saddled with the goods they’d failed to trade and minus one mechanic.
Once they’d landed, Kaylee’s escape attempt went to hell. They shot her in the back as she ran down the ramp and another bullet ripped through her knee as she spun ‘round.
They left her for dead. But she wasn’t near dead yet and that wasn’t no blessing.
***
Inara was seated under a parasol when River came running up. River was unpredictable at the best of times, and she backhanded Inara’s teacup right out of her hands. It flew so far there was actually time for Inara to count a few beats before she heard the crackle-splatter of one of her favorite traveling cups.
She wasn’t the least surprised to hear that Mal’s stupid plan had gone wrong. River had been spying, as she was wont to do, being fascinated with the whole life of crime thing. She babbled incoherently for a few moments and Inara sat patiently, her hand still in mid-air where it had suffered its slapping indignity.
When she heard about Kaylee, she rose, quickly and quietly, and followed River to the center of town, away from her shady, tree-lined solitude. Jayne was there, running to and fro like a madman and Inara put a calming hand on his giant bicep and got him to focus.
“Mal and Zoe said they took off,” Jayne said. “Not even getting the goods they was supposed to pay us for, and Kaylee still on board.”
“What’s Mal’s plan?”
“Plan, plan, there ain’t no plan!” Jayne said, momentarily confused. “Get Kaylee back, that’s it.”
“How to capture a bird in flight with our little worm in its mouth?” River asked quietly, almost to herself.
“Mal’s already taken off, Wash and Zoe aboard, no time to collect the rest of us.”
“He’s taken off?” Inara asked, chagrined.
“He’s giving chase and we just got to all wait here ‘til he gets back. With Kaylee.” Jayne motioned them to the nearest bar and headed inside, not waiting to see if they were following.
River sidled up to Inara and tugged on the sleeve of her long yellow sari. “As the crow flies, we’ll beat them if we start now.”
“Speak plainly, River,” Inara said. She knew by instinct that River was the one to tell her what to do when she was so panicked, and not Jayne.
“Well.” River backed up and motioned for Inara to follow. “There’s a cry for help. I can hear it. It’s not on board any more. Mal’s gone on a wild goose chase. We follow the breadcrumbs and we’ll be first to tend to the broken winged bird.”
Inara nodded and rolled her eyes. Someday, someone would create a dictionary just for River’s way of talking. In the meantime, River was backing up quickly and Inara followed her. Either way, the girl would go where she would and it was best that Inara be there to protect her.
***
Beauty rode sidesaddle and she looked like a queen. River couldn’t stop admiring her and her perfect grace. Even though she only had one subject and the horses.
“Horses count,” River told her. “They are your loyal subjects too.” Beauty was gracious and stroked the horse like a lover.
They weren’t really breadcrumbs, not really. Screams were breadcrumbs.
The pirates were going to the tower because that’s where they kept their booty. River read it off of them when they set down with Mal and Zoe in the tavern. And when the princess didn’t want to be on the pirate ship any longer, she ran to the tower. That’s what princesses do.
She didn’t make it to the tower, if these screams in River’s head are any indication. River thinks they are. She is seldom wrong about these things; they just come about in a different way than what other folks think is right. Right, wrong. They’re only words and they don’t mean anything.
Only Beauty understands that the wrong way is the most likely way to right the wrong.
And there was no time to convince anyone else.
***
Kaylee’s breath was short and shallow. Though the sun was going down, she felt hot and dry. Her throat was a long line of hot embers trailing from behind her eyes down to her stomach. Her head pitched and roiled even though she hadn’t moved from the same prone position where she collapsed soon after realizing that one knee went one way and the other knee went the other.
That was a hard moment.
Kaylee never thought she’d see her own limbs as separate from herself. What a shocker to realize that the lower half of her left leg now seemed to have a non-life of its own. It neither moved nor cooperated with the rest of her. It was a bloody, pulpy thing, not fit to belong to her body. Shattered bone and muscle did indeed deserve to be left behind on the desert floor, to be eaten by wild animals.
The wild animals would come out in the dark, drawn by the smell of blood.
If Simon had been there, he’d give her some drugs to make her happy and sleepy.
If Mal had been there, he’d crush her hand tight in his and say “now, you hang on little girl. Help is on the way.”
If Zoe had been there, she and Wash would move heaven and earth to get her where she needed to be, and Zoe would help her stanch the wound and would remove her clothing so’s she could be operated on.
If Book were there… but then she realized that Book would never again read from his Bible to her while she was hurting or sick. And that Wash would never again speed her through the heavens to land her safely where help and happiness could be found.
And she’d of given anything to see any one of their faces right now. Even Wash’s or the Shepherd’s because at least then she’d know she would be okay and could let go.
She didn’t want to die alone.
When it was dark, then she would start to panic.
***
Inara didn’t care for the particular hardships of life. But what she’d been through and what she could actually endure, were completely different and separate things.
