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phantismaTitle: This Is What Crazy Feels Like - Part three (of three)
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing/Characters: Simon, Jayne, River, Mal, Zoe, Inara and Kaylee
Genre: Gen (with a tiny smidge of pre-slash if you squint)
Rating: PG-13 (for torture)
Word Count: 19,929
Summary: Set post-Serenity, Simon is having strange dreams, and when a message from his estranged mother seems to indicate his dreams are real, he and River head home to see his dying father. What they find there changes everything.
A/Ns & Warnings: For Jess, who won me in the last Sweet Charity auction to benefit the Writer’s Guild Foundation. There is major Simon whumpage, Simon / Jayne bonding.
Jayne slid to a stop and threw himself into a side corridor as a door opened and Sheriton emerged with two other men. “See that he isn’t disturbed. I want him to feel the pain for a while.”
He watched Sheriton’s back retreat, then moved to the door. It wasn’t even locked. He opened it and slipped into the room. “Doc?”
Simon was strapped to a table in the center of the room, looking like hell. Both arms were wrapped in white bandages soaked in blood. His face was bruised and there was a deep gash down one cheek.
“Who are you?”
Jayne turned to the source of the voice, a white haired man in a lab coat. “I was sent to watch the prisoner – er- patient.”
The man squinted at him and reached for the nearest console. “I don’t think—“
He didn’t finish as Jayne punched him hard, knocking him to the floor. “Doc? Can you hear me?”
Jayne set his gun on the bed next to Simon and set about un-strapping him. “Come on Doc, wake up.” He got Simon’s feet free and moved to work on his hands. He stopped as he got to Simon’s head. There was a bloody mark in the center of his forehead, like someone had stuck him with a giant needle.
Simon groaned and his eyes fluttered open. Jayne shivered as Simon’s eyes caught his, empty, blank…then Simon blinked. “Jayne?”
“We gotta go. Can you walk?”
Simon’s eyes closed again as Jayne undid the last of the straps. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure you’re real. My father wasn’t real.”
“You killed him.” Jayne said. “Of course he wasn’t real.” He helped Simon sit up.
“I was supposed to kill you too.”
Jayne held up the uniform shirt. “Nearly did.”
“You need stitches…antibiotics…”
“Later, Doc. Right now I need to get us gone. Can you walk?”
He nodded and swung his feet down. He barely had one on the floor and was shaking his head instead. “No.” He reached for Jayne’s shoulder, then winced in pain and cradled his hand to his chest. “What did they do to me?”
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out later.” He scanned the room and found a wheel chair in the corner. He fetched it and helped Simon into it.
“We’ll never get out of here like this.”
“You just sit tight and leave that to me.” Jayne started for the door. “All we gotta do is get back to the ship without getting seen, get inside, get it started and get outta atmo before someone catches us.”
Simon nodded. “Right. Piece of cake. What was I thinking?”
“Glad to see they ain’t cut that sense of humor out of you yet.”
***
“I said a plan.” Mal shook his head.
“It is a plan.” River said, looking up at him with innocent eyes.
“A plan for getting shot.” Mal took a deep breath. “I’m not aiming at getting shot.”
“It won’t take them long to figure that explosion wasn’t Serenity.” Zoe crossed her arms. “Maybe direct is best.”
“You can be sure that Sheriton is well armed.” Inara said, turning them to a screen showing schematics. “These are old, but all I could get before we were too far out of the core. It seems like this area here is a landing bay with a weapons array here.” She looked up at Mal. “You can bet he has his own personal guard.”
“Megalomaniacs always do.” Mal agreed. “Okay where do you think they’re keeping our boys?”
Inara shook her head and tracked along a corridor. “This looks like holding cells. There’s also this area.” She dragged her finger in a large circle. “Can’t tell what it is, but it’s shielded better than the rest of the compound. My contact indicated that Sheriton had been ordering a lot of high end medical equipment.”
“Squish.” River reached over Inara’s shoulder and pressed a finger at the center of the area. “Squish, suck. Simon’s there.”
“Zoe, you keep an eye on River. Go get the doc. I’ll look for Jayne.”
“What about me and ‘Nara?” Kaylee asked.
Mal sighed. “I need you two to stay here and keep Serenity ready to fly. We’re going in and getting out. Fast as we can.”
***
“Faster. Faster is better.” Simon said. His heart hammered in a frightening rhythm. They were going to get caught. They turned a corner and Jayne skidded to a halt, turned them and started back the way they’d come, only to spin yet again, narrowly missing the blow meant for his face. The wheelchair hit the wall and Simon spilled out of it onto the floor, slamming his knee into the stone.
His vision swam and he fought to stay conscious. Blacking out now would be bad. Jayne’s big hand was on the back of his neck, hefting him and then Simon was dangling over Jayne’s shoulder.
“Sorry about this Doc.” He was running and Simon was watching his buttocks. He’d never noticed but Jayne was really in very good shape.
At least he was until the bullet tore through his shoulder and they both went careening to the ground.
“Notify Mr. Sheriton that we have prisoners.”
Simon was aware of being picked up and put back into the wheel chair. His head hurt. Again. He saw the gun in Jayne’s face and thought about it floating away. He was shocked when it flew out of the guard’s hand.
“Very good, Simon. Now stop.”
The gun clattered to the ground. Jayne was forced to his knees. Simon wanted to hurt Sheriton. Badly. The gun rattled on the floor, lifted. Sheriton pressed a button on the device at his wrist and Simon gasped for air, coming close to blacking out.
“Well, I see that our control is not nearly as complete as I’d like. I thought I told you to kill him.”
“Rebellious.” Simon choked out, holding his throat as his airways closed.
“So I see. I said stop.”
Simon stopped fighting, just stopped. The gun clattered to the floor and the death grip on his lungs eased up. Simon collapsed against the floor and concentrated on not passing out.
“Bring him. Apparently we need to cut deeper. Let’s get the good doctor back to the lab. Bring the barbarian. He might provide incentive.”
Simon looked up as the chair turned. “River.” He could feel her.
Sheriton smiled at him. “If she was aboard the Firefly you call Serenity, she’s dead. We blew it out of the sky.”
Simon shook his head lightly. “My sister isn’t that easy to kill.”
“Your sister was insane. I was hoping to get what I wanted from you without doing the same to you.”
“At least I’ll be in good company.” Simon had no idea why he felt the need to egg the man on. It was only going to get them all killed.
He was sure it was River. That she was nearby. She was coming for him. He wasn’t quite sure if that made him more afraid or relieved.
***
“Squish.” River whispered. She grabbed Zoe’s arm and turned them down a corridor. “Too late.”
“Don’t say that.” Zoe led with her gun, but so far they hadn’t met more than a toke of the force they’d been expecting. “We keep moving.”
She could feel him. He was reaching out to her, telling her where he was. Afraid. It rolled off him, through the walls. He was afraid. But it was fading. The fear. They were cutting into him wrong.
Wrong. Like there was a right way to cut into a person’s brain and squish them into goo. River giggled and Zoe looked at her sharply. “Sorry.”
The sound of boots, running. They ducked back into a side corridor and watched four armed men go running past. When they were gone, Zoe led them back into the corridor. River pointed and they set off to find Simon.
River only hoped there was a Simon left to find.
***
Jayne struggled, but the restraints held. He watched as they strapped Simon back down. The old man was up and angry. He was talking to Sheriton, pointing at Jayne. Jayne smiled. The guard next to him smacked his head.
“I’m tired of coaxing, I’m ready to use brute force. We need to know how it works.”
“It could kill him.” The old man moved to Simon, flashing a light in his eyes. “Especially with that damn device in him. We don’t know enough about how it works.”
“Well, I’m afraid Dr. Peller wasn’t all that forth coming with the information, was he?”
“You killed him before I could make him talk.”
Sheriton was clearly irritated. That only became more true when he was interrupted by a man in uniform. Sheriton hit him when he was done talking. “How? Never mind. Just take care of it.”
Jayne looked from Sheriton to Simon. Simon’s eyes were closed and he looked like he was concentrating.
River is here.
Jayne jerked, surprised. The words weren’t heard. They were just there in his head. Don’t freak out.
He wasn’t freaking out, exactly. He squirmed. It weren’t right. He could feel Simon inside him, hunkering down as the doctor person came at Simon’s body with some instrument. Distract them….keep him off of me until—
Simon’s scream ripped through Jayne, battering him between the actual sound and the feeling as the needle penetrated. It was almost like it was sinking into Jayne’s own skull.
Suddenly Sheriton was in his face and Jayne realized he was screaming. Sheriton turned his head. His grin was wicked. “Tell me you were already recording,” he said over his shoulder. The older man nodded. “He’s in there, isn’t he? You can feel him.”
“No offense, but you know you’re bonkers, right?” Jayne managed, swallowing against the feeling of Sheriton’s hand on his throat.
“Cut it loose.” Sheriton said to the doctor who moved in on Simon again.
Jayne could feel Simon fighting, trying to make his body move, but it was Jayne’s body that responded. His foot came up and slammed into Sheriton’s groin. The restraints binding his hands came loose and Jayne lurched forward. His hands closed around Sheriton’s neck and he squeezed.
The guards in the room had guns in their hands, but they backed away as Jayne moved him and Sheriton toward Simon. “Back off the doc, Doc.” Jayne grumbled and the old man lifted his hands free of the needle in Simon’s skull. Jayne could still feel Simon inside him, but he was quiet, unmoving. “Simon.”
His eyes opened, blinked. “Release me.” The words were Simon’s but they came out of Jayne’s mouth. No one moved. Jayne squeezed Sheriton’s throat.
“Do it.”
The doctor reached for the release. Simon sat up. “You shouldn’t move.” The old man hovered as Simon looked at him.
