The room she'd beens shown to was small by most standards, but it was far more space than she was used to. Life in the fleet had been pretty much living in one another's back pockets, and on Lilac it had been worse. Not enough shelter or supplies to go around meant overcrowding and general misery.
She'd not even hesitated once Zoe had left her, grabbing a relatively clean change of clothes she'd kept packed in the bottom of her duffle since landing on that desolate rock. She filled the small washbasin, stripped off her dust encrusted shirt and proceeded to wash away what she could of the dirt that clung to her skin. Never did she think she would be so appreciative of freshly recycled water.
The engines of the ship firing up made the deck plates tremble, the water in the sink rippling rapidly. A sigh of relief met the sound as she closed her eyes. She was finally going to be free of here.
Changed and feeling considerably cleaner, she eventually made her way to the lower common area near the passenger berths. Up several winding metal staircases she eventually found the common dining room, which was painted an abnormally cheerful yellow. What caught her eye most was when she looked up, the stars now visible through the high windows.
She'd been sure to stay back out of the way, just letting herself get lost in the view as they left the atmosphere completely, leaving the dustball behind.
***
After two days on board, she was wishin like hell she had forever to stay, but with each passing day they got closer to Persephone where she'd be parting ways with the crew. It wasn't as though she'd made close friends with them, but they were for the most part pleasant with her.
The Captain, he kept to himself, she mostly only saw him at mealtime. He was deeply troubled by something. He spoke little and hung around even less. What was more telling were the looks the crew would exchange among themselves when he'd leave. There was definitely something going on that had him troubled.
In her mind she'd dubbed Kaylee the ambassador of cheerfulness. She was pretty sure nothing could bring that girl down. And at times it was infectious…. She'd seen it in action at the dinner-table, The girl could even make Captain Reynolds smile.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to see Kaylee was sweet on the ship's doctor, Simon. Somon seemed to manage his time well between his sweetheart and his younger sister River, who was nothing but an enigma to Kara.
Zoe was one Kara understood, in fact she was much a mirror image of herself. Career military, fiercely loyal to her captain, and recently widowed… They'd traded stories the night before over a bottle of weak whiskey. It was badly watered down but neither acknowledged. It made it easier to talk, pretending it was the whiskey doing the talking. All things considered, it was a good thing the whiskey had been watered down to nothing but flavor, otherwise they would both have very large painful heads today.
However, the bonding with the first mate may never had happened had it not been for Jayne.
It turned out Janye was the epitome if big dumb muscle. It hadn't mattered in the least how often she'd told him she wasn't the least bit interested in his gun collection, he still insisted. He would just not let it go. Sure as she was he really did have quite a collection, no way in hell was she going down into his bunk to see it.
Add that to the constant harassment he dished out upon the other women on the ship… She was pretty sure she'd seen Captain Reynolds throw him a warning glare or two over dinner the night before. He was pretty much everything she disliked in a man.
That made it pretty easy when he'd finally cornered her. He towered over her by a good foot in height, and he'd definitely had a drink or two, it was all you could smell on him. Likely thought it would give him the courage to push her just a little. She'd never worried he would push to far, he was dumb, not a creep. She just needed to give him a lesson that was on his level. A lesson that wound up with him kissing carpet, his wrist making friendly with his shoulder blades and a rather heavy boot holding his head still.
She'd let him up right away and he got up, looking a little wounded as he stated simply. "Gorramit woman, coulda just said no…" What followed was the first time Kara had seen Zoe smile. She'd later find out it was because that moment made her think of her late husband, as he was always amused when Jayne got put in his place by a woman.
That left just one other person on the crew for her to really meet. Inara. She'd seen the woman several times, though usually it was after Inara had been talking to the Captain, which always seemed to put her in a foul mood and she'd disappear for hours. Kaylee had once tried to explain that Inara was a companion and the Captain didn't much like it, though kara hadn't bothered to ask what exactly a companion was. The name pretty much put some ideas in her head as to what it entailed.
It was late, everyone had long since retired to their bunks, so she did the same. As she lay on her bunk she could hear the faint creak and groan of the metal hull. The low hum of the engines as the small ship coasted through space.
Tomorrow would be a long day. They had a stop to make, so she'd been told, ships business… Which, just being a passenger didn't concern her at all. So why the hell did the thought bother her so much?
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