birthday fic!
Mar. 16th, 2006 04:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseMy new reading glasses? Worth every penny I spent on them. My eyes feel great, despite the fact that I've been reading and working on the computer for several hours. Lovely things. :D
Now, two little gifts for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coramegan: this article on 'elderly caregivers' (If you don't have a minute now, bookmark it for later. You won't regret it), aaaaand... the birthday fic! It's only a few days late! *Blush* I hope you like it!
Fandom: Firefly
Characters: Simon & Zoe
Ratings/Warnings: PG, and None!
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just play with them. No money being made, no infringement intended.
Simon turned off the cortex screen and folded himself back into the co-pilot's chair. Wash had gone down to meet Zoe and the captain in the cargo bay since they were, for once, resting on a friendly planet amid people unlikely to think chasing Serenity off their world a fun diversion for a Sunday morning, and the pilot had laughed and agreed easily when Simon asked if he might use the cortex screen here on the bridge to check the news. He'd been out of touch for weeks, since he was normally too busy to look, and there was no cortex screen in the passenger dorms anyway.
Besides, he was pretty much the only person staying behind on the ship. Shepherd Book had been asked to speak as a guest at the local chapel, Mal, Zoe and Jayne had a job to negotiate, and Kaylee had disappeared early in the morning, talking about hunting down a cousin of hers who'd moved out here when she was just a teenager. She'd even taken River with her, above Simon's complaints. Everybody had something to do.
All my work, all my sacrifice... and now this.
"Doc?"
Simon's head snapped up as Zoe walked in holding a wad of cloth wrapped tightly around her arm. "I thought the captain said..."
"No guns," Zoe assured him. "Just landed on it playin' a bit of ball with our friends out there. I wouldn't worry, but I think I heard something crack when I hit ground. Old war-wound there makes it easy for that wrist to go wrong." She watched him for a moment, and her expression was so oddly steady that he felt like she could see right through him. "There's a first aid kit under the seat," she added after a moment.
"Of course. Just, ah... sit down there and I'll have a look." He opened the kit and found all the necessary bandages and antiseptic wipes for very basic care, but no mini-scanner. Of course not - why would a bunch of space pirates have a mini-scanner? He set the box aside, hoping his momentary surprise hadn't shown, and started to gently probe Zoe's now-unwrapped forearm. "I'm surprised Wash isn't here."
"Captain's keepin' him busy talkin' over the flight plan for delivery with our client. Besides, he's seen me hurt often enough - aiya, that's the spot. Enough a little sprain ain't gonna scare him." She frowned. "Feel broken?"
"You said you had an old injury in this wrist?"
"Got thrown by a concussion grenade exploding against the wall next to me. Hit the ground pretty hard, damned thing's never been the same since."
Simon nodded, probing her forearm as gently as he could. "It must not have healed properly the first time... It looks like you've broken it again. I should be able to reknit the bones well enough that it won't happen so easily again, but you should be careful of it for the first few weeks, and be sure to take a few extra mineral supplements."
She eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "We haven't got a lot of those, doc."
"I keep an extra supply, for situations like this. It's necessary, to ensure that the bones heal without weak points. Particularly in your line of work..." He paused, then shook his head. "'Our' line of work, I should say. I'm certainly not uninvolved, and it's not as though I have any important research projects to pay my way," he added bitterly.
"Research?" There was that disturbingly incisive look again. Simon hesitated a moment, but found he couldn't resist.
"One of my study-mates from Medacad was in the news this morning - plastered all of the cortex, in fact. Her name and picture were prominent on every feed. She's discovered a new neural transmitter and mangaged to pin down its exact function in the brain. Specifically, in the amygdala," he added bitterly.
A moment of silence hung over the bridge. "Doc, you're gonna have to be a bit more specific than that. Common criminal and soldier, remember? Not a scientist." But the corners of her lips curled upward as she said it, and Simon decided that he didn't so much mind being teased by Zoe.
"The amygdala has been our greatest problem with River's condition. It's a sort of a filter, it lets us shunt away things we don't want to think about. River doesn't have one, effectively - they stripped it." Simon sighed and leaned back against the console, careful to avoid the perplexing amount of buttons and levers. How many did it really take to fly a ship like this, anyway? "With this information... I might be able to work out a new treatment for River. I might even be able to reverse some degree of the damage they did, if I had the right facilities to make proper use of this research. But I just... I can't believe it. It should have been me. It would have been me, if I were still... I used to tutor her, you know that? I tutored her for every neuro exam we ever had. She would have failed our test on transmitters if I hadn't helped her, and now..."
