Happy Development
by Whedonist
Bunk Mates & Pillow Talk
[reviews]
Disclaimer: Joss's not mine. Firefly and Buffy both belong to him, ME, and the TV station that shall not be named...grumble grumble
A/N: I got nuthin'. Enjoy if you would like to comment shiny if not shiny. =0)
Thanks G for the assist and all that...couldn't do this without you. I have mentioned that I'm sorry for the spelling? To those of you who may not know...or haven't caught on...I can't spell..worth beans...if the fate of the world depended on my ability to spell, we would all be a demon's play thing right about now.
Chapter 3- Bunk Mates and Pillow Talk
Mal decided to make one last check on everyone, except Jayne who had opted to take a room with only a single twin bed, before turning in. Kaylee and Simon took one room, Inara decided to share with River, and Mal and Zo' took the last. It was late and the man was tired and more worried than he could ever remember being. He closed the door and saw Zo' had taken the left side of the bed. Mal removed his coat first then boots.
"Mal?" Zo' looked up into the light.
"Go back to sleep. It's been a good long day and I don't suppose they're gonna get any shorter for a spell."
"We need to talk."
"Morning?" He asked hopefully stripping off his shirt.
"We need to figure what's gonna happen."
Mal slipped under the covers and clasped his hands behind his head to look at the ceiling. "Well the way I see it is. First we see if we can repair the damage. If so then let's get Serenity back in the air. Now, about gettin' back to our own time? That I don't rightly know. Maybe the little one can cook something up for us. If not then we might be stuck here." Mal's voice lowered at the thought. He didn't know what Earth That Was held and truthfully he didn't care. He loved The Black. He liked the freedom that it gave and he loved the people he sailed with.
"Here?"
"Where else? These folk seem alright. Pretty helpful folk and they seem awful close. Maybe they got work that can be done. I don't know." Mal finally conceded. "Look let's just get some shut eye and deal with this fei hua (nonsense) in the morning. I got a notion it'll be waiting on us."
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Simon held on to a Kaylee. His wife hadn't said a word in nearly an hour and that was not like the mechanic he knew.
"Kaylee, bao bei (sweetheart)?" Simon kissed the top of her head and waited on a response.
"Hmm?"
"What are you thinking about?"
"A whole lot right now Si. I reckon that even if I can get Serenity up and runnin' again that we may not be able to get home. If we are able to get home, then what's fer us there t'ain't much but runnin' from the law and stayin's far away from the Alliance as possible."
"It's what we have been doing and you seemed ok to do just that."
"I guess, well, awe hell I dunno what I'm gettin' on about. I just want us back where we belong. Sailin' in the Black and pulling the occasional caper or two." Kaylee snuggled into her husband's embrace and let the rhythm of his breathing lull her to sleep.
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The next morning Buffy had gathered everyone up in the conference room to go over the entire situation, the crew of Serenity's and the School's. She paced at the head of the table as everyone gathered in and took their seats. Willow was the last to breeze in and closed the conference room doors nodding to the blonde slayer at the front of the room.
"Mal I'm going to give the floor to you for a moment to go over the details of how you guys got here. This is Rupert Giles and Faith. You met Xander and Dawn last night."
Mal stepped up a bit uncomfortable in the meeting, new people always set him on edge. "Well, I can sus' it out for you to the best of my abilities. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the transport ship Serenity. My crew is as follows, First Mate: Zo' Washburn, Pilot: River Tam, Ship Medic: Dr. Simon Tam, Mechanic: Kaylee Tam, On Board Companion: Inara Sera, and our Public Relations Guy: Jayne Cobb." He pointed to each of his crew as he went through introductions. "We were flyin' through between a few of the border planets and got tracked by an Alliance War vessel. They decided to give chase and we out ran 'em best we could, but they got a few more bells and whistle's. In a last ditch effort to not get caught, we flew into a black hole. Now the way I hear it tell is they just spit you right back out on to the other side. 'Cept that's not what happened. Kaylee tells me the electrical or some such doodad got fried going through. When we did get spit out, we were movin' like a bat outta hell and then crashed here. That's about it. Not sure what you're lookin' for here."
Through the course of Mal's explanation Xander's jaw dropped lower and lower until the muscle's creaked in protest. He snapped it shut by the end and just couldn't believe his ears. There's a spaceship out at the lake. These people are from the future and the one eyed Scooby nearly wet his pants at the enormity of the situation.
