Big Damn Dog

[lit_gal]

Big Damn Dog

When stuck at an airport with wifi, what should you do?? FANFIC

So, just because Mal and Jayne have their heads out of their asses, that doesn't mean the rest of the world is back on track.

Pairing: Mal/Jayne  (off-screen Inara/Nandi)
Rating: Adult


Previous chapters in reverse order: http://lit-gal.livejournal.com/tag/fic%3A%20firefly%3A%20big%20damn%20dog




Chapter Ten
 
Zoe was cleaning her weapons when Mal came downstairs looking mighty well fucked.  Wash looked over with a devilish expression, and she gave a minute shake of her head. She might love that husband of hers, but if he went commenting on the captain’s sex life, she was going to skin him alive.
 
“Captain,” she offered in a noncommittal tone of voice while still giving Wash a sharp look.  Mal glanced over toward Wash with a bewildered expression, but then he went to the bar without commenting.
 
“Morning,” he offered only after one of the girls shoved a cup of coffee at him. He nodded to her and wrapped his hands around the cup.
 

“New pathways dancing in the moonlight and starshine,” River announced as she pranced into the room.  “A new person appears out of poof.  Nowhere.”  She went over and threw herself down on the seat next to Mal and settled her chin on her hands as she stared at him.
 
The doctor followed. “I think the new person came out of Petaline in the rather mundane process of birth,” he said wearily.  If it were all that mundane, the doc shouldn’t look worn clear through, but one good puff of wind could take him down.  It seemed like they were getting less and less rest between jobs and the jobs were getting harder. Zoe looked around the room and wondered how much longer they could keep pressing this hard without losing someone.  Worse, she didn’t see things changing any time in the foreseeable future.  The Alliance was getting too big and pressing out into the border colonies more and more.  It left less of the black for people like them. It seemed like lately she couldn’t keep her thoughts off the idea of slipping back into civilized society and having a regular run at paying taxes and playing good little citizen.  It rubbed her the wrong way, but that sort of life would allow her to have a child and sleep three nights running in one place without worrying about some enemy catching up.
 
However, until she could convince Mal to do the same, she figured that was just a dream. Mal had saved her more than once during the war and after it. He never failed to put his own neck on the line for crew, and she wouldn’t repay that by walking out on him.
 
“Well, I think we should all be grateful that we didn’t have more loss of life last night,” Shepard Book stood up from the old couch where he’d been reading his Bible silently. “I have to admit, I was expecting a harder fight.” Book’s eyes found River.  The girl had killed more than her share, and the way she’d done it, dancing through the battle field with a  gun in each hand, was more than enough to make Zoe’s own gun hand itch. However, if River’s performance last night was any gauge, Jayne was the only one of them who had even a chance of winning a gunfight with the girl.
 
“Nope, he wouldn’t,” River announced loudly.
 
“Who wouldn’t what?” Mal asked suspiciously.
 
River cocked her head at him and smiled.  “New and shiny,” she said, her voice sounding oddly Kaylee-like.  Even more disturbing, Kaylee walked in just as she said that.  She was wearing a robe, and one of the boy whores was following her with stars in his eyes.
 
Zoe glanced over to see how the doctor was taking that. The man wanted Kaylee—that was a clear as the nose on a man’s face.  He was also about as clueless as Mal when it came to courting, and Zoe hadn’t ever thought she would meet a man that helpless when it came to love.
 
“What’s all shiny?” Kaylee asked.  Then she spotted the captain. “Captain! You look…” there was a moment’s hesitation, “all happy and shiny this morning!” she finished.
 
“New and shiny,” River agreed as she danced away to circle Kaylee for a second.
 
“I do wish that girl would say three words in a row that made any sense at all,” Mal complained softly.
 
River’s dance immediately stopped.  She held up three fingers. “Reaver voices scream,” she said grandly, holding up one finger for each word. For a second, the whole room froze.  Then one of the whores gave a strangled cry and the room exploded.  Kaylee dashed for the stairs, and Mal started bellowing.
 
“Jayne.  Reavers!  Jayne, you hearin' me? We got Reavers!!”
 
“I’ll get the ship.” Wash was out the door, and Zoe went to chase him, to watch his six because the man was not particularly good at doing that for himself.  River’s hand caught her, and Zoe tried to shake it off with a snarl, but River held on.
 