"Looks like she's paying you back for it, whether she means to or not."
"Maybe. I don't know. That's not it, though! I could have... It could have been me, Zoe. It should have been me. And now I'm stuck out here in the middle of nowhere dealing with... inferior technology, always on the edge of running out of the most simple things. I have to worry if I'm going to have enough adrenaline for the next time the captain gets shot, or enough cortisone if we land on Beylix, and trying to figure out how I can keep a bunch of petty criminals together with this lièzhì equipment, when they're constantly getting themselves shot!"
He took a few deep breaths, and then blanched as the last few phrases of his rant echoed back into his mind. "I didn't mean..."
"I'm not Kaylee, Doc." Zoe laid her good hand on his shoulder for a moment. "And believe me, I know perfectly well what we are."
"You shouldn't even..." He laughed a little and shook his head. "Why?"
"Why am I here? I was raised on a ship not far off from this. Not criminals, mind - my mama and daddy weren't the sort for that, until the Alliance tried to conscript them to run supplies. Took them right out of the sky. After the war, the captain took into his head to buy a ship... and I couldn't think of much better to do. Besides, Mal didn't know a damned thing about running a ship."
"But you could have done anything, gone anywhere. Once you were declared innocent, you had a completely new page..."
"With a nice big rider attached to my file, sayin' for anyone who checks exactly who and what I was back then. Even if it didn't, I'd still remember. Where else were you thinking I should be?" She let the silence grow heavy between them to make sure Simon was aware none of the answers that came to mind made sense. He couldn't imagine her working in a nice office or living on one of the pretty core worlds, much as his respect for her made him reflexively think she ought to have the easy life and all the fine things that went with it. "I'm happy where I am, Doctor," she reminded him with a surprisingly soft tone. "Think you might be, too, if you let yourself."
"I am, sometimes. It's just not... it's not what I thought I'd have. When I think about all of that..."
"Would you take River back there, to have it?"
Simon sputtered and stared helplessly at her, completely thrown by the abrupt change in her demeanor. There was no slightly gentle mocking, now, and her tone reminded him more than anything of the times Jayne had actually managed to get through her calm and really anger her. But how could she suggest that? How could she even think it, after all he'd done? "Of course not!"
"Now that you know what it meant to your life, everything it changed - if you could go back, would you still do the same as you did?"
"Of course I would. I couldn't just leave her there, don't you understand--"
"So the decision's made, and you wouldn't change it if you could. I'm not seeing where this warrants a fit of depression, Doctor."
Simon's mouth made an effort at responding to that, but his brain didn't want to be involved in the process just yet.
"Your sister seems happy here, you've said this ship is a home to her, and I have to think it's a better home than what you've said about what you had before. And I know Kaylee's happy to have both of you here," Zoe added with a little smirk. "You and the captain haven't even had a real fight these last few weeks. I can understand sometimes missing the things you've lost, but worrying about things you've never even had never struck me as a good way to go about life. There's not a lot of good comes out of that. Seems to me that's what a doctor ought to think about."
And she was right, of course. River's life was worth a bit of a knock to his ego, wasn't it? And if he could use this new research to improve her treatments... Much as he hated to admit it sometimes, he was beginning to feel comfortable here on the ship. It wasn't anything he was used to, it didn't compare to the glitter and pride of his past life, but there was something in it, something he couldn't quite put a finger on yet. Something that made Jayne's jokes and the captain's snide remarks and all the awful, boring food and hard mattresses almost worthwhile. "I think... you're right about that. That's exactly what a doctor ought to think about."
Zoe nodded sharply, a military gesture if ever he'd seen one, but he couldn't help but feel pleased at the slight smile around her eyes.
"Now that we've got that crisis settled, maybe you could set my wrist."
Now, two little gifts for
coramegan: this article on 'elderly caregivers' (If you don't have a minute now, bookmark it for later. You won't regret it), aaaaand... the birthday fic! It's only a few days late! *Blush* I hope you like it!Fandom: Firefly
Characters: Simon & Zoe
Ratings/Warnings: PG, and None!
