InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Ca ne se fait pas!"

Inara Serra (spacegeisha) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2009-10-28 18:32:00

Entry tags:

!closed

Who: Inara Serra and Malcolm Reynolds
What: Inara catching Mal up on what he's missed
When: Tonight
Where: Mal's room

Inara was hardly looking forward to the conversation she was going to have to have with Mal. Not that a conversation with Mal was often a thing to look forward to. They usually ended up snapping at each other until one or the other of them stormed off or found something more pressing that had to be done than bicker. But he deserved to know what had happened since he... left? Disappeared? Whatever had happened to him.

Dressed in her usual elegant manner despite the more casual circumstances, she made her way to building D. She paused outside Mal's door, straightening her hair, her satin dress, and breathing. She wasn't sure if she was nervous because it was Mal or because of what she was going to have to tell him about, but she could certainly feel the nerves. Finally, however, she rapped quickly on the door and waited patiently for Mal to answer. Assuming he was home. Granted, he said the door was always open to her, but it would be just like him to say that then not be home. She wouldn't be surprised.

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maltightpants
2009-10-29 05:01 am UTC (link)

The door was indeed open, if she'd bothered to actually turn a knob, but Mal supposed that even Companions needed a chance to get used to actual doorknobs instead of hatches and switches. "C'mon in," he called, wiping his hands on his pants as he pulled the door open.

The formal attire caused his eyebrows to rise almost into his hairline. "Goin' somewhere, Inara? Or are you just going to work when you're done here?"

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spacegeisha
2009-10-29 12:00 pm UTC (link)

Inara made a face and rolled her eyes. "No, I'm not. I think you should know by now that this is my usual attire." She brushed past him and into the room. 'C'mon in' was as much of an invitation as she was going to get, she was fairly sure.

She let the annoyance pass, however, to handle the situation at hand. "Are you sure you want me to tell you what essentially amounts to your future? It's not all good, Mal."

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maltightpants
2009-10-29 05:35 pm UTC (link)

Surprisingly, Mal let it go. Well, almost. "Just wanted to make sure I wasn't keepin' you from another appointment, is all."

He closed the door behind her then walked back into the kitchen, where he'd poured drinks for both of them; whiskey for himself, and the bottle beside the empty glass for her. "My future ain't never been anything but trouble. Long as Serenity's still flyin' and my crew is okay, I can handle it."

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spacegeisha
2009-10-29 11:07 pm UTC (link)

At first, Inara had debated on whether or not to actually pour herself a drink or not, but when Mal brought up the crew right off the bat, her decision was made for her. She poured a small amount of the whiskey into the empty glass and took a sip.

She bit her lower lip, trying to think of the most delicate way to say what needed to be said, but nothing was coming to her. There really was no delicate way. Inwardly, she cursed her training for not being able to help her more in this situation. "The crew... they're not all okay, Mal. Wash and Shepherd Book..." She paused and drew in a deep breath to steady herself. "They're gone, Mal."

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	maltightpants 2009-10-30 02:09 am UTC (link)
	"Gone? Don't tell me Wash took Zoe with him. No wonder River's flyin' my boat if the pilot walked out on me!" He drained the shot and poured himself another. "Nothin' you could tell me about the Preacher would fill me with wonderment; the man's a walkin' puzzle for all his bein' a man of God." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	spacegeisha 2009-10-30 02:50 am UTC (link)
	Was he serious? He couldn't be serious. "Gao yang jong duh goo yang," Inara muttered under her breath, taking another sip of her drink and pressing a hand to her forehead. Why did he have to be dense and make this even more difficult. "Mal," she continued, looking up at him and praying the severity of the situation would sink in. "They're dead. Both of them." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maltightpants 2009-10-30 03:25 am UTC (link)
	Mal froze with the shot glass halfway to his lips. "Dead?" He blinked, just once, not able to take his eyes off Inara. His vision had seemed to narrow until all he was staring at was her lips as they framed the words, then fell silent. That was something he couldn't take in. "Zhè shì shénme làn dōngxī, Inara, are you kidding me? You better be kidding me." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	spacegeisha 2009-10-30 03:36 am UTC (link)
	"I wish that I was," she replied softly, lowering her eyes. "I really do. But..." She trailed off and shook her head. "They're gone, Mal. I'm sorry." There wasn't really much else she could say. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	maltightpants 2009-10-30 04:15 am UTC (link)
	"I.. uh... was I there?" Mal turned and threw his shot glass against the wall. "If something happened to my crew because I wasn't there, because these people took me away from where I was supposed to be..." The bottle followed the glass against the wall, and then the chair went flying. Then he got ahold of himself, slapping his hands against the counter top. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

spacegeisha
2009-10-30 12:01 pm UTC (link)

Inara winced as the glass smashed against the wall, but wasn't all that startled. She expected things like that to happen. She even manged to keep up the appearance of being calm when more objects began to follow the glass across the room.

"No, you were there, Mal. We all did everything we could. We all almost died." She carefully stepped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

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maltightpants
2009-10-30 05:18 pm UTC (link)

"Almost isn't near good enough," Mal said tightly. He wanted more things to destroy, more things to punch and beat into submission; it wasn't supposed to happen like this. If anyone was gonna go down it was supposed to be him. Anything to keep the crew safe, keep Serenity in the sky. His own flesh and blood and bones were the sacrifice, he'd paid it once to Niska and he'd have done it again and again to protect the people who'd put their trust in him.

He stiffened at the gentle touch to his shoulder, but he didn't shake her off. "My crew, my responsibility."

