Miscommunication (3/3)
Title: Venting (3/3)
Prompt: #65 Discussion
Series: Miscommunication
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2480
Title: Venting (3/3)
Prompt: #65 Discussion
Series: Miscommunication
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done
Rating: PG-13 (No smut?! How can it be?!)
Word Count: 2480
“You’re not going to fit in there,” River shook her head doubtfully, staring up at the open ventilation shaft.
“Sure I am,” Jayne replied with a determined look on his face, his shoulders set in stubborn resolve.
“I can go alone, let you out from the other side,” she suggested. The plan to escape the kitchen through the air ducts had been hers, but she had needed his help to boost her up to reach the rather high fan. After some coaxing she had managed to convince him to let her sit on his shoulders while she gave them access to the duct behind it. Using a dull butter knife she had loosened the screws and pried the grating off, then with a pair of kitchen scissors, cut apart the wires, effectively stopping the whirring blades from circulating air. With a little teamwork they had eventually removed the fan from the wall, leaving a gaping hole, the size of which was the matter of debate.
“Like hell I’m gonna let you leave me in here while you go traipsin’ around the ship free as you please.” He didn’t trust her to come back for him once she was out. She rolled her eyes as his doubt and contemplated the vent once again. “If you’re goin’, I’m goin’,” Jayne said with finality in his voice.
“Fine,” River sighed. If he wanted to get stuck in the wall she wasn’t going to stand in his way. “Help lift me up.” She stood in front of the wall with her arms stretched above her head waiting expectantly for his assistance. Grabbing her around waist he lifted her off the ground while she took hold of the ledge with her fingertips. She hauled herself up until the edge of the hole was digging into her belly, her lower half dangling out of the wall. Her legs kicked uselessly as she tried to pull herself up, her left foot catching Jayne in the stomach.
“Watch where you’re kickin’ girl!” Jayne didn’t fancy getting kicked in the balls by her wayward foot while trying to escape.
“You could give me a hand you know,” River grunted with the exertion of keeping herself from falling.
“You want a hand? Hell, I’ll give you two,” Jayne grumbled in annoyance, putting both his hands squarely on her butt and shoving her into the air duct. She toppled over face first onto the dusty metal of the vent with a breathless “oof.”
“I would appreciate it if you kept your hands to yourself,” she spat venomously. Turning to help him climb up the wall, she was surprised to see him already working his way into the duct. His large frame blocked out most of the light from the kitchen making the shaft dark in his shadow. I forget how strong he is sometimes, she thought, watching as a sliver of light caught his flexing arm. The sight sent a strange spark through her stomach. She tried to push the thought out of her mind and concentrate on what he was mumbling under his breath as he lifted his body easily.
“Well, maybe if you weren’t so damn frigid, you’d like my hands on you.” He knew it was a bad thing to say as soon as the words left his mouth, but was willing to apologize. Choosing instead to plow forward as if he didn’t care about what he had just said, he squirmed his way into the metal tube. His shoulders, however, proved to be too wide to fit through the tiny space and he found himself wedged in tightly, unable to move forward into the vent or pull himself out.
River fumed with rage and laughed sardonically at his predicament, “I told you that you weren’t going to fit.” Placing one delicate foot on each of his large shoulders she kicked as hard as she could, shoving him out of the vent where he fell to the floor with a heavy thud. She smiled in satisfaction at the noise and peeked over the edge of the wall to look down at him. He glared up at her as he picked himself off the ground.
The smile slowly melted off her face as the meaning of Jayne’s words seeped into her mind. He thought she was cold and unfeeling, a woman with a frigid heart? But that wasn’t her at all, if anything she felt too much. How had she not seen this coming? She could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes and willed them to stop, sniffing them back as quickly as possible.
That little sniff was all it took to start Jayne panicking. Men with guns, torture, vicious dogs, there were all things he could handle, but crying girls? No way. Especially if the girl doing the crying was his girl. He hated seeing her eyes all sad and shining with tears, it gave him a little pain deep in his chest that he just didn’t know how to deal with. He doubted that River knew it, but those drippy tears were probably her best weapon against him, he would give in to anything she wanted to keep from seeing them on her face. It took a determined effort not to reach out to her, to pull her into his arms and wipe the sadness from her eyes, but he knew touching her would be an even bigger mistake than his words that had made her cry to begin with. He shook his head at his own stupidity and vowed that he would never speak again because nothing good ever came out of his mouth.
Feeling his reluctance to touch her and seeing the disgusted look on his face only served to make more tears appear in her eyes and she was no longer able to keep them from flowing down her face. Her little sobs echoed in the small metal vent as she tried to climb deeper into it in an attempt to escape his cruel words.
