FIC: Different Eyes 5/6
Oct. 1st, 2005 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhalachaiDifferent Eyes part 5/6
by Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Spoilers: All of Firefly, same for Anita Blake.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own all things Firefly. Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Note: This story is, and will remain, SPOILER FREE for the movie.
Summary: Serenity gets four new passengers and, as usual, things are not as they seem.
~~. Part One .~~ ~~. Part Two .~~ ~~. Part Three .~~ ~~. Part Four .~~ ~~. Part Five .~~ ~~. Part Six .~~
~~*~~
Mal gripped the metal railing so hard that the metal cut into his palms. He didn't understand what he had just seen, or what had happened. He would have sworn that the black box was too small to hold a body. But it wasn't, Mal realized, taking in the shattered remains of the box. It was just big enough to hold a corpse, an unmoving, unbreathing body.
Yet that corpse was up and moving around, holding onto Anita as tightly as it could.
Anita raised her eyes from the man, who she'd called Jean-Claude, to Mal. Mal was so angry that he couldn't see straight, and she just stood there looking at him.
The wolf, a real goram wolf, gave a short bark and nuzzled against Jean-Claude, licking his face. To all appearances, that wolf had to be Richard, licking his own blood off the man's face. How could Richard be a wolf, after having his throat torn out not one minute before?
At Mal's side, Inara made a small sound, and it pulled Mal back to himself. "Stick around Jayne," he murmured.
"What?" Inara asked.
"Stick with Jayne or Zoe," Mal repeated. "Someone with a gun." He pried his hands off the rail and headed for the stairs. It was high time that these people told him what the hell kind of craziness they'd brought on board his ship.
Anita helped Jean-Claude to his feet and put his arm across her shoulder, then helped him walk across the floor of the cargo hold toward the passenger dorms. The wolf, so big that its shoulders reached Anita's waist, walked at her side.
Anita paused by Nathaniel, but he shook his head. Nathaniel stood and quickly walked to Zoe, still holding Ashley tightly. "I can take him," Nathaniel said, holding out his hands.
Mal couldn't see Zoe's face as he continued down the stairs, but he heard her say, "Your neck's bleeding."
"It's fine," Nathaniel said. "Please give me my son."
Zoe loosened her hold on the boy, who almost jumped into his father's arms, clinging to the man like a limpet. Nathaniel backed against the wall to let Anita and Jean-Claude through the door.
Mal gave Zoe a look as he passed. They had worked together for so long, he didn't need to tell her to get armed and to keep alert, protect everyone else on board. She returned his glare. She knew where he was going, and that nothing she said would be able to convince him to change his mind. That didn't mean she wasn't pissed about it, though.
Simon hovered anxiously by the infirmary door as Anita guided Jean-Claude down the stairs. "You should probably bring him in here," the doctor said, and Mal wondered what he had seen of the attack in the hold.
Carefully, Anita helped Jean-Claude navigate the stairs, as the man's legs didn't seem to be working right. When they reached the floor, Jean-Claude's knees buckled and Anita caught him before he fell.
"Come on, almost there," she said in a voice that Mal almost didn't recognize.
Jean-Claude regained his feet and walked unsteadily into the infirmary.
Simon looked at Mal, confused. "All I heard was screaming," Simon said. "Where did he come from?"
"That is a question that I seek to have answered," Mal replied. A flash of colour around the corner made Mal turn his head. River stood by Book's room door, a stubborn expression on her face. "River, go up to Zoe," he ordered.
River shook her head. "Sleeping man can't stop the teeth," she said.
So she had seen what occurred in the hold. "No one's going to be attacking the preacher," Mal said.
River shook her head again, her hair falling over her eyes in a move too much like the bloody man in the infirmary for Mal's comfort.
"Are we in danger?" Simon asked, his eyes darting to River, then lifting to the general direction of the engine room.
"We're always in danger," Mal retorted. "You go sit with River, make sure that the preacher's okay." That ought to get the doctor out of harm's way. Sure, it left Mal standing alone with these people, but then no one else in his crew would get hurt.
Once Simon reluctantly crossed the floor, Mal took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He really wished that he had a bigger gun, but even Jayne's Vera wouldn't make him feel secure in walking into that room. He went in anyway.
Anita had sat Jean-Claude in the examination chair and was helping him to wash the blood off his face. The wolf stood between the chair and the door, and growled at Mal as he entered the room.
"I'm sure you don't mind us using your infirmary," Anita said.
"The hell I don't," Mal said, unable to look away from the wolf. The thing was challenging him, he knew. He had never seen an animal with such intelligence in its eyes, and Mal no longer doubted that the animal was really Richard. But how could it be?
"Too bad," Anita said. She pushed the tangle of black hair off Jean-Claude's face. The man only had eyes for Anita, staring at her as if she was the only real thing in his world. "How are you doing?" she murmured to Jean-Claude.
"Where..." the man's voice broke, and he cleared his throat. "How long was I in there?"
"A little over four years," Anita said, her voice a disturbing mix of pain and sorrow and regret.
"Four years," Jean-Claude breathed. "Then that little boy out there..."
"That's Ashley," Anita said. "I wanted to leave him at home, but Damian couldn't keep him safe and be in charge of everything at the same time."
"You left Damian behind?" Jean-Claude asked. He frowned, more personality seeping into his face. "He is not harmed, by you being so far--" For the first time, Jean-Claude looked around, his eyes lingering on Mal for a moment in a way that Mal found very disconcerting. There was a hunger there, and it didn't look like food-hunger. "Ma petite, where are we?"
"We're almost to Gunnerole, to Charlotte's people in Black Canyon," Anita said.
Jean-Claude's eyes grew wide. "So far out?" he demanded. "Non, non, you should have left me, if they find you out here--"
"Hey!" Anita exclaimed, taking Jean-Claude's face in her hands. "I wasn't going to leave you! I couldn't lose you!" She wrapped her arms around him, holding him as tightly as he had held her, minutes before.
Mal shook his head. Every word they uttered just added to the mystery. He needed answers, and didn't have time for a touching reunion. "Anita," he said. When she had pulled back enough to see him, he went on. "Perhaps you'd care to explain to me why you felt the necessity to bring someone on board my ship in a crate?"
Not that he didn't have enough problems with the last person who came onto his ship in a box, he reminded himself. But at least River never tore anyone's throat out with her teeth.
