Something To Think On: Chapter 5
Thursday, July 30, 2009
M/I. Post-BDM. Fear, and the lack thereof.
CATEGORY: FICTION TIMES READ: 2464 RATING: 10.0 (PG13) SERIES: FIREFLY
Something To Think On
by
Chapter Five
“Inara ain’t dead,” she’d said to him. As if he didn’t know. As if he hadn’t spent just about every second of the first few hours after he’d brought her body, limp in his arms, from her shuttle where he’d found her collapsed to the infirmary (where the boy wonder didn’t even do him the courtesy of looking surprised) tracking the rise and fall of her chest. Sometimes he’d miss a breath, shake his head, quick, to rattle himself alert, then stare till he caught the next one.
No, she wasn’t dead. He knew that. But he also knew from the look fixed on Simon’s face she was dying; had been for some time. Dead, dying. Dying, dead. Wasn’t much difference, really. They were all dying. They’d all be dead. And everybody dies alone.
It was strange to think on, though. It was one thing to think to himself she was sick through it all. Quite another, though, to think she was dying. First time he’d met her on Serenity: she was dying. When she’d taught Kaylee to make them finger-weavings: she was dying. When she’d told him about seducing, him nearly drowning in her voice and in her eyes: she was dying. When she’d strode onto Ihsan’s estate and paid him with her name: she was dying. When she’d told him she was leaving, should have long before: she was dying. Every time they’d fought: she was dying. Every time they’d laughed: she was dying. A million other little things she’d done, words she’d said: she was dying during all of them. Not just sick. Sick you get better from. Dying splits a body clear from its soul.
Seemed to him maybe that’s what she’d always been about: a body working to split from its soul, and finding out it don’t come clean.
It put a new spin on all
Ah, the first part, about Mal finally understanding and recognizing Inara's strength, and the bitter truth.
Hmm, Simon doesn't strike me as snarky here yet.
But it's so perfect when he goes to the infirmary, and he screws it up. And thinks that they're (especially Inara) still pretending.
"You can't take the sky from me!"
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