Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

Danny's secret.

The next morning Lou was sat with Giles at the dining table in her house looking at maps of the nearby area.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Giles asked.
"Anywhere Danny can have hidden a shuttle from a class 5 Tornado freighter," Lou replied.
"Are you sure about this Lou?" Her brother looked at her.
"What do you mean?" Lou asked.
"They are smugglers. Criminals. What if they get the money and run? Or kill us so they can have a bigger share," Giles asked.
"Coz we ain't that kinda crooks," Mal said entering the room.
Lou affectionately grabbed his hand as he came to the table. Following Mal was Zoe, Kaylee and Wash.
Lou stood up and grabbed cups from the cupboard before shaking the coffeepot to see how much was left. Quickly she set a new batch to brew.
"So. What direction are we looking at?" Mal asked studying the map.
Lou and Giles exchanged a look. Hers reassuring, his doubtful.
"Mama found Danny in this area. He told her he'd been walking for a week, might have been a lie, but that's what we have to go on," Lou said pointing to a wooded area on the map, close to a mountain range.
"Looks like that canyon is about there," Wash said pointing at a spot up in the mountains.
"Actually it's a gulley full of boulders. Nothing interesting," Giles shrugged.
Lou and Mal shared a smile.
"That's why that is where its a good place to start looking," Mal said.
"Give the gang a couple of days to rest, or go first, play later?" Lou asked.
"Definitely go get treasure before vacation!" Mal stated.
Inara came in with a determined set to her face. Mal's face tightened as she came in. Something had happened between the two of them on the way between Persephone and Valhalla, but neither Lou nor Kaylee had been able to get out of Inara what it was. Lou had not thought about it when she placed them in the same house, but if she had to guess it had something to do with Inara's decision to leave.
"I will be leaving for the temple this afternoon," Inara announced.
"For good or just for a while?" Lou asked.
"I will decide that before Serenity leaves," Inara smiled.
Lou and Kaylee both gave her a good hug.
"Your shuttle is paid up till the end of the month. You can take it where you want till then," Mal said seriously before turning back to the map.
"Thank you, Mal," Inara said overly politely.
Before anyone could do or say anything else, Jayne came sauntering in from the next room, yawning while picking his ear with a ridiculously large knife. Lou spotted her horrified brother's expression and cringed slightly while trying not to smile at the cave man heading in her direction.
"You were serious. He slept on the couch?" Wash laughed.
"Yep," Lou smiled.
"Jayne, buddy. You are a changed man. No longer the lost cause of anger and testosterone, but actually approaching human behaviour," Wash smiled.
"Shut up," Jayne mumbled and grabbed Lou's coffeecup out of her hand.
"And then he reverts to neanderthal," Lou said calmly, getting herself a fresh cup.
"Can we get on with this?" Mal asked impatiently tapping the map.
"Have we got anything else to give us a clue?" Zoe asked.
"I might have," Lou said suddenly remembering something that Danny had stashed away. She hurried up into the loft and returned with a faded canvas shipsbag.
"This is everything Danny had when he came here eleven years ago," she said and proceded to unpick the knot holding it closed at one end. In her kitchen she had a lot of floorspace to allow the children to spread their toys around, so without too much seremony she tipped the whole thing out on an empty bit of floorboard.
Out rained ratty old jeans, dogeared books and quite a few bits of broken weapons along with a few other items.
To her surprise, an envelope with her name on it lay on the floor, along with a wooden horse and a wind-up childrens toy she had never seen before. Mal picked the wind-up toy and studied it carefully.
"I was sure this was gone with everything else on Shadow," he whispered before winding it up and carefully setting it on the table to play a wistful off-key lullaby.
"It used to be mine," he said with a sad smile towards Lou.
"It is still yours," Lou replied and patted his hand.
Jayne was eyeing all the weapons bits looking at Lou in a way that reminded her of a puppy.
"Go.. pick up whatever and see if it can be used for anything," Lou smiled at him.
Within a few minutes, Jayne was sat at the table with a happy smile and umpteen little pieces of an unknown amount of different weapons in front of him. Kaylee decided to join him in looking for useful bits. Despite her dislike of guns she still liked figuring out how things were made.
What was left were the clothes, books , the wooden figure and the envelope with Lou's name on it.
Lou picked it up and opened it with shaking hands. The peole around her went quiet. In the envelope, Lou found a gold necklace in the shape of a heart that made Mal draw a sharp breath. She looked at it, and discovered it was a locket, which she opened to find a photo of a woman with a cowboyhat and a shotgun. She handed it over to Mal. He studied the photo carefully. Then he carefully picked out the photo to reveal another behind it of two young boys, each in a cowboyhat, the oldest with an arm around the youngest.
"I think that might be yours too," Lou smiled.
"No. It was adressed to you," Mal replied.
Lou looked at the two boys, immediately seeing Brooke's features in the face of the youngest, but to her surprise suddenly realizing that Saffy's poker straight hair was identical to that poking out from the older boy's hat.
"Is there anything else in that envelope?" Zoe asked.
Lou looked and found a letter written in a clumsy, hurried handwriting.
She read it out loud:

