Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

Inara's leaving party.

The rest of the day was spent preparing and helping Kaylee fix the transport vehicles. Wash and Kaylee were rebuilding while Zoe, Mal, Jayne and Lou were digging for parts.
On occasion, one of them would dig out some ancient piece of tech and exclaim something about ot being sellable on the aniques market. Lou didn't greatly care about keeping old scrap so she put all the old stuff in a corner thonking it might be useful to pay Mal back for all his kindness if the treasure hunt went wrong.
In the innermost dark corner of the shed, Lou was tugging on a piece of metal that wouldn't budge when a hand reached past her, lifting it loose as if it was a piece of paper.
"And here I was, thinking all that weight training actually worked," Jayne chuckled lifting the top off an old engine to haul out to Kaylee.
It was so tight, he was almost touching her.
"You just haven't seen the results yet," Lou said lifting an eyebrow.
He just grinned and returned to the Kaylee with the haul.

Later, Lou was sitting at her dining table rereading the letter and thinking of all the meals shared, fights and conversations she had had at that table. Danny, Giles and Joseph had built the house while she was carrying Saphire. As Lou's body had expanded, her home had been completed and suddenly she had her very own house. Danny had built the table from rough hewn planks, levelled and sanded smooth. On either side ran long benches from the same kind of rough wood. Lou remembered the pride in his face as they had their first meal, sat at his hand made table. Reading his words made her wonder what else he never told her.
Inara came in, saw Lou and stopped in her tracks. Her eyes were perfectly made up but she had been unable to hide the bloodshot look of recent tears.
Lou stood up quickly and gave her a warm hug.
"I'm OK," Inara said before Lou had a chance to ask.
"I don't think you are," Lou replied.
"I will be once I get some distance," Inara said with resentment.
"What happened?" Lou asked.
"That's just the problem. Absolutely nothing happened," Inara smiled sadly.
"And if it did?" Lou asked.
"It won't be worth it," Inara shook her head.
"You need a cup of tea," Lou stated, figuring that this was not the time to push her friend to talk.
As Lou boiled water and set the tea to steep, Inara picked up the letter and read it carefully.
"Amazing isn't it. He knew Duggar was coming and he never said a word," Lou said unable to hide a tone of anger from seeping into her voice.
"He wanted to shield you," Inara suggested.
"We all thought they came for Giles' debts. I have been blaming my brother for bringing the gunslingers here. It cost me two years of searching. Two years without my girls!" Lou said, venting her frustrations.
"I don't suppose he knew what to say," Inara said.
"Yeah. But it makes me so mad! He could have told me. He trained me. Taught me to fight and shoot so I could defend myself, but he never warned me," Lou replied.
Inara picked up the locket and studied the pictures inside.
"He was such a beautiful boy," Inara smiled.
Lou cocked her head seeing the soft light in her friend's eyes as she studied the photo. Inara looked up, catching Lou's eyes.
"Oh. Don't look at me like that!" She chastised.
"Just thinking you'd make an exellent mother, is all," Lou smiled.
"I've accepted a position as teacher at the academy, Lou. That will be enough," Inara said.
"Saphire will be extatic to hear it," Lou smiled and hugged Inara.
"You have made up your mind then?" Inara asked.
"I guess I have. If she doesn't want to become a companion, the schooling will still help her," Lou nodded.
"It will mean letting go of her again," Inara said.
"Yes, but if you are there it means leaving her in the hands of my best friend rather than forcibly in the hands of rapists and murderers," Lou replied.
Inara sipped her cup of tea.
"Inara, will you please stay untill tomorrow?" Lou asked.
"Why?" Inara asked.
"I would like to give you a decent goodbye," Lou replied.