Dammit, he thought, seeing her retreating further into the dark metal corridor. The only thing worse than his girl crying was not being able to do anything about it. If he let her crawl away he’d have nothing to do except listen to her weeping sobs until she quieted down on her own, but he was a man of action and standing idly by when he could do something was not an option. If she didn’t want him to touch her she could push him away or kick his ass like she’d done before, but damn it if he was not going to try to comfort her.
He could feel the delicate bones of her ankle under her cool skin as he grabbed hold of her kicking leg and pulled her forcibly out of the vent. It probably wasn’t the best way to get her out, but it was the fastest. Her fingers fumbled across the smooth metal of the air shaft, trying desperately for a place to dig in and hold on, but with her balance thrown off by her seized foot she quickly tumbled out of the wall squarely on top of Jayne. Her knee jammed into his stomach with a satisfying grunt of pain and she scrambled on all fours to get away from him.
“No you don’t,” he wheezed, clambering to his feet despite having most of the air knocked out of his lungs. He grabbed her around the waist before she could get away. Pulling her back tightly against his chest, he swore he could feel her bony spine poking into his ribs and for a split second he thought she would reenact that fateful day in the maidenhead where she dropped him like a rock. Instead he felt her go limp in his arms, sagging like a rag doll against him. Her head lolled back on his shoulder and he could hear her breathy crying gasps in his ear.
Carefully, he turned her around to face him now that she’s no longer trying to run away. River felt his palm cup her cheek and his thumb brushing away the tears under her eyes. Seeing the concern written across his face, all the sadness, anger and confusion between them welled up inside of her and she couldn’t stop from throwing her arms around him and grabbing hold of him like it would take away all the pain. She buried her face in his neck, breathing his comforting smell deeply while he rubbed soothing circles on her back with his warm hands.
“Don’t cry, baby girl,” he whispered softly in her ear, his promise to never speak again completely forgotten. The familiar nickname was a reminder of everything she felt they’d lost and started her sobbing anew. Her fresh batch of tears at such an innocuous phrase was enough to make his head spin.
“River-girl, ya got me all manner of confused here,” he murmured gently to her, trying to get his words out right so they wouldn’t inadvertently cause her to cry more. “First, ya make me think ya want me, then ya say ya don’t. Next, you’re mad at me for touchin’ ya and now you’re clingin’ to me like there’s no tomorrow. Not that I mind holdin’ ya, of course, but I just don’t get what’s goin’ on here.” He sighed wearily and pulled her back to look at her tear stained face. “I’m not a reader, ya gotta give me a clue as to what’s goin’ on in that pretty little head of yers.” He smiled weakly as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and waited for her response.
“Don’t mean to confound you,” she spoke slowly, her voice sounding oddly nasal through her stuffed nose. “I did want to be with you.”
“But not no more?” He couldn’t hide the hurt and apprehension in the tone of the question.
She shook her head and turned her eyes away from his. “I can’t give you what you want. You’re physical desires must be sated,” she sighed, “and that is something I cannot do for you.”
“Why not?” He wanted to tell her that their physical relationship didn’t matter to him, that he could do without it, but he knew it was a lie. He would do anything to be with her, even if it meant trying to live in celibacy, but even he knew it could never work. He would never be happy in a relationship that didn’t meet all his needs and neither would she.
“Lack of prior experience has resulted in a less than optimal sexual partner.” River’s tone was detached and clinical and it didn’t fool Jayne for a minute. He knew she liked to speak in complicated sentences when she didn’t want to say something to him in hopes that he wouldn’t understand and would let the subject go. To date, he’d never let her get away with it.
“Never done it before,” she simplified after seeing his expectant look. “Don’t know how.” His eyebrows shot up as he stared at her in disbelief.
“Ya don’t wanna be with me because ya never had sex before? What kind of go se is that?” She avoided his eyes by playing with the collar of his shirt as she shrugged uncomfortably.
“If it’s not right you’ll only see the girl, not the woman that’s expected.” He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look up at him.
“Honey girl,” he started, then thinking better of his word choice, started again. “Darlin’, you’re plenty young, as everyone ‘round here is keen to point out, but I always see ya as a woman.” He nodded seriously then a sly smile crept on his face as he let his eyes rake over her body. “Trust me, I know a woman when I see one.”
“Will not be another bedpost notch,” she warned at his lecherous expression. “This cow does not give milk for free.”
