Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

Give him some space

Lou set out some cold, cured ham and scrambled eggs for the crew's evening meal before getting a large baking bowl and a sack of flour ready. Mixing the flour with the yeast, oil and water, she found comfort in seeing the dough form.
The yeast she carried in her backpack, carefully sealed in two separate jars and kept alive by adding flour and water on a regular basis. Commercially produced dry yeast was expensive, so her own cultured brand was as important for successful baking as any other ingredient. Her yeast had earned her some trade as well whenever she had met bakers who wanted to improve their own yeast-stock by adding a piece of hers to it. The mix she had was one she had kept alive for two years since leaving her home planet, and the only item she did not loose when Fred sent her belongings into space. To earn her ticket to that ride, she had spent three days baking and had kept her remaining yeast in a pouch inside her clothes to keep it warm and alive untill she could get hold of some flour and something sturdy to store it in.
Lou enjoyed the living, growing aspect of the yeast and felt genuine pride in her ability to keep her stock active. The smell of living, warm dough proved that her yeast was still fresh and thriving. Lou considered multiplying her yeast in several containers to sell off on Dorian. She always kept two going in case one went bad or became contaminated.
"That smells like home," Wash said with nostalgia in his voice from the stairwell up to the cockpit.
"It's for the breakfast buns," Lou smiled at him.
"So, you were serious when jou promised three meals of fresh food?" Wash asked.
Lou nodded and gave the dough a final turning over before sprinkling a thin layer of flour over it, covering it with a cloth and setting it to prove.
"There is cured ham and eggs if you want something for your evening meal," Lou nodded before adding a generous spoonful of flour to the yeast and pouring in water to make a mushy mess.
"Mind if I ask what planet you're from?" Wash asked as he carved a slice of ham from the chunk on the table.
"Valhalla," Lou answered.
"Really? Well that explains knitting and bees..." Wash said.
"Yup. Us norse-folk had the last living bees on earth and my grandmother took five queens with her from earth to the new rock when it was terraformed," Lou said with pride.
"So you had honey," Wash asked hopefully.
"Yep. By the time I left we had 50 hives. All different queens and 10 in each place. I was kept busy in autumn going between my sets harvesting honey," Lou said with a grin sensing the direction of the conversation.
"And you made beer?" Wash hinted.
"Beer, candles, cosmetics, sweets, medicine, you name it..." Lou smiled.
"But you haven't got any with you?" Wash asked.
"Sorry. I traded most and lost the rest. My niece is in charge of the bees now though so hopefully she has kept them alive. Why do you ask?" Lou wondered.
"I had some honey a few years ago and it was the best thing I ever tasted..." Wash said with a dreamy smile.
"I will get you some if we pass my rock," Lou promised.
"Valhalla is a fair way out though. In a different solar system," Wash said.
"It is," Lou confirmed.
"Not a lot of people living there if I remember correctly," Wash said.
"Nope. Mostly green grass and forests," Lou said.
"Do you think there would be place for a homestead there for Zoe and me if I could ever convince her to settle down?" Wash said.
"There is enough land. But if you have to convince her, I don't think it would be a good idea. You need to find somewhere you both can imagine living," Lou said.
Wash nodded thoughtfully.
"Where does Zoe want to live?" Lou asked.
"Right here on this heap of metal...." Wash said tapping his foot on the floor. "She is too attached to Serenity and Mal to imagine living anywhere else."
"He seems to invoke a sense of loyalty," Lou said sensing a chance to find out more about her brother in law.
"Attracting strays and orphans more like," Wash grinned. "Each of us are running, hiding or rootles. Life on this boat makes us believe we are part of something rather than without anything."
"How so?" Lou asked.
"We have... well... I might as well start with myself. No future to speak of. Grew up in a slum city on Juno to a handyman father and a washerwoman mother and flying is pretty much all I know how to do. I walked onboard a rustbucket of a firefly, hoping it would take me to somewhere where I could get a pilot-job on a freighter or an alliance transport. You know... something safe, steady, predictable income... Then I saw Zoe, with those endless legs and she absolutely despised me, but I was done for and bound forever to whatever she wants.," Wash said smiling into thin air.
"Then we have Kaylee, could have any man she wants if she just figured out that she is pretty, but she compares herself to Inara and thinks she looks like a boy. She left a hick town where her job was fixing tractors, looks at the positive side of anything. For some reason she has a knack with engines and she is practically married to Serenity. Jayne ended up with us from God knows what kind of criminal past. Not sure why we keep him but I suppose we need a guard dog. Book, the shepherd with a scary knowledge of war and guns.
Then there are the Tams. Simon risked his medical licence and his life to save his genious sister from some weirdo institution where they cut her brain open and made her go loopy-lou. The Alliance wants her back... or more specifically they want her brain, or whatever they did to her brain, back. If they are caught, River will be locked up and cracked open again and Simon will end up in prison.
So you see... we are all oddballs.
All.. apart from Inara and I have not got the faintest idea why she decided to rent a shuttle with us rather than some luxurious abode on an inner planet. God knows she is beautiful enough to attract top paying clients, but she still sticks with us." Wash explained.
Lou smiled at Wash, grateful for the run through.
"You'll fit right in," Wash said.
"I hope so," Lou replied.
"You will. Mal just needs some space to figure out if he needs you enough to help you. He tries to do without family, but seems to forget that we're all family on this tub," Wash said.
Lou was grateful for the conversation. She dug through her bag pulling out the socks she had picked out earlier.
"You've got pilot duty for a few hours right?" She asked
"Yep," he said.
"Any chance of leaving you to hand these out? I haven't slept in an actual bed for months and the thought of that soft, comfy bunk all to myself is making me feel tired," Lou said with a yawn.
"Sure thing," Wash said.
Lou left him with the socks.
"I'll tidy the foodstuff in the morning. Just tell folks to help themselves," she told Wash as she left the dining area.