50A/N: As I plan out where this story is going, I'm realising that timeline-wise it's probably more of a Season 2 episode or something, assuming the series continued and there was no movie? Probably. I don't know. I think I'm probably the only one who cares anyway! lol Just know that all the main characters are alive and of age, and nobody was a couple yet when the story started (except Zoe/Wash, obviously).
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 3 - Where Do We Go From Here?
Captain James Harbatkin of the Firefly class transport ship Serenity stood up on the bridge behind his pilot, Hoban, looking out at the black laid before them. God only knew where in the 'verse they were right now, but he was hoping that before long things would become clear. Something sure needed to make sense, and sooner rather than later would be good. All they knew for sure right now was each of their names, more or less anyway, and that the last thing they'd all been doing before they woke up here without their memories was drinking some kind of hooch.
The crew had split up to go looking for evidence, trying to figure out what work they all did, where each of them might sleep and all. Simon and Kaylee had taken the back of the ship, the engine room and the infirmary where they seemed to belong. Inara had gone to investigate her shuttle, whilst Zoe checked out the galley and the crew bunks in the hopes of assigning a room to each person. That left Brooke and Adam with the cargo bay to explore. The Captain himself had decided to stay put on the bridge until Hoban got done with his number crunching and map reading and gave them some idea where they might be.
"Ok-ay," the pilot extended the word as he made a final check of the sky. "Far as I can tell, we're on course for a place called... Whitefall," he said, craning his neck to look back at the captain.
"Whitefall," he echoed the unfamiliar planet's name, wondering if the rest of the crew had found any clues as to why they were headed in this direction or not. "How long until we get there?"
"Couple of days, far as I can tell," Hoban told him. "Though it's not so far away. Seems we plotted the longest course possible, staying away from any living person in the whole 'verse."
Captain Harbatkin considered those words with a frown. It concerned him, wondering why he and his family and crew might need to steer clear of the law. Not that he cared for the Alliance much, that he was pretty sure of. When it had been discovered, the very name of the government had sent a shiver down his spine and made every hair on the back of his neck stand on end. No, he was not a fan, though he hadn't a clue why as yet.
"Seems to me we oughta just go where we're headed, see what happens," he said after a moment's thought. "Meantime, I'm gonna go catch up to my wife, see what she mighta found."
He walked away then, leaving Hoban alone at the controls. Up here, just him and the black, it was comfortable, in spite of the loneliness that ought to be surrounding him. Seemed to Hoban he was here a lot and must be used to being by himself, though at the same time he got the weirdest feeling that something was missing. Sure, his memories were one major piece of the puzzle that was lost, but it was more than that. He also wondered how he could stand to stay on this ship with his heart skipping a beat every time his eyes met those of the captain's wife.
Zoe Harbatkin sure was one hell of a woman, and were she not wed, Hoban knew he would be making some kind of move by now. As it was, he seemed to be the only man aboard without a woman, since everyone else was paired up, barring him and Inara. Somehow, he couldn't see himself with someone as fancy as her. He honestly wondered why such a lady would be travelling on a ship like this anyway, but for now at least, even she couldn't explain that.
It wasn't bothering Adam much that he didn't know his name nor where he really was. Seemed to him that when you got landed in a situation such as this, you just made the best of it until the next thing came along. So long as he was fed and had some place here to sleep at night, that was alright with him. Besides, if anybody decided to screw him over or mess him around, he was pretty sure he could handle himself in any kind of fight.
What was confusing him most was how he'd come to be attached to Brooke. She was a whole lot of years younger than him and all kinds of fragile and pretty. Adam couldn't imagine what he ever did to deserve such a woman in his life. More than that, he wondered how he was living this way without her daddy shooting him dead. After all, Captain Harbatkin didn't seem much like the type that'd take kindly to his little girl getting sexed by a guy like Adam, and he couldn't imagine they was together without that kind of thing going on.
"Thinking too hard," said Brooke with a frown, as she turned a circle in the middle of the empty cargo bay to look back at her man who hovered by the stairs still. "She feels it, like pounding waves over her skin," she said, wavering back and forth as if she really was being buffeted by some kind of force he was radiating.
Of course, her phrasing could've been better, since Adam immediately put the words pounding and Brooke together and got a whole bunch of other thoughts he maybe didn't ought to be having right now, especially if there was a chance she somehow knew what was going on in his head.
"How'd you know what I'm thinkin'?" he asked with a frown, not sure he liked it much that she could get inside his head, even if they was a couple, which she seemed certain they was.
"She isn't sure," the girl admitted freely. "Not sure of her own mind and yet his comes clear and strong." She smiled then as she moved towards him. "Perhaps because of their love for each other?" she suggested, putting her hands up to his shoulders as she stood before him now on tip toes. "Their minds dance together, like their hearts," she explained, gazing up at him, all big eyes and a smile meant just for him.
Hell, Adam knew he was a crazy person if he didn't want to kiss her, and it weren't exactly like he shouldn't. The way she told it, him and Brooke were a couple, and while it didn't really make sense to him, he didn't mind the idea at all. Besides, her daddy knew about it and hadn't tried to kill him or turn him off the ship so...