If she could lie still while a man pounded into her, believing that he was pleasing her with his graceless thrusts and animal grunts -- because she let him believe that -- then she could pretty much endure such things as long horse rides into the vast wasteland of an outer rim planet with not so much as an escort save a very young, temperamental, unstable girl.
So she said nothing, when time and time again, she had to stop and squat to relieve her bladder of the copious tea she’d drunk. There was very little brush and none of it tall enough to hide her, so she dropped down near the horse and pretended that River wasn’t stretching and leaning over to watch her.
“Just relieving myself, River, nothing to get excited about.”
“Everything done with such beauty is worth watching,” River answered, eyes wide like tea saucers, as if Inara were performing a particularly complicated juggling act.
“Whatever makes you happy, dear,” Inara replied. She didn’t feel particularly beautiful at all. Nor graceful, when the horse startled her by snorting and pacing and she broke her concentration, getting a few drops of urine on her smooth, butter-yellow sandals.
The horses kept up a fair pace, despite the heat and the rough terrain. Inara was a good rider, but hadn’t had the opportunity to ride a horse in a very long time. And when she’d had the opportunity, it was sidesaddle and purely for show, not for travel.
River seemed to handle it well; she knew nothing about riding, clearly, but was constantly whispering in the horse’s ear and the horse, bless him, seemed to understand her and was therefore eager to press his hoof-marks in the dry concrete earth to bring them ever closer to their goal.
When Inara looked up again there was a tall white tower on the horizon, sticking straight up out of the bare valley floor. River nodded at her and they broke into a gallop.
***
Kaylee had never known anyone half so pretty as Inara Serra. And for certain, she hadn’t never seen a sight so beautiful as Inara’s face, upside down, moving into her field of vision and saying her name. She figured she was seeing things. But a dusty sweat drop fell right on her face from Inara’s perfect brow and she knew Inara must be realer than real. Kaylee’s eyes filled with tears and she said, “’Nara.”
“Hush, Mei-Mei, don’t try to talk,” Inara said. “River,” she called out behind her, “We need something to put Kaylee on to carry her to shelter.” Inara began to fuss with Kaylee’s makeshift bandages, but was hardly able to bring herself to touch the bloody half-assed tourniquet on her leg. In what seemed but a moment, River was back, dragging a big door behind her like she was a gorram mule.
“Tower’s open for business,” River said gleefully.
Inara and River shifted Kaylee to the door as carefully as they could and then made their way to the tower, struggling and wobbling, with Kaylee between them. Kaylee hung on as long as she could but she couldn’t help the screaming and couldn’t help the blacking out neither.
***
Folks were coming, leaves on the wind. Straight over the tower, both.
River could hear them in the distance. One was the cavalry, sure enough, but one was the pirate ship, all black smoke and spoiling to shoot more girls in the back.
River wondered if she could find that space inside her again, the one that fought the Reavers. She didn’t want to -- never again -- but there was that piece inside that was a switch, off and on, triggered once by the pain on Kaylee’s face, the thought of never seeing Simon again, and the idea of Beautiful Companion having a man inside her that she hadn’t invited in.
These things were once a lightening bolt that sizzled down her spine, waking up nerves and circuits not meant for everyday use. Rusty with disuse now, but razor sharp all the same.
Worse, though, if the lightening didn’t strike in time.
“Run up the flag, Beauty,” River said, pulling on Inara’s saffron-yellow sari. “Color of the coward, but brave today!”
Beauty gave her the Look, which meant River had to roll her eyes and try again. She pointed to the staircase that wound up inside the tower like a snake.
“Serenity’s coming,” she said. “Flag ‘em down.” So Beauty went, because she had brains as well, and River would have stood admiring that for a while, but she had treasure to discover and Kaylee.
***
Inara flung her sandals into a corner and ran up the stairs in her bare feet. She unwound her sari as she went. She banged open the whitewashed wooden trap door and emerged on top of the tower. She could suddenly see for miles.
It was a special kind of freedom she felt as she unfurled her dress, made of the most beautiful and expensive material known to the Core planets, and tied it to a rusted flagpole. She watched the tiny dark orange designs that were finely stitched into it fade out and blur as it became one color in the last bit of light the horizon had to offer.
Two ships blazed out of the evening sky overhead and she raised her arms, stretched out to one in entreaty. Two women were below; two women she loved like sisters, the way she’d loved Nandi when they’d studied together, and she’d be damned if she’d let either one come to harm.
She found herself suddenly praying out loud to any deity that would hear her. Save her, she said. Give us this one. We need her. We need to find a way to be free from the weight of the world and this grief. Save us. She jumped up and down, waving, shouting like a madwoman. She didn’t care that she now wore only a chemise that barely skimmed the tops of her thighs. The night wind coming up was warm and exhilarating on her skin.
She shouted into the air, her hair flying, and everything was free.
***
Kaylee came ‘round again just in time to see her kidnappers coming right through the door. She’d have screamed, had she thought they was real, but they were no more real than ‘Nara, because ‘Nara wouldn’t have left her and Kaylee couldn’t see her now, so she musta been a dream.
