Old War Horses 26

[lit_gal]

Title: Old War Horses
Firefly x Sentinel
Mal/Jayne, Blair/Jim
Rated: ADULT
Taming the Muse prompt:

Malcolm Reynolds fought for the Browncoat rebels. They wanted their freedom. They lost. James Joseph Womak was a commander for the Alliance, determined to bring justice to the common people. His side won, but he still lost.

This time on Old War Horses:
It has been too long.  Bad writer.  Bad, bad writer.  Well, it's time for the plot to get underway.  River thinks that they need William Ellison.  Jim is pretty sure his father is a money-hungry bastard who will turn them over to the authorities.  Time to see who's right.



If you want to read the early chapters, go to Twisting the Hellmouth. 

If you want to read the most recent chapters, use tags.

26.

“Let’s do this,” Jim just about snarled as he headed for the open hatch. The green of Osiris drifted in with the breeze, smell of open water and cut grass and wildflowers bringing up childhood memories that left Jim on edge.

“Are you okay?” Blair asked quietly.

Jim loved Blair, but some days, the man could annoy a saint. “Sandburg, if you ask me that again, I’m going to shoot you and have Jayne hide the body.”

Jayne snorted as he passed them, his eyes on the horizon. This was a rural area in the middle of the massive Ellison estate, but they all new that private guards would come out to find out why the shuttle had landed in the middle of the pasture.

“Right. And you aren’t repressing, not at all,” Blair muttered softly enough that only a Sentinel would hear him.

“You sure they’re going believe that you’re Charlie?” Jayne asked. If Blair was obsessing over Jim’s mental health, Jayne was obsessing over security.

“You did,” Jim pointed out as he straightened his Alliance uniform. It felt odd. At one point in his life, he’d been so proud to wear a uniform—to prove he was something other than the screw up his father always accused him of being. Standing in front of a mirror with his first uniform on, he’d finally felt like a man instead of a child scrambling to get his father to love him. And now the uniform rubbed him sore—literally and metaphorically, and he was back on Osiris trying to figure out exactly what River wanted him to tell his father. This wasn’t going to end well. Jim fingered his sidearm, wondering if he was going to have to end himself to avoid getting dragged back to the labs. He was a soldier; he’d do what he had to.

“Got company,” Mal said from his spot next to the open hatch of the shuttle. Two men in the blue uniforms of Ellison private employees were crossing the grass, their hands on their weapons. They would be the advance guard, but the real threat would be the sharpshooters and the pilots already readying attack craft.

Jim straightened up and started across the wide meadow toward the house with its white columns and large verandas. Blair fell in next to him, and Jim clenched his fists. He didn’t like Blair going into the lion’s den, but he’d lost that battle. Jayne taking his other side was more a surprise.

“Cobb?”

“Like Mal always says, we stick by our own.” Jayne shifted his big-ass gun to his other hip and scratched his stomach. “I ain’t exactly sure when you started being ours, though,” he admitted with a shrug. Jim blinked at him for a second, not sure what shocked him more, Jayne’s willingness to stand with him or the fact that Mal had sent Jayne along. Jim looked back and Mal still stood next to the shuttle door, his arms crossed and his body language about as tense as a man could get when he was trying so hard to look casual.

With a brisk nod, Mal took a step back into the shuttle and hit the controls to close the door. Up until this point, Jim figured that he and Blair were on their own, but he knew one thing—Mal wouldn’t ever leave Jayne. Since those two had started consummating on every surface on the Serenity, Mal’s eyes had followed Jayne’s every twitch in a way that Jim recognized entirely too easily. He looked at Blair the same way.

Mal was making it clear that they were getting through this as crew or they were going down the same way. It was the sort of loyalty that Jim hadn’t felt since before the war when he, Banks, Taggard, Brown, Conner, and Rafe had formed a Major Crime team to deal with the worst of the human traffickers and murderers out on the rim. That team would have walked through hell for each other. Having Jayne and Blair walking next to him, Jim could almost believe that the three of them could pull off the impossible the way the Major Crime team had for so many years.

Jim could see the very instant when the guard recognized him—or when they thought they recognized him, anyway. The muscles around their necks and shoulders loosened, and the older one contracted his mouth slightly in disgust. Charlie had that effect on people once they really knew him.

“Where’s my father?” Jim demanded loudly, putting on his worst manners.

“Lieutenant Womak,” the older guard offered, and Jim brushed by the man, ignoring his own discomfort at treating another man so rudely. After all, he was playing Charlie, and Charlie didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.