It took a second for the battle-focus to fade so that Zoe registered what River was saying. “Reaver voices.  Reavers wander far away, their voices sailing out over the black.”  Jayne appeared at the top of the steps with the biggest gorram gun he owned, and he was storming down the stairs looking ready to shoot anything that moved.
 
“Captain!” Zoe said. The man was pulling weapons out from behind the bar.  “Captain!” she said louder, and Mal stopped to look at her.  “River’s saying it’s only the voices, not the Reavers.”
 
One of the older whores offered, “We ain’t never seen Reavers this far in.”
 
“What the hell is going on?” Jayne asked, looking bewildered, and well-fucked.  Zoe did not understand how one man could bed an entire whorehouse full of women, but Jayne seemed determined to prove it could be done.  If Mal didn’t figure out Jayne was lusting after him, Jayne would wear his man parts outs trying to scratch that itch.
 
“I ain’t got any clue. First River says Reavers are coming and then she says it’s only Reaver voices.” Mal gathered up the weapons he had laid claim to and came around the bar.  “We got Reavers inbound or not?”
 
“Not,” River answered.  “Voice drifting across the black.  Dice tumbling.  The first death blinks closer, swimming downstream.”
 
Mal blinked and looked to Zoe as if she was supposed to have any idea what it meant.  She shrugged helplessly.  It wasn’t her week to understand psychotic ramblings.
 
“Mei-mei. You should rest,” the doctor crooned just as Kaylee came flying back down the stairs, dressed this time.
 
She stopped halfway and looked around.  “Captain?” she asked softly.
 
“Seems like it was a false alarm.”  Mal went over and sat on one of the chairs.  “Something about Reaver voices and someone being dead.”
 
“Someone died?  I mean, someone other than Burgess died? Because I’m real okay with him being dead,” Kaylee finished as she came down the rest of the stairs at a much more sedate pace.
 
River tilted her head.  “Rivers and oceans flowing over old land.”
 
“There ain’t none of that around here,” Jayne said with a dismissive snort.
 
“Jayne,” Mal warned in a dark tone.  Zoe expected Jayne to get all puffed up or withdraw into that quiet sullenness that worried her so much. Instead, Jayne shocked her to her core by walking over and sitting on the floor at Mal’s feet, leaning his back into the chair.  For a second time, the whole room froze.
 
Kaylee was the first to come out of it.  She cleared her throat. “Maybe the rivers ain’t rivers as much as something in her head that’s moving around.”
 
“Like a psychotic incident triggered by an abundance of stress,” the doctor muttered, but Zoe noticed that River ignored her brother, smiling at Kaylee instead.
 
“Rivers separate and flow until they become oceans of unchangeable past.”
 
Zoe frowned.  “If the past is the ocean, could it be she’s talking about how she knows things in the future?” Zoe asked.  She’d watched River turn to shoot a man two second before the man had reared up from behind his fallen horse.  Zoe or any other marksman couldn’t have known to expect a gunman from that position, but River had picked him off with a bullet between the eyes just as his head cleared the top of his dead horse’s belly.
 
River smiled at her. “The big river with Reaver voices reaching out.  Black with red buttons, white trim at the collar.”
 
Mal made a mighty unhappy noise that made Zoe look back at the captain, and now Mal’s hand rested against Jayne’s shoulder, his fingers so tight the knuckles were turning white.  Zoe really was running at her limit for shocks for today, that’s for sure. She had to carefully school her features.  “Mal, is that Special Services uniform she’s describing?”
 
“Like the one she described Shepherd Book wearing,” Jayne said.  “And I want it known that no matter what her idiot brother said, I never showed River my prick.”
 
And the shocks kept coming. Zoe blinked as she tried to even understand where that came from.
 
“I never said you had,” the doc protested.  “I just asked exactly why River said she liked your hardness.”
 
“Ask her.  I ain’t never gone and bedded someone who ain’t right in the head.”
 
Two days ago, Zoe would have believed that comment, but watching Mal’s hand on Jayne’s shoulder as Jayne sat at Mal’s feet—well, she wasn’t so sure Jayne could go saying that anymore because Mal sure wasn't right in the head most days`.
 
“What in tarnation is going on down here?” Nandi’s voice cut through the awkward silence.  “I swear, you lot are a heap of trouble, even though I owe you for standing with us against Burgess.”
 
