Three Haven ficlets

[vae]

Disclaimer:These are not my characters and not my 'verse. All hail Joss.

Prompt: Mal, Book, Haven
For: flawed_karma
Rating: G
Warning: slight BDM/TLB spoilers
Character(s): Mal, Book, mention of others

It was strange returning to Haven. Most of his crew had fitted. Kaylee had adopted the children as her own personal pets. Jayne had turned out to have a guitar hidden in the fetid hole he called his bunk, and struck up a friendship with one of the miners who played harmonica. Wash and Zoe, as ever, had gravitated towards the nearest gathering place and sat snuggling in the firelight, leaving Mal standing alone with Shepherd Book.

"So, you're all settled then?" Mal couldn't look straight at the shepherd, choosing instead to stare over at the warm glow of the fire.

"Yes, Mal. It's a good place. These are good people."

"Good. That's ... good." He risked a glance. Book was smiling, as if at a private joke.

"And you? You're settled?" There was a hint of laughter in the steady voice.

"Oh, we're doin' fine. Nothin' to fret on," Mal responded automatically. "You know the way of it."

Book settled onto the bench behind them. "Yes, I know the way of it. How are your fugitives?"

"No offence, Shepherd, but you ain't my crew no more. Best you know least on that matter."

"Ah. Of course. Then I shouldn't ask about your perfectly legitimate business enterprises, either?"

Mal sat, feigning ease. "Best not. Most of 'em ain't so legitimate, these days."

They sat in silence for a while, listening to the quiet hum of conversation across the valley.

"So, you ain't pinin' for us at all?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, exactly. There are sometimes days I regret not facing almost certain death on a regular basis."

Mal pretended affront for a moment, then laughed. "That ain't entirely accurate, Shepherd. Been a whole week since Simon's had to patch up any one of us."

"That's good to hear."

"So you wouldn't...?"

"Good people, Mal. They need me here. I'm ... useful."

"Right." Mal stared into the darkness. "Best go join the others, then. Keep Wash out of mischief."

 

 

Prompt: Kaylee, Haven
For: the_girl_20
Rating: G
Warning: BDM spoilers
Character(s): Kaylee, mention of others

It's too much. Just - too much. Kaylee stares, unbelieving, unseeing. She just can't take it in. This place, this whole community, this town that was as much a Haven as it was named for...just gone. Destroyed. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be safe, gorramit. Not ... not like this.

She stops at the child's body, mouth hanging open in distress and shock. It's not real. It can't be. It's only a couple of days since they were there last, since the boy was laughing and playing and running to her to be picked up and hugged. Since he was alive. Since he was more than a small, crumpled body.

She barely notices as Jayne comes racing past her, running back a moment later with Simon on his heels. She can't focus any more, can't accept the wider tragedy, loss and destruction on such a scale. This, though - this single tragedy, the reality of one child's life snuffed out by a purposeful bullet, this horror of a boy's murder - this, she can process. This, she can relate to.

Not accept, though. She can never accept this. That people exist somewhere in the 'verse that can deliberately destroy a whole community of peaceful folk for no reason that she can see.

Kaylee stares at the diminished corpse and something inside her dies at the knowledge that this has to be real. And then the captain is shouting something and she has to wake, has to react, has to work, and maybe it isn't real. Maybe it's not. Captain would never say such things, do such things. He's a good man.

It can't be real, can't be happening.

Can't be.

Is.

 

 

Prompt: Mal, The man with no name, Haven
For: thunarr
Rating: G
Warning: BDM spoilers - set very soon post BDM
Character(s): Mal, Operative, mention of others

"Well." Mal straightened up. "Weren't expectin' to see you again. Not here. Ain't you done enough here?"

The nameless man met his gaze calmly. "No, I don't suppose you would." He turned his eyes to the mound of earth. "Someone you knew?"

Mal drove his spade into the ground and rested one foot on it. "Don't see that's any of your business. Didn't make no matter to you when you ordered his death."

"No." The man smiled, sadly. "But I never ordered his death."

Mal stared. "You truthfully tryin' to tell me you ain't responsible for this?"

"Oh, I'm responsible. But I didn't order his death. I ordered the destruction of your boltholes. It wasn't personal to him."

"Not personal? You can't kill a man, can't take away his life an' not have it be personal." Mal heaved the spade out of the ground. "Don't matter if you order it from a distance, don't matter how general your order is. You ordered his death. His. You ordered the death of a soft-spoken, hard working man. Of a man who worked every day of his life in the mines to bring up the ore to trade to feed his family. Of a man as played guitar for hymns at prayer meetin's but couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Of a man with a wife an' three kids, an' another on the way. You ordered his death, an' you ordered their deaths, too. So don't you ever try tellin' me this ain't personal. Death's 'bout as personal as you can get." He turned his back in disgust, walking away.

There was silence behind him for a moment. Then, "May I see her?"

Mal stopped, tensed, hearing another voice say those words for a moment. The voice of a man with a hell of a lot more invested in River Tam than this machine. "What? You ain't stopped tryin' yet? Still wantin' to take her in?"

"No, Captain. I just want to see what it was you tore the universe apart to protect."

He looked back at that. The nameless man still hadn't moved. He was gazing at the mound of freshly turned earth. "Yeah, well. Don't figure you deserve to. You wanted to know, should've questioned 'fore you caused all this. Plus, there's no way I'm trustin' you near her or my ship."

There was no response. Mal shouldered the spade and walked over to the next neatly arranged pile of bodies. When he looked back again, the man was gone.

 

 

Comments

[mishbloom.livejournal.com]

Oh god. *feels heart wince in agony*
*whimpers for Kaylee*
*moans for Book*
*sobs for Mal*
*smacks the Operative with the shovel!* Ass.

"No, Captain. I just want to see what it was you tore the universe apart to protect."

He looked back at that. The nameless man still hadn't moved. He was gazing at the mound of freshly turned earth. "Yeah, well. Don't figure you deserve to. You wanted to know, should've questioned 'fore you caused all this. Plus, there's no way I'm trustin' you near her or my ship."

For some reason this really got me. I'm not even sure why. It was just SO Mal, and SO very much the Operative. The tone, inflection, whatever. Like Joss left this out of the movie.

[vae]

that is absolutely the best thing you could say, thanks! I've never tried writing the Operative before, so I was nervous to post this, and that...well, that's just shiny *g*

thunarr always throws prompts that get me thinking in odd directions. Though he actually prompted Mal/Man with no name, but I couldn't bring myself to slash the Operative. I know it's been done by others...

[rinalin.livejournal.com]

Oh, these were both beautiful and sad. Really, fantastic job.

[vae]

Glad you enjoyed them! My f-list evidently had Haven on their minds last month.

[anxiety-junkie.livejournal.com]

You do this to me every time; I actually heard the Operative's voice in my head in that last one.

There was silence behind him for a moment. Then, "May I see her?"

Mal stopped, tensed, hearing another voice say those words for a moment. The voice of a man with a hell of a lot more invested in River Tam than this machine. And ooh, the sublest leetle hint of M/S, nicely done!

[vae]

Hint of M/S? Would I write something like that?

Well, maybe I would. But it wasn't intended that way,

[helygen.livejournal.com]

These are all truly excellent, heartbreakingly beautiful little pieces.

[vae]

thank you! I seem to be specialising in the heartbreaking at the moment. I lost track of how many characters I killed off in fic last month.