milliways_bar | (no subject)

Kaylee's noticed.

She pushes around a few grains of rice on her plate with her chopsticks. Quiet: "Been meanin' to ask you somethin'."

Simon puts down his fork.

"What is it, ai ren?"

"Could you do with a quieter place to study?" Beat. "Not that I'm tryin' to kick you out, or nothin'."

"...quieter than the bunk, you mean?"

He considers that.

"I don't know. Possibly? I thought about the infirmary, but there's really no good place to sit there."

That gets a smile out of her.

"Who're you married to again?"

He glances at her sidelong, and one corner of his mouth curves up.

"Wait. Don't tell me, I know this one...."

Kaylee folds one hand over the other, delicately, and waits.

As requested.

Not laughing.

Simon's not laughing either.

"Are you telling me you have a plan in mind already?"

"Not for the infirmary, seein' as I'd probably be out on the couch for a week if I touched anything." She grins at him. "Was thinkin' more along the lines of the empty bunk."

"...That's not a bad idea at all."

"I'll start workin' on it when we head back, then." It'll be good to have something to work on -- to concentrate on.

Something to keep her hands and mind occupied.

Simon's already got a great deal to keep his mind occupied.

It's a little appalling, how much he's forgotten since the last time he sat this exam.

"You think of everything," he says affectionately.

Half a shrug, and easily: "Somebody's got to. And I reckon you got more'n enough to worry on."

He sobers a little, at that.

"I've been trying not to," he says, and it's probably obvious he's not talking about the exam.

It's obvious, and she studies him for a moment before saying lightly, gently, "That's somethin' you're not all that good at. Figure we both know that."

"It's kind of ironic. Figuring out how to rescue Kitty was what I fixated on, back when ... "

He's picked up his fork again, turning it in his fingers. He's still ignoring the remnants of his salad.

"We needed a plan, we needed data on the prison, we needed this, we needed that. And all this time we could have just walked in and walked out with her. Except that she won't come."

Kaylee...doesn't understand that. Had it told to her, but doesn't get it.

Because when you try to hold the government accountable, you always make sure you've got somewhere to run to afterward. You don't leap into anything you don't have a reasonable chance of getting out of.

...unless you're Mal, and you're not entirely sane at the moment. But that's beside the point.

Very quiet: "Do we know that her feds aren't makin' her feel that way, somehow?"

Simon looks up a little sharply at that, and the fork stills in his hand.

But the momentary tension is gone almost as soon as it appears, and he shakes his head. "If she'd seemed at all ... not in her right mind, it would be different."

"But she didn't." Questioning.

Shaking his head again: "She didn't. Rational, coherent ... sarcastic," he adds with a half-smile, there and gone. "Fully aware of the implications of her breaking out. And of her staying there."

He puts down the fork again; almost tosses it down, as though wearied by it. It makes a little ringing noise on the plate. "She's made a reasoned decision. Which isn't to say I don't disagree with it vehemently, it just ... it means I don't have the right to sedate her and carry her out by force."

That's when Kaylee's eyebrows fly up about six feet, and she sits back a little in her chair.

"You'd have the right any time else?"

"...shenme?"

"That's just a little violent, don't you think?"

For a moment he doesn't say anything.

Then: "If she were incoherent. Not recognizing people. Or if there were some solid reason to believe that someone else was playing with her mind, and that's why she was resisting being taken out. Then there might be room to argue for it."

Kaylee picks up her chopsticks again, takes her napkin out of her lap, and puts it on the table. She rests the chopsticks on top.

She's not quite sure why she's reacting this way. It's only --

It's scary.