Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own any of these wonderful characters, or even the setting and world of Firefly. They all belong to Fox/Universal and Joss Whedon.
James Norrington and related belongs to Disney, Gore, Jerry and Ted and Terry.
A/N: This series of ficlets takes place after Browncoats at World’s End. You don’t have to read it, but it would explain how an 18th century commodore came to be aboard Serenity
Saga: There is a saga? I guess since most of these fics will be after “Browncoats at World’s End” and continue after each other it is a saga.
Chapter 8:
-
Malcolm Reynolds stared at the sleeping woman nestled in the co-pilot’s seat. One minute earlier he was arguing with her and now she was out. Inara had one arm draped across her middle while the other hung limply, the dim light from overhead reflected off her gown.
“You were saying?” Mal kept his arms folded. One hand was raised, fingers tapped against his arm. She had said thing she had hoped he was unable too hear, and why was her face so close to his earlier? “Did they program you to fall asleep at a mention of some words in one of those training houses?”
Inara did not respond.
“I see,” Mal turned around. This wasn’t right. How was it that she was able to fall asleep and he still didn’t feel tired? “You were complaining about how you couldn’t fall asleep earlier?” He wasn’t going to get a response from her. There was still one more test left. “Since you fell asleep at my helm I guess that means I can catch some Z’s on your bed.” She did not move, nor say anything. “You really are asleep.” Maybe he will get the answers he wanted in the morning.
There was something not quite right about her sleeping in a chair like that. She was so out of place, compared to the way she was relaxed on her bed with a book in her hands, hours ago.
-
“Inara?” Mal brushed his fingers against some of the beads hanging around her entrance.
“Don’t you ever knock?” Inara sat up on her bed. The book she was reading was set aside.
“Door was open,” Mal shrugged. “Can’t knock when there is nothing to knock, besides, not like you were doing anything.”
“I was reading.” She said in an irritated clip.
“And that was important?” Of course it was important to her. Everything she did was important to her.
“I was about to get to a good scene.”
“How would you know it is a good scene unless you have already read it? This means you have read it and I’m not really interrupting anything important.’
She sat up higher. “What is so important for you that you have to barge in here uninvited, again?”
“I haven’t seen you since dinner, just wanted to know what you were up to.” It wasn’t a half lie, nor was it a half-truth.
“I would have thought being enlisted in the Royal Navy would have taught you some manners.”
“I wasn’t enlisted,” Mal strolled around her shuttle. “Kinda snuck in, must have done it well.”
She sighed. Oh good, he has already got her exasperated. “Look I’m fine. If I want to see you then I would look for you, and I would knock and wait until I am officially invited.”
“Every time I do ask you say no.”
“Get out,” she pointed to the entrance.
He wore out his welcome. “I’ll see you at breakfast. I need ya to give my hair a trim, it has been months. I think the doc might want one as well.” He ducked out of her shuttle before she could shout at him again.
-
Something had clicked when he and Inara had argued in her shuttle. It was something he needed, something that felt right and told him he was home. Maybe that was what he needed, to just bicker with her.
Mal paused by his cabin door. He still wasn’t tired. It was funny how he was able to sleep when Serenity spent the previous night dirt-side on Persephone. He might be able to talk with the others if they were also suffering from insomnia.
“Zoe?” He knocked on his first mate’s unlocked door. She might be in another part of the ship. “Kaylee?” Hers was the same, unlocked and possibly empty. Jayne’s cabin door was locked. Why wasn’t he surprised his hired gun was able to sleep?
-
12 hours ago
“How is the inventory coming along, Jayne?” Malcolm found his hired gun, hunched over in the corner of the cargo hold.
“I got it all done,” Jayne mumbled without even looking at him. “Not much to do.”
“Everything where they should be?” Mal raised his eyebrows. He needed to give Jayne something to do; all the basic cleaning chores were given to the other members of the crew, except for the commodore.
“Perty much, How come the new guy doesn’t have to do anything?”
“He needs more time to adjust,” Mal approached him. “If you are done then what are you doing?”
“Writing,” Jayne sat back and held up the scrap of paper and pen he held. “Gotta write a letter to my mom when I send her that pirate flag, gotta give some money too, ya sure that old timey coin is going to be worth much?”
“I know a guy who will buy it for a lot.” He could hear the rusty gears turn in Jayne’s head. “You are not getting much of it. The coin belongs to the commodore. He’s getting most of the cash.”
“We aint getting any?”