Anita looked past Mal at the open infirmary door. "Shut the door and I'll tell you."
Her voice strongly reminded Mal of that old nursery rhyme his old grandmother used to tell him. Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly. "I'm not exactly seeing the benefit to me in that offer."
Anita suddenly pushed away from Jean-Claude. "You don't understand!" she shouted. "Just by being here, we're putting everyone in danger! By being so far out, everyone we meet is at risk! Anyone who hears this puts their life on the line!"
The wolf looked at her, then left its place on the floor between Mal and Jean-Claude to pad over to Anita. It licked her arm, then took her hand in its jaws. Mal had his gun halfway out of its holster before he realized that the wolf was just trying to get her attention, not biting down.
Heart pounding, Mal eased his gun back into its holster. Jean-Claude regarded him curiously now, but after a cursory glance, Mal would not look into the man's eyes. It was almost as if the man could read his mind.
Hoping with all his might that he wasn't making a fatal mistake, Mal turned around and slid the infirmary door shut.
"All right, then." Mal leaned against the door, his hand on his hip near his gun. "Why'd you pack him into a box?" He wanted to only ask the one question, but all the other unanswered mysteries beat at his brain, and the words kept spilling out of his mouth. "Why'd he try to eat Richard? And what exactly happened to Richard?"
The woman pushed her hair away from her face, and for the first time that day, Mal caught sight of her wrist. The long cut that had graced her pale skin yesterday was gone.
"Jean-Claude's a... well, he's a bit different," Anita said, but Mal was already shaking his head.
"No way, not this time. These ain't no exploding Reavers, this is my crew on my ship!" Mal exclaimed, nearly yelling.
"What do you want me to say?" Anita shouted back.
"How about the truth?"
"You can't handle--" Anita stopped herself mid-sentence. "I'm not going there," she said under her breath. "What I said, before, I wasn't joking about that. If the authorities learn that I've told you all this, then you are dead. Do you understand?"
"And I'll say it again," Mal replied. "You're going to tell me what's going on, or we are going to have a problem."
Jean-Claude, who had been watching the exchange, interrupted. "Ma petite."
Anita looked at him, and they seemed to communicate silently. "Right," she muttered. She began to unbutton her jacket. "Promise me you won't interfere," she said to Mal.
"Interfere in what?"
The jacket fell to the ground, and Anita lifted her hands to the top buttons on her shirt. "Do you really want the truth?" she asked, smoothing the cloth back from her throat.
Mal suddenly found it difficult to breathe. "Yes," he said, although he was beginning to doubt that.
Anita's eyes were wide as she looked at him, weighing what she saw. Such ancient eyes. "Jean-Claude's a vampire."
"No," Mal said immediately. "Ain't no such things as vampires."
"Just as there are no such things as werewolves," Jean-Claude said, the sarcasm thick in his cultured accented voice. "Are you really so sure of that?"
The wolf stood and paced across the room. Mal wanted to deny it all, because this talk of vampires and werewolves was a thousand types of crazy. But he'd had a perfect view of Richard in the cargo hold, as the man's body split open and the wolf had formed in its place.
"I need you to not interfere," Anita continued as she climbed up onto the examination chair and settled herself in Jean-Claude's lap.
Mal licked his lips. "What are you going to do?" he asked, even though he had a bit of an inkling.
Anita turned her head to look at him. "He needs blood."
Blood. Jean-Claude had ripped up Richard's throat, had very nearly done a similar number on Nathaniel, and she was going to offer up her neck to him? Mal tried to protest, but it seemed as if he had forgotten how to speak.
Jean-Claude sat up as Anita pulled her hair to the side and tilted her head, offering the man her bare neck. The man licked the corner of his mouth as he put one hand on Anita's back, the other hand cradling her head. As he opened his mouth, Mal saw the points of his fangs.
The man, or vampire, or whatever the hell he was, sighed, then used those fangs to pierce the skin on Anita's throat. She tensed for a second, her thighs tightening around Jean-Claude's hips, then she let out a soft moan and relaxed into his hold as Jean-Claude set his mouth over the wound and began to suck.
It wasn't like eating, not in any way Mal had ever seen. It was too close to sex, the way Jean-Claude held Anita, the way her mouth was half-open, her eyes closed. Mal wasn't much into watching, but this whole thing made him feel like a voyeur. He looked away, and found the wolf staring up at him, unblinking.
Crossing his arms, Mal turned away slightly and examined the walls of the infirmary. His head spun with the little bits of information Anita gave him. All his life, Mal had scoffed at the idea of magic, and vampires and werewolves were just another part of that. Right?
But so were mind-readers. Mal hadn't ever thought that someone could read another person's thoughts, not until he'd heard River do it, in her fragile child's voice and broken words. She knew things, things she couldn't. There wasn't an explanation for it, but Mal hadn't ever thought it was magic.
He looked back at the wolf. Richard had seemed like a normal man, friendly and confident, even if he was a little too strong. Was that it? Part of being a werewolf? Mal desperately wanted to protest, wanted to take himself an hour back in time, so he didn't ever need to know about this kind of thing.
Jean-Claude, his eyes glowing unnaturally, sat back, wiping his mouth with his hand. Anita swayed for a moment, but then opened her eyes. "Was that enough?" she asked.
Jean-Claude nodded, his eyes returning to normal. "I have had my fill."
Anita carefully climbed off his lap, a bit unsteady on her feet, but she managed to pull up the small stool and sit down before looking expectantly at Mal.
A thousand questions in his head, Mal settled on the most pressing one. "Why would the Alliance want us dead if we learned about this?" he asked.
Anita sighed. "You have to promise me that you won't tell a soul about this."
"If it's so secret, then why are you planning on telling me?"
"Because you're like me," Anita said. "You won't ever stop until you learn the truth, and if you go looking for it, people are going to hear, and you are going to die. This way, you might have a chance at no one finding out that you know."
Mal blinked. The logic was convoluted, and he wasn't sure he was too pleased with the comparison, but deep down, he knew she was right. He'd keep digging until he figured it out.
"So. Vampires," he prodded.
"How much do you know of the exodus from Earth?" Anita asked.
"Earth-that-was?" Mal frowned. What could this have to do with anything? "Planet got used up, everybody left."
