Firefly fic: What Goes Around...

[jennickels]

What Goes Around...
by jennickels (aka Jen Connelly)
Firefly/Serenity
slight Mal/Inara
600 words
rating: PG

Mal and Inara discuss their fate as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives.  Takes place immediately after BDM (or right at the end of it...you kind of take your pick).

don't own... wish I did, but I don't. No infringement intended.

 

“See, it's like this. I've killed a lot of men. I reckon I can't count how many by my own hand, but I lead more people to their deaths then I care to think on and this,” Mal said with a flip of his hand towards Serenity, “is karma paying me back for all the wrong I done in my life.”

Inara considered him for a moment. His face gave no indication of his feelings, something Inara wasn't accustomed to or entirely comfortable with. Mal stared at his ship, his home, as what was left of his crew silently, eyes still teary, carried boxes into her hold.

Mal winced ever so slightly as Kaylee dropped a smaller parcel. She bent to pick it but then her small body was racked with sobs. Jayne stopped as he passed, looking around as if unsure what to do then knelt down next to her, his arm sliding across her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. She threw her arms around his neck.

Zoe took Jayne's crate without a word and hauled it up the ramp. She said nothing to no one but anyone with eyes could see the hurt on her face, the pain of loss glistening in her eyes. Mal suddenly turned away from the scene and Inara took this as her sign to finally say something to him.

“Mal, have you ever considered that karma has something else in mind for you?”

Mal glanced up at her. “Like what?”

“Like this,” she said, mimicking his sweeping hand towards his ship. “Maybe karma is paying you back but not the way you think. Mal, you may have killed more men then you can count but you have saved just enough to deserve this.”

At least the confusion on his face meant he was thinking of something other then their loss. “I mean to say look at all you have, Mal. You have a crew that would follow you to the end of the 'verse and back without batting an eye. Friends. Family, Mal. They are your family and you deserve every last one of them because you are a good person, despite the things you have done.”

Inara watched him, waiting for a response, a flicker of emotion. He looked over his shoulder at Serenity again. Kaylee was back on her feet, wiping tears from her grease streaked face. Jayne looked even more uncomfortable as she apologized. As soon as she looked away he bolted for the nearest unclaimed cargo. River danced down the ramp, twirling around the ever more confounded Jayne. Simon stood near by, checking supplies off of the list on his clipboard, mumbling to himself. And Zoe...Zoe was smiling. Despite all they had lost, all she had lost, she was smiling at the absurdity of River.

“Supposin' you are right,” he said, turning back to Inara, “and karma is tellin' me I'm a deservin' sort of fella for taking in this riff raff and givin' them a home and a purpose. They're the closest to family I got left, but what does that make you?”

Inara felt her face flush, as it often did when Mal spoke softly and intensely to her. She cleared her throat, trying to find the words that always escaped her when he was around. She felt him take a step closer. “I...uh..” she stammered.

Mal chuckled at her obvious loss of decorum. “Well, if karma sees me fit to deservin' this here misfit life who am I to deny her.” With a clap he headed down the slope to the ship.