The Running Free part 5

[tanpopomofo]

Breakfast on Serenity

River snapped back to herself at the control panel. She upped their speed after checking to be sure they were on course. This was going to be interesting.

Hopefully, her definition of interesting. Not Wash’s.

She turned to face where he sat in the pilot chair. He raised his eyebrows to ask if she was okay.

“I’m fine,” she replied to his unvoiced question. He continued to look at her. Her face was pale. Hands trembling at the controls.

“Just cold,” she lied.

“You’ve got to tell them.”

“No,” she shook her head. The first time she’d seen Wash at the controls after his death, she decided she wouldn’t tell. They already treated her like she was a nut job. She could just imagine what Simon would say if she told him she talked to Wash’s ghost.

“Okay, mei mei,” he’d say. “We all do.” Or something equally condescending that was meant to comfort her. Simon seldom lied. When he did, River had found, it was usually to or about her.

She adjusted their course and crossed her legs. She glanced at the time. “Go away, Wash.”

“You can’t just change course without telling Mal,” Wash shook his head.

“Says who?” River stared at him.

“Well,” he stood from his seat and stretched. She wondered if he did it out of habit. Did ghosts get tense muscles? He looked down at her. “Says Mal.” He shrugged. “He doesn’t get nearly as mad at you as he did me.”

A look of mock horror came over Wash’s face. “You don’t think he thinks you’re prettier than me, do you? I was pretty, wasn’t I? You’da told me if I wasn’t pretty?”

“No,” River made a few minute adjustments then turned back to Wash. She flashed a brilliant smile. “Jayne would have.”

“You’re right there,” Wash chuckled. “That lug head can’t keep a single thought from popping out his pie hole before he’s done thinking it,” He squeezed her shoulder and for the thousandth time wished it was someone else on this ship that could see him. Someone else that he could touch.

She squeezed his hand. River knew how he felt. She wished she didn’t. She sat here with Wash for hours on end and wished to be just regular. That she couldn’t feel everyone’s feelings. Hear their thoughts. Know when they were lying. Know that she freaked them out just by looking at them.

And now she talked to dead people. And had recurring nightmares about puppies and kittens. And visited said pups during their escape from prison.

“Good luck with Cap’n Grumpypants,” Wash squeezed again and turned with a sigh. Off to peep at his wife as she went about her morning routine.

“See ya later, Wash.”

Wash hadn’t liked that she’d changed course without consulting Mal. He said Mal would be angry. River smiled. She knew that Mal didn’t get angry quite as easily as before. Wash didn’t yet realize what a calming effect being with Inara had on their captain. It was too bad she was on Beaumonde for her annual check up.

A few minutes later, Mal stormed into the cockpit. His eyes flashed and his jaw was clenched. His boots hadn't made much sound but she'd felt him coming. She could always tell his mood just by the set of his jaw. The clenchin' tension. She referred to it in her own head. This morning it was clenched but she could tell it wasn't clenched clenched. He was in a decent mood.

"You wanna tell me why my damn boat is floatin' by a place a good seven hundred clicks from where I told you to take us?"

"No."

He blinked. "Well, you're gonna wanna."

"Nah."

"Let me rephrase all that." Mal had spent a great deal of time learning to talk to this wisp of a girl. Some days were a bit tougher than others. Today was shaping up to be a tough one.

"Where in the hell are we?"

"We're headed for Parth."

"Good. Just where I-- wait, where?"

"It's a rim planet."

"I know where Parth is. Why in the hell are we heading to a planet filled with slavers that we don't have any job on or interest in?"

"We go to planets I don't have interest in all the time."

"That's not the point! I'm the captain and I decide where we go!" The captain closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Okay," River smiled at him and pulled her knees up to her chin. She made no move to adjust back to their original captain approved course.

"You agree, yet we continue on the same path as before?" Mal put his hands on his hips and shifted his weight for a better 'I'm the captain what I say goes' stare.

"Yes."

"Ok," Mal scrubbed his face with his palms. He'd give this one last try. "Do we have a reason for going to this planet in particular or are you just feelin' like a little vacation from the ordinary?"

"We're going to save the pup,” she paused and frowned, mimicking his facial expression. “Though I suppose deep down she’s a kitten. Can't ask questions. The woman said they're fit to be tied." She smiled that brilliant smile again. “It’s going to be a big job. You’ll get paid. Don’t worry, Captain. It gives you frown lines.”

"Well, that just clears everything up, don’t it?" Mal frowned again, shook his head, and mumbled all the way from the cockpit to the kitchen about his sanity. Lately, he'd begun to wonder if he wasn't out of his mind just as much as the little one. Letting her pilot his ship while he was catching a few winks was one thing. Allowing her to set course for a completely different vector in a far off quadrant when they were short, as usual, on supplies was another.

He shook his head one last time to clear it of drowsiness and the confusion that often accompanied a chat with her. He'd grab some breakfast and come ask more stupid questions later.