“Pull it out.” This time Simon managed to make his own mouth say the words…which Jayne appreciated because the whole thing was starting to really get under his skin.
“Son, I’ve just cut into your brain, I really think you should—“
Simon’s head turned. “I said, take it out.”
Jayne wasn’t sure that was the best idea Simon had ever had. I won’t feel it the Simon in his head said. The doctor’s hands moved to the needle and it pulled from Simon’s forehead.
“Now the controller.” Simon leaned forward, exposing the round silver device on the back of his neck.
“I can’t. I don’t know…” The old man licked his lips. “It isn’t a technology I’m familiar with.”
Simon turned to Sheriton. “Tell him how to remove it.”
Sheriton’s eyes fell on the wrist remote. Jayne ripped it off his arm and tossed it to Simon. Suddenly Simon wasn’t inside Jayne anymore. Jayne staggered a little, falling into Sheriton. Simon’s head cocked to the side. Sheriton mimicked the motion.
Simon’s fingers pressed to the device. There was a popping sound, then the silver circle fell to the med bed behind him. Simon closed his eyes, swaying a little.
“Doc?” Jayne could hear boots headed their way. More men. With guns. They needed to move.
“Let him go, Jayne.” Simon said softly. “I’ve got him.”
Jayne’s hands fell away and Sheriton straightened. Simon slipped off the bed. He looked woozy and pale, but he stepped to Sheriton’s side. The door opened and six more men poured into the room. “Stay here.” Sheriton ordered, stepping toward the door. Simon moved with him, and Jayne had to scramble to keep up.
“Seal them in.” Simon’s voice was softer still, as if he couldn’t spare the energy to talk. He was sweating, shaking.
“Simon, you don’t look so good.”
“Seal them in.” Simon repeated, turning to look down the hall. “I can’t keep this up forever. We have to find River.”
***
Mal scoured the corridors that they’d thought would hold the detention cells, but other than a guard sleeping off a drunk, he didn’t find anything. Not until he circled back out to try to follow in Zoe’s footsteps.
That’s when he spotted the piles of cargo just sitting. Abandoned.
Right next to a transport perfect for getting the whole lot back to Serenity. Inara had said Sheriton was buying medical supplies and equipment. Medical supplies and equipment would bring excellent prices.
He circled the cargo and shook his head. He had priorities. He had to get his people out. Maybe there’d be enough time to come back for it.
Mal reoriented himself and picked a direction, setting off at a jog. “Zoe, where are you?” Mal asked into the radio as he ran into a dead end.
“River says we’re close.” Zoe’s voice was quiet.
“Close to what, exactly?”
“Don’t rightly know, sir. She’s rambling about ducks.”
“What?” He turned back and set off down another corridor.
“Ducks, duck ponds, bills…Have you found Jayne yet, sir?”
“He ain’t down here, I’m coming to you.”
“Jayne’s a girl’s name.” River’s voice came through. “Duck.”
A blast went ripping past his head and he ducked away, scrambling for cover. He shook his head, cursing as he raised his gun to return fire. “I’m cut off.”
“There!” River’s voice rippled over the wave. “Found him. Wait here.”
“Zoe?”
She sighed in his ear. “She left me, sir. Thinks she found Simon.”
“Let’s hope Jayne is still with him.”
***
Zoe ducked back into the room behind her to avoid the patrol in the hall. Obviously their plan had gone the way it usually did and the whole place was looking for them.
“Wait here. Right.” She looked around her. It was some sort of lab. Clean. White. It bugged her. Like it wasn’t real. Real was messy. Dirty.
She ran a finger over the labels on the nearest shelf. Most of it made no sense to her, but it looked valuable. She scanned around her for a bag. No sense in leaving empty handed.
***
Simon really wasn’t looking very good. Blood formed a long line down his face, from the hole in his forehead, down his nose. It was disconcerting. He was staring at Sheriton. Jayne watched as Sheriton shuffled another step forward.
Simon sagged, leaning against the wall and gasping. Sheriton staggered, then whirled. Jayne punched him hard in the face and Sheriton fell to the floor in a crumpled pile of limbs.
“Doc?” Jayne leaned in close. Simon was sweaty and his eyes glazed over. “Hey. You don’t look so good.”
Simon tried to look at him, but his head just flopped back like his neck couldn’t hold it. “Two. You. Makes me dizzy.”
Jayne got a hand on him just before Simon would have fallen, pressing him into the wall. “Come on Doc, don’t go buggy on me just yet.”
He looked back the way they’d come to see if they were being followed. It was going to be harder to get out of there without Simon working Sheriton the way he had. “Can you walk?”
“Do I have feet?” Simon asked, trying to look down. He got distracted by Jayne’s fist holding his shirt. “Oh…you have big hands. So big.” His finger traced over the veins on the back of Jayne’s hands, then looked up with a grin. “You know what they say about big hands.”
Jayne looked at him, looked at him hard. He shook him. “Simon. I swear I will put you over my gorram shoulder if I have to.”
Simon pressed a hand over the bloody hole on his forehead. “They cut me and bled me and squished me all up.”
“Made you into goo.”
Jayne whirled, but River held up her hands, a gun nearly as big as her arm in the one. He started to let go of Simon, but grabbed him again when he started sliding.
“River…my sister River…beautiful River.” He stopped and looked at Jayne, his eyes wide. “River isn’t a girl. It’s a body of water.”
“Great. I get stuck with both the crazy ones.”
“This way. We have to hurry.” River beckoned them.
Jayne exhaled in a huff. “Of course we have to hurry. When don’t we have to hurry?”
He bent at the waist and lifted Simon up over his shoulder like he had before. It made him remember that he’d gotten shot the last time. Weren’t like him to forget a thing like that.
“I dulled the pain.” Simon said as Jayne set off down the hall. “It’s going to hurt later.”
Jayne glanced behind him and shook his head. River was already around the corner and beckoning him closer. Jayne followed, stopping at one of the downed guards to grab himself a gun.
He felt a hand on his ass and stopped. “Doc?”
“You have a very nice butt.” Simon said, his hand rubbing over one cheek. “I never noticed. Big hands and nice butt. Jayne Cobb. Nice butt.”
River bent around Jayne and looked at her brother. “You can look at his butt later Simon. We have to go.”
“Hey. No one is looking at my butt.” Jayne protested. Simon’s hand petted him. “Stop that.”
***
“Zoe?”
“Sir?” Zoe opened the door slowly, looking both ways before easing back into the corridor.
“Any sign of River?”
“Depends on your meaning of sign, sir.” Zoe stepped over several dead guards and moved in the direction River had run.
“I was thinking of signs like her hair or dress or you know - her.”
“Can’t rightly say, sir. Lots of bodies though.”
She moved through a patch of four or five of them.
“That sounds like our girl.”
Zoe heard the sounds of feet and voices. She melted against the wall, until she heard Jayne clear as day. “Stop your yammering.”
She stepped out and River stopped, cocking her head and blinking. “Found them.”
“Very good. You all right Jayne?”
“No, I am not all right. I got shot. Again. Every time with these two. I got shot and the doc here, he ain’t right in the head.”
“Squish.” River said, pointing to her forehead. Simon, who was slung over Jayne’s shoulder, wiggled around until Zoe could see his face.
“Jayne has a nice butt.”
Zoe looked at Jayne. “I see what you mean.”
“Can we just get out of here?” Jayne asked.
“Zoe, what in all hell fire is going on?”
“River found Jayne and Simon. We’re coming to you.”
Zoe took point, leading them back the way she and River had come in. The way was clear until they reached the final junction of corridors before the landing bay. The captain was pinned down at the far end, the way out. She peered round the corner. She pointed right and held up four fingers. Then she inched forward just a little and looked again. Left. Five fingers.
Jayne nodded and lowered Simon to the ground before he lifted his stolen gun, moving to the opposite side of the corridor so that he could hit the men on the left. Zoe whispered into her radio. “Might want to keep your head down, sir.”
Zoe counted to three, then fired. Jayne fired across from her.
River must have thought she was clean up, judging from the way she went sliding into the middle on her belly, firing rapidly. When the smoke cleared, the hall was cleared. Jayne pulled Simon up, though she noticed that he chose to lift him up in his arms like he was a baby rather than throwing him back over his shoulder.
Simon’s arms circled Jayne’s neck almost immediately and he closed his eyes, pressing his face against Jayne’s shoulder. It was kind of sweet. In a disturbing sort of way.
Mal was standing in the hallway with River. His eyes met Zoe’s, then flashed at Jayne. “He all right?”
“Does he look all right?” Jayne countered, hefting the apparently sleeping doctor. “Can we go now? He might not look it, but he’s heavy.”
“Zoe, get back to the mule with River. I’ve got us another way out.” Mal headed them back to the landing bay. “Kaylee, make sure we’re ready to take off. We’re coming to you hot.” Mal said into his radio.
“Watch your back, sir.”
***
“Kaylee, get us in the air.” Mal hit the switch to close the doors to the cargo bay and turned to find Jayne still sitting with Simon in his lap. “Best get you two up to the infirmary, get you tended.”
Jayne stirred, looked at Mal with bloodshot eyes. The big man was exhausted, blood soaked. In his arms, Simon stirred. He raised his head and looked at Jayne like he didn’t understand why he was in Jayne’s lap, then looked to Mal.
“Captain?”
Mal smiled. “Good to see you all functional Doc.”
“I don’t know as I’d say that.” Simon rubbed his head. “Where are we?”
“On Serenity, just making atmo. You up to moving?”
Simon looked at Jayne again, his eyes falling on the bullet wound still seeping blood. “He got shot.”
“I can see. Don’t look all that bad though. It’ll patch up fine.”
“Simon!” River came running from the catwalk and Simon smiled slightly.
