Zoe's Bad Day PG-13 (Serenity FanFic)
ZOE'S BAD DAY
Part I
She got the helmet off just in time. The wave of nausea swept through her and she retched over and over before finally bringing up the little bit of breakfast she'd had.
"Oh, Zoe! Are you all right?"
Inara's hands gently lifted Zoe's shoulders up off the deck. She leaned against the bulkhead and let Inara wipe her face with a tiny wisp of a lace handkerchief. The glaring cargo bay lights highlighted the ashiness of Zoe's skin and the prominence of her cheekbones.
Her panting slowed to deeper breaths. "Hmmm, that smells nice. What is it?"
"Gardenia. I'll give you some hankies that you can carry with you and use when you, um--"
"Erupt?" She smiled and let Inara help her to her feet. "That'd work. Sometimes I just get a whiff of--"
"Jayne?"
She laughed. "Sometimes, or even Simon with that hospital smell-- Hey, stop that, I ain't 12!" she protested as Inara started to work on the latches and glides of Zoe's suit.
"No, but you're certainly acting like it! You know you're not past this nausea stage yet. Your skimpy little breakfasts make it even worse when you get into a suit!"
Zoe's laugh trailed off into a groan. "I don't know what little Hobie's got against the suit. It's never bothered me none."
"It's a combination of oxygen saturation, incipient malnutrition, and, well, your smell." Simon smiled winsomely as Zoe twisted to glare at him. He stepped into the cargo bay. "Everyone has their own individual odor in those things -- which you very well know. God forbid anyone should have to wear Jayne's in a pinch." He grabbed Zoe's helmet off the deck and followed her and Inara to the suit locker. "I told you to give it at least 2 more weeks but nobody ever listens to me."
"We all know you're no obstetrician, Doc. It's just book learnin' you're pushin' on me, so I figu--"
"You figured I didn't know what I was talking about, that you were the one who was pregnant so you knew better."
"Cap'n needed me so I had to try. Now he and Jayne are over on Ariel's Wish short-handed and it'll take us wahn-chiehn-niehn to find what we been lookin' for."
"Exactly what is it that we're-"
"What on Earth-that-was could-"
Inara and Simon both stopped, then started again, then stopped and laughed.
Zoe smiled as she hung her suit in the locker. She felt fine now, always did for a while once she let little Hobie get the better of her. Gonna be stubborn, just like his daddy. She lost her smile for a moment, then forced it back on her face as she turned to take her helmet from Simon.
"Cap'n hasn't told me exactly, but we’ve got limited legal salvage rights, so most knick-knacks we find that ain't part of the job, we can keep."
Simon shook his head. "I can't imagine there's much of anything left. Even I've heard of Ariel's Wish -- and she's been fair game for both legal and illegal salvage for a couple years now."
Zoe shot him a speculative look. "You remember that last time River got triggered?"
Simon nodded, grabbed her arm, and pulled her toward the infirmary. "Yes. Come on, you're getting another vitamin shot." He shook his head at her protest and thought about River's near disaster on Eavesdown docks. "It wasn't as bad as the other times. Jayne admitted she was starting to pull her punch--"
"I'm not sayin' she's not gettin' better at holdin‘ on, but it was a good thing Jayne had the presence of mind to say the safe word."
"Jayne and 'presence of mind' being 2 things one doesn't normally associate with one another," muttered Inara darkly.
"Maybe. What counts is he was the only one there and he did remember. But that's not what I'm referrin' to precisely." She moved over to the infirmary counter to wait while Simon prepared her vitamin dose. She wasn't sure how much the captain wanted known, but she knew there wasn't anything strictly confidential about the matter. Both Simon and Inara were fully aware of the captain using River's triggers to find hot spots where work of their particular ... specialty might be needed. That the captain didn't care to elaborate on the meaning of this last trigger could mean that the resulting job was not that risky, or that it was so risky he daren’t talk about it. Or possibly the client just wanted extra secrecy. Zoe didn't like not knowing all the details but, then, she wasn't the captain.
"River did come up with the location which as you know was the space docks over Bellerophon. What you may not have heard is that she came up with a name, too, and that's who our client is on this job."
She watched as Simon stopped filling the vial and looked her a question. Inara started to say something but Zoe held up her hand to stop her.
"Cap'n wouldn't tell me who it was and that bothers me." She rolled up her sleeve and winced at the injection. "That bothers me a lot. My only sureness is that it wasn't Niska."