Despite his confusion at the reference to herself as a barn yard animal, he explained that he wasn’t looking for a quick roll in the hay and if all he wanted from her was sex, he would have been gone a long time ago.
“I don’t understand, if physical gratification wasn’t top priority than why did you push so much?”
“I’m not a man of a whole lotta words, sometimes things just don’t come out right, ya know?” She nodded understandingly at that, she had the same problem sometimes where no matter how hard she tried her words would twist and turn in her head until they didn’t make sense, even to her. “But there are a few things I am good at. Fightin’, shootin’ and sexin’ to name a few. I couldn’t come right out and tell ya how much ya mean to me, so’s I figured I could show ya, best I knew how.” His eyes pleaded for her to grasp what he was trying to say.
“Buying the farm, not stealing from the henhouse?” Her face lighted up with the revelation and he couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“Uh, sure.” He nodded dumbly.
With a squeak of excitement she pulled his head down to hers and kissed his mouth quickly before releasing him and shoving him back towards the ventilation shaft.
“What’re you doin’?” Jayne asked as River started to climb up his body and into the vent.
“Must solve the labyrinth.” He heard echoing out at him as she crawled deeper into the wall.
***
an hour later…
Kaylee peeked into the cockpit where Mal sat, hands braced behind his head as he looked out at the sky.
“Cap’n, I think you should come see this,” Kaylee’s voice was equal parts amused and nervous.
“What’s goin’ on?” Mal asked suspiciously, turning to look at his mechanic.
“Just come see.” She led him through the halls to the still locked kitchen door where Wash stood gawking through the small round window.
“What are they doin’ in there?” Mal tried to see around Wash and into the room before pushing the pilot aside and looking through the dirty glass. He stared disbelieving at the sight in front of him and commanded them to open the door.
The kitchen was a mess. Broken glass lay scattered around the sink which was still full of half washed dishes. A chair was tipped over by the table and the ventilation fan hung haphazardly out of the wall, wires frayed and poking out at odd angles. River and Jayne were nowhere to be found.
“Well they was here before,” Kaylee offered with a confused shrug.
“Did River become the ship again?” Wash asked looking around the room as if they were going to drop down on him at any moment.
Mal, however, nodded in satisfaction. “Yup, I knew this would work.”
< Previous: chapter 2: Stuck
Prompt: #65 Discussion
Series: Miscommunication
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2480
Title: Venting (3/3)
Prompt: #65 Discussion
Series: Miscommunication
Author: Cricket
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with Joss’ toys, but I promise to put them back when I’m done
Rating: PG-13 (No smut?! How can it be?!)
Word Count: 2480
“You’re not going to fit in there,” River shook her head doubtfully, staring up at the open ventilation shaft.
“Sure I am,” Jayne replied with a determined look on his face, his shoulders set in stubborn resolve.
“I can go alone, let you out from the other side,” she suggested. The plan to escape the kitchen through the air ducts had been hers, but she had needed his help to boost her up to reach the rather high fan. After some coaxing she had managed to convince him to let her sit on his shoulders while she gave them access to the duct behind it. Using a dull butter knife she had loosened the screws and pried the grating off, then with a pair of kitchen scissors, cut apart the wires, effectively stopping the whirring blades from circulating air. With a little teamwork they had eventually removed the fan from the wall, leaving a gaping hole, the size of which was the matter of debate.
“Like hell I’m gonna let you leave me in here while you go traipsin’ around the ship free as you please.” He didn’t trust her to come back for him once she was out. She rolled her eyes as his doubt and contemplated the vent once again. “If you’re goin’, I’m goin’,” Jayne said with finality in his voice.
“Fine,” River sighed. If he wanted to get stuck in the wall she wasn’t going to stand in his way. “Help lift me up.” She stood in front of the wall with her arms stretched above her head waiting expectantly for his assistance. Grabbing her around waist he lifted her off the ground while she took hold of the ledge with her fingertips. She hauled herself up until the edge of the hole was digging into her belly, her lower half dangling out of the wall. Her legs kicked uselessly as she tried to pull herself up, her left foot catching Jayne in the stomach.
“Watch where you’re kickin’ girl!” Jayne didn’t fancy getting kicked in the balls by her wayward foot while trying to escape.
“You could give me a hand you know,” River grunted with the exertion of keeping herself from falling.
“You want a hand? Hell, I’ll give you two,” Jayne grumbled in annoyance, putting both his hands squarely on her butt and shoving her into the air duct. She toppled over face first onto the dusty metal of the vent with a breathless “oof.”