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spacegeisha
2009-10-31 04:26 pm UTC (link)

"We were up against an opponent we didn't understand. We were up against him and the entire Alliance. There was so much more to it than just a battle. In the end, we set a lot of things right, Mal. I know that right now, that doesn't seem like much, but it's the truth."

She kept her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently in an attempt to steady the captain. It was a very long, crazy thing they had gone through. It was almost impossible to explain. "Nobody blames you, Mal. You did everything you could and more."

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maltightpants
2009-10-31 10:51 pm UTC (link)

"I blame me," he said shortly. "Doesn't matter what the situation was, a captain goes down first defending his crew, and there ain't no excuse 'cept bein' a coward for that not bein' the case." He closed his eyes, trying hard not to think about Zoe. Zoe who'd never let herself be a wreck even though her husband was gone, all because of her captain. Trying hard not to think about Wash, best pilot in the 'verse, not near good enough for Zoe but part of the crew just like anyone else. Trying hard not to think about Preacher, a Shepherd who knew all the things he shouldn't and Mal had never gotten a chance to figure out how. "Man's a coward, he ought not live to see what comes of his cowardice."

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spacegeisha
2009-11-01 03:06 pm UTC (link)

"You certainly weren't a coward, Mal. Shepherd Book wasn't even on Serenity when it happened. He was on Haven. The Alliance swept through right before we got there and killed everyone. They wanted River back," she tried to explain quietly, her voice beginning to waver slightly as she told the story. "A Reaver ship got one shot on Serenity and it killed Wash. It was a one in a million chance. There was nothing anyone could have done."

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maltightpants
2009-11-02 01:24 am UTC (link)

Somehow the news about Book was less than comforting. "Why wasn't he on Serenity? How come we didn't go back for him?" he demanded. "How'd the Reavers find us?" He could hear the wavering in her voice, and he wanted to tell her not to worry, don't talk about it, don't answer, but he had to know. He had to know how he'd screwed up so maybe he'd have a chance to fix it. Somehow. "They were after River, we protected her, at least?"

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spacegeisha
2009-11-02 01:04 pm UTC (link)

"Book left after I did," she admitted, lowering her eyes a little. "I'm not sure why. I guess he thought he could do more good on Haven. We went there to ask for his help because the Alliance and the Reavers were both after us, but the Alliance had been there first. They killed everyone. But Book took down their ship before he died. His death was honorable, I can promise you that."

Inara took in a deep breath and prepared to forge on through the rest of the story. "They kept coming after us because you refused to give them River. We all refused to give her up and we protected her. The Reavers didn't so much find us as we found them. We had to cross through their territory to reach a planet called Miranda. River found out about it. Everyone there was dead as well, but not by violence. Years ago, the Alliance gave a drug to the people on the planet meant to suppress aggression, but all it did was make everyone so lethargic that they let themselves die. But some of them had an adverse reaction..."

She trailed off for a second, biting her lower lip. This part of the story made her sick. "Those people became the Reavers, Mal. We wanted to tell the world what we found, so we were going to use Mr. Universe's equipment. We fought so hard to get there. That's when the Reavers started to chase us and we lost Wash."

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maltightpants
2009-11-02 05:58 pm UTC (link)

The news that Inara had actually left Serenity actually made him angrier than anything else had. It was irrational, he knew, expected even, because she'd told him after Nandi's death but somehow he'd always believed she'd never leave. Magically things would change, work out to suit him, but when he heard it hadn't, he shrugged her hand off his shoulder. "So you left too, huh? Did you ever think about comin' back, or did you just stay gone 'til you showed up here? Ya ever think the reason things might've gone to hell is because Serenity knew the people that supposed to be on her wasn't?" He jerked away from her entirely and stalked across the room. He was boiling over with hurt, anger, range, misery, and all he wanted to do was fight until he couldn't lift his arms, but he couldn't. All he could do was listen to what had already ahppened to Inara, would happen to him if he got out of here.

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spacegeisha
2009-11-03 12:53 am UTC (link)

Mal's outburst upset Inara more than most of his outbursts did, but the only outward show of it was a slight tensing of her jaw. She kept her feelings inside and retained her outward appearance of cool calm. "Yes, I left. But I did come back. And after everything, after all the death and danger, after all your pig headedness, I decided to stay." She shook her head slightly in disgust, crossed her arms over her chest, and took a couple steps toward the door. She considered just leaving, but decided against it for now. Their arguments almost always seemed to end with one of them leaving and she wasn't going to do it this time if she could help it.

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maltightpants
2009-11-03 06:12 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Did you say my pigheadedness?" He turned around to glare at her then. "Seems to me that I wasn't the only one being pigheaded about things, lying to my friends about how I felt or what I was gonna do. Then again, I guess that's something you've been taught how to do, right? Tell the customer you're with whatever he wants to hear." He knew he shouldn't be taking this out on her, but it was still somehow easier to fall back onto that than deal with anything else she'd told him.

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spacegeisha
2009-11-04 01:05 pm UTC (link)

Silently Inara took in a slow, deep breath and released it again, inwardly urging herself not to blow up and storm away. "You're upset about what happens in the future. I understand that. Perhaps it would have been better if I hadn't told you anything." Boldly, she met his glare with a steady gaze of her own.

"I informed you well in advance that I would be leaving Serenity. I didn't think you would mind that much. After all, you often made it quite clear that going out of your way so that I could meet my clients was an inconvenience to you. So if not that, I would very much like to know just what it was that I lied to you about, Captain." Perhaps that was not the best thing to say, but there it was nonetheless.

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