Life’s Too Short- Part Three

These characters aren’t mine, but comments on them are nice!!! ☺

“Kaylee? Honey, are you in here?” Inara stood in the doorway to the engine room, looking in. She saw nothing at first, and then caught sight of an overalls-covered behind sticking out from underneath the main engine. Kaylee, the cheerful mechanic, twisted her head around and peered out at her.

“Oh, hey, ‘Nara! Can you hand me that wrench there?” Inara gingerly picked up the wrench and gave it to Kaylee, stepping carefully over a few small piles of wiring and parts.

“Where’s Simon? Mal said he was here with you.”

“Oh,” Kaylee grunted, head back beneath the engine, “He’s somewhere up near the infirmary, I guess.” Her elbow gave a violent spasm back towards where Inara stood, and then she crawled out from beneath Serenity’s heart with a grin. She was holding a twisted piece of metal in her hand and looking triumphant. “Got it!”

“Pulling Serenity’s teeth?”

“She was getting some trouble with this thing, an’ we don’t really need it.”

“Well,” Inara said as Kaylee tossed the part into one of the piles, “I was wondering.”

“Yeah?” Kaylee turned to fully face the Companion, and put her hands on her hips with a smile.

“The Captain told me we were landing on Whitefall in a few hours.”

“Whitefall?”

“Yes, he says everyone’s making a fuss about that.”

“Well, Cap’n can handle himself.” Inara chuckled.

“Yes, I suppose he can. Anyway, I wanted to know if you’d like to go with me in my shuttle to Orion.”

“Orion? But that’s just a little moon.”

“One of my past clients lived in a delightful city on Orion, and I’d been wanting to shop there since we were so close. Would you like to come?”

“Oh, yes!” Her face lit up. “Really?”

“Of course. I’ll go talk to Mal.” Kaylee’s face fell.

“He won’t never let us go.” Inara smiled at the younger woman, and Kaylee thought she saw something downright wicked in that smile.

“Oh, yes. He will.” Kaylee stared at Inara, then grinned.

“You gonna use your wile