“As the captain I do get a ten percent cover charge,” Mal smirked. “He needs the cash to get him some clothes. Can’t have him borrow mine all the time.”
“We shouldn’t be taking any passengers. They aint nothing but trouble.”
“I’m not taking passengers. I’m taking in crew.” He walked away. “Let me know if you have any trouble spelling anything.”
-
“I’m not surprised to find you here,” Mal stared at the sleeping form of his mechanic. Kaylee was curled up in her hammock of the engine room. A smile was on her face. “Dreaming about your big day I bet.”
-
17 hours earlier
“Kaylee,” Mal could hear Serenity’s main engine continue to churn properly in the rhythm he was used to. “How she running?”
“Perfectly,” Kaylee stepped around the other side of the engine. She was in her stained boiler suit, hair pulled back and her cheeks were smudged with grease. It was hard to believe that in a couple of months she would be in an elegant wedding gown. “The take off was just fine.”
“She spent some months offline, anything need repairs?”
Kaylee nodded. “Most will hold for a few weeks, but I’m gonna have to get some money for a few new parts on the station.” She grabbed a wrench.
“Let me know what you need.”
“Cap’n?” Kaylee blinked. “You being generous all of the sudden.”
“New things have been put into perspective,” his mechanic was getting married, there was a new crewmember and he was never going to forget their little time travel adventure. “I’m going to save the arguing about costs when we get around to plan for your wedding.”
“There will be chocolate covered strawberries.” She had her jaw set in determination.
“I’m make sure there were strawberries even if you hadn’t asked for him.” He was not going to deny Kaylee her favorite treat for such an event. “I heard you asked the other gals to be bridesmaids.”
“That part was easy.”
“It has been a while since I spoke with your folks. I know you are looking forward to having your daddy walk you down the aisle.”
“Mama will arrange the flowers,” Kaylee smiled. “It will be perfect.”
“I want you to know, if there was no way for your daddy to make it, I would have walked you down myself.”
She nodded. “I know.”
“Don’t over exert yourself.” He stepped out. “I want you to do your job, but don’t push yourself.”
-
“So this is where you ended up,” Mal stood in front of his second in command as Zoe continued to sleep on the couch. “Didn’t anyone besides Jayne fall asleep in their own bunk?”
He picked up the recording from the table. “Two guesses on what you were watching.”
-
14 hours ago
He wasn’t desperately looking for Zoe. He just wanted to know where she was. He knew it would have been easier to call her on the transmitter, but he wanted to speak with her personally.
“Zoe?” he asked when he stepped into the other shuttle.
“Here, sir,” Zoë’s arms were filled with blankets and pillows. “Just cleaning up after those pirates. Nobody thought to check around here.”
“Appears not.” His second in command seemed to be back to her old self. He wouldn’t have minded except it had happened too fast. “You going to be all right?”
“Sir?” She blinked.
He held up a finger. “You going to be all right with the fact we are flying to the station first before Santo?”
“You want to get the best deal for the coin.”
“It means it will be a few more days till you get to see your son.”
“I said I would be fine.” She was ready to walk past him, but he blocked her way. “Sir, could you move?”
“I just want to be certain.”
“I am better now that I am here. I know I will see him, back in time I didn’t know if I ever would.”
“It’s better because you are certain?” Mal stepped aside.
“That was what I said, sir.” She walked past him.
“As long as everything is okay.”
“I will be fine,” she raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure you are okay?”
“Me? I’m good. Ready to get back into my groove, our groove.”
“Groove sir?”
Mal shrugged. “It sounded good in my head.” He leaned forward, surveying the shuttle. There were no more bedrolls, or blankets, or pillows. His second in command had finished cleaning in out.
-
“Lets see if everyone else is where they should be.” Mal asked as he grabbed onto the handle of the doctor’s door. He smiled when he heard the lock click. “That is one.”
-
“Doc, you wouldn’t have seen Inara by any chance?” Malcolm asked as soon as he had stepped into the infirmary.
“I believe she would be in her shuttle,” Simon wiped down one of the counter tops. “Now I really do need some more anesthesia.’
“Wasted the last on the commodore?”
Simon nodded. “Him and few others. I am going to have to do another inventory.”
“Do what you can,” Mal was about to step out when he heard Simon clear his throat. “Something on your mind?”
“I’m thinking about my upcoming wedding.”
“Ah,” he knew it would have gradually come up. “I don’t believe I have offered my official congratulations.”
