simon_doctor | (no subject)

Kaylee flashes him a grin back. "Want help?"

Peter got out of Milliways for a while, nobody fought, there was a good cake (which got utterly demolished) on account of it being Wash's birthday, they didn't have protein for dinner, and Kaylee finally got to talk to somebody, previous to all of this.

Good day.

"If you want to dry? I think the dishrack's getting a little full."

"Shi a." She finds a clean rag and sets to, humming a little under her breath.

It's a song he recognizes; something old.

If your prize possessions start to wear you down / you may be awoken / I'll be round, I'll be round...

"So, that was ... nice. We don't get guests for dinner very often."

"Yeah." She sounds satisfied.

(Really satisfied, considering that the name Sylar did not come up once.

Everybody was nice. Including Simon.

...well, except for Ki-- Kate, and Jayne, and Kaylee really has no desire to find out what they were up to.)

"And -- it's good for him to get out of Milliways every so often, I'm thinkin'."

"He's Bound?"

Simon hadn't realized.

She nods, reaching for a plate. "Yep. Whenever he's in -- he's...dreaming, or unconscious. Depending. And he can't leave until he's ready to wake up on the outside."

Kaylee says all of this very matter-of-factly.

Oh.

"Then I guess it's good we could give him a change of scenery, at least."

Simon runs hot water over the last plate, hands it to Kaylee, and turns his attention to the bowls.

"Yeah." She dries the plate, puts it on the stack, and turns away to put the stack of dry plates in their cabinet. "Somehow I get the impression he don't know quite what to do with himself while he's stuck. And talk helps."

Especially about the part where he thinks he's going to explode and take out a city.

"What does he do when he's at home?" Simon asks.

Somehow the dinner conversation never got around to that.

Kaylee doesn't respond immediately. There's a layered click and some sliding as she maneuvers the stack of plates into their place.

"He's a nurse. For people who're about to die."

"...He's a nurse?"

There's surprise in Simon's tone, shading into ... something else.

"I didn't know."

It's enough to earn him a glance as she turns back to the dishes. "Yeah." Kaylee picks up the dishcloth again.

"In palliative care?"

That something else is clearer now: a note of added respect.

"That's a difficult field."

"Figure, yeah."

Her voice is very light

(but I'm going to die, and I'm scared -- isn't that what you do?)

as she reaches for a bowl.

Simon puts a little more soap on the scrubbing sponge and scrubs at a bit of crusted-on sauce on the last bowl.

"Maybe I should try to talk to him again, sometime. I mean -- you seem to get along with him well."

Kaylee doesn't reply immediately.

"He's got a fair amount to be worried about," she says, finally. "With what's goin' on with him back home. And seems like he deals with worry about as good as I do -- and he don't remember a thing about Milliways when he's back, he says."

She makes to reach for another bowl, and then her hand drops, and she looks up at Simon. "I wish you would." That's quiet. "Seems to me like he's gonna need all the friends he can get, in Milliways. And it's been a hell of a long time since I met anybody in Milliways I can talk to that easy."

"Really?"

That sounds a little startled.

"I, I just ... didn't think you ever had trouble talking to people."

She picks up the cloth again. "Guess that depends on what you mean by talk. Surface stuff -- that's not what I mean, here. He listens. Lot of folks don't."

And he's safe to talk to.

A lot of people aren't.

Simon nods.

"I'll try talking to him next time I see him," he promises.

That gets Simon a quick, sidelong, extremely heartfelt smile.

"Xiexie."

Returning his attention to the last few dishes: "So what've you talked about?"

A click as she sets a bowl on top of the rest.

"Well, he's got an older brother." Kaylee picks up the next one. "He...gets a thing or two, let's say."

A pause.

"An estranged older brother, or...?"

Kaylee shakes her head, reaching for another bowl. "No -- they're okay." Beat. "He's a politician." She's not looking at him.