Life on this boat. A Firefly story. #fanfic

The Demeter caper

The trip to the bar was more peaceful than expected. After a short conversation, Mal stood up and shook the man's hand before signalling for them to leave.
"Huh. Didn't even get to punch anyone," Jayne mumbled, making Lou want to smile.
"Next time," she said.
Once outside they found Mal and Zoe leaning up against the mule.
"Right. So the guy won't give us any info untill we do a job for him freighting something off Demeter and over to Persephone. Good news is this also means pay. Bad news it means it will take longer to get the kids," he explained.
Lou nodded.
"But we will get 'em!" Jayne said.
"For sure! This guy even knows what shipment out there they were on," Mal replied. "Now, let's go get this cargo prepped."
They got on the mule and headed into what Lou could only think of as barren land. Demeter was a farily recent terraform and housed a ramshackle mix of pirates and wannabe industrialists settled in shack towns.
"Wash. Can you follow us into the nothing?" Mal called over the com.
Out in a crater, they met up with a small hover craft. Overhead Serenity soared and prepared to land. Mal stopped the mule some distance from the hovercraft taking an overview.
"Wash. Don't land. Something smells fishy!" Mal ordered making Serenity rise up and move off to the edge of the crater.
Carefully he drove the mule up to the meeting point and Jayne jumped off to stand guard. Mal wandered over to the man standing in front of the craft.
"Now where do you want this loaded?" A big bald mountain of a man rumbled.
"Right here on the mule's trailer would be just shiny," Mal replied with a smile.
"I think our boss would prefer if we load straight into your ship. Captain," the man said with an scheming smile.
"Ruttin pirates," Zoe muttered and quietly lifted her shotgun from the mule's floor pulling the loader as quietly as she could.
Lou got her rifle up on her lap, ready to shoot if necessary.
"They want Serenity," Zoe warned.
Lou nodded. Fireflies were known for their sturdy build. Thanks to Kaylee, theirs had a reputation for being extra well looked after.
"I think we may have misunderstood your boss. We were to pick up some stuff and take it to be sold on Persephone. As you see we have capacity to shift it," Mal said patiently.
"We shift faster if you call your boat over," the man said.
Suddenly another four big men erupted from behind boulders, surrounding the mule.
"I think we agree, no?" The leader said as one of the men jumped up on the mule pointing his gun at Lou. As Lou swung her rifle up towards him a gunshot rang out from behind Lou and the man fell over clutching his middle, bleeding profusely.
Lou stood up and shot a look at Jayne.
"I had him," she said.
"Yeah, well. I got him for ya'," Jayne shrugged.
"If you two can quit being all romantic, I think we may be in some trouble here," Mal said dryly.
All around them, there were big men with big guns pointing at them.
Lou took up sights at one of them and caught an approving grin from the big man in front of her before he turned to take aim. Pulling herself together she calculated the best line of attack and defence.
"Three in front of the mule, five behind. Get the one behind Jayne, Mal will get the two behind us, I will get the two in front and leave the rest to Jayne," Zoe quickly summed up quietly.
"Thanks," Lou replied, thankful for the tactics plan.
"Thank me later, first we need to get home in one piece," Zoe said.
Lou held her rifle trained on a nasty looking man who was inching up towards them in front of the mule. In her sidevision she registered several other men approaching. Suddenly the young man in front of Mal lowered his gun.
"How's we gunna git at them womenfolk if they shoot at us?" He asked.
"Shut yer trap," the leader told him.
Zoe and Lou exchanged a look before both burst out in a fit of laughter.
"You're seriously thinking that two of my best fighters are ready to spend any time with you?" Mal grinned.
"I was told there's rewards for this here deal," the boy said, sending Lou and Zoe into another burst of laughing. Zoe turned around trying to be serious.
"If you try anything, I swear I will blow your brains out before your hand reaches your belt," she said aiming her shotgun at his face. Lou nodded.
"Tell you what. You run on down to that dirty bar and you tell your boss he'd better get you on some other work. You sure ain't no good out here," Mal said.
The leader looked at the young man and shook his head in exaspeation before aiming his gun straight at Lou's head. The rest of them found their aim again.
"Dunno 'bout you, but it looks like we've got you surrounded," the leader said.
"Looks that way," Mal replied.
"You gonna give up and call in your ship or you ready to loose this pretty face from your party?" The leader said staring straight at Lou.
"You might wanna have that conversation with the man aiming his rifle in your direction," Mal said indicating Jayne's shifting aim from the two men behind the mule to the leader.
The leader grinned widely as one of his men took up aim towards Jayne.
"Now this is getting ridiculous," Mal huffed.
The leader licked his lips, winked at Lou and prepared to pull the trigger. Lou shifted her aim towards the man aiming for Jayne just as a shot was fired towards Zoe. Lou fired and disabled the man before reaiming and shooting at the men as they came into her sight. In a flurry of gunshots and bullets, Lou felt terrified. Suddenly Zoe collapsed next to her with blood pouring out of her shoulder. Lou tried to push the worry for her friend away while taking down the man who shot her.
Soon the gunfight was over. The last pirate standing wasn't standing at all. The young man who had spoken up laid curled up in a heap up by a rock, a handgun tightly clutched in a shivering hand. Mal ran over and kicked the weapon from him.
"You ain't never done this before, have you?" Mal asked.
"N-n-no," the boy answered.
"Trust me. It ain't all money and women. Now on your feet, get into town," Mal said raising the boy up.
"You ain't gonna shoot me?" The young one asked.
"Nah. Not today," Mal replied.
The boy looked at them one by one before he ran in the direction of town.
"Yeah. That's it! Git you runt!" Jayne shouted after him.
Lou sat down with Zoe looking at her wound.
"It's not that bad, she's had worse. Now come help me look in these crates," Mal said.
"Gee, thanks for the sympathy," Zoe groaned. Quickly Lou tore a piece off her shirt and wrapped it as best she could around Zoe's injury.
The men opened the crates and found that they contained blankets clothes and basic household equipment for new settlers.
"Looks like something we are more than likely to sell on," Mal said and started shifting it on to the mule's trailer.
Soon they were on their way. Mal hailed Serenity and wash landed a short distance from them. Mal and Zoe drove on with their haul in the Mule while Lou and Jayne took guard in case of any new attacks. Once everything was clear, Jayne looked at Lou with a smirk.
"You ready?" He asked.
"Why not," she said and gave him a quick kiss before they walked onboard with Jayne's arm casually slung around Lou's shoulder.