Mal Speech.

[badinlatin]

Mal can stand again. He had called over the comm for everyone to get to the kitchen, sounding as calm and collected as possible. His right hand shakes still, but for an entirely different reason. Adrenaline.

Inara and Mal make it to the kitchen first, and Inara sits while Mal waits at the head of the table for everyone else to arrive. For as shaken as everyone is, Mal takes the moment to look straight at Kaylee and smile. He can only hope she understands.

The cylinder was sitting on the table since Mal had walked in the room, and he picks it up now. "This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried 'til River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear, 'cause there's a universe of folk that are gonna know it too. They're gonna see it. Somebody...has to speak for these people."

What do you think of that?

The crew is waiting for Mal to keep going, looking at him either like he's crazy or that he's finally sane; Mal can't decide which.

"You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I'm askin' more of you than I have before. Maybe all - as sure as I know anything I know this: They Will Try Again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they will swing back to the belief that they can make people..." Mal pauses, eyeing River with a sudden clarity. "better. And I do not hold to that. So no more running.

"I aim to misbehave."

A long beat, where everyone just seems to be analyzing what Mal has just said.

Say something.

Comments

[swinging-cod.livejournal.com]

There's a long pause.

Jayne doesn't like long pauses, as a rule.

He takes a swig of the moonshine his mama sent him in the last mail and looks around the table and takes a breath.

Figures that everybody else'd pussyfoot.

"Preacher always told me, if you can't do something smart... do something right."

The jug thunks on the table, and Jayne looks over to Simon.

His sister got them into this gorram mess.

Go figure.

The jug slides across the table to the Doc.

If Jayne knew about olive branches, or metaphors, he'd think it was a weird kinda thing to think of when sharing

(khef)

a drink with a colleague.

But it's an olive branch all the same.

[badinlatin]

Mal watches Simon catch the blue jug as it glides toward him, taking a sip after asking, "Do we have a plan?"

Mal nods. "Mr. Universe. We haven't the equipment to broadwave this code, but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds. He's pretty damn close, too."

[river_meimei]

"Based on our orbital trajectories," River tells the air above the table calmly, "he reached optimum proximity just before sunset. If we make a direct run within the hour, we're only 367,442 miles out. At full burn we'd reach him inside of four hours."

[gonna_live]

There's a moment when everybody looks at River.

And then Kaylee speaks up.

"I got somethin' -- hang on a tick -- "

A moment later she comes back...with a piece of fruit. A tangerine. It's been hard to keep from eating it the last couple of weeks...but it's a precious object. And just smelling it at night was enough.

But now...now's the time to use it.

Kaylee stands at her seat, and finishes peeling it, and breaking apart the sections. Eight of them. Just enough.

"Dream gave me this a bit ago. Back before all this started. You eat one piece and that gives you a night free of nightmares. And...there's one for each of us. Figure we might need it." Her gaze goes to Mal. "Sorry, captain. For not tellin' you. But..." Her smile is apologetic...and loving. "Didn't know if you would take it. And you needed it."

This is the captain standing before them. Not the man who commanded her to wreck up Serenity. Kaylee's captain.

Seeing him like this again...maybe it won't all end well. But somehow...somehow it's all going to be okay anyway.

[badinlatin]

Mal watches Kaylee as she speaks, explaining the most outstanding tangerine he had eaten all his life a while back, when he was...bad off. She had worried about him. A lot, by the sound of it. While he can't change any of what's past, he can look at Kaylee apologizing - she's apologizing to you for helpin' you - and be grateful.

Mal looks back to the fruit in Kaylee's hand, managing an understanding tone with, "Can't imagine somethin' like that'd be out of place at the moment, lil' one."

[gonna_live]

"Didn't think it would be, either." Her smile gets bigger as she takes a section and passes it off to Simon.

Take one down, pass it around. No more tangerine.

But for the first piece of fruit they've had in weeks...feels like heaven. Smells like heaven. Tastes like heaven.

And no nightmares.

[flybywash]

Wash takes his proffered section of tangerine, hand loosely curling around it with a protective reverence. There's a moment's pause to eat it, savor the taste, and then he finally speaks up.

"Still got the Reavers, and probably the Alliance, between us and him," he says. But his expression is calm, voice carrying only the faintest tinge of worry; this is a statement of facts, not an argument.

Ain't like he's never outflown a Reaver before.

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Beside Wash, Zoe is equally calm. What they did on Haven, what they found on Miranda--that's behind them now. Time to be a soldier.

"It's a fair bet the Alliance knows about Mr. Universe. They're gonna see this comin'."

[badinlatin]

Mal locks eyes with Zoe. Soldiers.

"No.

"They're not gonna see this coming."