Jim walked faster, listening as Blair had to trot to keep up, his heart pounding faster, although Jim didn’t know if that was the running or the fear. Jayne’s heart pounded steadily, and he didn’t seem to mind leaving the two guards at their backs. Then again, given the way the man shot, Jim was fairly sure Jayne could take both of them before either had a chance to twitch. Odd as it was, Jim wasn’t even the most unusual person on the Serenity.

“Is your father expecting you?” the guard called as he followed behind, and Jim kept right on moving. Charlie wouldn’t answer questions from a flunky.

“Danburg, call ahead and find out where Mr. Ellison is,” the guard ordered his younger partner, and then he was running to get ahead of Jim. “Lieutenant, your father has asked that you not come back here.”

Jim looked over, surprised at that. His father had always favored Charlie; however, Jim couldn’t afford break character. So he sneered. “I don’t take messages from flunkies.”

Blair made a strangled sound that came close to a laugh, and Jim glared at him before setting off for the house again. He’d grown up here on Osiris, surrounded by cars and horses and wide open spaces, but after living on the fringes of society, the wealth on this estate was enough to make him feel slightly nauseous. He’d seen so much starvation and privation that the sheer decadence made him hate that earlier version of himself that had taken it all for granted.

Jim stepped up onto the porch, and he took a second to look around at the verdant fields stretching out to the horizon. Serenity’s shuttle squatted like an ugly little bug, but other than that, the illusion of tranquility surrounded the house. However, Jim had grown up in this illusion, and he knew how much turmoil and hatred roiled just under the surface. “The security had better be turned off or my friend there is going to shoot you in the gut,” Jim warned coldly, jerking his head toward Jayne.

Jayne shifted his huge weapon and eyed the guard so coldly that Jim almost broke cover long enough to remind Jayne that they were trying to avoid bloodshed. As much as he appreciated Jayne offering backup, Jim wished he had someone who was less likely to actually gut-shoot someone doing the job.

The security guard tapped a small control on his wrist. “Security cleared, sir,” he said stiffly, his anger carefully bottled, but not well hidden.

Turning his back on the guard, Jim grabbed the handle of the French door, half-expecting to get electrocuted, but the security was off. For the first time in over a decade, Jim entered his childhood home. It smelled the same—wood cleaner and jasmine. Sprays of artfully designed flowers sat on well-tended antiques and hand-carved furniture. Jim strode past it on his way to his father’s study. Despite the fact that his father owned the entire mansion, the man practically lived in that one room. From that room, he’d take vid calls from teachers and send out servants to summon his sons to stand in front of him and accept punishment. Jim took lead, Blair slightly behind him with the guard and Jayne coming up the rear, neither one willing to leave the other at his back, no doubt.

A maid caught sight of him and pulled back into one of the sitting rooms, pulling the door mostly closed as Jim passed. The marble floor and columns in the enormous hall made their footsteps echo, and for a half-second, Jim paused as his hearing struggled to identify the echoing sounds of so many feet. Jayne’s boots were so soft that they barely even echoed at all. For a big man, he was used to walking soft. Blair’s slapped against the marble, and the guard who had taken up position at Jayne’s side had a staccato heel-first rhythm.

Shaking off the feel of being surrounded by strings of sound, Jim reached his father’s study and pulled the doors open, standing in the exact place he’d sworn he’d never return. He held onto both doorknobs, waiting as his father finished something on the computer before slowly turning to look at each other. They considered each other, two grown men not sure what to expect from each other—at least that’s what Jim thought it felt like.

“Son,” William said in measured tones.

“Dad,” Jim returned, equally cautious. He’d half-hoped that River would send a transmission down explaining what they needed since Jim didn’t actually know why they were here, but from his father’s expression of confusion, she hadn’t.

William sighed and stood up from his desk. “You’re dismissed, Udall.”

Jim turned around to see the guard eyeing Jayne suspiciously. “Mr. Ellison…”

“Dismissed,” William barked in a tone that made it clear his next word would be to fire the guard.

“Yes, sir,” the guard gave a brisk nod and then headed back down the marble hall, his staccato steps fading into the distance.

With another of those sighs that made it clear that Jim was taking up valuable time, William sat back down behind his desk. “Well, this is a surprise.”

“Because you banned me from the house?” Jim asked as he stepped into the room. Blair was immediately at his side, and Jayne took a position next to the door where he could cover the room and the hallway.

“I banned your brother, James, not you.”

Jim sucked in a breath, and Jayne brought his weapon up, lined up with William’s head.