He extricated himself from Jayne and sank to the floor of the cargo bay. River slung an arm around his back to support him.
“You get him up to the infirmary, little one. I’ll be right along behind.”
“Don’t worry about anything Simon, I’m going to take care of you.”
Mal blinked and turned to Jayne. He poked him. “Hey.”
Jayne turned slowly, looking down at his chest. “He said it would hurt later.”
Mal caught him as he slumped. “Zoe, meet me in the infirmary.”
“On my way sir.”
There’d been a time Jayne had tried to sell Simon and his sister. Mal had nearly killed the big man over it. Hadn’t ever fully trusted him after. Had never seen him like this before either.
Jayne leaned heavily into Mal as they made their way through the ship, and stopped them when they got to the infirmary door. Simon lay on the bed, his eyes closed. Zoe was already there, checking over his wounds.
Jayne’s eyes were dark and they narrowed as they watched Zoe’s fingers remove the bandages that covered deep cuts in Simon’s arms. They had obviously tortured the doctor, though Mal was hard pressed to guess why.
Simon moaned as Zoe’s fingers brushed the wound and Jayne looked away. Mal helped him sit off to the side and started gathering bandages and such to attend Jayne’s own wound. “You gonna tell me what happened?”
Jayne was uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t look up, even when Mal started cutting the uniform shirt off him.
“We were leaving, and River went missing.” Jayne’s voice was flat, dry. “I took the loot to the shuttle and went back to find them. Got nabbed.”
Mal nodded, peeling blood soaked shirt from the wound. “Got that much, seeing as the cargo came with River and you didn’t.”
“Sheriton…man’s insane. Thought Simon could read minds and move stuff with his mind. Put a thing on him.” Jayne pointed to the back of his neck with his good hand. “Controlled Simon. Made him kill his father.”
“Not Father.” River said from Simon’s side. “Not in the traditional sense.”
“He was supposed to kill me too, but didn’t.” Jayne squinted up at Mal. “Can’t figure it. Heard him ask for help, but he never said a word.”
Mal glanced over his shoulder at Simon. “He killed his old man?”
Jayne nodded. “Stabbed him. Bled him. Saw the whole thing.” He twitched a little as Mal cleaned the wound. “They tortured him.” Jayne looked up at him, then away. “Cut him up. Cut into his brain.”
Jayne was pale, washed out and the glazed over eyes were closing. He leaned back against the wall. “Heard him.”
Mal finished bandaging the gunshot wound and rummaged around for pain meds. “You best be getting some rest. Let us tend to the doc.”
He turned to Zoe. “He’s cut up right good, sir. Not sure I can be much help.” She held her hands away and Mal could see the bones of Simon’s arm.
“Do the best you can. I’ll see how far we are from a settlement with a doctor.”
***
Simon was aware he wasn’t on Serenity, nor was he back in custody. His left arm was heavily bandaged. His right arm was in a splint. There were drugs in his system.
He opened his eyes slowly. He was in some clinic of some kind. He wasn’t alone. To his surprise, it wasn’t River asleep in the chair beside him. He blinked and looked at the big man slumped in the chair.
He was bare-chested, his left shoulder and side bandaged. Jayne must have felt his eyes and lifted his head. For a long time neither of them said anything. Simon blinked slowly. “Where are we?” His voice was scratchy, like he hadn’t used it in a while.
“Sophanie. Medic Mal knows patched us up.”
Simon nodded slowly. Whatever the drugs were, they took the edge off the bizarre gifts. He looked at Jayne wondering if he’d ever be able to do the things he did to Sheriton again. “I’m sorry.”
Jayne frowned at him. “I tried to kill you.” Simon said.
Jayne actually smiled. “I guess we’ll call us even then.”
“How’s your shoulder?”
Jayne looked at the bandages. “I’ll live. Weren’t helped with having to carry your ass out.”
Simon ran a hand over his forehead. “I may have over done it a little.”
He snorted. “You might say. You’ve been out cold for a week.”
“Well, there was torture, and the whole brain surgery thing.” In fact, he should probably be in a lot worse shape. “You could have left me there.”
There was no answer for a long time. Then Jayne stood and looked down at him. “You’re a part of my crew, doc. Don’t reckon I could leave your scrawny ass behind. Even if you did try to kill me.” Jayne touched the bandages on his side. “Thank you, by the way. For not killing me.”
Simon smiled. “Figure that makes us even…since you didn’t leave me there.” His head was starting to hurt.
“Thought I heard talking in here.”
Simon looked up to find Mal in the door. “’Bout time you woke up Doc. Been sitting on this rock for days.”
“Captain.”
“Well, I got stuff.” Jayne sidled past Mal and Simon sighed.
“How you feeling?” Mal came closer and Simon shrugged.
“Like someone poked around in my brains and cut my arms up.”
“Fair assessment.”
“Sheriton?”
It was Mal’s turn to sigh. “Not a peep on the cortex. Not in the mood to go find out.”
Simon shifted, uncomfortable in more ways than the physical. “He was…insane.”
“Jayne tells me you stood up to some mighty painful torture.” Mal met his gaze then and held it. Simon got the impression there was pride there. Pride and respect.
It wasn’t necessarily something he was used to from the captain. “He was trying to push me into using…” He couldn’t bring himself to use the word “gifts”, so he just gestured at his head. “I…never knew. My father…” Simon cleared his throat. His father who wasn’t his father. “He created us. River and me.”
Mal nodded. “Got some of that in River’s more lucid moments.” He crossed his arms and looked down at Simon. “Need you to rest up, get on your feet. Got us a job on Persephone waiting.”
Simon offered a small smile. “I’ll do my best, Captain.”
His best.
He held up his left had, wishing he could see past the bandages.
“It was cut clean to bone. Lucky nothing important got in the way.”
Simon looked up. A man in a lab coat and an incredibly ridiculous mustache was leaning on the door. “I cleaned it out, stitched it up. Other arm wasn’t as much a mess. Be a while ‘for you’re doing surgery again though.”
He came into the room and tossed a pad on Simon’s lap. “Figured, being a doctor and all, you’d want to see. It’s your head that’s got me befuddled.”
“Befuddled?”
The man touched the pad and Simon found himself looking down at a brain. “See here? You can trace the surgical path…right down to the amygdala.”
Simon traced the outline. It looked like a tongue, still connected at the base, but loose, like a flap. “Not sure what they was trying to do. Might know more with better equipment, but we’re just a mining colony here. Not much need to for the high tech stuff.”
He squinted at the image. Damage like that…there was no way to predict how it would affect him. With River, they’d eliminated the entire amygdala, left her unable to regulate fear, anger, pain. Left her vulnerable to the extremes of emotion and pre-programmed responses.
“Swelling seems to have gone down, and you woke up on your own.”
“They were trying to cut it out.” Simon said, tracing the outline again. “But they got interrupted.”
“Strange thing to want to cut out.”
“Yeah, it is.”
He set aside the pad and sighed. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to get moving. He wanted to go home. To Serenity. “So how long until I can get back to my crew?”
“Nothing keeping ya’ here. Figure you can sleep more comfortable in your own bed, right? I can give you something for the pain, to take with you.”
Simon shook his head and swung his legs to the floor. “I’ve got meds, Doctor. Don’t worry.” He stood slowly, testing his ability to stand.
“Mal will be happy to get back in the air. Never did much like being stuck planetside.”
“I’m beginning to agree with him.” Simon said. It felt…sticky. Oppressive. His head throbbed. Not as bad as that day at his father’s house…but it was enough to convince him that maybe he should lay down again. Soon. “Thanks for everything, Doctor.”
***
“Gave Doc Severen the fancy x-ray machine for fixing you up, but the rest…I reckon you know better than me what it’s worth.”
Simon looked over the haul of equipment and supplies appreciatively. “Very nice Captain. We’ll be eating good for quite some time.”
“Course, that’ll depend on if we can unload it.”
Simon nodded. “I’ll mark what we can sell on the outer planets and outposts. Some of this though…frontier doctors don’t need all this.”
“I got some buyers lined up for those medicines and what not. There might be interest in some of the rest.”
“Persephone?” Simon asked, looking up. Mal nodded.
“One of the buyers I have in mind for my books is there too. I’ll contact him when we’re close enough.”
“Mind I ask you something?” Mal asked, putting down the imager in his hand.
Simon shook his head. “No, of course not.”
“You all right? You been mighty quiet since we left Sophanie.” Mal held up his hand before Simon could respond. “I mean, a man goes through the like of your ordeal, it’s a thing to deal with. But you ain’t said much about the thing with your head, and Doc Severen said it might change you some.”
“You want to know if I’m going to go crazy, like River.”
Mal looked uneasy. “Thought did cross my mind.”
Simon nodded. “I’ve studied the scans. Obviously, I’m not going to react the same as River. It will likely affect the way I handle fear responses, at the very least. I haven’t noticed any overwhelming panic, or uncontrollable rage…so…I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
He went back to cataloguing equipment. Mal nodded. “Good to know.”
Simon didn’t tell him that he hadn’t felt any fear. No anger. No grief. No remorse. Even when he dreamed about killing his father, when he felt the blood hot on his hands.
Thinking about it logically, it should worry him. But that was something else he hadn’t felt, not since he woke up on Sophanie.
He didn’t tell the captain either about the drugs he kept taking, even though he wasn’t really in any pain. Didn’t tell him how when he didn’t take them, he’d lay in his bed and listen to the dreams of everyone around him. Didn’t tell him how when he didn’t take them he found himself in Jayne’s bunk because he felt…something…there with him. Something that wasn’t numb or dry or disconnected…or worse, so connected he couldn’t breathe without feeling someone else’s lungs fill with air.
And that bothered Simon a lot more than the absence of fear.
