Fic: Knot For Our Heart, part 17
Genre: Firefly/Serenity post movie
Pairing: Mal/River, part 17 of a series
a/n: the rest are here:http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=tesla321&keyword=Firefly/Serenity&filter=all
Mal woke up in a hang-over that reduced everything to fuzziness. River had already taken the ship out of atmo and locked it into the next route, and left a bottle of water beside his arm. She may have doped the water, because he pretty much slept all day, what with no one coming into the bunk and no emergencies needing the captain's attention.
It was dinner time before he fully woke up, and realized that, yes, he had gone to bed fully clothed, except for his boots and holster, and now the entire bed smelled rankly of stale smoke, alcohol, and him. He sniffed the other pillow. It smelled of River's shampoo. He let go of the pillow and lay back, grinding the heels of his hands into his eye-sockets.
"What the hell is a sonic knife, anyway?" he asked, out loud. "I think she's just messin' with me."
He was in the showers, when River came in. She deliberately banged around as she came down the ladder, so he wouldn't scream like a little girl if she suddenly materialized outside the translucent panel of the shower door. She kept inadvertently scaring the shit out of everyone, just because she was too accustomed to creeping around. That was another reason for her to wear good shoes, he thought, filing that away for the next shoe discussion.
"Mal? It's nearly dinner-time?" River called. She popped the towel against the door, just to make sure he heard her. He grinned and turned around under the spray. He opened the door and leaned out to take the towel.
The next thing, he thought he was dying, because he felt the actual chill of death, what he thought being blasted into space would be---all the heat in his body leached out of him, and blackness.
"Mal!" River screamed, and it was the last thing he heard for a while.
::
He was so gorram cold. He had to get up, he couldn't die in the snow. If he stayed down, he would die. "Zoe! Everybody up!"
"Everyone's fine, sir," Zoe said, but he couldn't see her.
::
It was warmer, and his girl was with him. "Come back. I got you out. Come back, now, Mal. I need you to come back. "
"Okay," he said.
::
He woke up in the infirmary, shivering so hard that the doc immediately stuck a piece of plastic between his teeth. He was in some kind of thermal blanket, and River's damp hair was in his eyes. She was holding him from the head of the table, her head pressed against his through the blanket.
"The water system failed," she said again. "Cooled water from the hull. If you hadn't been almost out of the water, it would have killed you all the way, instead of just part way."
"You can stop saying it," the doctor said. "He's back with us."
"I know, " River said. Her voice was muffled, but the aggrieved note still came through.
Mal couldn't talk. In fact, he could barely get his eyelids open. Gorram rutting cold, he fucking hated cold.
"We're in space," River said into his shoulder. "It's cold. Of course, if you were really spaced, your blood would boil out of your orifices before you froze to death."
"Kaylee's checking the systems," Zoe said, somewhere close. "She thinks that it was a failure due to one of the hits we took, that finally took off---anyway, she's testing it all. Gonna put in a double-failure water system so the rest of us can take showers."
Mal squinted until Zoë's face came into focus. She smiled. Everything's fine, sir.
"He's cold," River said. She straightened up, and he missed the pressure of her hard little forehead. "Can't you increase the temperature?"
"I can't burn him," Simon said, with that slow reasonableness that Mal hated. "I'm following the higher limits of protocol by increasing his temperature---"
River moved around, and climbed onto the examining table, and stretched herself on top of Mal, her weight giving him the illusion of more heat. "It's okay," she said to him, exactly as if they weren't in the infirmary. "Ssh. As soon as we can, you'll get some hot tea inside you, and we'll get you back in your own bed."
Mal spat the plastic tongue-depressor out. "I took the sheets off the bed," he said. Well, it didn't actually come out as sound. He opened his eyes, and saw River's face, very close to his. "Can I have my tea now?"
"I'll make some tea," he heard Inara say, distantly.
River put her warm palms on his face, looking right into his eyes. She didn't seem scared, so Mal didn't feel scared. Still cold. Just not scared.
::
"I'm going to have to look at your wrist, eventually," Simon said. "You're lucky that River didn't dislocate your shoulder." He took the sensor bug off Mal's chest. "Heart's doing good." Mal yanked down his shirt, and River pulled the blankets more tightly around him. They had apparently moved him to the side bunk, instead of the exam table, and he just starting to feel human again.