“I’m just making a point,” Jayne defended himself, and Zoe watched as Nandi’s eyes studied Mal and Jayne for a moment before she gave a small smile.  Ah, so that explained part of this. The boys never would have figured out their mutual attraction without a little assistance, and it seemed like Nandi had provided it.  It was about time. Zoe would have stepped in only she had a hard and fast rule that she never interfered with Mal’s love life.  It was a little like tinkering with an unstable nuclear reactor.
 
“You’re making a point rather loudly.  The girls said you’re going on about Reavers. What is going on?  Reavers have never come in this far."

"Don't mean they ain't going to start now," Jayne said.  He kept his death grip on his weapon, but he also kept right on sitting at Mal's feet. And now Mal seemed to be squeezing his shoulder.  When those boys decided to do something, they did jump in with both feet.  Zoe was grateful that Wash was out getting the ship because she was going to have to pin him down and make sure he didn't say something stupid enough to get Jayne all riled.

"I truly do not expect they will ever reach this far in," Shepherd book said.  From the look of wariness on Mal's face, the captain knew something Zoe didn't.  It wasn't common for him to keep things from her, and she felt the rub of annoyance against her already strained nerves.

"And how might you know that?" Mal asked. The question was too direct, too pointed to be anything other than a direct reference to something Zoe wasn't privy to.  However, Shepherd Book only gave Mal a mild glance.

"I put my trust in the Lord."

"And that Special Service uniform you used to wear?"  Mal asked the question in such a mild tone that Zoe had to mentally replay it to believe the words. And even then, she wanted to laugh.  However, Shepherd Book was giving Mal a serious stare, the sort that two men used when they were sizing each other up for a gunfight.

Jayne had gotten one leg under him, his hand still tight on his weapon, but Mal kept ahold of his shoulder. Zoe had to admit that she felt a bit of an itch to pull her own sidearm.  She trusted Shepherd Book, but if he was Special Services, that was a nightmare that could make a person start thinking about leaving him on some planet and never coming back.

"I think maybe the girls and I should leave you nice folks to do your talking," Nandi said, gesturing for the last few whores to head up the stairs and out of their way.

"No need," Book said.  "That is old news.  I gave up that uniform and that allegiance about the time that I decided that if I wanted to save souls, the Alliance wasn't the best way to do that."

"Did you ever really think it was?" Mal stood up, and Jayne stood with him, standing just behind the captain. It offended Zoe's sense of fairness to have to fighters squaring off against one little shepherd, but it offended her sense of loyalty to take sides against Mal, so she kept to the side and watched, still confused.  And from the look on Kaylee's face, Zoe wasn't the only one getting a whole lot of new information this morning.

"We are all young and foolish once, Mal," Book offered gently. "And only growing older is mandatory."

"Meaning what exactly?" Jayne demanded.  "And who is dying? She keeps nattering on about the first death, and if she's saying I'm about to go get dead, I want to know how to stop it."

River walked slowly up to Jayne, stopping when Mal put out a hand as though to block her way. Watching Mal defending Jayne was a new sight, that's for sure.  However, River stopped and slowly her head angled toward Shepherd Book.  "Voice drifting out.  Screaming.  Remembering.  Always, always, always."

Shepherd Book turned an alarming shade of white, especially considering he was a black man.

"Two by two hands of blue, quieting, quieting, quieting.  Shhhhhhh," River said, holding her hands out like someone trying to shush children.  "Coming, coming.  Hear the voices."

"Is it just me," Jayne asked, "or is none of this making any sense."

"No, it ain't you.  It seems like River is a little less coherent that usual."

"She's overworked and overstressed," Simon snapped at the captain. "And I don't know whose idea it was to arm her and expect her to fight like a common ruffian, but I do not appreciate you abusing her trust that way."

Mal didn't bother answering or even pointing out that there was a good chance at least some of them would be dead without River's help.

"I assure you child, no one is coming," Shepherd Book soothed her.  River tilted her head and starting moving slowly toward him.

"Flowing downstream.  Quiet the man, quiet the girl, quiet the man, quiet the girl. Free radicals running free, threatening the health of the body."

The nonsense didn't mean anything to Zoe, but Shepherd Book drew himself up and backed up until he could grab the back of a chair.

"No, not after all this time."

"Shepherd, the way you're saying that is making me awfully nervous," Mal observed.

"Free radicals. Impossible to predict the permutations and complications as gene sequences are disrupted, threatening the body."