"Not everyone." Anita reached over and put her hand over Jean-Claude's, holding on as if in need of reassurance. "Well over five hundred years ago, a few countries acknowledged vampires, let them live out in the open. That charming sentiment lasted for about thirty years, but by then the vampires were growing in number and in impact."
"So they banned us again," Jean-Claude said. His voice was so cold that Mal suppressed a shiver. "One day, we were part of the community, the next..."
"The next, the police were authorized to shoot them in the street," Anita continued. There was a deep buried pain in her words. "We managed to get most of them hidden, but not everyone." She took a deep breath.
"We?" Mal demanded. "Who's 'we'?"
"Me and Jean-Claude, and the others," Anita said.
That would make Anita over five centuries old. Mal opened his mouth to object, but was it any stranger for her to be so old, on top of vampires and werewolves?
"It didn't stop there," Anita continued. "People were also getting nervous with lycanthropes and witches, anyone magical. During the skylifts, the government began testing everyone before tossing them into the ships, to make sure they didn't have any preternatural characteristics. Anyone who did, got left behind."
"Wait a minute," Mal said, pushing off the wall. "The history all said that no one was left on Earth."
Anita gave him a look. "They lied to you," she explained. "They made us into ghost stories, fairy tales. They thought if they left us with a barren planet, we'd die off and leave them in peace. That they could forget about us."
"Earth-that-was exploded," Mal said. "It's gone."
"No, it's not," Anita said solemnly. "Now do you understand?"
He did, and he had to take a moment to deal with the enormity of the concept. If people knew that Earth-that-was still existed... There wasn't a power in the 'verse to keep them from heading back.
"Why do I believe you?" he asked. He shook his head. "It all sounds like fancy lies."
"It does, doesn't it?" Anita said absently. She let Jean-Claude turn her hand over and stroke her palm with his fingers. "All I can say is that I'm not lying."
Mal paced across the room, keeping as far as he could from the wolf. "So why are you out here?"
"That is an excellent question, ma petite," Jean-Claude said. "What happened?"
"Don't you know?" Mal asked.
"Non, I do not," Jean-Claude said.
Anita gently withdrew her hand and stood up. "It was Marcel's people," she said to Jean-Claude. "He hadn't forgiven us for defeating him in the last battle, so he managed to get to you before I knew what was going on."
Jean-Claude went still, with the sort of motionlessness that only dead bodies had. "He slew Asher with his own hand, and you say he had not forgiven us?" the man said flatly.
She turned away from him and placed both hands on the cool metal of the wall. "That's what he told me."
The room grew so silent that Mal could hear the ticking from Serenity's engine. "When did you see Marcel?" Jean-Claude finally asked.
"When I bargained for your release," Anita said without turning around. "We knew he'd gotten off planet with you, but it took me three years to find out where. I knew he still had you in a cross-wrapped coffin and that you weren't dead, but that's all we knew."
"So you came to get me," Jean-Claude said.
"Yes." Anita traced patterns on the wall with her fingers. "I had to."
"And you brought Richard and Nathaniel and your son," Jean-Claude continued. "What did you bargain with?"
Anita finally turned around. Mal saw the answer in her eyes, and he had to look away.
"No, ma petite" Jean-Claude said vehemently. "Tell me that you didn't."
"I had to," Anita protested, a fine tremor in her voice. "Marcel would have killed Richard or Nathaniel, but not me."
Jean-Claude glared down at the wolf, which cringed. Anita rushed to the animal's side.
"Don't do this!" Anita exclaimed. "I did what I had to do, I got you out and no one had to die!"
"How long?" The words dropped like stones in the air.
Anita ran her hands over the wolf's head, unable or unwilling to look up. "A week," she whispered.
It was as if Mal wasn't even in the room. Jean-Claude went still again. "You should have left me," he said after a minute.
"No, I shouldn't have!" Anita almost shouted. "It was only a week and he didn't do anything-- I'll be fine, I promise!"
Jean-Claude got to his feet. "Was there nothing else he wanted?" the vampire demanded. "Was there nothing else Marcel would have accepted in trade for my freedom, other than your body?"
Anita's hands stopped moving. Mal couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew what she was doing, had seen it in many a soldier in the war. Shutting down, going away. "He wanted Ashley," she whispered.
The wolf twisted in her grasp, looking as shocked as an animal could be.
"He waited until it was really bad, then he said if I gave him Ashley, I could walk out of there with you, free and clear," Anita continued. "When I said no, he... he wasn't happy."
After a moment of horrified silence, Jean-Claude crossed the room to Anita. Gently, as if she were made of fine porcelain, the vampire touched her face so she lifted her head. Her eyes were dry, as if she'd been through too much to cry. "Ma petite..."
"But it's okay now," she said fiercely. "We're all together, and we're going home, and we'll figure out what to do when we get home. It's all going to be okay."
Jean-Claude nodded. "If that is what you want, that is what we will do."
"It is." Anita smiled weakly at Jean-Claude, then her haunted gaze slid to Mal. "At least, that was the plan."
Mal watched as the woman's eyes began to fill with a calculating weight. "What do you mean?" he asked, on edge.
"What are you going to do now?" Anita asked bluntly. "I've told you the truth, so now what?"
If she was telling the truth about how badly the authorities wanted to keep everything hushed up, then the smart thing for Mal to do would be to stick them all in the airlock and blow the seal. But then, Mal had never been a smart man. "We're going to land in Gunnerole in a day," Mal said. "Is he going to start attacking people again?"
Anita shook her head firmly, while Jean-Claude turned around, putting his arm around Anita's shoulders. "Being in a box for four years would make the most accommodating of individuals a bit irrational," Jean-Claude said smoothly. "My actions will not be repeated."
Mal glanced down at the wolf again. "You almost killed Richard," Mal said.
Jean-Claude shrugged expressively. "I was not myself. Richard's blood, along with that of Nathaniel, brought me back."
"Huh." Mal couldn't believe he was about to do this, but he didn't seem to have much of a choice. "What about the kid?"
"Jean-Claude's not any threat to Ashley," Anita said immediately. "He's always been fine around my children."
Mal's eyebrows went up at that. "You've got more little ones around?"
The second the words left his mouth, Mal was kicking himself. He should have known better, he thought, as the pain crossed through Anita's eyes. "Richard and I had one," she said shortly. "It was a long time ago."
