In the Air Tonight

TITLE: In the Air Tonight

AUTHOR: Midknight

CHAPTER: 1 of ?

FANDOM: Firefly

SHIP: Mal / Inara, Simon / Kaylee

RATING: NC17

CATEGORY: Romance and Erotica

SPOILERS: If there are, I apologise.

DISCLAIMER: None of these characters belong to me. They belong to Joss Whedon and whoever else does and I make no profit from this story in any way means or form.

AUTHORS NOTE: I apologize before hand and hope you will forgive any errors or blatant discrepencies. Also I so don't speak Chinese so all that is just plain made up. I have also been trying to write this for some time, so I'm afraid it starts off kind of slow, but it will get there, I promise.

FEEDBACK: Yes Please - Deton8@mweb.co.za

Chapter 1

Serenity, enroute to planet Arcamedes Prime, Inner Galactic Spiral on a "cargo" run, four days into a three-week long voyage.

Kaylee was in the engine room, cozily ensconced in the hammock she had made for herself. She hummed an old tune she'd heard so long ago she couldn't remember where or the words that had gone with it, while reading a dog-eared romance novel she kept hidden for just such occasions. She liked these long hauls and on the plus side there was nowhere for Simon to run off to. She was growing quite fond of the mild-mannered ex-Alliance doctor. Well, to be honest with herself, quite a bit more than fond, but he seemed to be oblivious to her advances and some of them had been way far from subtle and although this often frustrated her it also endeared him to her even more.

Simon was in the infirmary doing inventory, more as a way to keep his hands busy while his mind worried at the puzzle of what had been done to his sister and what he could do to rectify it. The puzzle that was Kaylee also managed to insinuate itself into his thoughts. She was so different from any of the women he had ever met before. He had been attracted to the petite dark haired mechanic from the moment he had joined the crew of Serenity, but she also intimidated him with the force of her personality. He became less intimidated the more he got to know her and they soon became friends. He knew she was attracted to him too. She had made that clear to him on more than one occasion and he had been more than tempted to take her up on those offers, but with his sister and their situation with the Alliance, he just didn't feel it was fair to start something with someone that he genuinely cared for, but to whom he could not fully commit.

Wash and Zoe were in their quarters with a bright red "Do Not Disturb" sign lit up over the lintel. They'd installed it themselves after just one too many embarrassing encounters. Everyone knew what they were doing, not to mention the fact that the cabin was not soundproof.

Inara was in her shuttle brushing out her long dark hair while humming a tune very similar to the one Kaylee was on the other side of the ship. She often did this not because her hair needed it, but instead the repetitiveness of the task calmed her and allowed her to collect her thoughts. "That fu gu gow, Mal." she thought as she brushed a little harder. She took a deep breath. They could have made it to Arcamedes Prime in a week, but he just absolutely had to make another stop that took then a week out of their way that, from what she could tell, would hardly be worth the trip, while the cargo they already had would bring a higher price the faster they got it where it needed to go. He was trying to stop her from working, again. The Companion growled in frustration and had to put down the brush, lest she damage it or her hair. "It is flattering. He had a certain charm and he definitely wasn't hard on the eyes." she mused letting the women inside her contemplate his actions for a moment or two, "But, as a Companion, it was insulting as well as incredibly arrogant on his part. She caught a flash in the mirror and a smile crept onto her full lips.

"Come out, River. It's okay." she called out, without turning around. The slight, tussle-haired girl peeked out, hesitantly around the curtain that framed the doorway to Inara's inner sanctum. Inara crooked her finger at the girl, confident that she could see the gesture in the mirror. "Nei chi shu mu ti. One day you really have to tell me how you are able to sneak in here, and how you manage to always get your hair into this degree of shamble. River grinned at the Companion and made a little titter of laughter. Inara rose and offered the mousy girl her chair. "Come. Let us see if we can restore some, however temporary, order to that mouse nest you call your hair. The girl skipped over to the Companion, gave her an impish curtsy and took the seat she had been offered. Inara couldn't help but let out a deep, throaty laugh. "Strange girl, but I like her... She's so innocent, but not." she thought. She picked up the brush and resumed her tune and started brushing out the girl's long, chestnut hair.