“Kaylee has been making plans since I proposed.” Simon placed his hands in his pockets. “I jut now realized I don’t know many people.”
“Zoe’s family is good folk, you know that.”
“I don’t know them personally,” he pulled his hands out of his pockets. “What I mean is I want to ask you something.”
“You can ask me anything.”
“Will you be my best man?”
Mal blinked. “Are you certain you want to ask me for this task?”
Simon nodded. “I know you are thinking its because there are not many I can ask, and I will probably ask James and Jayne to be groomsmen, but I know I can rely on you.”
“Uh, wow,” Mal held up his hands. He was planning on helping out with the wedding. He didn’t expect to be in the wedding. “You flatter me son.”
-
“You are where you are supposed to be,” Mal glanced at River before he slid back the door.
-
34 hours ago
“We are in no rush,” Mal rose from the co-pilot’s chair. “Got about forty five minutes. We are still ahead of schedule.”
“Steady as she goes,” River kept her hands on the wheel. “You are upset that I left to fight.”
“Left to fight?” Mal tried to figure out what she was talking about. The only time she went to fight recently was when she fought against the mutations on the Haven. “I’m upset you left Kaylee to take the helm. Your job is to fly her.”
“They hurt my friend.”
“That kid was about to end it all.” It wasn’t long after he made it to the infirmary; the Turner kid had managed to destroy the heart.
“Hurt my friends, hurt my family, my crew, and I am angry. I have to fight.”
“The only time you have to fight is when we are all being attacked.”
“I needed to fight.”
“The next time you feel the need you ask.” He stepped back. “I’m going to help pick out something to wear tonight, then shower, then take over for you so you can pretty yourself up.”
“He is strong, don’t treat him like glass. What is broken is healing.”
Mal wasn’t sure what she meant by the last part. He could only guess it had something to do with the commodore’s recent injury.
“I’ll treat him as crew.”
-
Present time.
“The last one,” Mal jiggled the locked door of the commodore’s bunk. He wondered about what Inara had told him at the helm. Could the girl even get crushes? He would think about that later. There was a lot to do in order to get the new crewmember situated.
-
25 hours ago
“I usually don’t do this,” Mal explained as he laid out a blanket on the passenger room they fixed up for the commodore. “I usually order someone else to make up a room for a guest, or a new crew member.”
“It might be one of the tasks I’ll have to do,” James stared at the plastic hooks attached to the wall. “Fascinating material.”
“That’s plastic for you. You will see a lot of it.” Mal grabbed the front edge of the blanket and pulled it back a few inches.
“A man made material,” James placed his naval uniform one hook. “How many more of these man made sympathetic materials are there?”
“Synthetic,” Mal corrected. “And I don’t know the precise number. You going to hang everything there?”
“I want to keep this in proper condition,” James placed both his hat and wig on at the hooks at the same time. “I hope you have treated your uniform properly.”
“I have it neatly folded and tucked away. I even have a nice spot for Snowflake.” He pointed to his hair, indicating the wig he wore when was in disguise.
“You were serious when you said you were going to name your wig?”
“Of course,” Mal smiled. “We should give a name for yours, how about Powder Puff?”
James closed his eyes. “I think not.”
“You going to wear that naval coat out on the jobs?”
“Are you going to wear your brown coat?”
“I always do.”
“You have your answer.”
“Things are going to be even more fun,” Mal tried to picture the commodore shooting one of their guns and wearing that fancy coat as they escape from a border planet bar. “Real fun indeed. Just don’t be afraid to ask if you need any help with anything.”
-
Mal yawned as he climbed down the ladder to his bunk. His crew was safe and sleeping soundly. He needed to get to sleep as well. It was going to be a busy day tomorrow, well not too busy. Maybe they will have a few games, but they day after, when they reach the station will be a busy day indeed.
Mal closed his eyes the second he dropped onto his bed, and allowed slumber to accept him in her embrace. He didn’t care about any possible dreams or nightmares. He just needed some sleep.
The blaring buzz of the alarm jolted him awake. “What?” He checked the time. Time couldn’t have passed that fast. It just felt like he had closed his eyes. “Ching-Wa Tsao, duh liao, mahng.” It was his turn to prepare breakfast.
-
A/N: In many of the Pirates communities they have named the wigs worn by several of the characters. Norrington’s has been dubbed, Sophie. I could resist having Mal name the one he wore.
Replies: Ogreatrandom, Thank you
Dragon-Raptor, Thank you. Mal just needed to check on his crew.