Mal nodded and let it go. He, too, knew about losing people he loved.
Anita glanced up at the infirmary ceiling. "Nathaniel's coming down with Ashley," she said, even though Mal didn't see how she could have known that. "Can we stay?"
"Yes," Mal said reluctantly. "But you're getting off at Gunnerole, and I'm apt to pretend you were never on board my ship."
"Fine by me," Anita shot back.
The infirmary door slid open, and Nathaniel came through carrying Ashley. The boy took one look at the vampire next to his mother, and tried to scramble out of his father's arms.
Anita rushed over to her son. "Hey, it's okay," she said soothingly. Together with Nathaniel, she calmed the frantic boy. "It's okay now."
"But he hurt Daddy," Ashley protested.
"He wasn't himself," Anita said, lifting Ashley out of Nathaniel's arms. "Remember how sometimes a vampire goes wild?" Ashley nodded, eyes huge. "That's what happened here. But Jean-Claude didn't mean to hurt anyone, and he's okay now."
Ashley frowned, his lower lip stuck out in concentration. "But you were going to shoot him."
"Only because I was worried he might hurt someone," Anita said. She waited while Ashley touched the fang marks on her neck. "But what were you doing, huh? I told you that if bad things happened, you needed to hide. Why did you try and get past Zoe?"
Ashley looked miserable. "I was going to save you," he whispered after a minute.
He wouldn't have saved Anita, Mal knew. If the kid had gotten past Zoe, he probably would have drawn the still-wild vampire's attention. Would Anita's bullets have been able to stop the vampire in time? Or would the vampire have gotten to the boy first?
Anita looked at her son for a long moment. "Oh, my brave boy," she said finally, wrapping the child into a hug.
Mal felt like an intruder on the family scene, and he headed for the door. Nathaniel gave him a long look before moving aside.
"You can't tell them," Anita said as Mal crossed through the doorway.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Mal demanded, turning back.
"Figure it out," Anita retorted. "I told you the risks."
Mal growled low in his throat as he stalked out of the infirmary. River and Simon sat on the floor by Book's room, and they looked up as Mal stormed out. "You two, up to the bridge," Mal demanded.
River bounced up, impatient as Simon climbed to his feet. "What about the Shepard?" Simon asked.
"No need to worry about him," Mal said. He waited until River and a confused-looking Simon went up the stairs before poking his head back into the infirmary. "Ain't no one to be eating on the preacher while we're gone," he said.
Anita opened her mouth to respond, but Mal was already moving away. He was thinking so fast his head hurt. Of all the members of his crew, he could only trust this information to Zoe, but he wondered about the wisdom of that. If by some chance they were caught, it was more than likely they would be tortured or killed for information about River. What if someone determined that Anita and her people had been on board?
There was a possibility that Anita was lying, that Richard hadn't turned into a wolf and the man in the infirmary wasn't a vampire. If so, Mal was only hallucinating, and nothing would be gained by talking about it. If, however, Anita told the truth, then anyone who knew about the passengers might be in danger, and so nothing could be gained by telling his crew about it.
It was a messy solution, and Zoe was not going to be happy with him, this Mal knew.
When he got to the bridge, Jayne rounded on him. "Mal, they're crazy," Jayne declared.
"Watch who you're calling crazy," Zoe said coldly from her place by Wash's chair. The pilot just frowned at his wife's reaction.
"Captain, what's going on?" Kaylee asked.
Mal took a deep breath. "We got us a new passenger," he said. "He's one of Anita's."
"In a box?" Wash asked. "Am I the only one sensing a trend on this ship?"
"Main point is, they'll be off Serenity tomorrow by this time, so we're going to keep on moving on," Mal said.
Inara stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing. "What do you mean?" she demanded. "What about how fast that man moved? What about what he did to Richard?"
"Ain't no way a person can turn into wolf," Jayne said.
"He didn't," Mal said. "Not really."
"Sir?" Zoe said, incredulous.
"Trick of the light," Mal continued.
Of the crew, only Mal himself, Zoe, Inara and River had seen Richard change. River, he could discount as crazy. Zoe, he could order to keep her mouth shut. Inara was the only one he couldn't control.
Surprisingly, however, Inara pressed her lips together and turned away. She would keep quiet, for now, although Mal didn't know why.
"But--" Simon began.
"He was a wolf," River announced, going up on the balls of her feet and forming her hands into claws. "And I'm a cat." She hissed at her brother, before dropping her hands back to her sides.
"Are we in any danger?" Zoe asked. Mal knew he'd get reamed out later by her for this, just not around Jayne.
"No."
"What about the boy?" Zoe pressed.
"Boy's fine," Mal said, hoping that Anita was right about the vampire not being a threat to her son.
Hell, away from the passengers, Mal found himself doubting their story already. It just didn't make any sort of sense. Vampires and werewolves? The government hiding the existence of Earth-that-was? It seemed impossible.
"Wash, when do we land?" Mal said abruptly.
Wash looked at his controls. "Twenty hours," he said. "About an hour after dark."
Mal sighed. "Great." He motioned for Zoe to follow him, but turned back to his crew at the last minute. "Kaylee, River's bunking in with you until we land."
"Sure," Kaylee said, still looking a bit uncertain as to what had just happened.
"Simon can bunk with Jayne," River suggested.
Wash smothered a laugh at the horrified expression on Simon's face. Mal shook his head as he headed down the hall, a fuming Zoe on his heels. She waited until they were down the stairs and in the cargo hold before speaking. "What was--"
"Do you trust me?" Mal interrupted.
That startled Zoe into silence. In the many years that they had fought together, worked together, he had never asked her that question. He had never needed to.
"Yes," Zoe said finally, skirting a pool of drying blood. She helped Mal lift a box down off the barricade.
"I'm asking you to trust me now," he said.
Zoe was silent as they moved the rest of the boxes around, setting the cargo hold back into order. As Mal fetched something to mop up the blood, she finally spoke.
"You staying up on watch tonight?" she asked.
"Yes."
There was a pause. "No Jayne?"
"No."
Zoe shifted a crate around, then stood looking at the broken remains of the black box. Dangling from one part, looking as if it had been built into the box, glinted a tiny silver cross. "I'll sit up with you," she said.