"Dearest Lou.
I don't call you that too often, but it might be the last time, so I need you to know how much it meant to me when you took me in. I've been a jackass more times than I want to remember, but you always took me back.
Anyway. This time I really screwed up, and in a few days some bastards from my past will probably turn up to claim something I took last time I saw them.
I have avoided them untill now, but now they are in Thingwall and I can't hide no more.
Remember where we went that time when you told me I could either commit or get the first boat off the rock? Fatherhood was not what I wanted. I took you there to show you where to go if you'd ever need money for the baby. Of course you convinced me to stay before I could show you the spot, but I returned later to mark it. You will recognise the mark when you see it.
The necklace was my mother's. She and my big brother Mal had faith in me, and I have let them down. If you ever find Mal, just let him know. Well. Just tell him I wanted to find him.
I will try to keep you and the girls safe and hopefully I can burn this letter in a few days.
If not:
Thank you for believing in my good sides.
Danny"

Lou took a deep breath.
"He knew," Lou whispered.
Inara came over and wrapped her arms around Lou. Lou hugged her friend back.
"It's okay. He was just always such a vague bastard!" She shrugged.
"Any idea what it might mean?" Mal asked.
"He completely flipped when I told him Saffy was due, so I told him it wasn't a choice and that I was having her with or without him," Lou said.
"What did you do to convince him to stay?" Kaylee asked.
"Didn't sound much like he wanted to be a father," Mal said studying the letter.
"He took me up to this ridge and said he was going to leave, but he wanted me to see something. I guess I got mad and told him my mind about responsibility, coz suddenly he said he'd stay," Lou replied.
"Where was this?" Mal asked suddenly turning back to the map.
Lou pointed out a cliff edge.
"Oddly enough it's the same spot he fell off when he broke his leg a year earlier," Lou suddenly realised. She looked at Giles.
"He didn't follow the damned calf! He was gonna get his cash and leave! Ruttin, lying, crap-for-brains!" She swore.
Giles looked guilty.
"Giles?" Lou asked.
"I overhead him at a bar in town taking a bet on getting 'that norse filly all fired up', so I told him to leave," Giles looked apologetic.
Lou heard a low chuckle from the end of the table.
"What? There's two kids to prove he won the bet," Jayne grinned when Lou shot him a glare.
"So how do we get there?" Mal said, still intent on the treasure hunt.
"The hovercraft has been bust for over a year, so horses or a 4-wheel mule, " Giles replied.
"Horses take at least two days to get there," Lou said.
"Our mule is a no-go," Giles replied.
"Kaylee. Sounds like there's work to do," Mal smiled towards Kaylee.
Lou took Kaylee out to a run down shack behind the barn where a big pile-up of old machinery was stashed.
"Think you can figure something out out of this jumble of junk?" Lou asked.
"Sure. Just need some help moving bits and parts," Kaylee grinned studying what looked to Lou like an archaeological dig site.
"I'll help," Jayne said from behind Lou.
"Shiny!" Kaylee smiled.

Soon they had identified an old rickety mule and a slightly newer hovercraft. Kaylee had them dragged out and fixing whatever needed done. Lou decided to return to the house after five minutes of feeling utterly useless.
On her way out, Jayne grabbed her. He looked like he was going to say something and then changed his mind.
"Errmm... any chance of you bringing me some breakfast?" He asked looking a bit sheepish.
"You know where the kitchen is," Lou said.
"Yeah.. I kinda need to help Kaylee," he said.
"Go eat! I'm good for a while," Kaylee smiled.
Lou shrugged and left for the house.
She heard heavy footsteps behind her.
Halfway she turned walking backwards a few steps.
"How's the couch?" She smirked.
"Not as bad as I thought," he shrugged.
"Shame..," Lou said and turned to go up to the house again.