He entered the kitchen and took in the status of his crew. All the usual. Jayne glanced up from his bowl of what could only be called gruel and grunted a good morning. Mal nodded one back. Kaylee and Simon were making out in front of the stove, blocking the pan of what constituted breakfast. What had also constituted dinner the night before.

"Oh, please, don't make me claw my eyes out," Mal moaned. "I've only just healed up from the last time I stumbled across this mess!"

"Sorry, Cap'n," Kaylee peeled away from Simon. His slightly sheepish grin was almost enough to put her right back in his arms. "But how can I resist this magnificent work of man?"

"Well, now, I expect I'll never know," Mal quirked an eyebrow and scooped up a bowl of lumpy breakfast. He'd hoped the couple making out in front of the stove would have been an indicator as to who had cooked. The lumpy yet runny mixture proved Jayne had cheffed today. He looked up from the pan to see that Kaylee was about to open her mouth and say something he was afraid would stick in his brainpan for the rest of his life. He held up a hand to cut her off.

"I said I expect I'll never know," he closed his eyes in a pained expression and kept the hand raised in their general direction. "To be clarifyin’, that means I don't expect to ever want to know."

He crossed behind them and sat at the head of the table. He spooned up some gruel and swallowed it down with some effort. He asked, "I don't suppose any of you know where we're headed?"

"Thought we was headed to pick up supplies on Merangue," Jayne answered with a mouthful.

"Just checking," Mal turned to Simon as he and Kaylee joined them at the table. "And do you know why your sister is taking us to the rim to rescue kittens?"

"Because the kittens are in some extreme kitten catastrophe?"

"Ok, doc," the captain warned. "No more outta you." He turned to Jayne again. "Any guesses?"

"I'd say, quack's gotta point," Jayne grunted, gesturing at Simon with his spoon. "If'n we're rescuing kittens, they must be in some sorta trouble. Otherwise why use the word 'rescue'?"

"Did someone say we're rescuing kittens now?" Zoe asked as she entered the kitchen and spooned herself some gruel. "I thought after the koi pond incident we weren't takin' on 'no more livin', breathin' critters' ever again?"

"I s'pose it'd be a mite too much to ask for ya'll to just forget when a simple man makes an honest mistake?" Mal wondered aloud.

"I'll forgive any simple man's honest mistakes, sir." Zoe sat at the table across from Simon and Kaylee. "I do feel it necessary to point out that yours typically ain't so simple or so honest."

"Yes, well, thank you for that."

Jayne stood from the table while the crew continued to rib the captain. He spooned more gruel into his bowl and headed out of the boisterous room.

From the entrance to the cockpit he watched River pilot Serenity. It was a strange thing, the bond she had with this ship. It was like they were one being. It creeped him out.

The girl didn’t eat unless someone made her. Since the doc and the mechanic had started ruttin’ every chance they got, that meant she didn’t eat enough. He set the bowl at her elbow and flopped himself into the pilot chair. He'd never actually seen her sit in the pilot chair. As a matter of fact, he and Mal were the only ones who did. He supposed it was a silent tribute to Wash. To Jayne's way of thinking this didn't make a lick of sense. It was just a chair. They'd sit in his chair if he died. Hell, they'd probably do a happy dance around it.

"No, we wouldn't."

"Holy shit, girl," Jayne turned Wash's chair to stare at her. "That is just annoying."

"Well, don't think so loud."

Jayne sighed. He couldn't help but think loud. He didn't know any other way to do it. But he did remember why he'd come up here. "Kittens?"

"Oatmeal?"

"It's nutritional-like, girl. Eat it."

"They're in trouble," she paused to take a small bite. Made a face. "You make breakfast?"

He nodded. "Kitten trouble on the rim?"

"Gruel three days in a row?"

"If'n we went to Merangue like the Cap'n planned, we'd have foodstuffs galore in three hours."

"If'n we went to Merangue like the Cap'n planned, she'd be dead before we could make it back."

Jayne raised an eyebrow, wondering vaguely what she she was talking about. "If'n she dies, ain't no sweat off my back."

"If'n she dies, they won't pay to have the rest rescued."

Jayne stared down at all the buttons in front of Wash's chair. "I guess we'd better stay the course then," he nodded. "For the kittens and all."

She scrunched up her face, cocked an eyebrow.

"Maybe more for that re-ward then."

"This one's personal, Jaynie," River stared straight ahead. If he hadn't heard her he would think she hadn't said anything at all. He clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes.

"Don't ever call me that again." He pointed menacingly at her. "Girl," he finished on a growl.

"More personal than your ma was last night," she giggled crazily.

Jayne shook his head and stomped from the cockpit. He stomped straight to the cargo bay. He needed to check in at home if they were headed to Parth. Rescuing kittens? It couldn’t be. But he’d pop in just in case.