TITLE: A Good Hand
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
RATING: PG
POSTED: Aug. 16, 2004
SUMMARY: Kindness goes a long way.
NOTES: Response to an unfilled request for Kaylee (Firefly)/Teal'c (Stargate) in the Multiverse 2004 challenge. Many thanks for the hand-holding, back-patting, and betaing from Salieri. What little Chinese was used below came from LJC.
DISCLAIMER: Read

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He was a large man, the one coming along the walkway. Larger than Kaylee had ever seen outside a ranch planet. Didn't look like he'd have a lot of experience with the dust and tramplin' that went on in some of those places, though. Looked more like Alliance, all stern and straight, 'cept for that design on his forehead. Leaning way out on the chair, balancin' forward onto its front legs, that let her see better. It was so pretty the way the curls and swoops of that mark flashed in the overhead suns every time he came out from the shadow of another ship. He didn't wear gray, neither.

"Name's Serenity, and you won't find any sweeter," she said brightly when he got in range.

The man raised one eyebrow, grander than the Shepherd did, but he wasn't slowing a bit, not even glancin' at their sign. Giving her parasol a twirl and her face a smile, Kaylee hopped up from her chair and bowed. "Got the best ship in the 'verse right here. Take you anywhere you need to go, and do it in style."

That stopped him. But the way he stopped -- lookin' at her again, not checking the lines on Serenity at all -- it made her wonder what it was in her words that did the trick.

"It is not possible that any ship could take me where I need to go," he said in a rumbling voice, a voice that she couldn't believe didn't draw the folks around them. His voice wasn't all she wondered 'bout with him right there in front of her, though.

"You've got sadness in your eyes," she said, spacing the Captain's "all-purpose warning" and stepping closer. "Won't you let us try? It ain't a mistake she's called Serenity."

Both his eyebrows went up then, which showed his surprise better than an open mouth and didn't make him look dumb. "Serenity is not your name?"

"Naw." She grinned, tickled by the mistake. "Xièxie. Kaylee's mine. Nothing so nice as 'Serenity.'"

"Kaylee is a beautiful name," the man said, and she truly believed him when he said it like that, without no hesitation or anything. Because he said it like that, she wanted to help.

"There's got to be someplace we can take you, even if it gets you only a little closer to the planet you need. We'll go anywhere," she urged. Then the Captain's voice growled, Anywhere? in her head and she quickly said, "So long as it's not Core. This is as close as we get to Core planets."

His eyes dropped again, and she was almost glad they did, because that hid the pain she'd seen flare there...and just thinkin' that made her feel as low as she did when she sometimes wished River and Simon had found some other ship first.

"It is not a planet that I seek," he told her. That brought her attention back to him right quick and he sighed, like the Captain did when he gave in. "There is a device, but it has been destroyed."

"There ain't another?" she asked, because anyone who only made one of a thing...

"No."

"Well," Kaylee said, determined that she wasn't going to give up, "maybe I can build you another. I've got a good hand with all things device-like. Even Jayne said so, before the Captain kicked him."

She was happy to see the smile she got for putting in that little lie. It wasn't broad and happy, but she'd made him smile and it didn't disappear, not even when he started talkin' again.

"I do not doubt the skill of your hand," he said. "However, this device was built by others; I would be unable to describe its workings to you."

"Really?" Kaylee gnawed on the corner of her lip. "Maybe if you'd describe what it looked like, I'd recognize it. I see all kinds of stray and random things, hopping around like we do."

He shook his head and his face went grim again. Then, just when she was about to ask why he couldn't even try, he spoke up. "It was a mirror, built by another race long before my lifetime. Even the one I knew who, like you, had a...'good hand' could not replicate it before--"

He was going to say more, let her know what was really weighing his mind down, Kaylee would swear on that, but Wash came out right then, clompin' down the ramp. He paused only a second when he saw the man before his chest puffed up and his big "horse trader" grin popped onto his face. Kaylee sighed, knowing just what he'd say. And sure enough...

"This man bothering you, little lady?"

Rolling her eyes, she turned to the large man and frowned a bit when she saw how tense he held himself with his eyes on Wash. "Don't mind him," she said quickly. "Finest pilot around, but with Zoe not nearby to keep an eye on him, it's best when we can keep him on the bridge."

She laid a hand on the man's arm, just lightly, but she had to bite her lip not to gasp when he jerked away. Wash jumped forward, smile gone faster than cake around Jayne. Kaylee jumped, too, stickin' herself between them and keeping Wash from doing something really stupid.

Folding his hands behind his back, the man took one step away and bowed, just his head, not his whole body like she had. That made it somehow better, nicer, Kaylee thought. 'Nara would've done it like that.

"I am sorry," the man said, his voice even deeper. He looked up then, and Kaylee wanted to say something, 'cuz that sadness was gone now. It wasn't gone because he wasn't sad no more, though, it was just...gone. "I wish you good day," he said, and walked away.

Kaylee watched him go, watched the way he slid 'round all the other ships, paying attention only to the people and even them he only gave one look before moving on. She turned on Wash and slapped his arm.

"Ow!" he cried, but he was still watching the man, too, and couldn't mean it, she knew; she didn't feel any sting on her palm.

"Chûnrén. Why'd you do that?" she asked, really wishing Zoe was there so Wash was somewhere else. "He wasn't doing anything, just talkin' and being nice."

Frowning down at her, Wash rubbed his arm. "You're nice to everyone. That doesn't mean they're always nice, too, you know."

Kaylee scowled. "He was." Crossing her arms, she turned back to face the walkway with her nose in the air. "And you're going to have to do something really nice if you expect me to be nice to you now."

From the corner of her eye she saw Wash send one last look down the walkway, but unless he could see something more because he was higher up, the man had disappeared. Wash shook his head and gave her a grin, the one Zoe once called his imp-grin.

"I'll buy you an ice cream if we can sneak away before our illustrious but, sadly, not illustrated leader and my lovely lotus blossom get back," he offered.

She narrowed her eyes against a giggle at the idea of a picture-book Captain, trying to make it at least seem like she wasn't going to make it that easy. There wasn't any large dark figure coming back so she couldn't do anything 'bout that sadness now, and there was never any purpose in dwelling, but she wished...

"The Captain said something about stopping to test the waters at the bar on Sumnter Street," she said slowly, fluttering her eyelashes at Wash like one of those butterflies. "Said there's always last-minute business to be found near drinking."

In a grand show, Wash straightened the tie he didn't have, then grabbed her hand and tucked it into the loop of his left arm. "Away we go, then. Step lively. We wouldn't want all the treats to be gone before we've arrived."

Kaylee let go of that last wish and laughed. And then she made Wash run inside to tell Shepherd Book to come sit in the chair.

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