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[flybywash]

Wash steps out of Milliways into Serenity's front corridor, Faith close behind him, and slides the door shut with a firm click once they're through. After a slow count to five, he turns around and opens it again.

It no longer leads to the bar. Instead, Serenity's bridge splays in front of them, the full expanse of open space glittering through its broad windows. Like the rest of the ship, it isn't going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon -- but hey, it ain't how it looks, it's how it runs, right? So Wash just blithely ducks under the exposed wires swinging from the ceiling and leans over the controls, clearing aside a few plastic dinosaurs (and, inexplicably, one stuffed toy goose) to check the readouts.

Then he turns back to Faith and spreads an arm to indicate the windscreen, grinning. "Well. Welcome aboard, Faith."

Comments

[simon_doctor]

Simon takes the chocolate, and smiles. "Well, speaking as her doctor, I can say that this will definitely be good for her morale. She's, ah ... a little grumpy right now."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith smiles faintly.

"I'm sorry she's in bad spirits. I'd have liked to see her."

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Wash?" Zoe's glancing around as if looking for something when she enters the kitchen, and thus doesn't notice Faith immediately. "Have you seen--wŏ de mā hé tā de fēngkuáng de wàisheng dōu, where'd you come from?"

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith laughs.

"I don't know what you just said, Zoe, but I wanna learn...Wash brought me." She waggles her fingers in greeting, grinning. "Hi! Hope that's 'glad to see you' cussing."

[flybywash]

"More like 'what're you doing here' cussing, but...." He gives Zoe a small wave of his own and slips away from Faith to join her. "Hi, sweetheart. What're you looking for?"

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

"Hm? Oh, thought I left a book in here, but I don't see it."

She turns back to Faith, smiling. "Well. Welcome aboard, then."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." Faith is still smiling, too. "It's a nice ship, and the view is incredible."

[flybywash]

Ah, yes, definitely a girl after his own heart. "I'd offer to get you in a suit and go out on the hull if you really want a view, but that's kind of something that's not so much with the happening on short notice. Maybe on the next tour."

[simon_doctor]

Simon shudders at the suggestion, just a bit.

"...I should go check on River."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith beams at Wash. She has no fear.

When Simon mentions checking on River, she turns to him, softening a little. "Hug her for me, if she'll let you?"

[simon_doctor]

He smiles. "I will. Wan an."

And he's off.

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith watches him go, then turns back to Wash.

"So, Flyboy, what else is good to see around here?"

[flybywash]

"Let's see...well, the engine room's straight back through there," Wash says, pointing down the length of the back hallway. "Cargo-bay-slash-makeshift-gym is downstairs, so's the infirmary, the lounge, and the passenger bunks, and...that's about it, actually." He smiles. "My vote's for the engine."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

"I will take your expert advice, then. Lead the way, flyboy."

[flybywash]

"You want to come, too?" That's to Zoe, as he rests one hand ont he small of her back. "Maybe the book'll turn up while I'm pretending to be a tour guide; we can take bets on where and make nothing that even resembles a scandlous amount of money."

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe smirks, both at Wash's words and Faith's nickname for him, and slips one arm around his waist.

"Lead on, tour guide."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith smirks too, amused, and gestures at the door.

"Educate me, Wash. I hang on your every word."

[flybywash]

Wash presses a quick kiss to Zoe's temple, grinning, and motions to Faith to follow them out of the kitchen.

The engine room's cluttered just as much as the bridge -- or any other part of Serenity, really. An empty hammock swings in one corner; the protective casing's been pushed forward to cover the engine, but it doesn't mute the comforting, humming whine as it spins on its axis.

"Nobody tell Kaylee I did this," he says, only half-joking, as he pulls away from his wife long enough to push back the casing and let Faith get a good look at the engine. "There you go: literal heart of the home. Kaylee'd be able to tell you a lot more about what does what, but basically...." And he launches into a quick, not-too-detailed explanation of how it works that nevertheless baffles his mun as much as it'll probably baffle Faith.

"And it's also how this class of boat gets its name," he adds as he slides the casing back into place. "At full burn, the whole back of the ship lights up like a torch."

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith's eyes are a little glazed over, but at the last, she grins, faintly.

"Like a real firefly," she says quietly. "Cool. I used to go out in fields and catch 'em, when I was young."

[flybywash]

Wash groans good-naturedly. "See, you keep telling these things and making me jealous," he says to her. "Keep it up and I'm going to turn into a bitter angry old man -- or, you know, maybe just sulk until we actually go to Earth-That-Was."

[righthandwoman.livejournal.com]

Zoe grins and elbows him lightly in the ribcage. "No turning old and bitter while I still have to live with you, mister."

Then, as a thought occurs to her, "Any chance there'd be fireflies out by the lake some night? Weather seems good for it, but...do you get bugs at the nd of the universe?"

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith grins. "There might be, at that...but if not, I promise, one day I'll take you someplace where there are."

[flybywash]

"Shiny. I like this plan even more than I already liked it."

He dusts off his hands. "So...cargo bay?"

[faithful-slayer.livejournal.com]

Faith grins, nodding. "Cargo bay works for me."

[flybywash]

Giving the engine casing one last affectionate pat, Wash leads them out, back through the kitchen, and down the flight of stairs in the front hallway.

It quickly opens on a crisscrossing network of catwalks and more ladders arcing over the biggest room on the ship. A couple of things can be picked out among the multitude of boxes: a weight bench, a metal cylinder hanging from the ceiling by a chain....

Oh, yeah, and a metal Slinky on the stairs a short distance below.

....It's River's. We swear.