Jayne, Book and Mal were playing cards in the galley, although Mal's mind really wasn't on the game. His boots were up on the table as he leaned back in his chair, lazily keeping his eye on Jayne. "That dad blasted women. Accusin' him of tryin' to keep her outta work. He was just trying to make a living of his own and for his crew." he thought with a snort. "What's that, Mal?" Book enquired. "Nothin', Padre. Just reckon I'll be callin' Jayne here's bluff is all." Mal answered and threw the requisite credits onto the table. "Holy hell, Mal." The tall, scruffy mercenary growled and threw his cards down in disgust. "That's three hands runnin'. What do I have a mirror or somethin' behind my back?" he continued turning his head to check. "No, Jayne. You just can't bluff for moo gan shute." Mal told him even as his mind shifted back to the uppity Companion who presently rented his shuttle. "Like what she actually does is work" he muttered under his breath. "Did you say something, Mal?" Book asked. "No. Just deal the next hand. Okay." Mal replied as he raked in his winnings and stacked them in front of him. "She had to be the most infuriatin' women in the ben gu get shinshei universe, but she did know how to light up a room and she sure did smell somethin' fine, for a whore that was." he thought. He sighed and both the other men looked up from their cards and he grabbed up his before they could question him again. Even calling her that in his mind felt wrong, but she did sleep with men for money. That small logical part of him kept insisting that the real job of a Companion was to be just that a companion and that the sex was just a small part of it, but the part that ran his mouth just never seemed to understand that and every time they talked he just kept throwing it in her face.

An alarm sounded in the cockpit with no one there to hear it a second before the Serenity shuddered and tilted. The lights flickered as everyone was knocked to the floor. All the doors slammed and locked as per emergency protocols to maintain the integrity of each cabin in case of a hull breach. Kaylee was thrown violently from her hammock and Simon barely caught himself from bashing his head on the infirmary counter. The men in the galley were piled in the corner trying to right them selves as the ship stabilized along with the lighting. Mal was on his feet first and headed straight for the intercom. "Kaylee? What in tarnations...?" he yelled hitting the engine room button. All he heard in return was the young mechanic swearing at the top of her lungs in assorted languages, with an eloquence that raised the hair on the back of his neck. "I'll get back to you then?" Mal continued and flicked the comm to the shuttle.

"Inara? You Okay." he asked the Companion. "We're fine, Mal, but what the gu now shinshei just happened." she replied. "I'll tell you as soon as I can get Kaylee to stop swearing." he replied. "We?" he queried. "River's with me." she answered. "Okay. You all stay right where you are until we figure out what just happened." he told her. "Aye, aye, Captain." she replied with just a hint of sarcasms. "Oh just do it." He snapped back and switched the comm to the infirmary. "Simon?" I'm Okay, but the infirmary is a mess. Where's River?" he replied. "She's with Inara. Sit tight." he ordered and switched the comm to Wash and Zoe's cabin. "You two okay?" he asked. There was a slight pause before Zoe's voice crackle through the intercom. "We're fine, Mal just having a rougher ride than we intended." was her reply and he could hear Wash make an outraged squeak in the background at her comment. He chuckled. "Sit tight. I'll see if Kaylee's run out of swear words yet and can shed a little light as to what happened and why we ain't moving." he told his second in command before once again flicking the comm to the engine room. There was silence on the other end so he assumed the fiery mechanic had calmed down.