"Niska." Inara shuddered. "That man lost a lot of credibility after what we did to him. You know he'd do anything to shaow-hwei woh-min duh PEE-goo in such a way that the whole 'verse would know it was his doin'."
"Cap'n's been real careful about background checks. He knows Niska's web has trapped lots of ordinary people who don't have any choice about yes or no." She rolled her sleeve down and headed out of the infirmary. "Now leave me alone. I need to rinse this nasty gorram taste out of my mouth and then maybe get somethin' in my stomach."
Inara followed her upstairs. "I'll make you a nice broth with just a little bit of spice so you don't feel like you're eating Simon's gruesome gruel."
"Hey!" Simon's protest traveled faintly up the stairs and they laughed. “Don’t you start calling it that!”
"That sounds good." Zoe smiled and patted her arm. "Spices were one of Book's nicest gifts to--"
She stopped short and they stood, paralyzed for a moment with loss, their memories of the Shepherd almost overpowering in the galley he loved so much.
Inara tried to clear her throat. "I'll just get right on that," she said in a not-quite-steady voice and turned quickly to the kitchen. "Expect a masterpiece!"
Zoe swallowed the lump in her throat. "I'll have nothing less, remember that!"
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She headed forwards to her cabin and then nearly fell in a heap when her impatience slipped her foot on the ladder. She paused for a moment, hanging on and taking deep breaths in an effort to calm her agitated mind and roiling stomach. It didn't work; she almost didn't make it to the lavatory. Nowadays, though, she always left it open when they weren't under way. She retched a few times but all that came up was a dribble of bile that she wiped from her chin when the wave finally receded.
C'mon, little Hobie, give your poor mama a break. She almost lost it again but then her appetite suddenly returned. Almost giddy with relief, she silently blessed Simon's vitamin shots. They always made her feel 3 times sicker but they did eventually work so it wasn't worth whingeing about.
She rinsed her mouth out thoroughly then patted her face and neck with a damp cloth. Pulling Inara's hankie from her pocket, she balled it up in her fist and held it for a moment to release more of the fragrance. Mmmm, nice. She tucked it into her shirt so her body heat would warm and waft the expensive scent upwards. I'll have to buy a bottle of that next time we hit Persephone or Bellerophon. And something nice for Inara. Frivolous thoughts of buying pretties made her smile as she made her way back to the galley, but her thoughts were cut off at the click of the intercom.
"Zoe, Cap'n wants you up here now."
Her smile dropped from her face and she hit the cockpit ladder in 4 long strides. River was fidgeting at the controls but didn't look particular excited so maybe it wasn't a total disaster.
She clicked the radio on. "Here, sir."
"Tell Kaylee to grab a couple blow torches and get suited." His voice didn't sound excited but there was a layer of tension Zoe didn't care for. "And River's gonna suit up too. I need someone both small and strong, and pound-for-pound she's stronger'n Jayne."
Zoe imagined Jayne's face at that; it made her smile again. She waved as River pointed downstairs, mouthed 'Kaylee', then left to get the 2 of them started. The captain was continuing: "I told her where her and Kaylee'll come to join us. We're gonna have to get at this thing from the outside in. There's a breach but we'll have to widen it 'fore we get enough room to move the goods."
"The goods are intact?"
"Far as we can tell. The vault's damaged so bad it'd take a month of Sundays to get at it through the door. Nobody could even get a torch through it." He laughed shortly. "We can tell 'cause the door's been torched at least half a dozen tries."
She thought quickly about what they might need. "How about a spreader? If you get to a point where you need just an inch or two, that might do the trick."
"Long as we can get a good anchor... Sounds good, but get the biggest you can find or that Kaylee can put together. Also, we may have to come back to refresh our oxygen if this thing takes too long. Get it ready."
"Will do--" But the captain had already clicked off and Zoe headed down to the cargo bay.
"What's goin' on, Zoe?" Kaylee was already half in her suit with River's help.
"We need a spreader, a big one. You got anything like that?"
Kaylee thought it over. "I could throw somethin' together with a coupla smaller I-beams." At Zoe's raised eyebrow, she added, "It'll hold together real good, take a lot of force, and I can make it in less'n 5 minutes. I'd just have to get out of this..." River was already unfastening what she had just fastened up.
"Here, River, I'll help her with that. You go tell the captain how long we'll be. Did she tell you where?" she asked Kaylee, who nodded, and Zoe turned back to River. "Then stay out with them, no sense in you backtracking just to escort Kaylee."