“I would appreciate it if you kept your hands to yourself,” she spat venomously. Turning to help him climb up the wall, she was surprised to see him already working his way into the duct. His large frame blocked out most of the light from the kitchen making the shaft dark in his shadow. I forget how strong he is sometimes, she thought, watching as a sliver of light caught his flexing arm. The sight sent a strange spark through her stomach. She tried to push the thought out of her mind and concentrate on what he was mumbling under his breath as he lifted his body easily.
“Well, maybe if you weren’t so damn frigid, you’d like my hands on you.” He knew it was a bad thing to say as soon as the words left his mouth, but was willing to apologize. Choosing instead to plow forward as if he didn’t care about what he had just said, he squirmed his way into the metal tube. His shoulders, however, proved to be too wide to fit through the tiny space and he found himself wedged in tightly, unable to move forward into the vent or pull himself out.
River fumed with rage and laughed sardonically at his predicament, “I told you that you weren’t going to fit.” Placing one delicate foot on each of his large shoulders she kicked as hard as she could, shoving him out of the vent where he fell to the floor with a heavy thud. She smiled in satisfaction at the noise and peeked over the edge of the wall to look down at him. He glared up at her as he picked himself off the ground.
The smile slowly melted off her face as the meaning of Jayne’s words seeped into her mind. He thought she was cold and unfeeling, a woman with a frigid heart? But that wasn’t her at all, if anything she felt too much. How had she not seen this coming? She could feel the tears starting to form in her eyes and willed them to stop, sniffing them back as quickly as possible.
That little sniff was all it took to start Jayne panicking. Men with guns, torture, vicious dogs, there were all things he could handle, but crying girls? No way. Especially if the girl doing the crying was his girl. He hated seeing her eyes all sad and shining with tears, it gave him a little pain deep in his chest that he just didn’t know how to deal with. He doubted that River knew it, but those drippy tears were probably her best weapon against him, he would give in to anything she wanted to keep from seeing them on her face. It took a determined effort not to reach out to her, to pull her into his arms and wipe the sadness from her eyes, but he knew touching her would be an even bigger mistake than his words that had made her cry to begin with. He shook his head at his own stupidity and vowed that he would never speak again because nothing good ever came out of his mouth.
Feeling his reluctance to touch her and seeing the disgusted look on his face only served to make more tears appear in her eyes and she was no longer able to keep them from flowing down her face. Her little sobs echoed in the small metal vent as she tried to climb deeper into it in an attempt to escape his cruel words.
Dammit, he thought, seeing her retreating further into the dark metal corridor. The only thing worse than his girl crying was not being able to do anything about it. If he let her crawl away he’d have nothing to do except listen to her weeping sobs until she quieted down on her own, but he was a man of action and standing idly by when he could do something was not an option. If she didn’t want him to touch her she could push him away or kick his ass like she’d done before, but damn it if he was not going to try to comfort her.
He could feel the delicate bones of her ankle under her cool skin as he grabbed hold of her kicking leg and pulled her forcibly out of the vent. It probably wasn’t the best way to get her out, but it was the fastest. Her fingers fumbled across the smooth metal of the air shaft, trying desperately for a place to dig in and hold on, but with her balance thrown off by her seized foot she quickly tumbled out of the wall squarely on top of Jayne. Her knee jammed into his stomach with a satisfying grunt of pain and she scrambled on all fours to get away from him.
“No you don’t,” he wheezed, clambering to his feet despite having most of the air knocked out of his lungs. He grabbed her around the waist before she could get away. Pulling her back tightly against his chest, he swore he could feel her bony spine poking into his ribs and for a split second he thought she would reenact that fateful day in the maidenhead where she dropped him like a rock. Instead he felt her go limp in his arms, sagging like a rag doll against him. Her head lolled back on his shoulder and he could hear her breathy crying gasps in his ear.
Carefully, he turned her around to face him now that she’s no longer trying to run away. River felt his palm cup her cheek and his thumb brushing away the tears under her eyes. Seeing the concern written across his face, all the sadness, anger and confusion between them welled up inside of her and she couldn’t stop from throwing her arms around him and grabbing hold of him like it would take away all the pain. She buried her face in his neck, breathing his comforting smell deeply while he rubbed soothing circles on her back with his warm hands.
“Don’t cry, baby girl,” he whispered softly in her ear, his promise to never speak again completely forgotten. The familiar nickname was a reminder of everything she felt they’d lost and started her sobbing anew. Her fresh batch of tears at such an innocuous phrase was enough to make his head spin.