"Kaylee? Care to enlighten me as to what happened?" he queried. There was the crackle of static before she answered, "Give me a minute," Turning to check on the other two men he muttered under his breath, "Why not. Take all the time you need. I'm only the captain." The comm crackled again. "I heard that." Kaylee said even as she checked Serenity's operating boards. Mal heard her begin to swear again. "Not a good sign." he thought, but the doors did unlock. He made his way to the engine room. Kaylee looked up as he swung in through the hatch. "Captain, we got ourselves a problem. Lookee here." she said pointing at one of the screens. "Something blindsided us, just a graze really, but that something or part of it got stuck in the star drive intake vent which caused it to do an emergency shutdown. It's not a big thing to repair, but the real problem is that I can't do it out here." she explained. "Why not?" he asked not really understanding the schematics she was showing him but trusting his young engineer explicitly. "Well to put it simply. The blockage in the vent is the only thing stopping the star drive from firing. So, remove the blockage and the drive fires and whoever's out there gets ripped to shreds. We need to make landfall so that I can switch off all the power and disconnect the drive before the blockage is removed. See?" she explained further. "Oh... Kay, then. So, we have conventional thrusters?" he asked. "Yip." she replied absently still checking over Serenity's diagnostic monitors.

"Kaylee?" he called her name to get her attention without much success, "Kaylee!?!" he called quite a bit louder and put her hand on her shoulder. "What?" she replied irritably, finally turning to face him. "You're bleedin'. Go see the doc and get that looked at." He told the diminutive engineer. She looked at him like he was speaking Yagreedish and he pointed to his temple. She reached up and touched her own temple and her fingers came away wet. She looked at her sticky fingers with surprise and Mal just barely managed to catch her arm to steady her. "Okay. Easy now. Why don't we just go see the good doctor, shall we?" he told her as he guided her out of Serenity's engine room. "But?..." she protested weakly, half turning to indicate the screens and their predicament. "Never no mind that now. Nones the point if you be passin' out on us." he told her as he continued to guide her along the passageway.

He slapped the first comm unit he came to. "Simon. Bring your kit to the galley. Kaylee needs some attention." he asked the young doctor. He'd hardly finished before Simon's worry voice replied, a bit more loudly than was strictly necessary; "Is she Okay?" "Most like. Just a bit of a knock on the head that needs cleaning and a derma-patch." he tried to reassure the young man. He and Preacher had a little wager as to when the engineer and the doctor would finally share their feeling with each other. "I'll be right there." was Simon's hasty reply and Mal was sure he had already been heading for the door when he'd made it. He hit the comm again, but for all channels this time. "Everyone not in the galley already get there as soon as can. And, Wash, bring a star chart of our local vicinity will ya." he told his crew. Kaylee had steadied and strengthened and she gave him a grateful smile as he let her lead the way unassisted.

Everyone was in the galley by the time they got there. Simon took charge of Kaylee almost as soon as they stepped through the hatch and confirmed what Mal had told her, that her wound looked worse than it was and he'd have it cleaned up in no time at all. Mal checked on the rest of his crew. None of the rest of them had come out of the incident with more than a bruise or two. Inara and River were completely unscathed and Mal's tongue fairly itched to make some remark about the Companion's plush living quarters and lifestyle, but River had curled up in her lap and amongst all the commotion had blissfully fallen asleep. "She's a strange one, is our little River." he thought and kept quite not wanting to disturb the girls' peaceful slumber.

He stepped over to Wash and they spread out the star chart at the opposite side of the table and Preacher, Zoe and Jayne joined them. "What happened, Mal" Zoe asked. "Somethin' hit us and we need to make planetfall to be fixin' the damage. Once Simon gets done with his mothering, Kaylee can fill you all in on the wherefores and whys." he said abscently as he studied the chart, but he did catch the dark looks from both the young engineer and the doctor and smiled.