"What I don't get," Jayne said, "is what the Sam Hill you was doin' in ---oh, sure."
"Handing me my towel," Mal said. "Shit, Jayne, if we were in the shower together, she'd have froze herself, too."
"She sure screamed loud enough," Jayne said. "Heard her down in the cargo bay."
"I would've screamed louder, if my gorram heart hadn't stopped beating," Mal said. He took another drink of tea. "I'm just glad she didn't stove in my chest, doin' that cardiac thing."
"Read about it in the field medicine guides," River said. She perched on the foot of the bed, and rubbed Mal's feet through the blanket. He had to like getting the attention. He could tell, though, that she was thinking about all the times he bitched about being cold, and it was upsetting her. Her forehead was doing the pre-wrinkling sequence.
"River, darlin', would you get me some more tea?" he asked her.
River gave his foot one more squeeze, and stepped off the bunk in that cat-like way she had. He went back to sleep, though, before she was back with the tea. When he opened his eyes, he saw Inara, standing, her arms loosely crossed, just staring at him.
"Inara," he said. "Everything all right?"
"You were actually dead," she said. "Simon was just about to apply the shockers, except he would have to first sedate River. She wouldn't let go of you."
"Shit, it ain't like it ain't happened before," he said. "Lot easier than Niska's."
"Mal, she called you back. Don't say that's happened before."
He frowned up at her. "No, actually, not." He looked around the infirmary, trying to figure out what time of day it might be. "Where's everyone?"
"Simon is standing over River and making her drink soup," Inara said, with a half-smile. "She's been rather protective."
"She's like that," Mal said, trying not to sound like a doting idiot.
"Yes," Inara said. "It must be very comfortable for you."
"It is," he said. "Why you in here discussing this with me now?"
"It's hard to pry you away for a private conversation, at any time," Inara said.
"You give me a fever," Mal dead-panned, "and you'll see how she gets, for yourself."
"She knows you don't love her," Inara said, arching her eyebrows. "She doesn't fool herself."
Mal raised himself on his elbows. "You have got to be gorram kidding me," he said. "I'm just now back from the ruttin' dead and you wanna discuss this?"
"Isn't it about time we discussed it?" Inara asked, seriously.
"No," Mal said. "I'm sorry. I really am. But my heart ain't your business, not anymore. Could have been, but we fucked it up." He stared hard at her. "I wouldn't change things, neither."
The clatter of tiny feet in large combat boots could be heard coming down the stairs, and Jayne was yelling something about gorram cat-feet.
"I brought you some dinner," River said, just as if she hadn't been listening, and maybe she hadn't been, because she had learned how to turn it off.
"And I'm supposed to help you get back to your bunk," Jayne said. "In case you're all weak."
"He can't wait to help," River said, not smiling.
::
Things settled down. Everyone eventually left the cabin, and River fastened the hatch behind them, before undressing and climbing into bed with Mal. She rubbed his feet with hers.
"You feel warm enough?" she asked, spooning back into his chest.
"I'm good, darlin'," he said. He kissed her cheek. "I only got one thing I don't understand, though. I know you can read my mind, but how did you get into my head?"
River turned her cheek back against his. "What? I heard you yell for Zoe. You thought you were back in the war."
"You came into the black with me and told me to come back. Come back now."
River moved, adjusting herself so they could lie skin-to-skin. "I don't know," she said, after a second. "Simon almost tranqed me because I wouldn't move away from you."
"You didn't do it on purpose?" Mal asked. He nuzzled her face, feeling his whiskers rasp against her cheekbone.
She moved her hands to cover his. "No. I would have if I could."
"Thought it might be some other super-power you developed, along with the whole woman warrior thing and the mind-reading."
"I heard you calling for Zoe," River said. She hummed a little, when he stroked her belly with his thumb. "I think she did, too, in a way."
"You bruised my wrist," Mal said. "Look at that, now." He slipped his arm out from under hers and held it up.
"I was scared," River said, pulling his arm back down against hers.
"You weren't scared when I woke up," Mal said.
"You were back," she said, in that Why are we discussing this? tone.
"I love you," he said. She turned her head so he could kiss her properly.