“River-girl, ya got me all manner of confused here,” he murmured gently to her, trying to get his words out right so they wouldn’t inadvertently cause her to cry more. “First, ya make me think ya want me, then ya say ya don’t. Next, you’re mad at me for touchin’ ya and now you’re clingin’ to me like there’s no tomorrow. Not that I mind holdin’ ya, of course, but I just don’t get what’s goin’ on here.” He sighed wearily and pulled her back to look at her tear stained face. “I’m not a reader, ya gotta give me a clue as to what’s goin’ on in that pretty little head of yers.” He smiled weakly as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and waited for her response.
“Don’t mean to confound you,” she spoke slowly, her voice sounding oddly nasal through her stuffed nose. “I did want to be with you.”
“But not no more?” He couldn’t hide the hurt and apprehension in the tone of the question.
She shook her head and turned her eyes away from his. “I can’t give you what you want. You’re physical desires must be sated,” she sighed, “and that is something I cannot do for you.”
“Why not?” He wanted to tell her that their physical relationship didn’t matter to him, that he could do without it, but he knew it was a lie. He would do anything to be with her, even if it meant trying to live in celibacy, but even he knew it could never work. He would never be happy in a relationship that didn’t meet all his needs and neither would she.
“Lack of prior experience has resulted in a less than optimal sexual partner.” River’s tone was detached and clinical and it didn’t fool Jayne for a minute. He knew she liked to speak in complicated sentences when she didn’t want to say something to him in hopes that he wouldn’t understand and would let the subject go. To date, he’d never let her get away with it.
“Never done it before,” she simplified after seeing his expectant look. “Don’t know how.” His eyebrows shot up as he stared at her in disbelief.
“Ya don’t wanna be with me because ya never had sex before? What kind of go se is that?” She avoided his eyes by playing with the collar of his shirt as she shrugged uncomfortably.
“If it’s not right you’ll only see the girl, not the woman that’s expected.” He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look up at him.
“Honey girl,” he started, then thinking better of his word choice, started again. “Darlin’, you’re plenty young, as everyone ‘round here is keen to point out, but I always see ya as a woman.” He nodded seriously then a sly smile crept on his face as he let his eyes rake over her body. “Trust me, I know a woman when I see one.”
“Will not be another bedpost notch,” she warned at his lecherous expression. “This cow does not give milk for free.”
Despite his confusion at the reference to herself as a barn yard animal, he explained that he wasn’t looking for a quick roll in the hay and if all he wanted from her was sex, he would have been gone a long time ago.
“I don’t understand, if physical gratification wasn’t top priority than why did you push so much?”
“I’m not a man of a whole lotta words, sometimes things just don’t come out right, ya know?” She nodded understandingly at that, she had the same problem sometimes where no matter how hard she tried her words would twist and turn in her head until they didn’t make sense, even to her. “But there are a few things I am good at. Fightin’, shootin’ and sexin’ to name a few. I couldn’t come right out and tell ya how much ya mean to me, so’s I figured I could show ya, best I knew how.” His eyes pleaded for her to grasp what he was trying to say.
“Buying the farm, not stealing from the henhouse?” Her face lighted up with the revelation and he couldn’t help but smile back at her.
“Uh, sure.” He nodded dumbly.
With a squeak of excitement she pulled his head down to hers and kissed his mouth quickly before releasing him and shoving him back towards the ventilation shaft.
“What’re you doin’?” Jayne asked as River started to climb up his body and into the vent.
“Must solve the labyrinth.” He heard echoing out at him as she crawled deeper into the wall.
***
an hour later…
Kaylee peeked into the cockpit where Mal sat, hands braced behind his head as he looked out at the sky.
“Cap’n, I think you should come see this,” Kaylee’s voice was equal parts amused and nervous.
“What’s goin’ on?” Mal asked suspiciously, turning to look at his mechanic.
“Just come see.” She led him through the halls to the still locked kitchen door where Wash stood gawking through the small round window.
“What are they doin’ in there?” Mal tried to see around Wash and into the room before pushing the pilot aside and looking through the dirty glass. He stared disbelieving at the sight in front of him and commanded them to open the door.
The kitchen was a mess. Broken glass lay scattered around the sink which was still full of half washed dishes. A chair was tipped over by the table and the ventilation fan hung haphazardly out of the wall, wires frayed and poking out at odd angles. River and Jayne were nowhere to be found.
“Well they was here before,” Kaylee offered with a confused shrug.
“Did River become the ship again?” Wash asked looking around the room as if they were going to drop down on him at any moment.
Mal, however, nodded in satisfaction. “Yup, I knew this would work.”
< Previous: chapter 2: Stuck