***
Jayne hunkered down at the bar with his hand wrapped around a mug of beer. He kept his head down and concentrated on drinking. Maybe if he drank enough he could wash it all out of his brain…the feeling of Simon inside him…his thoughts, his words.
It was unnatural.
Jayne drank down the beer and banged the glass on the bar for more. Pipsqueak freak of a doctor who couldn’t seem to keep himself out of trouble and somehow it was always Jayne’s job to get him out of it.
More than that, Jayne couldn’t stop thinking about it. The first night out of Sophanie, Jayne had woke to Simon sitting on the floor in his quarters, staring. Jayne found himself staring too, at himself, through Simon’s eyes. They hadn’t talked about it. Jayne huddled on his bunk. Simon huddled on the floor and they stared, until Simon took a deep breath, muttered an apology and left him alone.
Jayne’s dreams were all jacked up too. From watching Simon slice his father up to the way Simon controlled Sheriton. He’d seen plenty folk die, and had had a hand in more than a few folk dying…but this was different.
Like Simon was a life-size puppet and Sheriton had his hand up inside him. And Simon had returned the favor. Jayne hadn’t ever seen anything like it.
Then there was the whole bit where Simon had touched him.
And that weren’t natural either.
It had Jayne all manner of disconcerted. All manner. He tended to avoid Simon. Kept to his bunk, ate alone. It was easier.
For his part, Simon seemed to understand and keep to himself. Right now he was off selling books or some gorram thing. Jayne tossed off the last of his beer and signaled for another.
There was a scuffle in the corner. Jayne turned, thinking maybe there’d be a fight, something to distract himself with. What he saw instead was Simon getting shoved into a corner by a big guy. He couldn’t hear what was said, but Jayne got the decided impression that it wasn’t good. Before he’d even thought it through, he was headed across the room.
Simon’s eyes met his. Jayne stopped. He could feel him. He was…amused. Jayne looked at the big man who was turning now to see what Simon was staring at. Jayne cleared his throat. “You might want to let him go.”
“Yeah? What’s it to you?”
Jayne stepped closer. “Well, nothing, exactly, but he’s my friend. I don’t let other people pummel my friends.”
Simon raised his still bandaged hands. “He’s not kidding.”
“Your friend here is a cheat.” The guy let Simon go. “Wants twice what the merchandise is worth.”
“Like you would know what a book of poetry from Earth-that-was is worth?” Simon brushed a hand over his coat and reached casually for the book. “As I said, if you don’t want it, I will take it elsewhere.”
Simon’s left eye was starting to bruise. For some reason it made Jayne’s blood boil. He pushed the guy back a step and grabbed the book from Simon’s hands. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
Simon smiled and it was so wrong, so out of place, Jayne didn’t know what to make of it. He grabbed Simon by the upper arm and pulled him toward the doors. “I’m fine. Let go.”
“You are not fine, you’re crazy.” Jayne pushed him up the stairs. “What were you thinking? Trying to sell something like that in a place like this.”
Simon looked confounded as Jayne pushed him out into the stale air of Eavesdown. “You didn’t get a close enough look at Death?” Jayne released him and growled. He didn’t know why he was so angry, or why Simon wasn’t afraid. “That guy back there could have killed you.”
Simon crossed his arms and looked at Jayne like he was the crazy one. “I was perfectly safe Jayne.”
“No, you wasn’t.” Jayne stalked back to him holding the book up between them. “Shit like this? It’ll get you dead. You can’t sell it here.”
Simon raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? I thought you could buy or sell anything here.”
“Maybe some can, but not you.” Jayne licked his lips. “Okay. Come with me. Keep your head down, and don’t say a word.”
Simon looked amused. Jayne’s heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t believe he was even considering what it was he was considering. When Simon wasn’t following close enough, Jayne reached back to tug him along.
***
On some level, Simon realized he should have been afraid. He rationalized it by telling himself that he knew Jayne was there, that he knew Jayne would protect him.
Which was ridiculous, of course. Their relationship was strained at best these days. Jayne avoided him at every turn. Not that Simon could blame him. Jayne had watched him kill his father, nearly kill Jayne. Simon had used Jayne without permission, crawled inside his head, controlled his body. That’s not the kind of thing a man like Jayne copes with easily.
Not that Simon was coping with it spectacularly. He was drugging himself to keep it at bay, to pretend nothing was different.
Simon looked up at the chrome and glass building Jayne led him into. Jayne was nervous, fidgety. They crossed to a security desk and Jayne spoke with the woman behind it for a minute, then she was pointing them away, toward a long hall.
“I swear, if you tell anyone, I’ll kick your ass.” Jayne said as they stopped in front of a door and he knocked.
“I don’t even know what it is we’re doing.”
The door opened and the woman on the other side put one hand on her hip. “Well, well. Jayne Cobb. I didn’t expect I’d be seeing you ever again.”
“Vera.” Jayne played with the book, then sort of turned to Simon. “This here’s my friend, Simon. Simon, Vera.”
Vera, like the gun. Simon swept eyes over her. She was pretty, dressed like she had money. “Well, come on in, no sense littering up the hallway.” She stepped aside and Simon followed Jayne into the apartment. “I expect this isn’t a social call?”
Jayne thrust the book at her. “Thought you might be interested.”
She held the book carefully and opened it, ruffling through the pages. “Very nice. Not something I’d expect you to get your hands on.”
“The book is mine, ma’am.” Simon said, stepping forward. “I have several more as well. “
She smiled and Simon wasn’t sure how to read the expression. “You’re not something I’d expect him to get his hands on either.”
Jayne cleared his throat and shifted his feet. “You want it or not?”
She pouted at him. “I’m not really in the market right now, but I might know some people. How long you on Persephone, boys?”
“Not long.” Jayne growled.
“Pity. We could have some fun.” She ran a hand over Jayne’s chest. Jayne looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Why don’t you sit down. I’ll make a few calls.”
Simon rubbed at his head as they moved to sit down. It was starting to throb. A sign that the meds were wearing off. He sighed and watched Jayne start to sit, then stand again when Vera returned to the room. “Can I get you boys a drink? Something to eat?”
“Just make the gorram calls.” Jayne growled.
“Why are you so testy?” Simon asked when she was gone again. “She seems like a lovely person.”
“She’s not a lovely woman.” She’s my wife.
Simon heard the last part just as if Jayne had spoken it. “Wife?” Simon stood and Jayne’s face flushed red. “I didn’t know you were married.”
Jayne shook his head. “Get outta my head doc.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—“
Jayne grabbed his lapel and nearly lifted him off the floor. “It ain’t natural.” Jayne shook him. “I can’t stop feeling you in my head. I can’t sleep for it. You gotta stop. You hear me?”
Simon blinked and nodded. “Yes, Jayne, I hear you. I’m sorry.” He hadn’t realized how deeply the big man was affected by it, but now, so close, with Jayne’s hands fisted in his clothes, Simon could sense it…fear, discomfort, everything Simon should be feeling and wasn’t.
“Oh, am I interrupting something?” The both turned to Vera who was looking at them, one eyebrow arching up into her hairline. “Don’t stop on my account. I always did like to watch. Remember Jayne?”
Jayne’s face went even redder. He let go of Simon and took a step back. “It ain’t like that, Vera.”
“Pity.” She pouted at them again, then sashayed toward them. “I have a couple folks interested. They’ll be here in an hour. Whatever shall we do until then?” She moved to take Simon’s hand and he got a very distinct impression of what exactly she wanted to do until the buyers showed up.
It was Simon’s turn to blush. The images filling her head were…pornographic. He looked up at Jayne who shrugged. “So, Vera…” Simon extricated himself from her and moved to sit in the chair. “I think I would like something to drink. Something…strong, if you have it.”
“A man after my liquor, I like that. Sit tight, I’ll be back.”
Jayne paced before slumping onto the couch.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on in her head?” Simon asked in a whisper.
Jayne grinned. “Got a pretty good one.”
Simon couldn’t help himself, he threw the image at Jayne. Simon naked and sandwiched between the two Cobbs. Jayne choked and shook his head. “Hey!” He glowered at Simon. “I told you to cut it out. She’s just…adventurous.”
“Is that what you call that?” Simon asked, lowering his voice as Vera returned with drinks.
Jayne snorted. Simon laughed. Really laughed. It felt like it had been a long time since he had.
“Gonna let me in on the joke boys?”
“Simon doesn’t like waiting.” Jayne said, standing to take his and Simon’s drinks from her. As he passed Simon his, their hands brushed and to Simon’s shock, Jayne was still thinking about the image…only with one of the players missing. Simon flushed and took his drink, sipping from it to cover his shock.
“You okay there, Simon?” Vera asked. He nodded and coughed and nodded again.
“Fine.” He cleared his throat. “I’m fine Vera.”
“Yes, honey you really are.”
Jayne chuckled and turned away. Simon just hid behind his glass.
***
Two hours later, they left the apartment with two separate deals for the bulk of the books. Buyers who didn’t want to beat Simon up for asking what the books were worth.
They stopped just as Serenity came into view, Jayne’s hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I mean it, not a word about Vera.”
Simon nodded. “Not a word, I promise.”
“She’s…complicated.”
Simon raised an eyebrow, the images he’d gleaned from her flitting through him. “That’s a word.”
Jayne sighed. “I just don’t think folk have a need to know.”
“I get it, really.” Simon looked up at the ship, then back at Jayne. “So…you and me…are we, okay?”
“You gonna stay outta my head?”
“I’m trying.” Simon said.
Jayne nodded. “Yeah, we’re okay.”
“You know, you called me your friend twice tonight.” Simon teased as they started walking again.
“Don’t get used to it.”
Simon laughed. This felt right. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He’d just find himself in Jayne’s dreams of it.