“Hey, whoa, let’s all calm down,” Blair rushed to say, moving to get into Jayne’s line of fire, but Jim reached out and caught Blair’s shoulder, pulling him close. As much as he didn’t want to see his father dead, he really didn’t want his father to feel some false sense of security and reach for a gun himself. If Jayne’s big-ass weapon was pointed at his gorram head, he’d think twice before trying to double cross them.

Sure enough, William held his hands up. “James, I’ve tried to find you for over a year now. I got suspicious when I couldn’t get any word on your posting, but after some rather suspicious people picked up Charles, I figured something had happened.”

“The Institute got Charlie?” Jim’s gut churned with dread. He hated his brother, but he didn’t deserve that.

“A group of doctors ordered Charles in for testing about five months ago. After two weeks, they released him, but Charlie had the feeling that something more was up.”

“Oh man.” Blair leaned into Jim, his body trembling. “Oh shit.” Jim understood the feeling.

“He came here, not looking for answers, but wanting revenge. Apparently he didn’t like his treatment while he was their guest, and he wanted some assistance making them pay.”

“And you weren’t ready to endanger your position to do that?” Jim guessed. The discomfort of his sons had never been one of William Ellison’s great concerns.

“Over Charles’ offended dignity? No,” William said simply. “However, it made me search harder for you.”

Jim gave a rough laugh and shook his head in disbelief. “Why the hell would you bother looking for me Dad? Cao, even when I lived in this house, you never much cared as long as I didn’t interfere with your life.”

“James, language,” William said, sitting up.

“Yeah, Dad. I’ll worry about a little swearing.”

Blair pushed his way out of Jim’s arms, and stepped forward. “Hey, all this rehashing of the past—so not healthy. I mean, it sounds like you were worried for your son,” Blair told William. Jim opened his mouth to protest that, and Blair turned on him, poking a finger toward his face. “And it sounds like you haven’t known your father for a very long time and people change. So how about we all just calm down and try using a few civilized manners.”

Jim snorted, but when Blair not-so-subtly pushed him toward a chair, Jim went, trusting Jayne to cover their back. “Dad, can I introduce Dr. Blair Jacob Sandburg. He’s a psychiatrist.”

“A rather direct one,” William commented. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Sandburg. I would offer to shake hands, but I suspect that my son would find some ulterior motive in that, especially given that you two appear involved, so I shall simply express my pleasure in meeting you verbally.”

“Appear involved,” Jayne said softly with a snort, clearly amused by Jim’s father’s attempt to not comment on Jim’s new slyness.

“Dad, this is Jayne Cobb. He’s a better shot than I am.”

“Then you are truly exceptionally,” William said with a nod in Jayne’s direction.

“Gorram right,” Jayne agreed. Jim might have called it arrogance, only Jayne could back up his words with some mighty uncanny shooting.

William’s lips thinned, but he didn’t comment on Jayne’s colorful language. Instead, he turned back toward Jim, his hands carefully placed on top of his desk, palms down and fingers splayed in a display of surrender. “James, I have done everything I could to find you, but despite my considerable resources, you vanished. After Charles described the intrusive medical testing to which he had been subjected, I feared the worst.”

“You should have,” Jim said bluntly. His father swallowed.

“Okay, Jim, I know you have some anger about your childhood, and normally I am not one for repressing emotions, but maybe we can table that discussion for later,” Blair said softly.

“Jim has a right to some anger,” William commented, and there wasn’t a phrase that could have shocked Jim more.

“He… really? I mean, you aren’t denying the fact that you were like a total hwun dan?”

William flinched. “I thought psychiatrists were supposed to be more subtle.”

“Man, it is all about the truth. The truth is you were…” Blair whistled. Considering that Blair had just told Jim to shelve his aggression, the man wasn’t following his own advice.

“I thought I could raise sons strong enough to survive in the world. Instead, Charles is utterly dishonorable, Steven lives on my money, and the one son who took my lessons to become strong enough to force the world to bend to his will not only hates me, but apparently he’s a wanted fugitive. I think I can see the truth well enough to know that my… parenting choices… did more harm than good.” William turned his focus from Blair to Jim. “Despite my failings, I do love you, and I have tried to find you… to offer you help if I could.”

“Right, Dad,” Jim said without pretending to believe his father.

“You’re my son,” William said softly.

“You have two more to fall back on. I can’t believe that you’d risk your position to help me.”

William leaned back in his chair, his hands steepled in front of him. “Then why are you here?”

That was a good question. Jim looked to Blair since he couldn’t talk to his father without the anger seeping into every word… not that Blair was much better. Blair took a deep breath. “The group that took Jim wanted to activate a genetic abnormality he possesses. It allows him to see more, to hear more than normal humans. He’s not the only test subject they kidnapped. They took a number of brilliant young men and women to try and develop telepathic and telekinetic powers, and they had one project to try and create people who could see the future.”