"I reckon this be our nearest port of call. Delta Nine Alpha Ex Four Eight Dash Vee Three. What do you think, Wash?" Mal said tapping the map with his finger. "Yeah. Let me go and check it on the NAV and I'll get you an estimated time, Cap'n." Wash answered and he grabbed up the chart, folded it to just a square with their intended destination on it and headed for the bridge. Mal looked around at the mess that was their galley and wondered what the rest of the ship looked like. "Jayne. Book. Why don't you go and check the cargo bay and square away what might have got loose in all the ruckus." he told them, then turned to Kaylee and asked: "Kaylee. Once the doctor's done with all his fussin', think you can make sure we'll stay in one piece long enough to make planetfall?" He watched Simon almost get up the courage to stand up to him and say something, but at a touch on his shoulder from the young engineer he settle back and she replied: "Sure."

The comm buzzed and Mal hit the receive button. "Mal, we can be there in about six hours, but..." Wash's voice hesitated. "Butttttt?...." Mal queried. "Well... The planet has some goi sha nut Alliance No-Go code on it like I never seen before." Wash explained. "And, the problem is? It's not so's we ain't gone where the Alliance told us we couldn't before. Plot the course, Wash. We won't stay long. Right Kaylee." He said querying his engineer. "Right, Cap'n. Quick as a bunny rabbit. Less than a hour." she agreed. "You heard the lady, Wash. Plot the course and get us under way, best speed." Mal ordered. "Aye, aye." Wash acknowledged. With, that, the crew went to their assigned duties.

The rest of the ship hadn't fared too badly and the clean up was pretty easy. Kaylee confirmed that all the systems they needed for planetfall were nominal, so Mal told the crew to take their leisure. About, five hours later they made a bumpy, but safe landing and Mal called everyone to the cargo bay.

"Okay, boys and gals. We're gonna make this quick and safe. Me and Jayne are going out first, then Kaylee. She fixes our little problem, We keep a sharp eye on the surrounds while she gets the job done and then we haul our mishu dun fing butts outta here and be on our way, easy as you please. Sensors say the atmo's Earth standard or close enough, but those of us going out, we gonna where EVA suits anyhow.", he held up his hand to forestall Jayne's protest. "This ain't no discussion. It's the way it's gonna be and for the rest of you... No one else is to leave the ship. Ain't no telling why the Alliance got a no-go like that on this here pretty little rock and I ain't a fixin' to find out. Everyone crystal?" he asked his crew looking at each one to gauge their understanding.

"Where's River?" he asked Simon when he noticed that she hadn't joined them in the cargo bay. The girl was so quiet it was all too easy to forget about her. "She was asleep in our cabin and I didn't see the sense in waking her." the doctor replied. He was about to say something about him being the Captain and when he told everyone to be somewhere they should, but Inara put his hand on his shoulder and said: "Leave it be, Mal. She doesn't need to be here and the poor girl so seldom gets to sleep for more than three or four hours at a time." He looked at the beautiful Companion for a moment and she flashed him her dimpled smile. "That was really unfair." He thought, she knew he couldn't resist it. "Fine." He said shortly and nodded to Kaylee and Jayne. "Shall we?" he asked and headed for the EVA suit lockers.

Just as Kaylee had estimated it took them less than an hour to do the repairs and be back aboard Serenity and Mal could hardly wait long enough for the airlock to cycle to green to get out of the EVA suit. The damn thing felt like it shrunk the longer he stayed in it and no matter how thoroughly or how many times he cleaned it, it still smelled funny. The green light lit and they all cracked the seals on their helmets. "Well done, Kaylee. He complimented his engineer who smiled back at him as she shook out her hair. "Yeah, great and quick. Thanks." Jayne said with surprising sincerity. If Mal disliked EVA suits, Jayne loathed them with the intensity of a thousand suns. Mal hit the Comm. "Wash we are good to go as soon as Kaylee juices us up so, let's make sure we're ready when she is. The sooner we get off this rock the better. It's too darn pretty and quiet out there." He told his pilot and moved to the lockers to put away his suit.

TO BE CONTINUED