Fandom: Firefly
Pairing/Characters: Simon, Jayne, River, Mal, Zoe, Inara and Kaylee
Genre: Gen (with a tiny smidge of pre-slash if you squint)
Rating: PG-13 (for torture)
Word Count: 19,929
Summary: Set post-Serenity, Simon is having strange dreams, and when a message from his estranged mother seems to indicate his dreams are real, he and River head home to see his dying father. What they find there changes everything.
A/Ns & Warnings: For Jess, who won me in the last Sweet Charity auction to benefit the Writer’s Guild Foundation. There is major Simon whumpage, Simon / Jayne bonding.
Jayne slid to a stop and threw himself into a side corridor as a door opened and Sheriton emerged with two other men. “See that he isn’t disturbed. I want him to feel the pain for a while.”
He watched Sheriton’s back retreat, then moved to the door. It wasn’t even locked. He opened it and slipped into the room. “Doc?”
Simon was strapped to a table in the center of the room, looking like hell. Both arms were wrapped in white bandages soaked in blood. His face was bruised and there was a deep gash down one cheek.
“Who are you?”
Jayne turned to the source of the voice, a white haired man in a lab coat. “I was sent to watch the prisoner – er- patient.”
The man squinted at him and reached for the nearest console. “I don’t think—“
He didn’t finish as Jayne punched him hard, knocking him to the floor. “Doc? Can you hear me?”
Jayne set his gun on the bed next to Simon and set about un-strapping him. “Come on Doc, wake up.” He got Simon’s feet free and moved to work on his hands. He stopped as he got to Simon’s head. There was a bloody mark in the center of his forehead, like someone had stuck him with a giant needle.
Simon groaned and his eyes fluttered open. Jayne shivered as Simon’s eyes caught his, empty, blank…then Simon blinked. “Jayne?”
“We gotta go. Can you walk?”
Simon’s eyes closed again as Jayne undid the last of the straps. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure you’re real. My father wasn’t real.”
“You killed him.” Jayne said. “Of course he wasn’t real.” He helped Simon sit up.
“I was supposed to kill you too.”
Jayne held up the uniform shirt. “Nearly did.”
“You need stitches…antibiotics…”
“Later, Doc. Right now I need to get us gone. Can you walk?”
He nodded and swung his feet down. He barely had one on the floor and was shaking his head instead. “No.” He reached for Jayne’s shoulder, then winced in pain and cradled his hand to his chest. “What did they do to me?”
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out later.” He scanned the room and found a wheel chair in the corner. He fetched it and helped Simon into it.
“We’ll never get out of here like this.”
“You just sit tight and leave that to me.” Jayne started for the door. “All we gotta do is get back to the ship without getting seen, get inside, get it started and get outta atmo before someone catches us.”
Simon nodded. “Right. Piece of cake. What was I thinking?”
“Glad to see they ain’t cut that sense of humor out of you yet.”
***
“I said a plan.” Mal shook his head.
“It is a plan.” River said, looking up at him with innocent eyes.
“A plan for getting shot.” Mal took a deep breath. “I’m not aiming at getting shot.”
“It won’t take them long to figure that explosion wasn’t Serenity.” Zoe crossed her arms. “Maybe direct is best.”
“You can be sure that Sheriton is well armed.” Inara said, turning them to a screen showing schematics. “These are old, but all I could get before we were too far out of the core. It seems like this area here is a landing bay with a weapons array here.” She looked up at Mal. “You can bet he has his own personal guard.”
“Megalomaniacs always do.” Mal agreed. “Okay where do you think they’re keeping our boys?”
Inara shook her head and tracked along a corridor. “This looks like holding cells. There’s also this area.” She dragged her finger in a large circle. “Can’t tell what it is, but it’s shielded better than the rest of the compound. My contact indicated that Sheriton had been ordering a lot of high end medical equipment.”
“Squish.” River reached over Inara’s shoulder and pressed a finger at the center of the area. “Squish, suck. Simon’s there.”
“Zoe, you keep an eye on River. Go get the doc. I’ll look for Jayne.”
“What about me and ‘Nara?” Kaylee asked.
Mal sighed. “I need you two to stay here and keep Serenity ready to fly. We’re going in and getting out. Fast as we can.”
***
“Faster. Faster is better.” Simon said. His heart hammered in a frightening rhythm. They were going to get caught. They turned a corner and Jayne skidded to a halt, turned them and started back the way they’d come, only to spin yet again, narrowly missing the blow meant for his face. The wheelchair hit the wall and Simon spilled out of it onto the floor, slamming his knee into the stone.
His vision swam and he fought to stay conscious. Blacking out now would be bad. Jayne’s big hand was on the back of his neck, hefting him and then Simon was dangling over Jayne’s shoulder.
“Sorry about this Doc.” He was running and Simon was watching his buttocks. He’d never noticed but Jayne was really in very good shape.
At least he was until the bullet tore through his shoulder and they both went careening to the ground.
“Notify Mr. Sheriton that we have prisoners.”
Simon was aware of being picked up and put back into the wheel chair. His head hurt. Again. He saw the gun in Jayne’s face and thought about it floating away. He was shocked when it flew out of the guard’s hand.
“Very good, Simon. Now stop.”
The gun clattered to the ground. Jayne was forced to his knees. Simon wanted to hurt Sheriton. Badly. The gun rattled on the floor, lifted. Sheriton pressed a button on the device at his wrist and Simon gasped for air, coming close to blacking out.
“Well, I see that our control is not nearly as complete as I’d like. I thought I told you to kill him.”
“Rebellious.” Simon choked out, holding his throat as his airways closed.
“So I see. I said stop.”
Simon stopped fighting, just stopped. The gun clattered to the floor and the death grip on his lungs eased up. Simon collapsed against the floor and concentrated on not passing out.
“Bring him. Apparently we need to cut deeper. Let’s get the good doctor back to the lab. Bring the barbarian. He might provide incentive.”
Simon looked up as the chair turned. “River.” He could feel her.
Sheriton smiled at him. “If she was aboard the Firefly you call Serenity, she’s dead. We blew it out of the sky.”
Simon shook his head lightly. “My sister isn’t that easy to kill.”
“Your sister was insane. I was hoping to get what I wanted from you without doing the same to you.”
“At least I’ll be in good company.” Simon had no idea why he felt the need to egg the man on. It was only going to get them all killed.
He was sure it was River. That she was nearby. She was coming for him. He wasn’t quite sure if that made him more afraid or relieved.
***
“Squish.” River whispered. She grabbed Zoe’s arm and turned them down a corridor. “Too late.”
“Don’t say that.” Zoe led with her gun, but so far they hadn’t met more than a toke of the force they’d been expecting. “We keep moving.”
She could feel him. He was reaching out to her, telling her where he was. Afraid. It rolled off him, through the walls. He was afraid. But it was fading. The fear. They were cutting into him wrong.
Wrong. Like there was a right way to cut into a person’s brain and squish them into goo. River giggled and Zoe looked at her sharply. “Sorry.”
The sound of boots, running. They ducked back into a side corridor and watched four armed men go running past. When they were gone, Zoe led them back into the corridor. River pointed and they set off to find Simon.
River only hoped there was a Simon left to find.
***
Jayne struggled, but the restraints held. He watched as they strapped Simon back down. The old man was up and angry. He was talking to Sheriton, pointing at Jayne. Jayne smiled. The guard next to him smacked his head.
“I’m tired of coaxing, I’m ready to use brute force. We need to know how it works.”
“It could kill him.” The old man moved to Simon, flashing a light in his eyes. “Especially with that damn device in him. We don’t know enough about how it works.”
“Well, I’m afraid Dr. Peller wasn’t all that forth coming with the information, was he?”
“You killed him before I could make him talk.”
Sheriton was clearly irritated. That only became more true when he was interrupted by a man in uniform. Sheriton hit him when he was done talking. “How? Never mind. Just take care of it.”
Jayne looked from Sheriton to Simon. Simon’s eyes were closed and he looked like he was concentrating.
River is here.
Jayne jerked, surprised. The words weren’t heard. They were just there in his head. Don’t freak out.
He wasn’t freaking out, exactly. He squirmed. It weren’t right. He could feel Simon inside him, hunkering down as the doctor person came at Simon’s body with some instrument. Distract them….keep him off of me until—
Simon’s scream ripped through Jayne, battering him between the actual sound and the feeling as the needle penetrated. It was almost like it was sinking into Jayne’s own skull.
Suddenly Sheriton was in his face and Jayne realized he was screaming. Sheriton turned his head. His grin was wicked. “Tell me you were already recording,” he said over his shoulder. The older man nodded. “He’s in there, isn’t he? You can feel him.”
“No offense, but you know you’re bonkers, right?” Jayne managed, swallowing against the feeling of Sheriton’s hand on his throat.
“Cut it loose.” Sheriton said to the doctor who moved in on Simon again.
Jayne could feel Simon fighting, trying to make his body move, but it was Jayne’s body that responded. His foot came up and slammed into Sheriton’s groin. The restraints binding his hands came loose and Jayne lurched forward. His hands closed around Sheriton’s neck and he squeezed.
The guards in the room had guns in their hands, but they backed away as Jayne moved him and Sheriton toward Simon. “Back off the doc, Doc.” Jayne grumbled and the old man lifted his hands free of the needle in Simon’s skull. Jayne could still feel Simon inside him, but he was quiet, unmoving. “Simon.”
His eyes opened, blinked. “Release me.” The words were Simon’s but they came out of Jayne’s mouth. No one moved. Jayne squeezed Sheriton’s throat.
“Do it.”
The doctor reached for the release. Simon sat up. “You shouldn’t move.” The old man hovered as Simon looked at him.