Simon moved in quickly, his hand finding his sister's forehead as he checked her for a temperature.  "Are you sick?  Do you feel weak or dizzy?"

River shook her head, her eyes still on Shepherd Book.

"I believe she's trying to tell us that the Alliance has decided that we're a disease and that we're all in danger of being eliminated," Shepherd Book said quietly.

"Because you were one of them?" Jayne asked.  It was a valid question. Zoe didn't know of any organization that appreciated one of their own turning traitor.

"No," Book said as he slowly sank into a seat. "Their psychological profiles make it clear that I'm no threat.  I made my choices, and I will live with them.  Unless I am very much mistaken, River is saying that the Alliance is going to kill her and me because we have teamed up with a free radical, someone who very well might want to damage the Alliance." Shepherd Book looked up at Mal.

"Me?  I may want to bring them to their knees, but it ain't like I got a gun big enough."

The pieces fell in place so fast that Zoe nearly got a head rush.  Mal had the will, but Shepherd Book with his Special Services secrets and River with her damn-near magical ability to make people dead were the guns large enough to bring the Alliance to their knees.  Zoe didn't know how, but that's what River meant, she knew it the same as she knew that Mal was going to do something stupid the first time Jayne looked at some girl.  Some rules of the universe were too self-evident to require more explanation than that.

River turned and gave her a small, sad smile.  "The river likes rules, too.  Rules and rules, but breaking them makes new riverbeds in the desert." River turned to look at Mal and Jayne.

Kaylee edged toward the stairs.  "I should go and get Inara. It seems like we might be leaving."

"Inara is staying.  Dark and dark and not enough light through to make the sparkles shine. The diamond dulls," River said.  "Nandi polished good."

"Is she saying that Nandi was sexing on Inara?" Jayne asked.  Again, Jayne seemed to have some valid questions this morning, but Zoe had run out of patience.

"I'm going to go... meet Wash," she said, although everyone in the room would know that meant just sitting outside until he put the Serenity down. Still, that seemed wiser than staying in this room and getting more surprises.  No one challenged her, and Zoe walked outside, the dry air and hot sun centering her when she felt like the rest of the world had started spinning around her. Well, cao.  Just when the captain finally got himself settled down with Jayne, the rest of the universe had to go and lose its mind.  No wonder Wash got so twitchy when she started bringing up the subject of children.  Well, one way or another, it'd work itself out. It always did. Usually did.  Well, it sometimes did. She sighed.  Yeah, they were all in the gorram weeds this time.
 

Comments

[pawscat.livejournal.com]

The plot crept in while everyone was distracted with the sexin! Love love. Hope your flight is not awful.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

The plot was always there, you guys were just busy watching Mal and Jayne get all sweaty and hot ;D

[ruefull.livejournal.com]

Oh!
Wow, that was some incredibly well written dialogue! It's got to be so difficult to make River incoherent and yet, understandable at the same time, and you pulled it off perfectly! You did her beautifully, did all of them beautifully, and I love having another chapter this soon! *g*

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I like writing River. One of these days, I need to make a half-sane character of my own to play with. And wow... it's been a whole month since I put this up. (hangs head sheepishly)

[skeptic7.livejournal.com]

Wonderful Chapter. Hope you have a good time in New York and survive the trip back. Why would anyone who didn't have a crystal ball think that Serenity is a serious danger? It could be a serious danger if Book and Mal and River were working together, but River has trouble communicating, Mal doesn't have the drive to overthrow governments and Book is trying to be a pacifist. If the dragon is both sleeping and unambitious, don't poke it.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Thank you... New York was beautiful. I think that the next chapter makes that clearer. Book is the biggest threat, but if the government decided that Mal could get intel out of either River or Book... well, none of us think Mal will win awards for his rational thinking. I can see where that would scare people.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I hope your flying experience has settled down by now and you're enjoying your destination.

Love this look through Zoe's eyes. All the changes going round, pebbles in a pond. Allow River a little more head earlier and watch the ripples flow. I'm very interested in where you take this.

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

It really did help to have two good flights. Maybe next flight I can manage to avoid the freak-out altogether.

I am enjoying playing with POV here and letting different people have their say.

[tpena19.livejournal.com]

You write crazy so well ;)

and the plot rolls on, yay!

[lit-gal.livejournal.com]

Awwwww. Thank you so much!