He muttered to himself in Chinese, wondering if he was going to go to hell for this but not really sure why he should, as he took a hold of the little woman and kissed her like it was going out of style.
Zoe was just coming up the ladder from one of the crew bunks as her so-called husband came along the corridor looking for her.
"You find anything interestin', honey?" he asked her with a smile, the sentiment not quite sitting right with her somehow, yet Zoe shook it off and painted on a grin her ownself.
"Not much to go on." She shrugged, as she stood before him now, wiping her hands off on the legs of her pants. "Seems this room might be Adam's own," she explained, gesturing towards it. "Plenty of manly possessions and clothes big enough to fit," she explained. "The next along is the only double so I gotta figure that'd be yours and mine."
What she didn't say was that she hadn't actually ventured down there to check anything. Zoe wasn't awful comfortable with the notion she was sharing a bed with this man, even though she did believe they had some kind of bond, and all evidence pointed towards the fact they was wed.
"Well, I guess we should..." James began to say, only to stop abruptly when a clatter came from somewhere down beyond the galley.
In a rush, Zoe set off running through to the back of the ship, the captain duly following, and the both of them going for their guns on instinct alone. Neither was exactly sure if they even knew how to use a piece, and yet they were both stood their pointing their weapons into the infirmary just as soon as they got there.
They got quite the surprise on realising there was no trouble, in fact, quite the opposite, as Kaylee and Simon seemed to be in some kind of clinch. She was pretty much on top of the guy, bending him over backwards on the counter top, having sent some medical equipment crashing to the floor, hence the noise that had brought Zoe and James running to the unnecessary rescue of them both.
Captain Harbatkin cleared his throat loudly as his wife tried not to grin at the scene in front of her. The handsy couple quickly parted from their making out, Simon turned a shade of scarlet rarely seen on anything but a tomato, and Kaylee made an awful big deal about flattening out her hair and such.
"Oh, hey there, Cap'n," she said with a giggle that wouldn't stay in. "We was just... y'know, explorin' and such."
"Is that what folks are callin' it these days?" he asked Zoe with a smirk that he couldn't help.
"News to me, dear," she replied, putting a hand to his arm and encouraging him away from the two bashful young lovers.
Simon was already on his hands and knees, cleaning up the mess they'd made, as Kaylee bust up laughing at having been caught in the act of trying to get someplace with her sweetie.
Zoe and James walked away, resuming their earlier conversation in the galley now.
"So, you find out from Hoban where we're headed?" she asked with interest, trying not to smile as she overheard Kaylee laughing loudly still.
"I surely did." Her husband nodded his reply. "Some place by the name of Whitefall. It's a couple o' days travel from here. Seems we'd get their faster if the course didn't seem to be takin' us just as far away from civilisation as we can be," he told her, wondering what her opinion on such a situation might be.
"We obviously have our reasons for steering clear of the law," she considered, cut off from saying anything else as a voice behind her broke into the conversation.
"And why do we think that might be?" asked Inara as she appeared in the doorway. "All evidence strongly suggests that I am a registered Companion," she explained. "Such a person as myself would hardly be likely to travel with criminals or fugitives."
"Unless you was runnin' from something just the same as the rest of us," said the captain, folding his arms across his chest, a little ticked off at having his private conversation interrupted, and also not happy about this woman's high and mighty attitude. "I mean, who knows?" he shrugged. "Maybe you're the rule-breaking, cheatin' kind of a whore," he said nastily.
Inara looked equal parts angry and hurt that he would speak to her that way, and yet was not given time to complain or argue. A loud, shrill scream from the cargo bay caught the attention of the entire crew, not a one amongst them able to have missed the sound.
"Brooke!" her father shouted as he ran, fast as his legs would take him.
The rest followed, appearing from all directions onto the catwalk above the cargo bay within a minute.
The captain called Brooke's name again as he galloped down the stairway to get to her.
She sat in the middle of the large open space, hugging her knees into her chest, quaking and crying like she'd had the fright off her life.
"Bao bei, what happened?" asked James as he crouched down to her height, putting his hands to her cheeks and noting waterfalls of tears there.
"She didn't mean it," she said, through great heaving sobs. "She didn't meant to hurt, she didn't!" she wailed as her father put his arms around her and tried to bring her some comfort.
"Oh my God!" Kaylee's gasp behind him caught the captain's attention then.
He turned his head, never letting up his hold on Brooke even when he noticed what the rest of the crew already had. There across the way lay Adam, flat on his back and apparently out cold. Immediately, Simon swung into action, the way only a doctor could, checking that the apparently injured man was breathing and had a steady pulse.
"Is he okay?" asked Hoban worriedly.
"What happened here?" said Inara, her question hot on the heels of the pilot's own.
Zoe came to kneel the other side of Brooke, hoping to be of some help, and Kaylee fussed over the fallen Adam, while Simon continued his assessment of the situation.
"He's alive," he said, bringing more than one sigh of relief, "but it looks as if he's suffered a significant blow to the head," he added with some confusion as he looked across at Brooke and all gazes followed suit.
"She didn't mean it!" she repeated desperately, burying her face in her father's chest.
For obvious reasons, right now, those words seemed to be of little comfort to the rest of the crew.
To Be Continued...