“Pull it out.” This time Simon managed to make his own mouth say the words…which Jayne appreciated because the whole thing was starting to really get under his skin.
“Son, I’ve just cut into your brain, I really think you should—“
Simon’s head turned. “I said, take it out.”
Jayne wasn’t sure that was the best idea Simon had ever had. I won’t feel it the Simon in his head said. The doctor’s hands moved to the needle and it pulled from Simon’s forehead.
“Now the controller.” Simon leaned forward, exposing the round silver device on the back of his neck.
“I can’t. I don’t know…” The old man licked his lips. “It isn’t a technology I’m familiar with.”
Simon turned to Sheriton. “Tell him how to remove it.”
Sheriton’s eyes fell on the wrist remote. Jayne ripped it off his arm and tossed it to Simon. Suddenly Simon wasn’t inside Jayne anymore. Jayne staggered a little, falling into Sheriton. Simon’s head cocked to the side. Sheriton mimicked the motion.
Simon’s fingers pressed to the device. There was a popping sound, then the silver circle fell to the med bed behind him. Simon closed his eyes, swaying a little.
“Doc?” Jayne could hear boots headed their way. More men. With guns. They needed to move.
“Let him go, Jayne.” Simon said softly. “I’ve got him.”
Jayne’s hands fell away and Sheriton straightened. Simon slipped off the bed. He looked woozy and pale, but he stepped to Sheriton’s side. The door opened and six more men poured into the room. “Stay here.” Sheriton ordered, stepping toward the door. Simon moved with him, and Jayne had to scramble to keep up.
“Seal them in.” Simon’s voice was softer still, as if he couldn’t spare the energy to talk. He was sweating, shaking.
“Simon, you don’t look so good.”
“Seal them in.” Simon repeated, turning to look down the hall. “I can’t keep this up forever. We have to find River.”
***
Mal scoured the corridors that they’d thought would hold the detention cells, but other than a guard sleeping off a drunk, he didn’t find anything. Not until he circled back out to try to follow in Zoe’s footsteps.
That’s when he spotted the piles of cargo just sitting. Abandoned.
Right next to a transport perfect for getting the whole lot back to Serenity. Inara had said Sheriton was buying medical supplies and equipment. Medical supplies and equipment would bring excellent prices.
He circled the cargo and shook his head. He had priorities. He had to get his people out. Maybe there’d be enough time to come back for it.
Mal reoriented himself and picked a direction, setting off at a jog. “Zoe, where are you?” Mal asked into the radio as he ran into a dead end.
“River says we’re close.” Zoe’s voice was quiet.
“Close to what, exactly?”
“Don’t rightly know, sir. She’s rambling about ducks.”
“What?” He turned back and set off down another corridor.
“Ducks, duck ponds, bills…Have you found Jayne yet, sir?”
“He ain’t down here, I’m coming to you.”
“Jayne’s a girl’s name.” River’s voice came through. “Duck.”
A blast went ripping past his head and he ducked away, scrambling for cover. He shook his head, cursing as he raised his gun to return fire. “I’m cut off.”
“There!” River’s voice rippled over the wave. “Found him. Wait here.”
“Zoe?”
She sighed in his ear. “She left me, sir. Thinks she found Simon.”
“Let’s hope Jayne is still with him.”
***
Zoe ducked back into the room behind her to avoid the patrol in the hall. Obviously their plan had gone the way it usually did and the whole place was looking for them.
“Wait here. Right.” She looked around her. It was some sort of lab. Clean. White. It bugged her. Like it wasn’t real. Real was messy. Dirty.
She ran a finger over the labels on the nearest shelf. Most of it made no sense to her, but it looked valuable. She scanned around her for a bag. No sense in leaving empty handed.
***
Simon really wasn’t looking very good. Blood formed a long line down his face, from the hole in his forehead, down his nose. It was disconcerting. He was staring at Sheriton. Jayne watched as Sheriton shuffled another step forward.
Simon sagged, leaning against the wall and gasping. Sheriton staggered, then whirled. Jayne punched him hard in the face and Sheriton fell to the floor in a crumpled pile of limbs.
“Doc?” Jayne leaned in close. Simon was sweaty and his eyes glazed over. “Hey. You don’t look so good.”
Simon tried to look at him, but his head just flopped back like his neck couldn’t hold it. “Two. You. Makes me dizzy.”
Jayne got a hand on him just before Simon would have fallen, pressing him into the wall. “Come on Doc, don’t go buggy on me just yet.”
He looked back the way they’d come to see if they were being followed. It was going to be harder to get out of there without Simon working Sheriton the way he had. “Can you walk?”
“Do I have feet?” Simon asked, trying to look down. He got distracted by Jayne’s fist holding his shirt. “Oh…you have big hands. So big.” His finger traced over the veins on the back of Jayne’s hands, then looked up with a grin. “You know what they say about big hands.”
Jayne looked at him, looked at him hard. He shook him. “Simon. I swear I will put you over my gorram shoulder if I have to.”
Simon pressed a hand over the bloody hole on his forehead. “They cut me and bled me and squished me all up.”
“Made you into goo.”
Jayne whirled, but River held up her hands, a gun nearly as big as her arm in the one. He started to let go of Simon, but grabbed him again when he started sliding.
“River…my sister River…beautiful River.” He stopped and looked at Jayne, his eyes wide. “River isn’t a girl. It’s a body of water.”
“Great. I get stuck with both the crazy ones.”
“This way. We have to hurry.” River beckoned them.
Jayne exhaled in a huff. “Of course we have to hurry. When don’t we have to hurry?”
He bent at the waist and lifted Simon up over his shoulder like he had before. It made him remember that he’d gotten shot the last time. Weren’t like him to forget a thing like that.
“I dulled the pain.” Simon said as Jayne set off down the hall. “It’s going to hurt later.”
Jayne glanced behind him and shook his head. River was already around the corner and beckoning him closer. Jayne followed, stopping at one of the downed guards to grab himself a gun.
He felt a hand on his ass and stopped. “Doc?”
“You have a very nice butt.” Simon said, his hand rubbing over one cheek. “I never noticed. Big hands and nice butt. Jayne Cobb. Nice butt.”
River bent around Jayne and looked at her brother. “You can look at his butt later Simon. We have to go.”
“Hey. No one is looking at my butt.” Jayne protested. Simon’s hand petted him. “Stop that.”
***
“Zoe?”
“Sir?” Zoe opened the door slowly, looking both ways before easing back into the corridor.
“Any sign of River?”
“Depends on your meaning of sign, sir.” Zoe stepped over several dead guards and moved in the direction River had run.
“I was thinking of signs like her hair or dress or you know - her.”
“Can’t rightly say, sir. Lots of bodies though.”
She moved through a patch of four or five of them.
“That sounds like our girl.”
Zoe heard the sounds of feet and voices. She melted against the wall, until she heard Jayne clear as day. “Stop your yammering.”
She stepped out and River stopped, cocking her head and blinking. “Found them.”
“Very good. You all right Jayne?”
“No, I am not all right. I got shot. Again. Every time with these two. I got shot and the doc here, he ain’t right in the head.”
“Squish.” River said, pointing to her forehead. Simon, who was slung over Jayne’s shoulder, wiggled around until Zoe could see his face.
“Jayne has a nice butt.”
Zoe looked at Jayne. “I see what you mean.”
“Can we just get out of here?” Jayne asked.
“Zoe, what in all hell fire is going on?”
“River found Jayne and Simon. We’re coming to you.”
Zoe took point, leading them back the way she and River had come in. The way was clear until they reached the final junction of corridors before the landing bay. The captain was pinned down at the far end, the way out. She peered round the corner. She pointed right and held up four fingers. Then she inched forward just a little and looked again. Left. Five fingers.
Jayne nodded and lowered Simon to the ground before he lifted his stolen gun, moving to the opposite side of the corridor so that he could hit the men on the left. Zoe whispered into her radio. “Might want to keep your head down, sir.”
Zoe counted to three, then fired. Jayne fired across from her.
River must have thought she was clean up, judging from the way she went sliding into the middle on her belly, firing rapidly. When the smoke cleared, the hall was cleared. Jayne pulled Simon up, though she noticed that he chose to lift him up in his arms like he was a baby rather than throwing him back over his shoulder.
Simon’s arms circled Jayne’s neck almost immediately and he closed his eyes, pressing his face against Jayne’s shoulder. It was kind of sweet. In a disturbing sort of way.
Mal was standing in the hallway with River. His eyes met Zoe’s, then flashed at Jayne. “He all right?”
“Does he look all right?” Jayne countered, hefting the apparently sleeping doctor. “Can we go now? He might not look it, but he’s heavy.”
“Zoe, get back to the mule with River. I’ve got us another way out.” Mal headed them back to the landing bay. “Kaylee, make sure we’re ready to take off. We’re coming to you hot.” Mal said into his radio.
“Watch your back, sir.”
***
“Kaylee, get us in the air.” Mal hit the switch to close the doors to the cargo bay and turned to find Jayne still sitting with Simon in his lap. “Best get you two up to the infirmary, get you tended.”
Jayne stirred, looked at Mal with bloodshot eyes. The big man was exhausted, blood soaked. In his arms, Simon stirred. He raised his head and looked at Jayne like he didn’t understand why he was in Jayne’s lap, then looked to Mal.
“Captain?”
Mal smiled. “Good to see you all functional Doc.”
“I don’t know as I’d say that.” Simon rubbed his head. “Where are we?”
“On Serenity, just making atmo. You up to moving?”
Simon looked at Jayne again, his eyes falling on the bullet wound still seeping blood. “He got shot.”
“I can see. Don’t look all that bad though. It’ll patch up fine.”
“Simon!” River came running from the catwalk and Simon smiled slightly.
