simon_doctor | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's a few hours after dinnertime. Simon's sitting on the metal stairs going down from the crew-quarters corridor to the catwalk above the cargo bay, arms folded on his knees.

He's looking out at the wide openness of the cargo bay itself, as though trying to memorize its dimensions.

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Time still passes when the scenery doesn't change.

Eventually footsteps are audible in the corridor. They get louder. Then they're able to be felt through the metal -- somebody's coming down the stairs.

To sit next to him, apparently.

"Hey."

He smiles up at her. "Hey."

Kaylee looks out at the cargo bay. Looks back at Simon.

"...anything interestin'?"

"...Not really."

He looks out across the room again.

"I was just thinking. About the day we first came here."

That's...unexpected. "Yeah?"

"I'd never been on a cargo ship before. I'd only traveled offplanet maybe ... six times in my life before that, and it was on a passenger liner every time."

His gaze travels slowly along the floor of the cargo bay, marking spots: there, where the cryobox stood among the rest of the passengers' luggage; there, where he was standing when the doors slid shut.

So then why us? she could ask, but the answer's pretty simple to figure out: the feds would have checked the passenger liners. Transports...not so much.

So instead Kaylee leans against the rail, and doesn't say anything.

"Could you tell at the time?"

Simon turns to look at her.

"How terrified I was?"

Kaylee shakes her head. "You were more...polite, than anything else. So far as I noticed."

Star-struck isn't the right word for what Kaylee was that day. But it's something like that.

"This ship ... it's so familiar now. It's so strange to remember how ... well, how frightening it was that day."

He's put up a hand to touch the railing, absently, almost affectionately.

"I didn't know who any of you people were. I didn't plan on staying long enough to find out."

...of course, a fed followed him on board anyway.

And we all know how that wound up. River came out of the box a week early, and Kaylee got shot, and Simon did what he does and earned his place on board thereby.

"Funny how things happen."

It's said lightly.

"It really is."

His gaze trails over the cargo bay again, and returns to Kaylee.

"...Where do we want to have the wedding?"

Who is looking marginally wary. She ventures, "Thought we'd said planetside might be nice?"

"There's a lot of planets."

Simon's arms are folded on his knees again, the fingers of one hand tapping absently on his other forearm.

"I suppose you know already that the captain doesn't want my parents on his ship. We talked about it the other night."

Kaylee nods. Quietly, she says, "So did we."

"I ... don't seem to know how to feel about that."

"The talkin', or...them not comin' on board?"

"The latter."

Another look around the cargo bay.

"It's the captain's right, of course, I wouldn't dispute that."

"...I kinda feel like there ought to be a statement comin' that begins with 'but'."

"Not really."

He looks a little ... wistful.

"Unless it's 'but I wish it weren't ...' I don't know. Relevant."

It's River's word, and he realizes that a moment after it's left his mouth.

Well. They're related, after all.

Kaylee runs her fingers absentmindedly along the railing.

"There wasn't any way any of this was gonna be easy."

It's what she said to his father.

"That's true."

He studies her for a moment.

"It's still worth it."

A half-laugh-half-sigh. "Can't help but remember what you said -- that not like you'd change it, but -- it'd be easier if it was just us to consider." Kaylee shakes her head a little. "There've -- folks have wanted to know -- and I mean, me too, it's just I haven't wanted to trouble you with it if you didn't want to talk -- "

Pause.

"What's -- I mean, how -- "

She looks momentarily exasperated, then shakes her head again with a slightly rueful smile. "What I mean to say is -- how are you with all of this?"

"'All of this' referring to my parents, or what else?"

Answering the question is likely going to be harder than asking it, Kaylee knows; that doesn't mean articulating what she means is easy.

"Just...everything. I know River -- I know she's not exactly happy with how things've gone, so -- the captain, and -- "

She cuts off.

"I'm on your side, is what I mean. Whatever that means. And...it'd help to know what's goin' into that. So I know what's best to do."