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just play with them. No money being made, no infringement intended.
Simon turned off the cortex screen and folded himself back into the co-pilot's chair. Wash had gone down to meet Zoe and the captain in the cargo bay since they were, for once, resting on a friendly planet amid people unlikely to think chasing Serenity off their world a fun diversion for a Sunday morning, and the pilot had laughed and agreed easily when Simon asked if he might use the cortex screen here on the bridge to check the news. He'd been out of touch for weeks, since he was normally too busy to look, and there was no cortex screen in the passenger dorms anyway.
Besides, he was pretty much the only person staying behind on the ship. Shepherd Book had been asked to speak as a guest at the local chapel, Mal, Zoe and Jayne had a job to negotiate, and Kaylee had disappeared early in the morning, talking about hunting down a cousin of hers who'd moved out here when she was just a teenager. She'd even taken River with her, above Simon's complaints. Everybody had something to do.
All my work, all my sacrifice... and now this.
"Doc?"
Simon's head snapped up as Zoe walked in holding a wad of cloth wrapped tightly around her arm. "I thought the captain said..."
"No guns," Zoe assured him. "Just landed on it playin' a bit of ball with our friends out there. I wouldn't worry, but I think I heard something crack when I hit ground. Old war-wound there makes it easy for that wrist to go wrong." She watched him for a moment, and her expression was so oddly steady that he felt like she could see right through him. "There's a first aid kit under the seat," she added after a moment.
"Of course. Just, ah... sit down there and I'll have a look." He opened the kit and found all the necessary bandages and antiseptic wipes for very basic care, but no mini-scanner. Of course not - why would a bunch of space pirates have a mini-scanner? He set the box aside, hoping his momentary surprise hadn't shown, and started to gently probe Zoe's now-unwrapped forearm. "I'm surprised Wash isn't here."
"Captain's keepin' him busy talkin' over the flight plan for delivery with our client. Besides, he's seen me hurt often enough - aiya, that's the spot. Enough a little sprain ain't gonna scare him." She frowned. "Feel broken?"
"You said you had an old injury in this wrist?"
"Got thrown by a concussion grenade exploding against the wall next to me. Hit the ground pretty hard, damned thing's never been the same since."
Simon nodded, probing her forearm as gently as he could. "It must not have healed properly the first time... It looks like you've broken it again. I should be able to reknit the bones well enough that it won't happen so easily again, but you should be careful of it for the first few weeks, and be sure to take a few extra mineral supplements."
She eyed him somewhat suspiciously. "We haven't got a lot of those, doc."
"I keep an extra supply, for situations like this. It's necessary, to ensure that the bones heal without weak points. Particularly in your line of work..." He paused, then shook his head. "'Our' line of work, I should say. I'm certainly not uninvolved, and it's not as though I have any important research projects to pay my way," he added bitterly.
"Research?" There was that disturbingly incisive look again. Simon hesitated a moment, but found he couldn't resist.
"One of my study-mates from Medacad was in the news this morning - plastered all of the cortex, in fact. Her name and picture were prominent on every feed. She's discovered a new neural transmitter and mangaged to pin down its exact function in the brain. Specifically, in the amygdala," he added bitterly.
A moment of silence hung over the bridge. "Doc, you're gonna have to be a bit more specific than that. Common criminal and soldier, remember? Not a scientist." But the corners of her lips curled upward as she said it, and Simon decided that he didn't so much mind being teased by Zoe.
"The amygdala has been our greatest problem with River's condition. It's a sort of a filter, it lets us shunt away things we don't want to think about. River doesn't have one, effectively - they stripped it." Simon sighed and leaned back against the console, careful to avoid the perplexing amount of buttons and levers. How many did it really take to fly a ship like this, anyway? "With this information... I might be able to work out a new treatment for River. I might even be able to reverse some degree of the damage they did, if I had the right facilities to make proper use of this research. But I just... I can't believe it. It should have been me. It would have been me, if I were still... I used to tutor her, you know that? I tutored her for every neuro exam we ever had. She would have failed our test on transmitters if I hadn't helped her, and now..."
"Looks like she's paying you back for it, whether she means to or not."