He extricated himself from Jayne and sank to the floor of the cargo bay. River slung an arm around his back to support him.
“You get him up to the infirmary, little one. I’ll be right along behind.”
“Don’t worry about anything Simon, I’m going to take care of you.”
Mal blinked and turned to Jayne. He poked him. “Hey.”
Jayne turned slowly, looking down at his chest. “He said it would hurt later.”
Mal caught him as he slumped. “Zoe, meet me in the infirmary.”
“On my way sir.”
There’d been a time Jayne had tried to sell Simon and his sister. Mal had nearly killed the big man over it. Hadn’t ever fully trusted him after. Had never seen him like this before either.
Jayne leaned heavily into Mal as they made their way through the ship, and stopped them when they got to the infirmary door. Simon lay on the bed, his eyes closed. Zoe was already there, checking over his wounds.
Jayne’s eyes were dark and they narrowed as they watched Zoe’s fingers remove the bandages that covered deep cuts in Simon’s arms. They had obviously tortured the doctor, though Mal was hard pressed to guess why.
Simon moaned as Zoe’s fingers brushed the wound and Jayne looked away. Mal helped him sit off to the side and started gathering bandages and such to attend Jayne’s own wound. “You gonna tell me what happened?”
Jayne was uncharacteristically quiet. He didn’t look up, even when Mal started cutting the uniform shirt off him.
“We were leaving, and River went missing.” Jayne’s voice was flat, dry. “I took the loot to the shuttle and went back to find them. Got nabbed.”
Mal nodded, peeling blood soaked shirt from the wound. “Got that much, seeing as the cargo came with River and you didn’t.”
“Sheriton…man’s insane. Thought Simon could read minds and move stuff with his mind. Put a thing on him.” Jayne pointed to the back of his neck with his good hand. “Controlled Simon. Made him kill his father.”
“Not Father.” River said from Simon’s side. “Not in the traditional sense.”
“He was supposed to kill me too, but didn’t.” Jayne squinted up at Mal. “Can’t figure it. Heard him ask for help, but he never said a word.”
Mal glanced over his shoulder at Simon. “He killed his old man?”
Jayne nodded. “Stabbed him. Bled him. Saw the whole thing.” He twitched a little as Mal cleaned the wound. “They tortured him.” Jayne looked up at him, then away. “Cut him up. Cut into his brain.”
Jayne was pale, washed out and the glazed over eyes were closing. He leaned back against the wall. “Heard him.”
Mal finished bandaging the gunshot wound and rummaged around for pain meds. “You best be getting some rest. Let us tend to the doc.”
He turned to Zoe. “He’s cut up right good, sir. Not sure I can be much help.” She held her hands away and Mal could see the bones of Simon’s arm.
“Do the best you can. I’ll see how far we are from a settlement with a doctor.”
***
Simon was aware he wasn’t on Serenity, nor was he back in custody. His left arm was heavily bandaged. His right arm was in a splint. There were drugs in his system.
He opened his eyes slowly. He was in some clinic of some kind. He wasn’t alone. To his surprise, it wasn’t River asleep in the chair beside him. He blinked and looked at the big man slumped in the chair.
He was bare-chested, his left shoulder and side bandaged. Jayne must have felt his eyes and lifted his head. For a long time neither of them said anything. Simon blinked slowly. “Where are we?” His voice was scratchy, like he hadn’t used it in a while.
“Sophanie. Medic Mal knows patched us up.”
Simon nodded slowly. Whatever the drugs were, they took the edge off the bizarre gifts. He looked at Jayne wondering if he’d ever be able to do the things he did to Sheriton again. “I’m sorry.”
Jayne frowned at him. “I tried to kill you.” Simon said.
Jayne actually smiled. “I guess we’ll call us even then.”
“How’s your shoulder?”
Jayne looked at the bandages. “I’ll live. Weren’t helped with having to carry your ass out.”
Simon ran a hand over his forehead. “I may have over done it a little.”
He snorted. “You might say. You’ve been out cold for a week.”
“Well, there was torture, and the whole brain surgery thing.” In fact, he should probably be in a lot worse shape. “You could have left me there.”
There was no answer for a long time. Then Jayne stood and looked down at him. “You’re a part of my crew, doc. Don’t reckon I could leave your scrawny ass behind. Even if you did try to kill me.” Jayne touched the bandages on his side. “Thank you, by the way. For not killing me.”
Simon smiled. “Figure that makes us even…since you didn’t leave me there.” His head was starting to hurt.
“Thought I heard talking in here.”
Simon looked up to find Mal in the door. “’Bout time you woke up Doc. Been sitting on this rock for days.”
“Captain.”
“Well, I got stuff.” Jayne sidled past Mal and Simon sighed.
“How you feeling?” Mal came closer and Simon shrugged.
“Like someone poked around in my brains and cut my arms up.”
“Fair assessment.”
“Sheriton?”
It was Mal’s turn to sigh. “Not a peep on the cortex. Not in the mood to go find out.”
Simon shifted, uncomfortable in more ways than the physical. “He was…insane.”
“Jayne tells me you stood up to some mighty painful torture.” Mal met his gaze then and held it. Simon got the impression there was pride there. Pride and respect.
It wasn’t necessarily something he was used to from the captain. “He was trying to push me into using…” He couldn’t bring himself to use the word “gifts”, so he just gestured at his head. “I…never knew. My father…” Simon cleared his throat. His father who wasn’t his father. “He created us. River and me.”
Mal nodded. “Got some of that in River’s more lucid moments.” He crossed his arms and looked down at Simon. “Need you to rest up, get on your feet. Got us a job on Persephone waiting.”
Simon offered a small smile. “I’ll do my best, Captain.”
His best.
He held up his left had, wishing he could see past the bandages.
“It was cut clean to bone. Lucky nothing important got in the way.”
Simon looked up. A man in a lab coat and an incredibly ridiculous mustache was leaning on the door. “I cleaned it out, stitched it up. Other arm wasn’t as much a mess. Be a while ‘for you’re doing surgery again though.”
He came into the room and tossed a pad on Simon’s lap. “Figured, being a doctor and all, you’d want to see. It’s your head that’s got me befuddled.”
“Befuddled?”
The man touched the pad and Simon found himself looking down at a brain. “See here? You can trace the surgical path…right down to the amygdala.”
Simon traced the outline. It looked like a tongue, still connected at the base, but loose, like a flap. “Not sure what they was trying to do. Might know more with better equipment, but we’re just a mining colony here. Not much need to for the high tech stuff.”
He squinted at the image. Damage like that…there was no way to predict how it would affect him. With River, they’d eliminated the entire amygdala, left her unable to regulate fear, anger, pain. Left her vulnerable to the extremes of emotion and pre-programmed responses.
“Swelling seems to have gone down, and you woke up on your own.”
“They were trying to cut it out.” Simon said, tracing the outline again. “But they got interrupted.”
“Strange thing to want to cut out.”
“Yeah, it is.”
He set aside the pad and sighed. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to get moving. He wanted to go home. To Serenity. “So how long until I can get back to my crew?”
“Nothing keeping ya’ here. Figure you can sleep more comfortable in your own bed, right? I can give you something for the pain, to take with you.”
Simon shook his head and swung his legs to the floor. “I’ve got meds, Doctor. Don’t worry.” He stood slowly, testing his ability to stand.
“Mal will be happy to get back in the air. Never did much like being stuck planetside.”
“I’m beginning to agree with him.” Simon said. It felt…sticky. Oppressive. His head throbbed. Not as bad as that day at his father’s house…but it was enough to convince him that maybe he should lay down again. Soon. “Thanks for everything, Doctor.”
***
“Gave Doc Severen the fancy x-ray machine for fixing you up, but the rest…I reckon you know better than me what it’s worth.”
Simon looked over the haul of equipment and supplies appreciatively. “Very nice Captain. We’ll be eating good for quite some time.”
“Course, that’ll depend on if we can unload it.”
Simon nodded. “I’ll mark what we can sell on the outer planets and outposts. Some of this though…frontier doctors don’t need all this.”
“I got some buyers lined up for those medicines and what not. There might be interest in some of the rest.”
“Persephone?” Simon asked, looking up. Mal nodded.
“One of the buyers I have in mind for my books is there too. I’ll contact him when we’re close enough.”
“Mind I ask you something?” Mal asked, putting down the imager in his hand.
Simon shook his head. “No, of course not.”
“You all right? You been mighty quiet since we left Sophanie.” Mal held up his hand before Simon could respond. “I mean, a man goes through the like of your ordeal, it’s a thing to deal with. But you ain’t said much about the thing with your head, and Doc Severen said it might change you some.”
“You want to know if I’m going to go crazy, like River.”
Mal looked uneasy. “Thought did cross my mind.”
Simon nodded. “I’ve studied the scans. Obviously, I’m not going to react the same as River. It will likely affect the way I handle fear responses, at the very least. I haven’t noticed any overwhelming panic, or uncontrollable rage…so…I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
He went back to cataloguing equipment. Mal nodded. “Good to know.”
Simon didn’t tell him that he hadn’t felt any fear. No anger. No grief. No remorse. Even when he dreamed about killing his father, when he felt the blood hot on his hands.
Thinking about it logically, it should worry him. But that was something else he hadn’t felt, not since he woke up on Sophanie.
He didn’t tell the captain either about the drugs he kept taking, even though he wasn’t really in any pain. Didn’t tell him how when he didn’t take them, he’d lay in his bed and listen to the dreams of everyone around him. Didn’t tell him how when he didn’t take them he found himself in Jayne’s bunk because he felt…something…there with him. Something that wasn’t numb or dry or disconnected…or worse, so connected he couldn’t breathe without feeling someone else’s lungs fill with air.
And that bothered Simon a lot more than the absence of fear.
