Chapter 11

“Well?”

Simon cringed slightly under the glare Mal was giving him. He couldn’t help it. “He’ll be fine. It was close. Very close. If you hadn’t been there, in the room with him right at that moment, I’m pretty sure he’d be dead now, but… Well, thankfully you were and we caught it in time. Once I knew what it was, the antidote was easy enough to simulate.”

“The antidote for the poison? The poison that you assured me hours ago wasn’t there?” The captain’s voice was frigid. Simon sighed and sank onto the couch, running a hand through his hair.

“I know, Mal. I’m beating myself up enough for missing it. You don’t have to help, not that I think saying that will stop you. In my defense, however, this poison was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was constructed to stay hidden in the blood stream for almost twenty-four hours before it even started to break up and spread. Until an hour ago I thought something like that was only possible in theory on the pages of very complicated textbooks.”

“But it’s gone now, right?” Mal pressed, his face more serious than Simon had ever seen it. “You tell me you are one hundred percent sure my pilot is out of the woods. That there is nothin’ else wrong that’s gonna come back to bite him later, ‘cause I’m tired of playing games with his life an’ he’s out of second chances. He can’t afford for you to miss something again!”

Simon paused for a moment and a heavy silence filled the air between the two men. Mal said nothing as he waited for an answer, but the tightness of his jaw and weary lines around his eyes spoke more loudly than anything how he was dealing with all of this. Simon decided to ignore the cold tone and accusatory words that had been sent his way, knowing it was just Mal’s way of trying to cope with being totally out of control of events.

“It’s over. I double – triple checked everything, common, uncommon, unheard of. He’s clean.”

“Good,” Mal said shortly.

“Whoever this guy is,” Simon spoke again after a long, loaded minute, rising from the couch, “he’s no amateur. If you had any doubt before, this just erased it. I think you may have found your Moriarty, Captain.” He caught Mal’s gaze and held it for a moment, then turned and left, heading back to tend to his patient.

Behind him, Mal stayed where he was for a long, long time.

*****

“Hey, little Kaylee.”

Kaylee sniffed loudly and wiped her red eyes before looking up from where she sat with her legs dangling over the catwalk above Serenity’s cargo bay. Mal was standing above her, a sad, gentle, caring look on his face.

“Came to apologize for earlier,” he said softly, taking a seat next to her. “Went to the engine room to tell ya but you weren’t there, and then…stuff happened. Anyway, shouldn’t have snapped at ya back there on the bridge when you called. I’m sorry.”

His quiet, kind words were all the catalyst Kaylee’s barely restrained tears needed and they suddenly gushed forward for the umpteenth time that day. Impulsively, she turned toward the captain, burying her face in his shoulder.

“I’m just so sad and worried, Cap’n!” she sobbed. “I can’t stop thinkin’ about Wash! What they done to him! What he looked like when I found him! How close we came ta loosin’ him an’ how bad he must be hurtin’!”

Mal froze when his mechanic’s head hit his shoulder, but after a long moment he awkwardly reached up and patted her pig-tailed head. “Sh, Kaylee,” he soothed, very much out of his element here. “Been over this already… Wash is hurtin’ badly an’ will be for awhile, but he is gonna be okay, mei-mei. We didn’t loose him. That doc you keep making goo-goo eyes at done his work good an’ Wash will be just fine.”

“But how could someone hurt him like that? How could anyone hurt Wash?”

“’Cause there are genuinely evil people out there in the ‘verse, Kaylee,” Mal said, unable to lie to the girl. “Know it hurts to hear it, but it’s true. Wash didn’t doesn’t deserve what happened, but unfortunately, life ain’t fair very often.”

Kaylee burrowed her face farther into Mal’s shoulder, seeking comfort. The captain, after a moment, threw caution and dignity to the wind and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

“I’m scared, Cap’n,” Kaylee finally whispered. “Really scared. What if it happens again? What if he hurts Wash again, or someone else?” She gulped, her sobs deepening as her words came in hitches. “What if he comes after me, like Early?”

Mal hugged his mechanic closer, a sort of desperation in his grip now even as anger rushed through his veins as he remembered that particular event.

“Not gonna happen, Kaylee. I promise.” He dropped his arm and gently pushed Kaylee away from him, turning her face so she was looking right at him. “You a part of my crew?”

Sniffling deeply, Kaylee nodded.

“What have I said about protectin’ my crew?”

