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“Let’s see if we can get a few passengers, Kaylee. We need a few extra credits here.” Mal said, nodding at the small crowd gathered around the landing docks. “Try to find someone credible this time, ok? I don’t want what happened last time to happen again.”
“That was- it was a little fun.” Kaylee said. Mal gave her a hard look that she returned with a bright smile. He sighed. It was no use being mad at that girl, he forgot about it three minutes later. “I’ll find us some passengers, sir.” She said, the smile still tugging at her face. Inara exited just then, looping her arm through Kaylee’s and getting her own generous smile as reward.
“Kaylee will do just fine, Captain. I’ll keep an eye on her.” Inara said and winked at Kaylee. She winked back and they both turned to Mal.
“We’re all going to die.” Wash said, passing by his arm tucked close into Zoe’s.
“Maybe so, but it will be an adventure.” Zoe said ominously. She grinned at Mal and began to tug Wash away, talking about a bar she wanted to visit. Jayne frowned at them as he exited but Wash waved him over and grudgingly he followed after nodding goodbye to everyone else.
“If Inara has plans to go into the city, I don’t mind staying with Kaylee.” Simon said, rocking back on his heels.
Mal raised his eyebrows and held up his hands. “That’s up to you to figure out. As for me, I’ve got a few men I need to talk to.”
Mal nodded goodbye and left. He caught bits and pieces of conversations as he wove through the crowd. He stopped to dig in his pockets as he heard something that he hadn’t before.
“What the hell do you mean, alternate universe?” One man, demanded, pulling off a long sleeved shirt. “I thought that you said that we were going into the future and not-”
“Dean, time travel is a tricky business that is handled delicately and not to be tampered with and both you and your brother have ripped up so many timelines and so many prophecies you will have to excuse me for messing up this one thing.” Another man hissed, hands clenched. A taller man stood off to the side but between the two of them, a look of pure exasperation on his face.
“Let’s not talk about ripping up timelines, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou! If it weren’t for you-”
“Ok, shut it. Both of you.” The taller man said, obviously fed up with what was clearly an ongoing dispute. He caught Mal’s eye but Mal pulled out a watch and inspected it closely, looking up at the sun as though to gauge what time it was. “How long are we here for, Cas?”
“It’s hard to say.” The dark haired man grumbled. “It could be hours. It could be weeks.”
“Until your batteries recharge.” The first man mumbled, scrubbing at his face.
“As it were, yes.” The dark haired one said with a glare.
“Let’s get our bearings. What year is it?” The taller one said, shuffling closer to the first man as several well known war criminals walked over. His instincts were good, Mal noted.
“I don’t know.” Cas admitted, staring about. He saw Mal and Mal nodded at the small group and turned on his heel. He walked right back to Serenity where Inara and Kaylee were already set up on the dock with three umbrellas and two chairs and drinks in their hands. They sipped and talked softly, nodding to passing strangers. The potential passengers were sized up and disregarded in an easy glance between the two. Simon came up behind the two, a pitcher to refill their cups in his hand. He had another glass in his hand already and offered it to Mal. Mal took a drink.
“I think I found us some passengers.” Mal said finally.
“Where are they?” Kaylee asked.
“Captain, are the invisible people speaking to you in your mind again?” Inara asked.
He shot her a fake smile and considered dumping his drink all over her pretty dress. Instead he scanned the crowd and easily picked the strange group out. “No, Inara. They only come out when I’m trying to get away from you.” He said. He pointed out the three men to Kaylee. “There. Kaylee, you think you could get them interested?”
“Me, Captain?” She asked, coughing on her drink. “Inara is right here. There ain’t a man alive who would-” She stopped herself abruptly at Mal’s look. “Yes, sir.” She mumbled and handed Simon her drink. She brushed off her hands and cast Simon the most miserable look she could. “I’ll be back. Alone, probably.”
“They’ll love you.” Simon said confidently.
“They’re going to say they can’t pay.” Mal said. “Tell them you can work it out with they can work it out with the Captain.”
Kaylee smoothed down her hair and nodded. She turned and walked to the small group and was offered a tempered smile by the tallest one and a curt nod by the first man. There was talk, the tallest one laughed and Mal caught the look of disapproval on Simon’s face. He smirked.
“Badger will be here soon, Simon. Might want to tuck that sister of yours away somewhere. Maybe ask Sheppard to stay with her.”
Kaylee raised a hand to Mal who raised one back and nodded. He headed back into the ship, Inara behind him.
“Must we continue to deal with Badger, Mal?” She asked, her voice taut with disgust and tension.
“He’s the only one willing to pay us the money we need, Inara. Let’s leave the business to the adults, ok?” He smirked at her and she turned on her heel. Kaylee was herding the three men into Serenity with a smile.