"Sweetheart," she said, and then turned all the way around in his arms.
Pairing: Mal/River, part 17 of a series
a/n: the rest are here:http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=tesla321&keyword=Firefly/Serenity&filter=all
Mal woke up in a hang-over that reduced everything to fuzziness. River had already taken the ship out of atmo and locked it into the next route, and left a bottle of water beside his arm. She may have doped the water, because he pretty much slept all day, what with no one coming into the bunk and no emergencies needing the captain's attention.
It was dinner time before he fully woke up, and realized that, yes, he had gone to bed fully clothed, except for his boots and holster, and now the entire bed smelled rankly of stale smoke, alcohol, and him. He sniffed the other pillow. It smelled of River's shampoo. He let go of the pillow and lay back, grinding the heels of his hands into his eye-sockets.
"What the hell is a sonic knife, anyway?" he asked, out loud. "I think she's just messin' with me."
He was in the showers, when River came in. She deliberately banged around as she came down the ladder, so he wouldn't scream like a little girl if she suddenly materialized outside the translucent panel of the shower door. She kept inadvertently scaring the shit out of everyone, just because she was too accustomed to creeping around. That was another reason for her to wear good shoes, he thought, filing that away for the next shoe discussion.
"Mal? It's nearly dinner-time?" River called. She popped the towel against the door, just to make sure he heard her. He grinned and turned around under the spray. He opened the door and leaned out to take the towel.
The next thing, he thought he was dying, because he felt the actual chill of death, what he thought being blasted into space would be---all the heat in his body leached out of him, and blackness.
"Mal!" River screamed, and it was the last thing he heard for a while.
::
He was so gorram cold. He had to get up, he couldn't die in the snow. If he stayed down, he would die. "Zoe! Everybody up!"
"Everyone's fine, sir," Zoe said, but he couldn't see her.
::
It was warmer, and his girl was with him. "Come back. I got you out. Come back, now, Mal. I need you to come back. "
"Okay," he said.
::
He woke up in the infirmary, shivering so hard that the doc immediately stuck a piece of plastic between his teeth. He was in some kind of thermal blanket, and River's damp hair was in his eyes. She was holding him from the head of the table, her head pressed against his through the blanket.
"The water system failed," she said again. "Cooled water from the hull. If you hadn't been almost out of the water, it would have killed you all the way, instead of just part way."
"You can stop saying it," the doctor said. "He's back with us."
"I know, " River said. Her voice was muffled, but the aggrieved note still came through.
Mal couldn't talk. In fact, he could barely get his eyelids open. Gorram rutting cold, he fucking hated cold.
"We're in space," River said into his shoulder. "It's cold. Of course, if you were really spaced, your blood would boil out of your orifices before you froze to death."
"Kaylee's checking the systems," Zoe said, somewhere close. "She thinks that it was a failure due to one of the hits we took, that finally took off---anyway, she's testing it all. Gonna put in a double-failure water system so the rest of us can take showers."
Mal squinted until Zoë's face came into focus. She smiled. Everything's fine, sir.
"He's cold," River said. She straightened up, and he missed the pressure of her hard little forehead. "Can't you increase the temperature?"
"I can't burn him," Simon said, with that slow reasonableness that Mal hated. "I'm following the higher limits of protocol by increasing his temperature---"
River moved around, and climbed onto the examining table, and stretched herself on top of Mal, her weight giving him the illusion of more heat. "It's okay," she said to him, exactly as if they weren't in the infirmary. "Ssh. As soon as we can, you'll get some hot tea inside you, and we'll get you back in your own bed."
Mal spat the plastic tongue-depressor out. "I took the sheets off the bed," he said. Well, it didn't actually come out as sound. He opened his eyes, and saw River's face, very close to his. "Can I have my tea now?"
"I'll make some tea," he heard Inara say, distantly.
River put her warm palms on his face, looking right into his eyes. She didn't seem scared, so Mal didn't feel scared. Still cold. Just not scared.
::
"I'm going to have to look at your wrist, eventually," Simon said. "You're lucky that River didn't dislocate your shoulder." He took the sensor bug off Mal's chest. "Heart's doing good." Mal yanked down his shirt, and River pulled the blankets more tightly around him. They had apparently moved him to the side bunk, instead of the exam table, and he just starting to feel human again.