Mal looked at her. He knew that one day, she'd make him tell her what had happened here. But not yet. Not today. "Sounds good."
Next chapter...
by Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Spoilers: All of Firefly, same for Anita Blake.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own all things Firefly. Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Note: This story is, and will remain, SPOILER FREE for the movie.
Summary: Serenity gets four new passengers and, as usual, things are not as they seem.
~~. Part One .~~ ~~. Part Two .~~ ~~. Part Three .~~ ~~. Part Four .~~ ~~. Part Five .~~ ~~. Part Six .~~
Mal gripped the metal railing so hard that the metal cut into his palms. He didn't understand what he had just seen, or what had happened. He would have sworn that the black box was too small to hold a body. But it wasn't, Mal realized, taking in the shattered remains of the box. It was just big enough to hold a corpse, an unmoving, unbreathing body.
Yet that corpse was up and moving around, holding onto Anita as tightly as it could.
Anita raised her eyes from the man, who she'd called Jean-Claude, to Mal. Mal was so angry that he couldn't see straight, and she just stood there looking at him.
The wolf, a real goram wolf, gave a short bark and nuzzled against Jean-Claude, licking his face. To all appearances, that wolf had to be Richard, licking his own blood off the man's face. How could Richard be a wolf, after having his throat torn out not one minute before?
At Mal's side, Inara made a small sound, and it pulled Mal back to himself. "Stick around Jayne," he murmured.
"What?" Inara asked.
"Stick with Jayne or Zoe," Mal repeated. "Someone with a gun." He pried his hands off the rail and headed for the stairs. It was high time that these people told him what the hell kind of craziness they'd brought on board his ship.
Anita helped Jean-Claude to his feet and put his arm across her shoulder, then helped him walk across the floor of the cargo hold toward the passenger dorms. The wolf, so big that its shoulders reached Anita's waist, walked at her side.
Anita paused by Nathaniel, but he shook his head. Nathaniel stood and quickly walked to Zoe, still holding Ashley tightly. "I can take him," Nathaniel said, holding out his hands.
Mal couldn't see Zoe's face as he continued down the stairs, but he heard her say, "Your neck's bleeding."
"It's fine," Nathaniel said. "Please give me my son."
Zoe loosened her hold on the boy, who almost jumped into his father's arms, clinging to the man like a limpet. Nathaniel backed against the wall to let Anita and Jean-Claude through the door.
Mal gave Zoe a look as he passed. They had worked together for so long, he didn't need to tell her to get armed and to keep alert, protect everyone else on board. She returned his glare. She knew where he was going, and that nothing she said would be able to convince him to change his mind. That didn't mean she wasn't pissed about it, though.
Simon hovered anxiously by the infirmary door as Anita guided Jean-Claude down the stairs. "You should probably bring him in here," the doctor said, and Mal wondered what he had seen of the attack in the hold.
Carefully, Anita helped Jean-Claude navigate the stairs, as the man's legs didn't seem to be working right. When they reached the floor, Jean-Claude's knees buckled and Anita caught him before he fell.
"Come on, almost there," she said in a voice that Mal almost didn't recognize.
Jean-Claude regained his feet and walked unsteadily into the infirmary.
Simon looked at Mal, confused. "All I heard was screaming," Simon said. "Where did he come from?"
"That is a question that I seek to have answered," Mal replied. A flash of colour around the corner made Mal turn his head. River stood by Book's room door, a stubborn expression on her face. "River, go up to Zoe," he ordered.
River shook her head. "Sleeping man can't stop the teeth," she said.
So she had seen what occurred in the hold. "No one's going to be attacking the preacher," Mal said.
River shook her head again, her hair falling over her eyes in a move too much like the bloody man in the infirmary for Mal's comfort.
"Are we in danger?" Simon asked, his eyes darting to River, then lifting to the general direction of the engine room.
"We're always in danger," Mal retorted. "You go sit with River, make sure that the preacher's okay." That ought to get the doctor out of harm's way. Sure, it left Mal standing alone with these people, but then no one else in his crew would get hurt.
Once Simon reluctantly crossed the floor, Mal took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He really wished that he had a bigger gun, but even Jayne's Vera wouldn't make him feel secure in walking into that room. He went in anyway.
Anita had sat Jean-Claude in the examination chair and was helping him to wash the blood off his face. The wolf stood between the chair and the door, and growled at Mal as he entered the room.
"I'm sure you don't mind us using your infirmary," Anita said.
"The hell I don't," Mal said, unable to look away from the wolf. The thing was challenging him, he knew. He had never seen an animal with such intelligence in its eyes, and Mal no longer doubted that the animal was really Richard. But how could it be?
"Too bad," Anita said. She pushed the tangle of black hair off Jean-Claude's face. The man only had eyes for Anita, staring at her as if she was the only real thing in his world. "How are you doing?" she murmured to Jean-Claude.
"Where..." the man's voice broke, and he cleared his throat. "How long was I in there?"
"A little over four years," Anita said, her voice a disturbing mix of pain and sorrow and regret.
"Four years," Jean-Claude breathed. "Then that little boy out there..."
"That's Ashley," Anita said. "I wanted to leave him at home, but Damian couldn't keep him safe and be in charge of everything at the same time."
"You left Damian behind?" Jean-Claude asked. He frowned, more personality seeping into his face. "He is not harmed, by you being so far--" For the first time, Jean-Claude looked around, his eyes lingering on Mal for a moment in a way that Mal found very disconcerting. There was a hunger there, and it didn't look like food-hunger. "Ma petite, where are we?"
"We're almost to Gunnerole, to Charlotte's people in Black Canyon," Anita said.
Jean-Claude's eyes grew wide. "So far out?" he demanded. "Non, non, you should have left me, if they find you out here--"
"Hey!" Anita exclaimed, taking Jean-Claude's face in her hands. "I wasn't going to leave you! I couldn't lose you!" She wrapped her arms around him, holding him as tightly as he had held her, minutes before.
Mal shook his head. Every word they uttered just added to the mystery. He needed answers, and didn't have time for a touching reunion. "Anita," he said. When she had pulled back enough to see him, he went on. "Perhaps you'd care to explain to me why you felt the necessity to bring someone on board my ship in a crate?"
Not that he didn't have enough problems with the last person who came onto his ship in a box, he reminded himself. But at least River never tore anyone's throat out with her teeth.