"What year are you guys from?" Dawn asked.
"2507. Why?" Mal answered.
"Curious is all. That puts you exactly 500 years in the past." Dawn shrugged.
Giles just finished putting his glasses back on and stuffed the kerchief back in his coat pocket. "Then the questions are as follows: How do we repair your ship and then how do we get you home?"
"That'd be the one's we need to worry about." Mal sat down in a chair towards the head of the long, oblong conference table and propped his feet up.
"Giles, I've already started looking for a spell or something, but I'm not sure that's going to work." Willow piped up from her place beside Inara. "Buffy and I were talking last night and I'm not sure magic is the way to go about getting them home."
"I think we'll worry about that a little later on. I would like you, Buffy, and Xander to go to the ship with them today. See if you can get a list of parts that would be suitable for use. Then let's see if we can get it repaired. Now about this spell you put over the ship?"
"Just a glamour really, bends the air and light around the ship so it can't be seen."
"Right, very good dear." Giles smiled over at Willow. Despite the distance she'd come since Sunnydale, he was wary, at the very least, of his "daughter" performing any major spells.
"Hey now, what's all this? Magic! Girlie what in the hell you talkin' about?" Jayne got a little nervous when the word spell came up. "You some kinda witch?"
Willow sat back and smiled, "Yep."
Her calm reply startled the man and he sputtered, "You just keep your conjurin' to yourself and I won't have to introduce you to Vera."
"Jayne." Mal warned. "Jayne shut your trap." He sent a hard look at the man and then nodded over to Willow. The last thing he wanted to do was offend the people who were helping them out of this bind. He was also pretty certain that these were probably the only people who would. "Thank you. Your help is appreciated."
Willow merely nodded in the captain's direction and continued to sit back unfazed by Jayne's outburst. Willow looked to Giles and gave him a nod to continue.
"Certainly. Alright then, Buffy, I think we should fill them in on who we are and what we do here." Giles said with a raised eyebrow.
"Sure thing. Well you guys mostly know who we are, but not what we really do and not about the school. Do you guys know what vampires are?"
"Story book legends, myths told to keep children home at night." Inara spoke up slightly amused that such a serious group of young people would ask such a question.
"Ah, how much do you know about this time?"
"Bits and pieces, Earth That Was is a fairy tale land. There are traditions and customs in our time that are based on Earth That Was, but I'm quite certain that nothing is truly replicated only shadowed." Simon offered.
Buffy looked to Giles, "Do you want to explain this part?"
"Fine." Giles launched into the long standing explanation of the history of the earth not shown on the History Channel and the existence of slayers, vampires, and demons. As he finished his tale, Giles looked to Buffy to pick up and finish off the story.
Buffy nodded and stood once again, "I was called as the slayer at the age of 15. I moved to Sunnydale, California, shortly after being summoned where I met everyone that you've met here today. Six years ago I died facing a hell god; three months after my death I was brought back to life by my friends. Because of that and some other vague stupid reasons the Powers that Be refused to explain, this allowed a being to slip through and try to bring forth hell on Earth. It's called The First. We stopped it in Sunnydale, but not before taking the slayer line and tweaking it. To win that war we gave all potential girls full slayer power. The school you guys are in right now houses and trains these girls until they are of age to go home and do it themselves." Buffy finished the speech and sat back down waiting on the reactions of the new people.
"Dung ee-miado (hold on a second). What's exactly do you take me and my crew for a bunch of yu buh dun dai ngoi hwoon dahns? (stupid, dull minded bastards)" Mal couldn't help but feel insulted. Sure they seemed nice and then came at you with all this stuff about demons and vampires and slayers? "Look if you folk don't wanna help just say so. It's fine we can make our own way just fine."
He nodded to Zo' and they stood to leave signaling the rest of the crew it was time to go.
"Wait stop," Buffy urged as she saw them get up to leave, "Look I know it all sounds crazy, but if we hadn't seen your ship do you think we'd believe you. Give us a chance to prove ourselves at least."
Mal looked to Zo' and saw the imperceptible nod. "Alright girl, when?"
"Tonight. I can't show you anything until tonight. Until then let's get something to eat and then we can go look at your ship."
