Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

treasure hunting part 2

Lou looked her hives over cheking that she had stacked them so they were windproof and seeing worker bees tentatively enter and exit most of them. She would return in a few weeks with more frames, but for now, the remaining bees would have to get peace and quiet to rebuild.
With a determined set she trudged over to the cabin where she lifted a floorboard and took out a shotgun and a rifle as well as two metal boxes of ammo. Quickly she loaded both guns and slung them over her shoulders. Next she stuck a hand into a recess of a cupboard and retrieved a menacing looking hunting knife.
"What the hell are you doing?" Mal asked.
"I'm gonna get rid of some vermin," Lou growled.
Jayne had forgotten his hangover at the sign of Lou's fighting mood.
"That sumbitch ain't gonna leave me or my family alone untill we're all broken or dead," Lou said looking straight at Mal.
Zoe stood at mule with a shotgun allready in her hand when Lou returned.
"Let's do this," Zoe said.
"Whoa... there are guns... and a slightly frightening Lou... what's going on?" Wash asked.
"Honey. You need to stay here with River. We got ourselves a fight," Zoe said.
"There's food in the cabin. Help yourselves to whatever," Lou nodded pasing the rifle over to Jayne.
"But.. what? Why?" Wash asked.
"Because Ted Duggar will stop at nothing. He will kill my bees and take my income. He will kill my family and burn my farm. He will take back whatever Danny stole and torture my family as interest. This is him playing cat and mouse!" Lou said bitterly indicating her hives.
"But you fixed them!" Wash said.
"Judging by how the bees had scattered, the damage was done a couple of days ago. Roughly around the time we arrived. Someone was waiting untill Serenity landed and this is their way of letting us know that hey are here," Lou said. "Thankfully he obviously knows nothing about bees or he would have crushed my queens."
"So you are going to take out some kneecaps and send for the sherrif?" Wash tried.
"Something like that... Wash, he will probably follow Serenity untill he gets whatever his twisted little black heart desires," Lou said and jumped into the driver seat of the mule.
"Do you know where to find him?" Mal asked and jumped onboard followed by Zoe and Jayne. River looked into the sky and following her line of sight, Lou spotted what she dreaded. Descending from a freighter was a shuttle.
"Well now I do..." she muttered.
She gunned the mule and shot off to where it looked like it would be landing.
"I kinda like you when you're pissed off," Jayne laughed behind her.
Lou slowed down just enough to safely turn around and look at him.
"You really know how to pick your moments, dont'cha," she said, drawn between staying angry and wanting to send him a smile.
"I'll shut up," he mumbled, suddenly realizing what he just said.
Lou laughed dryly.
Shaking her head, she sped up again thundering towards the shuttle.