"What I don't get," Jayne said, "is what the Sam Hill you was doin' in ---oh, sure."
"Handing me my towel," Mal said. "Shit, Jayne, if we were in the shower together, she'd have froze herself, too."
"She sure screamed loud enough," Jayne said. "Heard her down in the cargo bay."
"I would've screamed louder, if my gorram heart hadn't stopped beating," Mal said. He took another drink of tea. "I'm just glad she didn't stove in my chest, doin' that cardiac thing."
"Read about it in the field medicine guides," River said. She perched on the foot of the bed, and rubbed Mal's feet through the blanket. He had to like getting the attention. He could tell, though, that she was thinking about all the times he bitched about being cold, and it was upsetting her. Her forehead was doing the pre-wrinkling sequence.
"River, darlin', would you get me some more tea?" he asked her.
River gave his foot one more squeeze, and stepped off the bunk in that cat-like way she had. He went back to sleep, though, before she was back with the tea. When he opened his eyes, he saw Inara, standing, her arms loosely crossed, just staring at him.
"Inara," he said. "Everything all right?"
"You were actually dead," she said. "Simon was just about to apply the shockers, except he would have to first sedate River. She wouldn't let go of you."
"Shit, it ain't like it ain't happened before," he said. "Lot easier than Niska's."
"Mal, she called you back. Don't say that's happened before."
He frowned up at her. "No, actually, not." He looked around the infirmary, trying to figure out what time of day it might be. "Where's everyone?"
"Simon is standing over River and making her drink soup," Inara said, with a half-smile. "She's been rather protective."
"She's like that," Mal said, trying not to sound like a doting idiot.
"Yes," Inara said. "It must be very comfortable for you."
"It is," he said. "Why you in here discussing this with me now?"
"It's hard to pry you away for a private conversation, at any time," Inara said.
"You give me a fever," Mal dead-panned, "and you'll see how she gets, for yourself."
"She knows you don't love her," Inara said, arching her eyebrows. "She doesn't fool herself."
Mal raised himself on his elbows. "You have got to be gorram kidding me," he said. "I'm just now back from the ruttin' dead and you wanna discuss this?"
"Isn't it about time we discussed it?" Inara asked, seriously.
"No," Mal said. "I'm sorry. I really am. But my heart ain't your business, not anymore. Could have been, but we fucked it up." He stared hard at her. "I wouldn't change things, neither."
The clatter of tiny feet in large combat boots could be heard coming down the stairs, and Jayne was yelling something about gorram cat-feet.
"I brought you some dinner," River said, just as if she hadn't been listening, and maybe she hadn't been, because she had learned how to turn it off.
"And I'm supposed to help you get back to your bunk," Jayne said. "In case you're all weak."
"He can't wait to help," River said, not smiling.
::
Things settled down. Everyone eventually left the cabin, and River fastened the hatch behind them, before undressing and climbing into bed with Mal. She rubbed his feet with hers.
"You feel warm enough?" she asked, spooning back into his chest.
"I'm good, darlin'," he said. He kissed her cheek. "I only got one thing I don't understand, though. I know you can read my mind, but how did you get into my head?"
River turned her cheek back against his. "What? I heard you yell for Zoe. You thought you were back in the war."
"You came into the black with me and told me to come back. Come back now."
River moved, adjusting herself so they could lie skin-to-skin. "I don't know," she said, after a second. "Simon almost tranqed me because I wouldn't move away from you."
"You didn't do it on purpose?" Mal asked. He nuzzled her face, feeling his whiskers rasp against her cheekbone.
She moved her hands to cover his. "No. I would have if I could."
"Thought it might be some other super-power you developed, along with the whole woman warrior thing and the mind-reading."
"I heard you calling for Zoe," River said. She hummed a little, when he stroked her belly with his thumb. "I think she did, too, in a way."
"You bruised my wrist," Mal said. "Look at that, now." He slipped his arm out from under hers and held it up.
"I was scared," River said, pulling his arm back down against hers.
"You weren't scared when I woke up," Mal said.
"You were back," she said, in that Why are we discussing this? tone.
"I love you," he said. She turned her head so he could kiss her properly.
"Sweetheart," she said, and then turned all the way around in his arms.