Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

Danny Karruthers and the damned dirty pirates.

Kaylee laid the picture on the table and walked over to the stairs up to the cockpit.
"Mal has to know," she said without any indication as to if this was good or bad.
Zoe came in, looking at Kaylee.
"What does Mal have to know," Zoe said shoting a suspicious look at Lou.
Inara put a delicate hand on top of Lou's and gave her a reassuring look.
"I'm sure it's not so bad," Inara told her.
"Look at Lou's photo," Kaylee said to Zoe and wandered up the stairs.
Zoe came over, quietly picked up the photo and studied it.
"Is this your husband?" Zoe asked.
Lou nodded, feeling as if the floor had vanished from under her.
"What was his name?" Zoe asked.
"Danny Karruthers," Lou told her.
"We were approached by a pirate gang a while back asking for him," Mal said from the stairs. "They threatened to board is to find him."
"Why?" Lou asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
"It'll all be shiny, Lou," Kaylee smiled.
"He is my brother," Mal said.
Lou felt her jaw drop.
"I have a picture of him taped to the control-deck to remind me to look for him wherever we land," Mal said seriously. "He was taken by pirates when my folk's farm was burned to the ground by alliance sympathisers before the war. We were all rebels, believing in self governing. Some folks didn't like that."
Kaylee took the picture from Zoe showing it to Mal.
"He grew up...," Mal said.
"And your nieces..." Kaylee said turning the picture over.
Mal studied it carefully.
"She looks so much like my sister," he smiled pointing at one of the girls.
Lou looked at Mal, who kept flipping the picture over as if trying to decide which side to study most carefully."
"My little brother," Mal mumbled sadly before looking at Lou. "What happened?"
"He came to us a couple of years before the war ended, stayed on as a farmhand and ended up fathering my two girls before marrying me," Lou said and quickly recounted what she had just told Kaylee and Inara.
"And now your nieces are kidnapped..." Kaylee said.
"Yeah...," Mal pondered darkly. "Trouble is that the damned dirty pirates that took them, were the same filthy lot that took Danny to start with. They probably came to your rock looking for him to punish him for leaving."
Lou felt a cold shiver going down her spine.
She looked at all the serious faces around her and took a deep breath. Her inner scepticism was well exercised and started to make her wary. These people appeared honest enough and she liked them well enough, but she had been taken in by seemingly nice people before. This man claiming to be Danny's brother could be out for the ransom.
"Hang on just a minute," Lou looked around the room suspiciously, landing her eyes on Mal.
"First of all: If Danny was your brother, how come he was a Karruthers and you are Reynolds? Second: if this lot of pirates, led by this Duggar fella, are the same gang that took him from your family home, and the same gang that came to take our girls.... Why the hell are they threatening to board your boat to look for him when they know full well he was dead two years ago when they shot him and took my daughters?" Lou asked staring at Mal.
Mal stared back with a half smile.
"Danny used our mother's maiden name when he was pirating. He swapped a C for a K and added an R to the spelling as well. The idea was that if the alliance police wanted to punish his family, they would be thrown off by the name. Don't know why he kept the pirate name when he was with you though," Mal said looking at Lou. The rest of the people present listened attentively, giving Lou the impression that this was not something Mal spoke about too often.
"And," Mal continued, "Duggar wanted Serenity in his fleet of crime. We may smuggle and enter into some capers on the shady side of legal, but we never outright rob or pillage like they do. Duggar grew up on my rock. We went to school together and he hated me for some reason. I left before the war to join in the growing rebellion and Duggar continued his drinking and petty thieving he had been doing since he was in diapers. At some point he tried to thieve from my parents. They had the sheriff out and had him arrested. When he'd ended up with some thieving lot on a ship, he led them to my homestead. Don't know why he took Danny tho. He could have left him. He has been after me and Serenity since the beginning. I suppose he thought I knew where Danny had gone after he left them. He kept pestering me about letting him know if Danny ever got in touch. I can only guess why he is still using Danny as an excuse now. If my brother is dead and he knows, I am guessing that there is something else on board that he is after." Mal looked tired.
"That's more speaking than what I've ever heard out of you, boss," a voice came from the stairs up to the bridge. Wash was sat there studying them all.
"That's more than I would have liked to say," Mal said looking at Lou.
Lou nodded, accepting his explanation.
"But as far as I know, you could be false here, spinning stories for profit," he said to her.
"Mal," Inara said softly. Mal shot her a stern look.
"It's ok," Lou said to Inara. "What do you need to believe me?"
Mal thought for a moment.
"Tell me something about Danny, only his family would know," Mal challenged.
"No point in describing his scars and marks I suppose," Lou said thinking "His childhood dog was a spotted male mutt called Princess. He talked about a brother who used to climb trees to rescue stray cats from ferrocious sparrows. Once he had carried a small birdsegg down and spent two months caring for the little bird that hatched from it untill the barn-cat got hold of it. Danny said his brother never admitted to killing the cat, but nobody ever saw it again. Danny wanted to be an engineer and work with terraforming when he was younger. He used to talk about finding an unused rock and creating a perfect homestead on it...."
Lou stopped watching Mal's eyes fill with water.
Suddenly Mal drew a deep breath and let it slowly out. For a while he just stared at Lou.
"Looks like I have got myself a sister," he mumbled before rushing out of the room.