“That…that we’re family,” Kaylee managed to say through her sobs. “That you’d…you’d…you’d do anything to protect your family.”

“That’s right, little one. I’m the captain. Captain’s protect their crew, their families. I ever let ya down before?”

“No, Cap’n,” Kaylee shook her head, her sobs starting to die out now.

“Then don’t you be frettin’ on it. Ain’t never lettin’ anyone hurt my little Kaylee, okay?”

“K,’ Cap’n,” she said, brushing at her eyes. She took a moment to collect herself, get the tears under control, then turned to her captain again.

“He bought me strawberries, you know.”

“Who?” Mal asked, totally confused. “Early?”

Kaylee rolled her red-rimmed eyes. “No, Captain Dummy. Wash. A box with five whole strawberries in it, just for me. Shepherd Book found them on the mule.”

Her voice was tiny, sad. It made Mal’s own heart ache even more. “That’s ‘cause he’s a good guy an’ he cares about you. Eat ‘em and enjoy ‘em.”

“He really gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, Kaylee. He really is. Gonna be a long, rocky road for him, but you know Wash’s stubborn streak. He’ll make it.”

“Think I could…um…see him?”

“He’s restin’ right now, but I bet if you stopped by in the mornin’ he’d love it. You’re a heck of a lot prettier to look at than those gray walls,” Mal whispered conspiratorially, reaching out to wipe a tear-streaked smudge of grease off her cheek.

Kaylee smiled for the first time, blushing slightly. “Aw, Cap’n. Think ya could get Simon ta say that?”

Mal laughed, surprised at how good it felt. He stood up and then offered his mechanic a hand up as well. “Nope,” he answered as he helped her to her feet. “Boy’s on his own for that one. Now, it’s my turn ta fly this boat an’ I’m thinkin’ it’s your turn for a little shuteye.”

“Cap’n, I –”

“No buts. That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir, Captain Tightpants, Sir.”

“That’s a good girl,” Mal said fondly. Then, on a rare and sudden impulse, he pulled the girl close to him and kissed the top of her head. “Goodnight little Kaylee. Have sweet doctor dreams. Now git a’fore I have ta explain to the good shepherd that I was late because I was spendin’ time with a pretty girl.”

“You just want to avoid more lectures about that ‘Special Hell’ dontcha,” Kaylee winked at him. “Good luck, Cap’n. Night, night!”

“How does everyone know about that?” Mal cried, throwing his arms out in confusion as she walked away. Her only answer was a small giggle that floated back to him.

*****

“Ten little Indians… Ten little Indians…”

The quiet words lent a chill to the dim and almost empty kitchen. The lone girl sat at the table, long, graceful fingers toying with the plastic figures before her.

“The pawns move first. It’s their job, though no one ever asked them if they wanted it,” she whispered through the curtain of straggly hair that partially covered her face. Shuddering slightly, she pulled her bare feet up onto the chair as she turned the game pieces over on their sides. “They fall, no one cries. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Ring around the rosy, we all fall down…”

“The knights protect. Code of honor, darkness comes. Swords can’t help. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe. *”

The knights joined the pawns on their sides on the table, looking lonely and forlorn. River’s voice rose in agitation and she started to rock back and forth.

“Or maybe the queen will stop them. But the queen is scared. Palaces, castles, gowns and servants – her life. Danger hides in plain sight, like a snake. Red next to black, harmless to Jack. Red next to yellow, will kill a fellow…”

This time the chess piece flew across the table.

“It’s all Papa’s fault! Secrets tumble, like flying machines from the sky. Whips and presents. T-rex eats the pony and the little one cries!” Her voice caught in a sob but she kept going, almost shouting now.

“They don’t hear! Voices all around and they don’t hear! Voices, words, meanings! They fly like leaves in the storm and then the rainbow comes and no one can find their way home because home is gone! An empty shell! She wonders where her pieces went, why the king went away…”

In anguish, River plunged her fists into her hair, squeezing. “She hears them,” she cried. “The girl hears them, but she doesn’t understand! The king will be all alone!” Angrily, she stood up and threw out her arms, sweeping the game pieces off the table and letting them clatter loudly to the deck below. Then she stood there, breathing heavily, staring at everything and nothing at all.

“One little Indian boy,” she finally said, her voice dropping back to a whisper. “One little Indian boy, left all alone… The king lost his subjects. The rainbow disappeared… And then there were none.”

* From Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”