Anita looked past Mal at the open infirmary door. "Shut the door and I'll tell you."
Her voice strongly reminded Mal of that old nursery rhyme his old grandmother used to tell him. Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly. "I'm not exactly seeing the benefit to me in that offer."
Anita suddenly pushed away from Jean-Claude. "You don't understand!" she shouted. "Just by being here, we're putting everyone in danger! By being so far out, everyone we meet is at risk! Anyone who hears this puts their life on the line!"
The wolf looked at her, then left its place on the floor between Mal and Jean-Claude to pad over to Anita. It licked her arm, then took her hand in its jaws. Mal had his gun halfway out of its holster before he realized that the wolf was just trying to get her attention, not biting down.
Heart pounding, Mal eased his gun back into its holster. Jean-Claude regarded him curiously now, but after a cursory glance, Mal would not look into the man's eyes. It was almost as if the man could read his mind.
Hoping with all his might that he wasn't making a fatal mistake, Mal turned around and slid the infirmary door shut.
"All right, then." Mal leaned against the door, his hand on his hip near his gun. "Why'd you pack him into a box?" He wanted to only ask the one question, but all the other unanswered mysteries beat at his brain, and the words kept spilling out of his mouth. "Why'd he try to eat Richard? And what exactly happened to Richard?"
The woman pushed her hair away from her face, and for the first time that day, Mal caught sight of her wrist. The long cut that had graced her pale skin yesterday was gone.
"Jean-Claude's a... well, he's a bit different," Anita said, but Mal was already shaking his head.
"No way, not this time. These ain't no exploding Reavers, this is my crew on my ship!" Mal exclaimed, nearly yelling.
"What do you want me to say?" Anita shouted back.
"How about the truth?"
"You can't handle--" Anita stopped herself mid-sentence. "I'm not going there," she said under her breath. "What I said, before, I wasn't joking about that. If the authorities learn that I've told you all this, then you are dead. Do you understand?"
"And I'll say it again," Mal replied. "You're going to tell me what's going on, or we are going to have a problem."
Jean-Claude, who had been watching the exchange, interrupted. "Ma petite."
Anita looked at him, and they seemed to communicate silently. "Right," she muttered. She began to unbutton her jacket. "Promise me you won't interfere," she said to Mal.
"Interfere in what?"
The jacket fell to the ground, and Anita lifted her hands to the top buttons on her shirt. "Do you really want the truth?" she asked, smoothing the cloth back from her throat.
Mal suddenly found it difficult to breathe. "Yes," he said, although he was beginning to doubt that.
Anita's eyes were wide as she looked at him, weighing what she saw. Such ancient eyes. "Jean-Claude's a vampire."
"No," Mal said immediately. "Ain't no such things as vampires."
"Just as there are no such things as werewolves," Jean-Claude said, the sarcasm thick in his cultured accented voice. "Are you really so sure of that?"
The wolf stood and paced across the room. Mal wanted to deny it all, because this talk of vampires and werewolves was a thousand types of crazy. But he'd had a perfect view of Richard in the cargo hold, as the man's body split open and the wolf had formed in its place.
"I need you to not interfere," Anita continued as she climbed up onto the examination chair and settled herself in Jean-Claude's lap.
Mal licked his lips. "What are you going to do?" he asked, even though he had a bit of an inkling.
Anita turned her head to look at him. "He needs blood."
Blood. Jean-Claude had ripped up Richard's throat, had very nearly done a similar number on Nathaniel, and she was going to offer up her neck to him? Mal tried to protest, but it seemed as if he had forgotten how to speak.
Jean-Claude sat up as Anita pulled her hair to the side and tilted her head, offering the man her bare neck. The man licked the corner of his mouth as he put one hand on Anita's back, the other hand cradling her head. As he opened his mouth, Mal saw the points of his fangs.
The man, or vampire, or whatever the hell he was, sighed, then used those fangs to pierce the skin on Anita's throat. She tensed for a second, her thighs tightening around Jean-Claude's hips, then she let out a soft moan and relaxed into his hold as Jean-Claude set his mouth over the wound and began to suck.
It wasn't like eating, not in any way Mal had ever seen. It was too close to sex, the way Jean-Claude held Anita, the way her mouth was half-open, her eyes closed. Mal wasn't much into watching, but this whole thing made him feel like a voyeur. He looked away, and found the wolf staring up at him, unblinking.
Crossing his arms, Mal turned away slightly and examined the walls of the infirmary. His head spun with the little bits of information Anita gave him. All his life, Mal had scoffed at the idea of magic, and vampires and werewolves were just another part of that. Right?
But so were mind-readers. Mal hadn't ever thought that someone could read another person's thoughts, not until he'd heard River do it, in her fragile child's voice and broken words. She knew things, things she couldn't. There wasn't an explanation for it, but Mal hadn't ever thought it was magic.
He looked back at the wolf. Richard had seemed like a normal man, friendly and confident, even if he was a little too strong. Was that it? Part of being a werewolf? Mal desperately wanted to protest, wanted to take himself an hour back in time, so he didn't ever need to know about this kind of thing.
Jean-Claude, his eyes glowing unnaturally, sat back, wiping his mouth with his hand. Anita swayed for a moment, but then opened her eyes. "Was that enough?" she asked.
Jean-Claude nodded, his eyes returning to normal. "I have had my fill."
Anita carefully climbed off his lap, a bit unsteady on her feet, but she managed to pull up the small stool and sit down before looking expectantly at Mal.
A thousand questions in his head, Mal settled on the most pressing one. "Why would the Alliance want us dead if we learned about this?" he asked.
Anita sighed. "You have to promise me that you won't tell a soul about this."
"If it's so secret, then why are you planning on telling me?"
"Because you're like me," Anita said. "You won't ever stop until you learn the truth, and if you go looking for it, people are going to hear, and you are going to die. This way, you might have a chance at no one finding out that you know."
Mal blinked. The logic was convoluted, and he wasn't sure he was too pleased with the comparison, but deep down, he knew she was right. He'd keep digging until he figured it out.
"So. Vampires," he prodded.
"How much do you know of the exodus from Earth?" Anita asked.
"Earth-that-was?" Mal frowned. What could this have to do with anything? "Planet got used up, everybody left."
