Patience and Skin

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based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon

"Of course, I've seen the bastard. Bloody well shot me and some of my best men." Patience looked at the woman, who she was sure she'd seen before, but then cast it out of her memory like she did anything that was unimportant. "What did you say you did?"

"I didn't. Someone told me you knew him and I thought I could jog your memory for the right price." The woman handed her a few bills. She wore a low cut top and around her neck lay an unspent bullet on a leather cord.

"Why would a pretty gal like yourself be looking for that no good low life?"

"Let's say I owe him one and figured he might want to collect."

"Just watch your back. He's known to carry a pretty long knife."

"Funny, that's what I heard about you. Maybe you knew he'd be carrying and you needed your men taken care of. Not wanting to get rid of them, yourself. Needed a man to do it for you."

"Got a mouth on you, don't you sweetie? Maybe you have forgotten who I am." Patience reached for her gun under the table, but before she could secure a finger on the trigger, she found herself staring down the barrel of a .44 magnum. "Aren't you just full of surprises?"

"You could say that. Now, information please, before I decide to finish what Mal started.”

"Last I heard, he had been attacked near Miranda, the planet where they say the Reavers came from. Said some operative was after him, Alliance hire."

"After the girl, I heard. River Tam?"

"He didn't have a girl with him when i saw. 'Course never approached the ship either so he could have." Patience waited a breath. "Gonna remove your gun?"

"Soon as your finger is off that trigger." Patience smiled and placed her hands on the table as the barmaid brought another round. The stranger's gun slide back into her lap as she threw back a shot.

"A favor, huh?"

"Maybe more." Her hand rubbed her shoulder as Patience caught sight of a tattoo, a symbol sketched in a bright red.