***
Jayne hunkered down at the bar with his hand wrapped around a mug of beer. He kept his head down and concentrated on drinking. Maybe if he drank enough he could wash it all out of his brain…the feeling of Simon inside him…his thoughts, his words.
It was unnatural.
Jayne drank down the beer and banged the glass on the bar for more. Pipsqueak freak of a doctor who couldn’t seem to keep himself out of trouble and somehow it was always Jayne’s job to get him out of it.
More than that, Jayne couldn’t stop thinking about it. The first night out of Sophanie, Jayne had woke to Simon sitting on the floor in his quarters, staring. Jayne found himself staring too, at himself, through Simon’s eyes. They hadn’t talked about it. Jayne huddled on his bunk. Simon huddled on the floor and they stared, until Simon took a deep breath, muttered an apology and left him alone.
Jayne’s dreams were all jacked up too. From watching Simon slice his father up to the way Simon controlled Sheriton. He’d seen plenty folk die, and had had a hand in more than a few folk dying…but this was different.
Like Simon was a life-size puppet and Sheriton had his hand up inside him. And Simon had returned the favor. Jayne hadn’t ever seen anything like it.
Then there was the whole bit where Simon had touched him.
And that weren’t natural either.
It had Jayne all manner of disconcerted. All manner. He tended to avoid Simon. Kept to his bunk, ate alone. It was easier.
For his part, Simon seemed to understand and keep to himself. Right now he was off selling books or some gorram thing. Jayne tossed off the last of his beer and signaled for another.
There was a scuffle in the corner. Jayne turned, thinking maybe there’d be a fight, something to distract himself with. What he saw instead was Simon getting shoved into a corner by a big guy. He couldn’t hear what was said, but Jayne got the decided impression that it wasn’t good. Before he’d even thought it through, he was headed across the room.
Simon’s eyes met his. Jayne stopped. He could feel him. He was…amused. Jayne looked at the big man who was turning now to see what Simon was staring at. Jayne cleared his throat. “You might want to let him go.”
“Yeah? What’s it to you?”
Jayne stepped closer. “Well, nothing, exactly, but he’s my friend. I don’t let other people pummel my friends.”
Simon raised his still bandaged hands. “He’s not kidding.”
“Your friend here is a cheat.” The guy let Simon go. “Wants twice what the merchandise is worth.”
“Like you would know what a book of poetry from Earth-that-was is worth?” Simon brushed a hand over his coat and reached casually for the book. “As I said, if you don’t want it, I will take it elsewhere.”
Simon’s left eye was starting to bruise. For some reason it made Jayne’s blood boil. He pushed the guy back a step and grabbed the book from Simon’s hands. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
Simon smiled and it was so wrong, so out of place, Jayne didn’t know what to make of it. He grabbed Simon by the upper arm and pulled him toward the doors. “I’m fine. Let go.”
“You are not fine, you’re crazy.” Jayne pushed him up the stairs. “What were you thinking? Trying to sell something like that in a place like this.”
Simon looked confounded as Jayne pushed him out into the stale air of Eavesdown. “You didn’t get a close enough look at Death?” Jayne released him and growled. He didn’t know why he was so angry, or why Simon wasn’t afraid. “That guy back there could have killed you.”
Simon crossed his arms and looked at Jayne like he was the crazy one. “I was perfectly safe Jayne.”
“No, you wasn’t.” Jayne stalked back to him holding the book up between them. “Shit like this? It’ll get you dead. You can’t sell it here.”
Simon raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? I thought you could buy or sell anything here.”
“Maybe some can, but not you.” Jayne licked his lips. “Okay. Come with me. Keep your head down, and don’t say a word.”
Simon looked amused. Jayne’s heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t believe he was even considering what it was he was considering. When Simon wasn’t following close enough, Jayne reached back to tug him along.
***
On some level, Simon realized he should have been afraid. He rationalized it by telling himself that he knew Jayne was there, that he knew Jayne would protect him.
Which was ridiculous, of course. Their relationship was strained at best these days. Jayne avoided him at every turn. Not that Simon could blame him. Jayne had watched him kill his father, nearly kill Jayne. Simon had used Jayne without permission, crawled inside his head, controlled his body. That’s not the kind of thing a man like Jayne copes with easily.
Not that Simon was coping with it spectacularly. He was drugging himself to keep it at bay, to pretend nothing was different.
Simon looked up at the chrome and glass building Jayne led him into. Jayne was nervous, fidgety. They crossed to a security desk and Jayne spoke with the woman behind it for a minute, then she was pointing them away, toward a long hall.
“I swear, if you tell anyone, I’ll kick your ass.” Jayne said as they stopped in front of a door and he knocked.
“I don’t even know what it is we’re doing.”
The door opened and the woman on the other side put one hand on her hip. “Well, well. Jayne Cobb. I didn’t expect I’d be seeing you ever again.”
“Vera.” Jayne played with the book, then sort of turned to Simon. “This here’s my friend, Simon. Simon, Vera.”
Vera, like the gun. Simon swept eyes over her. She was pretty, dressed like she had money. “Well, come on in, no sense littering up the hallway.” She stepped aside and Simon followed Jayne into the apartment. “I expect this isn’t a social call?”
Jayne thrust the book at her. “Thought you might be interested.”
She held the book carefully and opened it, ruffling through the pages. “Very nice. Not something I’d expect you to get your hands on.”
“The book is mine, ma’am.” Simon said, stepping forward. “I have several more as well. “
She smiled and Simon wasn’t sure how to read the expression. “You’re not something I’d expect him to get his hands on either.”
Jayne cleared his throat and shifted his feet. “You want it or not?”
She pouted at him. “I’m not really in the market right now, but I might know some people. How long you on Persephone, boys?”
“Not long.” Jayne growled.
“Pity. We could have some fun.” She ran a hand over Jayne’s chest. Jayne looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Why don’t you sit down. I’ll make a few calls.”
Simon rubbed at his head as they moved to sit down. It was starting to throb. A sign that the meds were wearing off. He sighed and watched Jayne start to sit, then stand again when Vera returned to the room. “Can I get you boys a drink? Something to eat?”
“Just make the gorram calls.” Jayne growled.
“Why are you so testy?” Simon asked when she was gone again. “She seems like a lovely person.”
“She’s not a lovely woman.” She’s my wife.
Simon heard the last part just as if Jayne had spoken it. “Wife?” Simon stood and Jayne’s face flushed red. “I didn’t know you were married.”
Jayne shook his head. “Get outta my head doc.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—“
Jayne grabbed his lapel and nearly lifted him off the floor. “It ain’t natural.” Jayne shook him. “I can’t stop feeling you in my head. I can’t sleep for it. You gotta stop. You hear me?”
Simon blinked and nodded. “Yes, Jayne, I hear you. I’m sorry.” He hadn’t realized how deeply the big man was affected by it, but now, so close, with Jayne’s hands fisted in his clothes, Simon could sense it…fear, discomfort, everything Simon should be feeling and wasn’t.
“Oh, am I interrupting something?” The both turned to Vera who was looking at them, one eyebrow arching up into her hairline. “Don’t stop on my account. I always did like to watch. Remember Jayne?”
Jayne’s face went even redder. He let go of Simon and took a step back. “It ain’t like that, Vera.”
“Pity.” She pouted at them again, then sashayed toward them. “I have a couple folks interested. They’ll be here in an hour. Whatever shall we do until then?” She moved to take Simon’s hand and he got a very distinct impression of what exactly she wanted to do until the buyers showed up.
It was Simon’s turn to blush. The images filling her head were…pornographic. He looked up at Jayne who shrugged. “So, Vera…” Simon extricated himself from her and moved to sit in the chair. “I think I would like something to drink. Something…strong, if you have it.”
“A man after my liquor, I like that. Sit tight, I’ll be back.”
Jayne paced before slumping onto the couch.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on in her head?” Simon asked in a whisper.
Jayne grinned. “Got a pretty good one.”
Simon couldn’t help himself, he threw the image at Jayne. Simon naked and sandwiched between the two Cobbs. Jayne choked and shook his head. “Hey!” He glowered at Simon. “I told you to cut it out. She’s just…adventurous.”
“Is that what you call that?” Simon asked, lowering his voice as Vera returned with drinks.
Jayne snorted. Simon laughed. Really laughed. It felt like it had been a long time since he had.
“Gonna let me in on the joke boys?”
“Simon doesn’t like waiting.” Jayne said, standing to take his and Simon’s drinks from her. As he passed Simon his, their hands brushed and to Simon’s shock, Jayne was still thinking about the image…only with one of the players missing. Simon flushed and took his drink, sipping from it to cover his shock.
“You okay there, Simon?” Vera asked. He nodded and coughed and nodded again.
“Fine.” He cleared his throat. “I’m fine Vera.”
“Yes, honey you really are.”
Jayne chuckled and turned away. Simon just hid behind his glass.
***
Two hours later, they left the apartment with two separate deals for the bulk of the books. Buyers who didn’t want to beat Simon up for asking what the books were worth.
They stopped just as Serenity came into view, Jayne’s hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I mean it, not a word about Vera.”
Simon nodded. “Not a word, I promise.”
“She’s…complicated.”
Simon raised an eyebrow, the images he’d gleaned from her flitting through him. “That’s a word.”
Jayne sighed. “I just don’t think folk have a need to know.”
“I get it, really.” Simon looked up at the ship, then back at Jayne. “So…you and me…are we, okay?”
“You gonna stay outta my head?”
“I’m trying.” Simon said.
Jayne nodded. “Yeah, we’re okay.”
“You know, you called me your friend twice tonight.” Simon teased as they started walking again.
“Don’t get used to it.”
Simon laughed. This felt right. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He’d just find himself in Jayne’s dreams of it.
