Firefly Fic: Nightmares
Aug. 12th, 2010 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseTitle: Nightmares
Fandom:Firefly
Characters/Pairing: River, Jayne, Simon, mentions Mal, Wash. Slight River/Jayne
Rating:PG
Warnings/spoilers: none
Prompt: For a![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
whedonland challenge, prompt "someone sleeping, resting, or dreaming" (placed)
Wordcount: 373
Summary: River's dreams are memories, nightmares - and not only her own.
Sometimes the nightmares were memories, brought into sharper focus, or instead with blurred edges, yet still echoes of the things that had happened – had been done – to her.
Sometimes they were typical bad dreams, a mix of reality and fantasy and odd facts and images thrown in. Dreams where Jayne was insistent they couldn't go the ball until Vera had finished her bath, or where the sky was bright purple and Simon was disapproving about this cosmological inaccuracy.
Sometimes the dreams were odd flashes of memories that weren't hers, never had been, formed from unwilling glances into other people's minds. Sometimes she was fighting in the Unification war though she'd been just a child then. So much noise, and blood, and death.
River tossed and turned as this particular nightmare unfolded. The flames licked at her boots; she was tied to a stake. Simon was nowhere to be seen. No whine of Serenity's engines interrupted the jeers of the villagers waiting for the witch to burn. No sign of Mal or Zoë striding to her rescue. The smell of smoke in her nostrils was choking her -
"Gorram, girl, keep it down!" Jayne shook River roughly awake. "You're screaming like to wake the dead."
"Simon?"
"He ain't back from negotiations," Jayne said. "There's me, you and Wash onboard, and he's all the way over in the cockpit away from your noise. Keep it down. I'm tryin' to sleep too."
River turned sad, frightened, eyes on him. "Stay," she whispered. "Maybe a mercenary can scare the bad dreams away."
He considered. "Ain't going to get any sleep if you keep yelling," he said glumly. "May as well stay."
Which was how Jayne came to be dozing, sitting on the floor by River's bed, while she slept soundly upon the crumpled sheets. Simon was a half a second away from yelling loudly about the scenario he'd stumbled upon, until he saw River's hand resting on Jayne's shoulder, and decided to leave them be.
And River's dreams that night were peaceful as she and Jayne sat atop a granite rock and watched the tangerine sky without complaint, while nearby Wash made strawberry pancakes and her first grade teacher gave Mal a lecture about his appalling spelling.
Fandom:Firefly
Characters/Pairing: River, Jayne, Simon, mentions Mal, Wash. Slight River/Jayne
Rating:PG
Warnings/spoilers: none
Prompt: For a
whedonland challenge, prompt "someone sleeping, resting, or dreaming" (placed)Wordcount: 373
Summary: River's dreams are memories, nightmares - and not only her own.
Sometimes the nightmares were memories, brought into sharper focus, or instead with blurred edges, yet still echoes of the things that had happened – had been done – to her.
Sometimes they were typical bad dreams, a mix of reality and fantasy and odd facts and images thrown in. Dreams where Jayne was insistent they couldn't go the ball until Vera had finished her bath, or where the sky was bright purple and Simon was disapproving about this cosmological inaccuracy.
Sometimes the dreams were odd flashes of memories that weren't hers, never had been, formed from unwilling glances into other people's minds. Sometimes she was fighting in the Unification war though she'd been just a child then. So much noise, and blood, and death.
River tossed and turned as this particular nightmare unfolded. The flames licked at her boots; she was tied to a stake. Simon was nowhere to be seen. No whine of Serenity's engines interrupted the jeers of the villagers waiting for the witch to burn. No sign of Mal or Zoë striding to her rescue. The smell of smoke in her nostrils was choking her -
"Gorram, girl, keep it down!" Jayne shook River roughly awake. "You're screaming like to wake the dead."
"Simon?"
"He ain't back from negotiations," Jayne said. "There's me, you and Wash onboard, and he's all the way over in the cockpit away from your noise. Keep it down. I'm tryin' to sleep too."
River turned sad, frightened, eyes on him. "Stay," she whispered. "Maybe a mercenary can scare the bad dreams away."
He considered. "Ain't going to get any sleep if you keep yelling," he said glumly. "May as well stay."
Which was how Jayne came to be dozing, sitting on the floor by River's bed, while she slept soundly upon the crumpled sheets. Simon was a half a second away from yelling loudly about the scenario he'd stumbled upon, until he saw River's hand resting on Jayne's shoulder, and decided to leave them be.
And River's dreams that night were peaceful as she and Jayne sat atop a granite rock and watched the tangerine sky without complaint, while nearby Wash made strawberry pancakes and her first grade teacher gave Mal a lecture about his appalling spelling.