"There's somethin' flyin' in the black, a-spyin’ through a wee little crack," River sang lightly under her breath as she worked on her own suit. That stopped Zoe and Kaylee in their tracks and Zoe grabbed River's arm.
"Not Niska?"
"No." She looked unseeing out through the bulkhead, then shook her head. "I just feel... No. Might be nuthin' at all. Might be fairy wings." She smiled. "I like fairies."
"And might be somethin' a little less friendly." Zoe waved Kaylee off, then caught River's chin and stared into her eyes. "You feel anything, anything at all, might be goin' wrong out there, you tell the captain before everything goes to the tuh-byeh dee-you."
River pressed Zoe's hand to her cheek. "I'll take care of the captain, I promise."
Zoe smiled. "Well, I don't know how he'd take to that, but you do your best, wahn-nuhng duh shiaow-gweir."
River nodded, then lifted the helmet over her head. Zoe double-checked her equipment, gave her an okay signal, and waited through the air lock sequence to watch as River's small body floated across the gap to the Wish, the anchor line jumping with every pull.
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"How we doin', Kaylee?" She cast a worried glance around the engine room from the hatch. Cap'n would say it was 'space monkeys', but she knew the tornado effect was due more to Kaylee being in a fit of inspiration.
"Almost got it!" A loud bang surprised Zoe into flinching back, but a moment later Kaylee appeared with what looked like the Devil's own disemboweler. Zoe laughed a little nervously at the sight.
"Are you sure that's gonna work?"
Kaylee brandished it casually. "Why wouldn't it? It's just a big ol’ pair of scissors that you need to open up instead of closing down -- 'n I gave it two tines on each side so's we can move more hull. It'll work great!" At Zoe's look of disbelief, she added indignantly, "Honest!"
Zoe shook her head. "I'll take your word for it, since it'll be you floatin' off to Sihnon if it breaks while you're haulin' on it. Just make sure it's not the captain flyin’ away or he'd survive just to lecture you!"
Kaylee rolled her eyes. "The lecture'd be worse'n any beatin'!"
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Kaylee was quickly on her way. Back in the cockpit, Zoe monitored her transit along Serenity's anchor line to Ariel's Wish. There were 3 replacement oxygen packs down in the cargo bay and another suit prepped just in case. She felt she'd done as much as she could, but knowin' the captain's luck, she thought maybe she was missing something. River's sensing didn't help none, just increased her anxiety.
"I'm worried."
She turned at Simon's words, then shook her head at his frown. "She's as safe as it's possible to be in the Black."
"Which is not exactly where I like her to be."
"She's full crew now. Which is where she likes to be."
"Yes, I know." He sat in the copilot's chair and stared unseeing at the darkened boards. "She's improved so much since Miranda, yet each time she triggers I think it's going to be the last I'll ever see of her."
"And it may well be."
He raised his gaze to hers. "And there's nothing I can do about it, I know. Except keep her cocooned here on Serenity so there's no chance they can get at her -- and she'd never agree to that now."
"No, she's had her taste of freedom. Even her dark time ain't as deep down as used to be. She's got confidence now. Not a lot, 'cause she knows it could all end in a split. But enough so that she can occasionally-- " She smiled. "Shepherd Book once said..." Her voice trailed off, then she started again: "Shepherd Book believed, as her mind changes and heals, she'll want to spread her wings, test her ... abilities without worrying about Alliance interference." She thought back to their conversation. “Fairy wings."
"Fairy wings?"
"Just a fancy she had." She thought it over, shook her head, "at least, I hope it was just that and not--"
The ship shook hard, taking Simon down to the deck. Alarms blared and the boards lit up red and yellow. Zoe strapped in and immediately pounded the radio link. "Sir!"
"What was that?"
"Dunno, sir, I was hopin' you--"
Static swept over the link as another hit felt like it was shoving Serenity aside.
"Captain, are you there?!"
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GLOSSARY
Shaow-hwei woh-min duh pee-goo: shao1hui1 wo3men de pi4gu4: destroy our butts, reduce our butts to ashes
Tuh-byeh dee-you: te4bie2 di4yu4: special hell
Wahn-nuhng duh shiaow-gweir: wan4neng2 de xiao3guir3: omnipotent little imp
Wahn-chiehn-niehn: wan3qian1nian2: Countless years, forever.
Here's Zoe's Bad Day Part 2.