[Personal Log] For Annie.

[meimeimechanic]

Kaylee loved coming to sit and eat in ten forward. She could people watch there. People meant stories and she loved those. On top of that she could see the stars. Back on Serenity she used to wait til the others had gone to sleep sometimes grab a couple of blankets, make herself a hot drink and go sit up in the cockpit. Just watching the stars. Seeing the steam trail away from her mug as the rest of the ship cooled off during the night cycle while all the sleeping quarters were kept warm still.

But this wasn't her girl, somehow this ship didn't seem to sleep. Nightmares and sleeping at all sorts of odd times meant that she'd learned more about the ship. She still missed her girl. The engine room, hammock, and the fairy lights. As well as the books she'd bought for Simon she'd got a few for herself, the serious technical ones were still on the shelf, she was reading something a little more questionable and giggling as she did.

Comments

[meimeimechanic]

It becomes apparent to Kaylee why she feels familiar with Annie, she reminds her in a way of River. Not that she's going to ever let that stop her. If anything it just makes her want to be her friend more. Kaylee saw River as a friend, not just some crazy girl or something that needed to be eliminated.

"Months by my reckoning. But we've stopped on dirt a couple of times. Not as often as I've been used to, but this girl can go lot longer between stops than mine." Kaylee had the habit of talking like Serenity was her's when she wasn't.

"Can sit if you like or you got someone waitin' for ya?"

[treadswater]

"Oh, I, uh." Annie stops. "My fiancé." There's a quick, happy grin at that - it's still such a new word - and then Annie shrugs. "But, he's doing things, so I can, I can sit. For a little bit."

She has been very, very lonely for a very, very long time, and it's enough to get over her shyness. At least, for the moment.

Annie pulls out a chair, trying not to make too much noise, and sits down.

"Stopped on dirt? You mean, like going to port? Um. Or, planet?"

[meimeimechanic]

Kaylee's grinning too, because that is just adorable and special. Kaylee doesn't really know her but is thrilled for her all the same.

"Oh! Congratulations! Have you planned anythin' yet?"

She nods. "Yeah, exactly like that. Gonna say you don't have ships like this where you're from. Noticed that about lot of folk here. Lot talk about Earth too, never been there."

[treadswater]

For a moment, Annie just looks startled. Someone is...happy for her? A stranger? But the woman seems sincere, and...happy. For her.

Shyly, Annie grins back. "Um, no, we ain't. Not yet, anyway."

Then she blinks.

"Never been...oh. I can't even imagine that. I'm from Earth, but we only ever heard of the Solar System."

[meimeimechanic]

"You should, it's a big day. I remember my brothers gettin' married, all kinds a'chaos. Best day, wi' the dancin' an' cake. Everyone all happy." She explains in her own way. Her family were chaos, both of them were. Her shipboard family and her biological ones. Kaylee was not going to think of what was going on with Simon then. It was confusing and she didn't want to go there.

"My home is Zephyr, out in the Kalidasa system. Folk left Earth-that-was and settled in a new place. So many of us, we're spread out over five systems. Red Sun, Blue Sun, White Sun, Kalidasa, Georgia. I've traveled a lot of places now. Never thought I would, but you get an offer t'go be mechanic on a startship that clearly needs ya, can't say no now."

[treadswater]

Annie smiles at that, at all the images Kaylee's words conjure. "Maybe if we got to know some folk here. Be a pretty quiet party elsewise."

Still, she's happy to move on - if not else because the brother she's closest to is dead, and for their own safety, she doesn't know her half-siblings.

And it's not as if Kaylee isn't offering her other things.

The look on Annie's face is one of genuine wonder. "So, so many systems," she whispers. Then she laughs, a little. "Yep, I would. Have an excuse to go places, and get paid, certainly go and sign up."

[meimeimechanic]

"I like you already, so I'm sure other folk will." Kaylee is a very good judge of character.

Paid, huh now that was something else, didn't always work out and they got themselves just enough to get by. Once or twice they got more than they could ever go imagining but then they had to sort out things like fixing up Serenity and buying a new mule, which still needed a few tweaks to the engine as far as Kaylee was concerned. She would never be satisfied with it.

"Don't always get paid. Still, they're family an' you make do t'get by and keep flyin'."

[treadswater]

This is because you don't think I'm mad so far, Annie thinks a second after she grins at Kaylee, bright and startled and delighted. It's a thought that makes her smile falter, although she tries to hide it by ignoring, by moving onto the rest of what the woman is talking about.

"Well, 'not always' ain't exactly the same thing as 'never'," she says, but with the kind of smile which suggests she's familiar with inconsistent wages. "And, yeah. Family. My momma's shrimp boat sometimes ran just on that, and nothin' else."