Lou decided to fix up a good old fashioned barbeque. In her garden she built a small pyre in the firepit for when the darkness fell and out of a closet she fetched an old, ratty but functioning guitar.
In her mind she was giving Inara a worthy farewell although they would still be on the same planet. Inara would be up in the mountains among Valhalla's famous orchards, while Lou would be in the grasslands with her family.
As Lou lined up bottles of her own recipe honey-beer and got the coals up into her barbecue.
River was in the kitchen preparing salad.
"You sure about her and them knives?" Jayne asked scratching the scar crossing his chest.
"I choose to trust her," Lou replied.
He grabbed a bottle of beer and sat at the table.
"You wanna watch that beer. Around these parts it's known as truth-serum," Lou smiled.
Jayne took a swig.
"It's just beer," he shrugged.
"Yeah, well.. I don't wanna miss out on your truthful sides, so you go right on drinkin'. But I ain't carrying you to bed," she giggled.
"You said bed. Not couch!" He said wiggling his eyebrows.
"Don't get your hopes up, sunshine. You still ain't admitted to liking me," Lou said hoping to wipe the smirk off his face.
"Well.. maybe I should just stick to water and you'll never find out," he said.
Lou placed a jug of water and a glass in front of him.
"A girl can only hope," she said patting his shoulder as she walked past. Before she could move on, he had grabbed her hand and pulled her back. She found herself sitting next to him, his face two inches from hers.
"Look here. I told you i ain't doing sappy stuff!" He said.
"Never asked for sappy," Lou teased.
"I just don't want you going all emotional on me again," he said with a small smile.
"Okay. Just answer one question," Lou said with a cunning grin.
He looked frightened.
"Relax, you wuss," Lou laughed making him frown.
She leaned in even closer, as if going for a kiss.
"I wanna know.... Could you please light the coals for me," she whispered seductively and grinned widely as he blinked in surprise as her words sunk in.
"Gotcha," Lou laughed.
"You are a gorram terror," he growled holding back a smile.
Lou's laugh was stopped as he suddenly, without letting go of eyecontact took the hand he was still holding, brought it up to his face and gently licked her palm. Lou felt her mouth fall open and her stomach plummet. The intimacy of that single act made her spine tingle and her toes curl. Her pulse was suddenly racing.
The smirk on his face showed that her reaction was not in any way lost on him.
"That tell you what you need to know?" He grinned.
"Hell yeah," Lou whispered still trying to get her breath, her head strangely spinning.
He chuckled and let go of her.
"Where are those matches?" He asked with a Cheshire-cat grin making Lou feel as if she had missed out on half the conversation.

As night fell and Lou's daughters had been tucked into bed, the Serenity crew all sat around the bonfire. Lou had tried to remember how to play the guitar, but had forgotten the skill somehow. To her surprise, Jayne picked it up and played rather beautifully.
Lou sat next to Mal. He was strangely quiet.
"So. You gonna tell me what's on your mind?" Lou asked.
"Just planning tomorrow," he said.
"Sure," Lou said not quite believing him. He sat with a twig in his hand throwing bits into the fire as he broke them off.
"Why don't you just talk to her?" Lou asked.
"To who?" Mal asked, trying to not understand Lou's question.
"You know that a single word from you will change her mind," Lou said.
"No. It won't," he said closing the subject firmly.
Lou patted his knee for comfort before getting up to get more beer. When she returned, a visibly drunk Jayne patted the place next to him in a not so subtle invitation.
Lou placed the beer within reach and decided to sit down and see what he wanted.
As she sat down he wrapped an arm around her pulling her in close to him.
"That's better," he mumbled.
Lou leaned back, resting her head on his shoulder, feeling how well his arm fit around her.
"How's your hand?" He smirked too low for anyone to hear.
"Yeah.. what the hell was that?" Lou asked.
"What's with the whispering?" Wash asked curiously.
"Oh, leave them alone. They are working things out," Kaylee giggled. She had sat herself in front of Simon. Simon was sat on top of a log with a leg either side of Kaylee, playing with her hair. Kaylee's face was the picture of bliss, while Simon looked like he was working up the courage to possibly touch her actual skin.
River was staring intently into the fire next to Shepherd Book who was half asleep from drinking honey beer.
Wash and Zoe were cuddled up and oposite to Lou, Mal had moved over to Inara with a good half metre between them, both being quiet.
"Thank you everybody. I appreciate tonight. I needed this opportunity to say goodbye," Inara said and stood up to leave. Throughout the night she had made rounds saying proper goodbyes to all of them.
As she turned to leave, Lou saw Mal grab her hand and without a word plant a gentle kiss on the back of it before releasing her. Inara turned with a smile and much lighter steps than she had earlier and went to sleep in her shuttle.
"Oh. So that's how it's done?" Jayne said nudging Lou.
"Oh shut up and go play with your rain stick," Mal snapped with a grin and threw a piece of twig across towards him.
"I plan to," Jayne grinned with a motion of his hand that made Lou cringe, laugh and blush at the same time.
Silently she asked herself as his fingrs drew gentle little circles on the bit of skin exposed over her jeans.
How did this crude, bloodthirsty lump of testosterone make her so comfortable?