"Not everyone." Anita reached over and put her hand over Jean-Claude's, holding on as if in need of reassurance. "Well over five hundred years ago, a few countries acknowledged vampires, let them live out in the open. That charming sentiment lasted for about thirty years, but by then the vampires were growing in number and in impact."
"So they banned us again," Jean-Claude said. His voice was so cold that Mal suppressed a shiver. "One day, we were part of the community, the next..."
"The next, the police were authorized to shoot them in the street," Anita continued. There was a deep buried pain in her words. "We managed to get most of them hidden, but not everyone." She took a deep breath.
"We?" Mal demanded. "Who's 'we'?"
"Me and Jean-Claude, and the others," Anita said.
That would make Anita over five centuries old. Mal opened his mouth to object, but was it any stranger for her to be so old, on top of vampires and werewolves?
"It didn't stop there," Anita continued. "People were also getting nervous with lycanthropes and witches, anyone magical. During the skylifts, the government began testing everyone before tossing them into the ships, to make sure they didn't have any preternatural characteristics. Anyone who did, got left behind."
"Wait a minute," Mal said, pushing off the wall. "The history all said that no one was left on Earth."
Anita gave him a look. "They lied to you," she explained. "They made us into ghost stories, fairy tales. They thought if they left us with a barren planet, we'd die off and leave them in peace. That they could forget about us."
"Earth-that-was exploded," Mal said. "It's gone."
"No, it's not," Anita said solemnly. "Now do you understand?"
He did, and he had to take a moment to deal with the enormity of the concept. If people knew that Earth-that-was still existed... There wasn't a power in the 'verse to keep them from heading back.
"Why do I believe you?" he asked. He shook his head. "It all sounds like fancy lies."
"It does, doesn't it?" Anita said absently. She let Jean-Claude turn her hand over and stroke her palm with his fingers. "All I can say is that I'm not lying."
Mal paced across the room, keeping as far as he could from the wolf. "So why are you out here?"
"That is an excellent question, ma petite," Jean-Claude said. "What happened?"
"Don't you know?" Mal asked.
"Non, I do not," Jean-Claude said.
Anita gently withdrew her hand and stood up. "It was Marcel's people," she said to Jean-Claude. "He hadn't forgiven us for defeating him in the last battle, so he managed to get to you before I knew what was going on."
Jean-Claude went still, with the sort of motionlessness that only dead bodies had. "He slew Asher with his own hand, and you say he had not forgiven us?" the man said flatly.
She turned away from him and placed both hands on the cool metal of the wall. "That's what he told me."
The room grew so silent that Mal could hear the ticking from Serenity's engine. "When did you see Marcel?" Jean-Claude finally asked.
"When I bargained for your release," Anita said without turning around. "We knew he'd gotten off planet with you, but it took me three years to find out where. I knew he still had you in a cross-wrapped coffin and that you weren't dead, but that's all we knew."
"So you came to get me," Jean-Claude said.
"Yes." Anita traced patterns on the wall with her fingers. "I had to."
"And you brought Richard and Nathaniel and your son," Jean-Claude continued. "What did you bargain with?"
Anita finally turned around. Mal saw the answer in her eyes, and he had to look away.
"No, ma petite" Jean-Claude said vehemently. "Tell me that you didn't."
"I had to," Anita protested, a fine tremor in her voice. "Marcel would have killed Richard or Nathaniel, but not me."
Jean-Claude glared down at the wolf, which cringed. Anita rushed to the animal's side.
"Don't do this!" Anita exclaimed. "I did what I had to do, I got you out and no one had to die!"
"How long?" The words dropped like stones in the air.
Anita ran her hands over the wolf's head, unable or unwilling to look up. "A week," she whispered.
It was as if Mal wasn't even in the room. Jean-Claude went still again. "You should have left me," he said after a minute.
"No, I shouldn't have!" Anita almost shouted. "It was only a week and he didn't do anything-- I'll be fine, I promise!"
Jean-Claude got to his feet. "Was there nothing else he wanted?" the vampire demanded. "Was there nothing else Marcel would have accepted in trade for my freedom, other than your body?"
Anita's hands stopped moving. Mal couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew what she was doing, had seen it in many a soldier in the war. Shutting down, going away. "He wanted Ashley," she whispered.
The wolf twisted in her grasp, looking as shocked as an animal could be.
"He waited until it was really bad, then he said if I gave him Ashley, I could walk out of there with you, free and clear," Anita continued. "When I said no, he... he wasn't happy."
After a moment of horrified silence, Jean-Claude crossed the room to Anita. Gently, as if she were made of fine porcelain, the vampire touched her face so she lifted her head. Her eyes were dry, as if she'd been through too much to cry. "Ma petite..."
"But it's okay now," she said fiercely. "We're all together, and we're going home, and we'll figure out what to do when we get home. It's all going to be okay."
Jean-Claude nodded. "If that is what you want, that is what we will do."
"It is." Anita smiled weakly at Jean-Claude, then her haunted gaze slid to Mal. "At least, that was the plan."
Mal watched as the woman's eyes began to fill with a calculating weight. "What do you mean?" he asked, on edge.
"What are you going to do now?" Anita asked bluntly. "I've told you the truth, so now what?"
If she was telling the truth about how badly the authorities wanted to keep everything hushed up, then the smart thing for Mal to do would be to stick them all in the airlock and blow the seal. But then, Mal had never been a smart man. "We're going to land in Gunnerole in a day," Mal said. "Is he going to start attacking people again?"
Anita shook her head firmly, while Jean-Claude turned around, putting his arm around Anita's shoulders. "Being in a box for four years would make the most accommodating of individuals a bit irrational," Jean-Claude said smoothly. "My actions will not be repeated."
Mal glanced down at the wolf again. "You almost killed Richard," Mal said.
Jean-Claude shrugged expressively. "I was not myself. Richard's blood, along with that of Nathaniel, brought me back."
"Huh." Mal couldn't believe he was about to do this, but he didn't seem to have much of a choice. "What about the kid?"
"Jean-Claude's not any threat to Ashley," Anita said immediately. "He's always been fine around my children."
Mal's eyebrows went up at that. "You've got more little ones around?"
The second the words left his mouth, Mal was kicking himself. He should have known better, he thought, as the pain crossed through Anita's eyes. "Richard and I had one," she said shortly. "It was a long time ago."