She recoiled as a big blast echoed throughout the room she was in and the fella at the door blew back, right outside where he belonged.
“And there’s more where that came from!” River was gloating just off to Kaylee’s right side and sure enough, there she stood, with a gun that was bigger than she was.
Kaylee looked down and saw that she was covered in a blanket, a white bandage was covering her shoulder and she felt woozy, like she’d been shot up with one of Simon’s painkiller thingies. “Shenme?” She asked, to no one in particular.
“Shao deng!” River called. “Be with you in a moment, my treasure!”
Kaylee didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry that River was here with her, holding a gun that’d give Vera a run for her money, but she couldn’t think too well, what with the bleeding and all so she stayed still and watched the doorway with wide eyes.
Inara came down the stairs half-naked and Kaylee thought it was kinda inappropriate that she be entertaining when here Kaylee was all shot up and there was kidnappers at the door. Inara screamed as the wall behind her exploded in gunfire. She hit the ground, hollering at River fit to bust. Kaylee wanted to reach her hand out and invite Inara in under the blanket where it was warm and safe, but Inara had hauled herself up and now she had a gun, a tiny one, and she was propping up the door they’d busted down and was aiming over it.
“It’s like a real old-fashioned Rim shootout,” Kaylee murmured as she dropped off to sleep, “Only with gals and stuff ‘stead a fellas.”
***
River was tired after all the shooting. She was glad Mal and Zoe had come by to clean up the rest of the mess. She felt the lightening tingle, but it didn’t ignite, and she was glad of that. It wasn’t necessary after all, even though Mal looked really angry and Zoe’s full lips were zipped up in a tight, thin line.
Mal swept up Beauty in his arms and her bare legs swung around like crazy doll’s legs. Blood trailed down her face and into her ink-black hair.
“It’s okay,” River told him gently. “A scratch from stone. She’d never get shot. She’s too small and whispery.” Mal just looked at her with the Look. So River rolled her eyes at him and repeated everything, using different words. “Shrapnel. Stone. From the tower. She’s bleeding but the blood isn’t the kind that hurts.”
When Mal finally understood, he set her down carefully. Beauty was bleeding into the dirt, but that was okay. Her blood would always be better than the ground she walked on.
Simon came in and tried to hug River and she pushed him away. “Don’t be an idiot,” she said, disentangling herself. “Kaylee needs you right now. She wants to walk again. You have to help.”
She knew that Simon would do everything in his power to get Kaylee back to herself. The hard part was over. River saved her life; how Kaylee chose to see it out would be up to her and Simon now.
Inara woke up and Zoe helped her up and back to Serenity. Simon got his funny cart with wheels for Kaylee. Only Jayne was missing out, back there in the tavern, getting drunk and feeling lonelier than he’d ever felt before. River rolled her eyes again as she let her mind take stock of Jayne’s feelings. All the way out here. She could hear his whining all the way out here.
She grinned. There was one more thing she had left to do, so she turned to Mal.
“Pirates got treasure, you know. I figure we’re about as good as next of kin, don’t you?”
***
When Inara entered the dining area, everyone seated around the table clapped loudly.
“What’s this?” She inquired shyly.
“Just a round of applause in appreciation for what you done down there, saving Kaylee and all,” Mal said, smiling and bowing and pulling out a chair for her to sit down in.
“It’s not necessary, you all…” Inara blushed. “Really, it was River. Wo bu zhidao wo yinggai gan shenme, really.” She gazed around in amazement at the wonderful meal set out before her. The pirates had hidden treasure, all right. The food and ammunition stored in that tower were fit for a king. Or a Firefly and her crew. They had so many guns she thought Jayne would never stop groaning in ecstasy, and enough food for a year, in addition to a comfortable cache of medical supplies and blankets and clothes. Kaylee’d be very pleased with the parts they’d stripped from the very ship that kidnapped her.
“Way I hear tell, you had a lot to do with it,” Jayne said to Inara. “Kaylee can’t stop goin’ on about you and River, Wild Women of the Wilderness, way she tells it.”
“That’s sweet,” Inara said. River grinned and ducked behind her veil of hair. Mal looked at her with pride. She knew she still had a big red scar on her face, but she looked at him straight and didn’t try to hide it. “I’m just glad Kaylee can talk about it at all.”
“I sure can,” Kaylee said, her voice filling the room like a bright ray of sunshine. “Nothin’ better than a good story with a happy ending.”
Then they were all on their feet, watching Simon maneuver her carefully through the door. Her leg stuck out straight in front of her, braced and immobilized, her arm was cradled close in a bright pink sling. They all applauded and cheered. “Wouldn’t a missed this celebration for the world!” Kaylee crowed, her smile as pretty as a sunrise.
Inara said grace before their meal that night, following what she’d heard Shepherd Book say on occasion. She said thanks for Kaylee’s life and for River’s bravery and for the comfort of home and hearth. Even Mal bowed his head.
**end**
.
.
.