The Captain nodded and waited for Buffy to show them where the kitchen was. The crew and gang ate and then made a quick trip to the ship to try and find what parts were needed for repairs.
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Willow was currently in awe of the engine room. She had brought a digital camera and voice recorder so that she could record Kaylee's explanation of the inner-workings of the ship. Part names, coupling locks, wiring all whizzed past the redhead as the now greasy mechanic beamed when she finished welding the core containment closed.
"See more 'n anything. This ship" Kaylee dropped her voice at the word ship and patted the side of the main engine, "She's my girl, Serenity. We've got an understanding. I take care of her good an' proper and she keeps us movin'. She's part of the crew." Kaylee once again grinned at the redhead with a look of familial pride evident on the young girl's face.
Willow, feeling a little inadequate and unsure of what to say, just nodded and followed her out of the engine room, across the catwalks of the cargo hold and to Inara's shuttle all the while thinking that Kaylee had to be one of the more interesting people she had met in a long time. The grease covered mechanic knocked before entering and allowed Willow to move past her.
"Hey Inara, I'm just shuttling around Willow here and thought you would like to take over for a while. I got a few more things to look over 'fore I hand over the final list. That okay?"
"Of course." Inara smiled at both of them and ushered Willow in. "Welcome to my home Willow."
The redhead looked around at the area. Deep rich colours of red, burgundy, gold, silver and black ran everywhere. The room was steeped in Asian culture. Willow noticed some Geisha drawings, an interesting depiction of one of the Hindu goddesses, and in the corner of the room sat a Buddha statue at the centre of an alter. The bed looked inviting but somewhat dramatic. The room gave off an aura of a stage set and not a bedroom. Willow took in the immaculate woman who was now staring at her curiously and really saw her makeup, the careful construction of the woman and couldn't help the words that came tumbling out of her mouth, "What is it exactly that you do? With the ship I mean? What's a companion and gosh I know it's kinda weird, but you don't seem to really..." Willow trailed off in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was offend Inara.
"Fit in?" Inara offered with a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
"Uh, yeah sort of. It's just that you and Simon both aren't really..."
"We're from a different part of society. Trust me the differences are glaringly obvious, but these people are our family."
"You guys really seem to care for each other."
"We do, but you also seem to care for your group of friends as well."
"I do. The Scooby Gang we've been through more than most."
"You all are serious then about the vampires?"
"I know it's unbelievable. When I first found out it, well it took some getting used to but things are a lot quieter now."
"When did you find out?"
"Ah, let's see I was a sophomore in high school, about 10 years ago."
"How old were you?" Inara asked clearly confused.
"15-16 years old. It was a few months before my 16th birthday actually."
"And you've been fighting this...war ever since?"
"Well, yeah." Willow sat down on the couch that Inara had motioned to and allowed herself to relax in the other woman's company. "It's weird I guess, but once I saw what's out there, how can you not want to try and help? I guess it's also for Buffy. She was so young and I couldn't let someone I cared about go through that alone. I refused to. She risked her life for me the first day we met and to not return that type of loyalty wasn't even a consideration. I'll tell you more stories later if you want. You never answered my question."
Inara smiled and leaned into the witch, "I'm a companion. In our time, they are women trained in certain arts. We are..." Inara found herself at a loss for words. She had never had to explain what a companion was before. Everyone in the planets knew what type of work she did and while she wasn't ashamed of what she did, to try and explain it to someone was leaving her tongue tied. "In your terms, I suppose you might find that I am a prostitute. It's a very crude definition of what I do. We, companions, are trained at schools. We are brought up learning skills and languages and history, all to make us better at what we do. Seduction is part of it but not all of it and sex plays a role obviously but it is never the focus."
The witch leaned back in to the couch and just listened. She wasn't shocked or appalled just really curious. "Okay, I guess that clears it up. I just saw all of this and well got curious."
Inara had never felt the need to defend or explain her career, but there was an unexplainable urge to make Willow understand. She didn't know why but she needed this girl to like her. "I know it's unconventional here, but in our time companions are held in very high regard, sought after and given status in society. Respected."
"That's cool, I mean I can't judge really, so not my place, but it's cool. Do you like it?" Inara smiled and let the relief wash through her. She told Willow about her time at the academy and both women got lost in conversation and each other's company.