Mal nodded and let it go. He, too, knew about losing people he loved.
Anita glanced up at the infirmary ceiling. "Nathaniel's coming down with Ashley," she said, even though Mal didn't see how she could have known that. "Can we stay?"
"Yes," Mal said reluctantly. "But you're getting off at Gunnerole, and I'm apt to pretend you were never on board my ship."
"Fine by me," Anita shot back.
The infirmary door slid open, and Nathaniel came through carrying Ashley. The boy took one look at the vampire next to his mother, and tried to scramble out of his father's arms.
Anita rushed over to her son. "Hey, it's okay," she said soothingly. Together with Nathaniel, she calmed the frantic boy. "It's okay now."
"But he hurt Daddy," Ashley protested.
"He wasn't himself," Anita said, lifting Ashley out of Nathaniel's arms. "Remember how sometimes a vampire goes wild?" Ashley nodded, eyes huge. "That's what happened here. But Jean-Claude didn't mean to hurt anyone, and he's okay now."
Ashley frowned, his lower lip stuck out in concentration. "But you were going to shoot him."
"Only because I was worried he might hurt someone," Anita said. She waited while Ashley touched the fang marks on her neck. "But what were you doing, huh? I told you that if bad things happened, you needed to hide. Why did you try and get past Zoe?"
Ashley looked miserable. "I was going to save you," he whispered after a minute.
He wouldn't have saved Anita, Mal knew. If the kid had gotten past Zoe, he probably would have drawn the still-wild vampire's attention. Would Anita's bullets have been able to stop the vampire in time? Or would the vampire have gotten to the boy first?
Anita looked at her son for a long moment. "Oh, my brave boy," she said finally, wrapping the child into a hug.
Mal felt like an intruder on the family scene, and he headed for the door. Nathaniel gave him a long look before moving aside.
"You can't tell them," Anita said as Mal crossed through the doorway.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Mal demanded, turning back.
"Figure it out," Anita retorted. "I told you the risks."
Mal growled low in his throat as he stalked out of the infirmary. River and Simon sat on the floor by Book's room, and they looked up as Mal stormed out. "You two, up to the bridge," Mal demanded.
River bounced up, impatient as Simon climbed to his feet. "What about the Shepard?" Simon asked.
"No need to worry about him," Mal said. He waited until River and a confused-looking Simon went up the stairs before poking his head back into the infirmary. "Ain't no one to be eating on the preacher while we're gone," he said.
Anita opened her mouth to respond, but Mal was already moving away. He was thinking so fast his head hurt. Of all the members of his crew, he could only trust this information to Zoe, but he wondered about the wisdom of that. If by some chance they were caught, it was more than likely they would be tortured or killed for information about River. What if someone determined that Anita and her people had been on board?
There was a possibility that Anita was lying, that Richard hadn't turned into a wolf and the man in the infirmary wasn't a vampire. If so, Mal was only hallucinating, and nothing would be gained by talking about it. If, however, Anita told the truth, then anyone who knew about the passengers might be in danger, and so nothing could be gained by telling his crew about it.
It was a messy solution, and Zoe was not going to be happy with him, this Mal knew.
When he got to the bridge, Jayne rounded on him. "Mal, they're crazy," Jayne declared.
"Watch who you're calling crazy," Zoe said coldly from her place by Wash's chair. The pilot just frowned at his wife's reaction.
"Captain, what's going on?" Kaylee asked.
Mal took a deep breath. "We got us a new passenger," he said. "He's one of Anita's."
"In a box?" Wash asked. "Am I the only one sensing a trend on this ship?"
"Main point is, they'll be off Serenity tomorrow by this time, so we're going to keep on moving on," Mal said.
Inara stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing. "What do you mean?" she demanded. "What about how fast that man moved? What about what he did to Richard?"
"Ain't no way a person can turn into wolf," Jayne said.
"He didn't," Mal said. "Not really."
"Sir?" Zoe said, incredulous.
"Trick of the light," Mal continued.
Of the crew, only Mal himself, Zoe, Inara and River had seen Richard change. River, he could discount as crazy. Zoe, he could order to keep her mouth shut. Inara was the only one he couldn't control.
Surprisingly, however, Inara pressed her lips together and turned away. She would keep quiet, for now, although Mal didn't know why.
"But--" Simon began.
"He was a wolf," River announced, going up on the balls of her feet and forming her hands into claws. "And I'm a cat." She hissed at her brother, before dropping her hands back to her sides.
"Are we in any danger?" Zoe asked. Mal knew he'd get reamed out later by her for this, just not around Jayne.
"No."
"What about the boy?" Zoe pressed.
"Boy's fine," Mal said, hoping that Anita was right about the vampire not being a threat to her son.
Hell, away from the passengers, Mal found himself doubting their story already. It just didn't make any sort of sense. Vampires and werewolves? The government hiding the existence of Earth-that-was? It seemed impossible.
"Wash, when do we land?" Mal said abruptly.
Wash looked at his controls. "Twenty hours," he said. "About an hour after dark."
Mal sighed. "Great." He motioned for Zoe to follow him, but turned back to his crew at the last minute. "Kaylee, River's bunking in with you until we land."
"Sure," Kaylee said, still looking a bit uncertain as to what had just happened.
"Simon can bunk with Jayne," River suggested.
Wash smothered a laugh at the horrified expression on Simon's face. Mal shook his head as he headed down the hall, a fuming Zoe on his heels. She waited until they were down the stairs and in the cargo hold before speaking. "What was--"
"Do you trust me?" Mal interrupted.
That startled Zoe into silence. In the many years that they had fought together, worked together, he had never asked her that question. He had never needed to.
"Yes," Zoe said finally, skirting a pool of drying blood. She helped Mal lift a box down off the barricade.
"I'm asking you to trust me now," he said.
Zoe was silent as they moved the rest of the boxes around, setting the cargo hold back into order. As Mal fetched something to mop up the blood, she finally spoke.
"You staying up on watch tonight?" she asked.
"Yes."
There was a pause. "No Jayne?"
"No."
Zoe shifted a crate around, then stood looking at the broken remains of the black box. Dangling from one part, looking as if it had been built into the box, glinted a tiny silver cross. "I'll sit up with you," she said.
Mal looked at her. He knew that one day, she'd make him tell her what had happened here. But not yet. Not today. "Sounds good."