"Maybe. I don't know. That's not it, though! I could have... It could have been me, Zoe. It should have been me. And now I'm stuck out here in the middle of nowhere dealing with... inferior technology, always on the edge of running out of the most simple things. I have to worry if I'm going to have enough adrenaline for the next time the captain gets shot, or enough cortisone if we land on Beylix, and trying to figure out how I can keep a bunch of petty criminals together with this lièzhì equipment, when they're constantly getting themselves shot!"
He took a few deep breaths, and then blanched as the last few phrases of his rant echoed back into his mind. "I didn't mean..."
"I'm not Kaylee, Doc." Zoe laid her good hand on his shoulder for a moment. "And believe me, I know perfectly well what we are."
"You shouldn't even..." He laughed a little and shook his head. "Why?"
"Why am I here? I was raised on a ship not far off from this. Not criminals, mind - my mama and daddy weren't the sort for that, until the Alliance tried to conscript them to run supplies. Took them right out of the sky. After the war, the captain took into his head to buy a ship... and I couldn't think of much better to do. Besides, Mal didn't know a damned thing about running a ship."
"But you could have done anything, gone anywhere. Once you were declared innocent, you had a completely new page..."
"With a nice big rider attached to my file, sayin' for anyone who checks exactly who and what I was back then. Even if it didn't, I'd still remember. Where else were you thinking I should be?" She let the silence grow heavy between them to make sure Simon was aware none of the answers that came to mind made sense. He couldn't imagine her working in a nice office or living on one of the pretty core worlds, much as his respect for her made him reflexively think she ought to have the easy life and all the fine things that went with it. "I'm happy where I am, Doctor," she reminded him with a surprisingly soft tone. "Think you might be, too, if you let yourself."
"I am, sometimes. It's just not... it's not what I thought I'd have. When I think about all of that..."
"Would you take River back there, to have it?"
Simon sputtered and stared helplessly at her, completely thrown by the abrupt change in her demeanor. There was no slightly gentle mocking, now, and her tone reminded him more than anything of the times Jayne had actually managed to get through her calm and really anger her. But how could she suggest that? How could she even think it, after all he'd done? "Of course not!"
"Now that you know what it meant to your life, everything it changed - if you could go back, would you still do the same as you did?"
"Of course I would. I couldn't just leave her there, don't you understand--"
"So the decision's made, and you wouldn't change it if you could. I'm not seeing where this warrants a fit of depression, Doctor."
Simon's mouth made an effort at responding to that, but his brain didn't want to be involved in the process just yet.
"Your sister seems happy here, you've said this ship is a home to her, and I have to think it's a better home than what you've said about what you had before. And I know Kaylee's happy to have both of you here," Zoe added with a little smirk. "You and the captain haven't even had a real fight these last few weeks. I can understand sometimes missing the things you've lost, but worrying about things you've never even had never struck me as a good way to go about life. There's not a lot of good comes out of that. Seems to me that's what a doctor ought to think about."
And she was right, of course. River's life was worth a bit of a knock to his ego, wasn't it? And if he could use this new research to improve her treatments... Much as he hated to admit it sometimes, he was beginning to feel comfortable here on the ship. It wasn't anything he was used to, it didn't compare to the glitter and pride of his past life, but there was something in it, something he couldn't quite put a finger on yet. Something that made Jayne's jokes and the captain's snide remarks and all the awful, boring food and hard mattresses almost worthwhile. "I think... you're right about that. That's exactly what a doctor ought to think about."
Zoe nodded sharply, a military gesture if ever he'd seen one, but he couldn't help but feel pleased at the slight smile around her eyes.
"Now that we've got that crisis settled, maybe you could set my wrist."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 03:24 am (UTC)Glad you liked it! *g*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 09:21 am (UTC)It's absolutely everything I'd hoped for and it makes me so very, very happy. *hugs* Thank you so much, what a wonderful birthday present!!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 05:09 pm (UTC)And I am so glad that Simon and Zoe came off right. I had a total panic attack about halfway through where nothing that Zoe said was sounding like her and I had to put it away for a day - that's why it was late. Everything was coming out sounding like Mal and I couldn't seem to get back to where I was supposed to be. Stupid dialogue.
Yay! I'm so happy and relieved that you like it!!! *Hugs*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-17 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 11:57 pm (UTC)