Kaylee’s Lament

Part Nineteen

“How long we been in here?” Zoe asked, ugly hat slumped down over her temporarily horribly scarred face.

“Don’t know,” Mal said, his head pillowed by his arms. He had managed a few ten-minute catnaps, switching off with Zoe, but he had a hard time sleeping on the stainless steel bench. Cold, hard, frozen ground, covered with rubble and blood and mud and rain and eight other kinds of nastiness – that, he could sleep on. A stainless steel bench that seemed to be just an inch short of wide enough, no matter how he turned, that he had trouble with. “They took my watch.”

“Can’t be more’n two hours,” she said. “They should be about to try something heroically stupid.”

“That’s what I’d be doing,” Mal agreed. “Let’s see, which they get first: us or Serenity?”

“Toughie,” Zoe admitted. “I’d go for us. We’re better assets in the short term.”

“I think it’ll be the ship. Don’t forget, Jayne’s in charge. He’ll want to nail that ship down before he does anything stupid.”

“I think Inara’s gonna have a say,” Zoe insisted. “And if Wash is involved, he’s definitely gonna have a say. And Kaylee.”

“Nah, I still say the ship. We’re kind of expendable.”

“You think my man is going to ever find him something this good again?” she gave a harsh laugh. “No, they’re gonna get us out, first.”

Mal lifted his head and looked at her. “How much?”

“Fifty? Same as those per diems – which should still work, I’d wager.”

“You just did.” They shook on it. They shook on all their private bets, from how many rollers were going to roll on over them in the War to how many times Jayne and Simon would get into it any particular evening.

“There is the third possibility,” she said, after a while.

“That they ain’t comin’ for us?”

“Crossed my mind.”

“Nah. Never happen. Only been a couple o’ hours. They’re probably still in the planning stages. They won’t want to rush anything, do anything stupid. Especially your man.”

“Ha! My hubby? Likely hiding in a trash chute som