Arriving at the shuttles landing site, Lou was greeted with a wide grin and a gun in his hand.
"Welcome home, little Lou. I hope your family are.... safe?" Duggar taunted.
"I am not here for conversation, you little rat," Lou said aiming her shotgun in his direction as she spoke.
Duggar grinned widely.
"I take it your bees were happy to see you?" Duggar smirked.
"Yeah. Thank you. I needed the extra work you ruttin amateur," Lou sneered.
"So. You found my money yet?" He asked.
"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't," Lou replied.
"Then, maybe that precious farm of yours is burned to the ground when you return or maybe you come back to nothing but empty buildings," Duggar grinned.
"You really need to start varying your threats," Mal said.
"Ah. Reynolds. Still holding on to your brother's widow. I heard she's quite a wild one. You tried her yet?" Duggar taunted looking at Lou with a leering grin.
Lou drew her breath. Mal smirked slightly.
"I wouldn't dare. Jayne would kill me," he mumbled under his breath making Lou suppress a smile.
"Jayne would like this over with so we can get to the cash," Jayne mumbled darkly behind them.
"And I thought chivalry was dead..." Lou said dryly.
"I don't care who Chivalry is or what he's done. Can we just shoot them and get done?" Jayne asked.
"Sure," Lou said and turned her face back towards Duggar.
"Here's how it is. You have no rights to be a bully. You sold out Shadow during the war. You kidnap children and force young'uns into mercenary life. I'm tellin you. No more!" Lou said.
Lou noticed a few shotguns and rifles aimed at her.
"Don't worry little Lou. Once these boys are done with you, I will make sure to take good care of your precious family. That oldest girl put up a fight, but I got some boys here not minding that kinda fire," Duggar laughed.
"Don't you even think about touching
my children again," Lou snarled.
"And you plan to stop me how?" Duggar grinned.
"Like this," Lou said and fired her shotgun at his chest sending him sprawling.
Before anyone could think, she fired her next round at the one cronie she thought looked most likely to spring into action. One pirate turned heel and ran for the shuttle receiving a bullet from Jayne's rifle. Lou walked calmly up to Duggar.
"You thought you could make me less than I am. Well guess what! Because of you I know what I am able to do to protect my own. And I realize that you are nothing but an inconsequential wasp," she said standing over him.
Duggar's breath came in gurgles but he still grinned at her. Slowly, Lou reloaded her shotgun.
"You know what they used to do to wasps on earth-that-was?" She asked.
Duggar shook his head suddenly looking insecure. Lou felt her gut clench at what she was about to do. She had to find the strength to do it for the people she loved.
"They used to smack them with rolled up newspaper. This here is my newspaper," she said and pointed the shotgun at Duggar's face.
Before she could change her mind, she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. When she opened them, Duggar's head was reduced to nothing but a big mess and Lou had, for the first time in her life, shot a defenceless man.
Jaw clenched and shaking uncontrollably, she looked up and saw her friends stare at her. Nobody was moving. Taking a few steps away from the mess, she folded over next to a boulder and threw up.
She wiped snot and gunk off her face with her sleeve, feeling absolutely exhausted, before turning to go back to where her friends were standing.
Suddenly a shot rung out and Lou was thrown backwards with a sharp sting to her lower abdomen. Zoe came running over and hauled Lou away from the line of fire while Jayne and Mal picked off the pirates with apparent calm precision.
Zoe lifted her shotgun and fired at a man sneaking up on the side before Lou allowed herself to fall back.
Suddenly everything went quiet and Lou saw three worried faces hovering above her.
"I'm good," she said lowering her jeans to show a dent in her hunting knife and the beginnings of a nasty bruise on her hipbone.
Jayne ran off to check the shuttle for hiding pirates and returned a few minutes later with a grin and a fist full of wiring from the engine.
"That was lucky," Zoe said checking Lou's injury.
"Yeah well. He didn't aim," Lou said and hauled herself up to stand.
"Let's go," Mal said and supported Lou over to the mule. She limped but knew she'd had worse. The knife had stopped the bullet.
Once on the mule she sat down and drew a tired breath. Zoe got up to drive, leaving Lou to sit back, staring at the horizon while fighting the tears.
Jayne put a hand on her leg. She turned to see a serious look in his eyes.
"Hey. You done good," he said softly. Lou felt her bottom lip quiver and turned back to stare into nothing for a while.
Once back at the cabin, Lou grabbed her overnight bag and pulled out a change of clothes and a towel before heading down to a small lake behind the cabin. Once there she peeled off the blood splattered clothes and threw herself into the water. The coolness surrounding her felt cleansing. With confident strokes, she swam accross and then back leaving the tension behind in every stroke.
When she got back to shore, Jayne was sat on a rock holding her towel.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Enjoying the view," he grinned.
Suddenly feeling very concious of her lack of clothing, Lou walked up and snatched the towel from him getting a hungry looking smirk as she wrapped it around her.
"I needed to rinse it off me," she mumbled.
"You ain't the killing sort," he said with a shrug, picking her clean tee up from the ground and holding it out towards her.
"What do you mean?" Lou asked trying to pull the tee on without dropping her towel.
"I've seen it before. You shot and killed before Lou. This one was just the first one you wanted to kill. Bound to make you wanna do stuff to feel alive," he said.
"So I throw myself into a cold lake," Lou said.
"Yep," he said.
"Sometimes you are surprisingly profound," Lou smiled.
"Seeing a woman in her alltogether does that to a man," he grinned.
"Well, you saw. Now turn and go so I can dress with my dignity partially intact," Lou replied.
"You forget. I've seen it all before," he said standing up, suddenly beeing very close.
Lou felt selfconcious.
"You'll be all right, Lou," he said seriously and left her to get dressed.
Once Lou was ready she walked back to her bees. She sat down to listen to their buzzing when River turned up.
"In ancient egypt they had a goddess of bees. They thought the bees took a persons soul and lifted it into the afterlife," River said sitting down and taking Lou's hand.
"That sounds nice," Lou replied.
"It is irrational, but Shepherd Book said that believing in something is important," River said.
Lou squeezed River's head, feeling her bottom lip quiver again.
"Maybe it would help if you ask your bees to transport the soul of the man you killed?" River suggested.
"Maybe," Lou smiled.
She drew a deep breath, deciding on a formal approach.
"Dear honorable bees. Today I killed the man who broke your homes. If it is so that you carry souls into the afterlife. If you look through the blackened mess of a spirit of this evil man and you happen to find a decent piece of soul in there, it would be nice if you could show him the path and help him move to wherever he is going," Lou said feeling slightly silly.
"That was beautiful," River nodded.
Lou lay an arm around her and gave her a hug.
"Sometimes your insight is very helpful, sweetheart," Lou said.