(no subject)

[e_delmar]

Ain't nothin' but a normal room. Pretty one, too, if'n you don't think too hard on what's goin' on in there. Ennis' sleeping more now, at least -- the drugs help with that -- but he's still awake a lot (and damn grumpy about it, too. But he ain't no less grumpy about the sleep, neither).

But he's there, and at least that's something.

Comments

[e_delmar]

"Can't have you floatin' up in space."

And it's meant light-hearted, but the worry's there anyway.

[gonna_live]

"Well." Smile's a little crooked. "Floatin's fine, so long as we don't got problems with the life support and the thrusters."

[e_delmar]

Ennis nods, understanding, and opens his mouth to say something. Before he can, the coughing starts, and he winces, turning away from Kaylee so's she can't see his face.

[gonna_live]

She reaches out and touches his arm, lightly, hesitantly.

[e_delmar]

He yanks his arm away, right quick, then puts it down softer, like an apology. He's shakin' his head about something, but it's a while before he gets his breath back, and when he does, he ain't meeting her eyes.

[gonna_live]

"This ain't nothin' to be ashamed of."

[e_delmar]

He knows. (It ain't always as easy to remember as it is to know.)

"Ain't nothin' needs to be all on everybody else, neither."

Blustering his way through a slow sentence, words soft and labored.

[gonna_live]

"Until I'm the one doin' it, ain't on me at all."

[e_delmar]

There's a grunt, a grumble of somethin' under his breath.

[gonna_live]

Kaylee raises her eyebrows.

[e_delmar]

He shrugs, seeming to have given in to whatever argument it was he was havin' there with himself (or with whatever it was he was seein' there -- ain't entirely out of the question).

[gonna_live]

Kaylee settles back in the chair, tucking a leg under her.

Quiet: "You want me to smuggle in anything?"

[e_delmar]

Whiskey. Cigarettes. Food.






Truth is, he don't really much feel like any of that anymore. Only thing he wants ain't something she can smuggle, anyways. He shakes his head and instead offers her a hand.

[gonna_live]

Kaylee takes it in both of hers.



She's no good with silence. But she guesses it's something you have to get used to, with something like this.

It's just that emptiness wants to be filled.

[e_delmar]

Ennis is used to the silence of the outdoors. The kind that wraps you up like a blanket and brings you home. The silence filled with the little things, like the running water of a creek and the distant howl of a coyote.

This silence, the one caused by discomfort, this one he don't like none at all.

"'s Jack holding up?"

He knows how Jack acts in front of him. He knows it ain't necessarily how Jack is.

[gonna_live]

Jack's a tough egg to crack. Kaylee doesn't say that.

"Could be a hell of a lot worse," is all Kaylee says.

[e_delmar]

Ennis nods. He knows Jack well enough.




"Gonna need takin' care of."

[gonna_live]

"We will." That's soft. "Promise."

[e_delmar]

Seems to make him relax, seems to make him happier, anyway. He opens his mouth to talk again, but this time it ain't coughin' that keeps him from doing so.

[gonna_live]

"It's gonna be all right."

That's barely audible, and --

-- she's surprised to find --

it's not just lip service.

[e_delmar]

Ennis nods, and he squeezes her hand, and it's hard to say that, to figure out a way to say that it ain't him he's worried about, but the rest of 'em he's leaving behind.

[gonna_live]

The crew at least has experience with being left behind, and picking up, and moving on.

It's what they do.

Soft: "Last time Crowley was laid up I read to him. Can do that, if you want. Makes it easier to sleep, for me, when Simon does it."

[e_delmar]

Ennis looks up at her and it's something like thankful even if maybe what he means is a lot like thankful and he nods.

[gonna_live]

She thought he might be okay with that. She hoped, anyway. And came prepared.

With one hand she lets go of his, and reaches for the bag she brought with her. Inside is another cheap book she found on a skyplex: something called A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

(Any mention of King Arthur and Kaylee's sold.)

"Says it's by a fella named Mark Twain -- you ever heard of him?"

Kaylee hadn't.

[e_delmar]

Ennis shakes his head, and could be if it'd been twenty years ago or so for him, he might've remembered something or other about a book he had to read in school, a book there was a big fuss made over, but as it is, the name don't mean nothin' to him.