William closed his eyes and bowed his head, and Blair fell silent. Jim reached out and pulled Blair closer, urging him to sit on the arm of the chair. Settling himself down on the arm, Blair rested his hand on Jim’s shoulder. Jim needed that touch right now. He felt like he was fifteen years old and he desperately needed his father, and he was afraid that, like back then, his father was about to turn on him.

William slowly shook his head. “I knew there was interest in developing the human genome, in seeking to fulfill human potential. During the war, there was talk of having genetic researchers focus on the untapped potential. But after the war, the talk died down. I thought they’d given up on the madness.”

“You knew?” Jim demanded.

William’s head jerked up. “No. No, I didn’t. I knew that ten years ago a group of scientists was looking for donations and pushing a story about helping humans reach the potential of the human genome. I thought they were talking about cellular level testing, not experimenting on human beings.”

“Well, guess what Dad, they decided to go with human testing. Tell me, did you give them money,” Jim demanded. The way his father’s face whitened told him everything he needed to know. Jim went to stand up, but Blair’s hand pressed him back into the seat.

“No one could have known what they were going to do,” Blair said firmly. “Hey, I worked for the soulless shen jing bing bastards because I didn’t know what they were doing until it was too late for me to get out.”

Jim gritted his teeth. He wanted to argue that it hadn’t been the same thing, but he knew if he did, Blair would use Jim’s words as an excuse to trot out all the reasons why Blair’s action were evil.

“You worked for them?” William looked from Jim to Blair and back. “You helped James get out. You know what they did.”

“Yeah,” Blair agreed, “and trust me, you do not want to know what they did.”

William closed his eyes tightly for a second, and Jim could taste the bitter scent of grief. He shook his head, almost convinced that his senses were playing tricks on him. Then William opened his eyes again and looked right at Blair. “What can I do to help? Any resources you have, they’re yours.”

Blair’s fingers tightened around Jim’s shoulder, although Jim didn’t understand the message. This wasn’t the father from Jim’s memory. He didn’t know this William Ellison, and he didn’t know how to talk to the man. After a second, Blair spoke up. “We actually aren’t sure what we need. We have access to another escaped subject from the Institute, a reader who has limited ability to see the future and some telepathy. She suggested that we needed to come to you, that you had some skill—something you’d tried to teach Jim a long time ago that could help us now.”

“Something I tried to teach James?” William frowned. “Certainly I tried to teach my boys self-sufficiency and success in business, but I know nothing about genetics.”

Jim leaned forward. “This isn’t about genetics, Dad. She sent us on a mission against Blue Sun. What we need help with is a lot bigger than what happened to me.”

“Blue Sun?” William’s voice faded to a whisper.

“Will you help?” Blair asked. Jim held his breath, honestly not sure what he expected. The father from his memories would have turned them out. He might have even called the authorities. This father who sat in front of him with his steepled fingers and gray hair smelled of grief, of fatigue. Jim didn’t know what he’d do.

Slowly, William nodded. “I don’t know how much help I can be, but I’ll do anything you need me to,” he said, his voice taking on a little more of that steel that Jim remembered.

“Awesome,” Blair said with a smile. Jim wasn’t sure if it was awesome since they still didn’t know what they were doing, but it certainly was one more piece of evidence that River had some sort of rational logic bouncing around in that brain of hers. Hell. She was right. His father would help.

Comments

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I'm enjoying this rather a lot. :-)

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. River's talk of plough horses and dressage horses and eating the elephant from the inside is coming up tomorrow!

[mab-browne.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was looking at your icon and thinking 'whuh?' and then I realised it was the throne of firstness. I am slow, sometimes. *g*

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

LOL

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

“I ain’t exactly sure when you started being ours, though,” he admitted with a shrug. I love this line. I can so see Jayne saying it.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Jayne is so simple. He doesn't overthink anything, so if Mal tells him that Jim is one of theirs, he is. I love Jayne for that.

[1orelei.livejournal.com]

YOU GO, WILLIAM!

Tee hee, I knew the moment he recognized James that I was going to like this! BTW, was surprised Jim didn't monitor William's reactions to see if he was lying. ;)

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

William is just as non-evil as in canon; however, tomorrow I think you're going to see that he is also a complex character here... a man used to more wealth and power than in canon.

[mulder200.livejournal.com]

Hm. And the plot thickens! It will be interesting to see more about Jim and his father.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

This is the plot that poor River has been trying to communicate with them the whole time.