“Here he is!” Kaylee announced. “Captain, may I introduce Dean,” She nodded at the first man who had tied his long sleeved shirt around his waist. “Castiel,” The messy, dark haired man nodded at Mal. “And Sam.” She saved a small grin for him, something that Mal had only seen her hand out to Simon. Next to him, Simon shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably.
Dean stepped forward. “Captain.” He said seriously.
“Nice to meet you, Dean. Looking for a ride?” Mal asked.
“I, uh,” He glanced over at Sam and Cas, both patiently waiting for Dean to take the lead, just as he always did. “Yeah I guess we are. Thing is-”
“They don’t have a credit to their name, Mal.” Kaylee said, rolling her eyes over Dean’s hesitancy to explain what was going on.
“You seem like big, strapping boys.” Mal said after a moment, pretending to mull over the decision. He glanced up at Inara, who had River hanging off of her. “Can you fight?”
Sam grinned. Cas looked mildly unhappy. Dean laughed. “Yeah, you can say we can handle ourselves.”
“Can you do anything else?”
“Well, Dean can fix any engine he gets near and he can cook too.” Castiel said. “Sam is very well read and extremely smart.”
Mal felt a breeze pass him and watched as River strode right up to Castiel, getting almost right into his face. He didn’t break eye contact from her and she was crowding him so much he wondered why Castiel didn’t back away. “And this one has lived through ages. He has a magic, Simon.” She said, speaking to her brother like he was the only one in the room. Zoe, Jayne and Wash showed up just then. They paused just then, seeing River as close to this stranger as any of them. Dean and Sam exchanged looks over Castiel’s head.
“It’s fine.” Dean finally said with a shrug. “Cas here is no stranger to invading someone’s personal space.”
Cas frowned at Dean. “I believe we are working on that particular habit.”
“It’s fine, Cas.” Dean said easily.
Oh, it’s like that. Mal thought.
“Well, they are certainly our type, aren’t they?” Zoe said with a smile.
“Kaylee will show you your rooms and-”
“Mal!” A familiar voice came from the front of the ship, causing him to turn. Dean, Sam and Cas all turned at the same time, polite interest falling away from Sam and Dean’s face as quickly as Mal had seen ice melt near a hot engine. Dean was faster than even Mal anticipated and he jerked Mal’s gun out of it’s holster and Cas was at his back pushing a silver blade into Sam’s hands, another already in his hands.
“You son of a bitch!” Dean growled.
“We should have known it was you!” Sam said, spinning the blade in his hand.
“Demon.” Castiel muttered.
Badger, for his part, looked terrified. The three men that accompanied him did not even need to be ordered, they attacked the three new passengers without hesitation. The thing was, was that no one expected how fast and lethal the three newcomers were. They made short work of the three men and even Jayne’s mouth was hanging open. Dean let the gun fall to his feet and grabbed Badger by the throat.
“You did this, didn’t you.” Dean growled and slammed him into a container behind him. Badger let out a pathetic squeak but did not otherwise say anything.
“Dean?” Kaylee asked.
“He brought us here. He left us here.” Dean slammed him into the container again. “And he thought that it would be real funny to come here and get a good laugh, didn’t you, Crowley?”
“Brought you…?” Simon prompted.
Sam sighed and looked over his shoulder, irritated with the interruptions his brother’s interrogation was getting. “This isn’t our time. We have been pushed out of our time lines when I attempted to take us forward into the future-”
“What?” Mal asked. Space travel, yes. Ok. Time travel? “No.”
“It lacks a few events, but I can assure you, Captain, that is essentially what happened.” Castiel said, looking over his shoulder. “It only makes sense that the demon would be behind.”
“Demon?!” Badger, Wash and Jayne demanded.
“I’ve been called a lot of things, mate, but that’s a new one.” Badger choked out.
River stepped forward, shaking off her brother’s hand. “Castiel. You, better than anyone here knows that genes have a way of reappearing in a line. We are thousands of years in your future. It’s only logical that the demon would reappear.”
Castiel faltered and turned to River.
He turned back to Dean.
He looked over at Mal and strode forward and took a much, much closer look.
“Sam, you’ve seen every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, have you not?” Castiel asked suddenly. Even Sam and Dean, used to the conversational whiplash that Castiel used, looked confused.
“Yes…?”
“Our captain, does he look like the arch nemesis in the final season?”
“Cas what does this-?” Dean demanded.
“Genes, Dean.” Cas said and with a sigh, stepped away. “It’s not Crowley. Look at him.”
Dean stepped back and squinted at Badger. He looked at him, up and down and then stepped closer again.
“Son of a bitch.” Dean sighed.
Badger was tossed unceremoniously from the ship and Dean, Cas and Sam presented themselves once again to the crew.
“Look, we’re sorry-”
“Where did you learn that?” Jayne demanded.
“Wash, let’s get going.” Mal said. “I imagine Badger will be pretty upset with us.” He turned back to the three in front of him. “Ready to see the sky?”