War Buddies Reunite (open)

[Monty Walters]

With the brand new sensors that Monty had had installed on Teresa, ships could be seen from quite a ways away. So, when he and his crew came across a small ship it was no great surprise to them, as they had been aware of its presence for several minutes. What was surprising was the identity of the ship...it was a small, Firefly class transporter. Monty knew that there weren't many of that particular class still flying around the 'Verse. Seeing the ship's name across the side only confirmed his suspicions. He had stumbled across Malcolm Reynolds.

A grin spread across his face as he looked at the viewing screen, leaning over the poor crewman who normally manned it and was busy trying not to be crushed. Monty walked over to the radio and send a wave out towards the smaller ship. The crewman by the viewing screen, relieved to not have his captain towering over him, went back to manning his station.

"Why hello there," said Monty into the microphone. "If that ain't a sorry ass ship. You ought to consider yourself powerful lucky, Malcolm Reynolds, that I even noticed that tiny li'l thing and didn't just run it on over."

There was a crackle of static, and what sounded like a few annoyed voices. After a moment, the static cleared, and the voice of Malcolm. He spoke in mock annoyance, pratically growling at the Sasquach of a captain.

"Is that you, Monty? I wouldn't be talkin' go-se about my ship when you've got that enormous metal heap you're flyin' around in."

Monty let out a loud, booming chuckle that must have sounded like thunder over the low quality microphone.

"My metal heap? You ain't really in a position to be tossin' words like that around Mal, not in that old Firefly class piece of trash."

Before he could continue, Mal cut in. "We ain't goin' to insult each others' ships from a distance like this. You get over here and insult my ship to my face like a man!" Monty chuckled again, and replied. "You bet, Mal. I'll be hoppin' over."

It only took a few minutes for Monty to get to one of his shuttles. Teresa had four small shuttles that could be used for relatively short distances, and Monty knew them all from back to front. Within a minute of getting in his shuttle he was on his way to Serenity. He pulled into the cargo bay and set his ship down. Once he had made sure that the cargo bay was closed again, he stepped out of his ship and looked around at Serenity. It had been quite a while.

[Simon Tam]

Simon had had a pleasant, if not particularly productive, morning. They’d had some fresh fruit for breakfast, leftovers from the last planet they’d visited; after months of eating protein meals and things out of tins, it had been a pleasant change, and had definitely started off the day on the right footing. They didn’t come across real food particularly often and it had been with a smile that Simon had headed off to the infirmary to work. There hadn’t been much of that to do though, either. After he’d made sure that the instruments he’d used the day before had been put away in their rightful places and that they weren’t running low on anything vital, they’d been nothing left that warranted his attention. No one had been shot, injured, or even scratched in the past few days, which meant that he could take some time to wander the ship on his own.

Serenity was most certainly his home now. While there were a lot of things that he missed about his family’s house, he didn’t think that he would want to go back if he was given the chance. He’d gained a taste for travel, and he loved it. Sure, the ship wasn’t the most reputable in the ‘Verse, but that had been what he was looking for initially, that day back on Persephone. He couldn’t complain about that. But more than the physical building (or ship, in this case) he was in, what Simon liked the most about travelling with a band of people who could only be described as thieves, was the fact that he was included in their extended and somewhat dysfunctional family. They were a team, and as much as he didn’t want to class himself as a thief, he was glad to be part of the crew. They were all his friends, and though he might not have really approved of their line of work, they all had big hearts, even if they didn’t let you know it.

Simon was walking along the gangway above the cargo bay, past the entrance to Inara’s shuttle, when he heard some commotion going on below. Leaning over the railing, he was surprised to see a shuttle in the bay below. He looked around, but there was no-one else about. Who would be coming into the ship, and like this as well? Did the Captain know about this visitor? Simon presumed that he did, since either he or River would have had to open the cargo bay in the first place, but even so…he wasn’t used to having someone come onto the ship this way. In fact, it was a rarity to have anyone other than the crew or passengers come onto the ship at all.

Walking down the steps, Simon came to a halt a couple from the ground, looking at the man who’d stepped out of the shuttle warily. Perhaps it would have been better to wait for someone who was armed before venturing down here with someone he didn’t know. But he could defend himself if necessary…although he hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. He’d been beaten up too many times in the last few months for his liking. “Hello?” he said, descending the last few stairs. “Um, do you need any help?”

[Monty Walters]

Monty looked up in surprise at the sound of a voice that was neither Mal's nor Zoe's. It had been a while since he had actually been on board Serenity, so he supposed it was not surprising that there would be new crew members he hadn't met, but he still felt mildly disappointed not to be face to face with Mal upon arrival. He took a closer look at the man who stood before him. Physically, he was not terribly imposing, but that wasn't saying much for Monty. Monty considered very few people to be imposing, compared to him. He definitely didn't look like someone who would be doing the grunt work of a smuggling operation....then what did he do?

Internally, Monty shrugged. If he was Mal's ship, he undoubtedly had a reason to be here. Mal was a smart guy, he wouldn't just be lugging someone around for no reason. Just 'cause Monty didn't see that reason at first didn't mean there wasn't one. He strode up to the man with confidence in his step and held out his hand to be shaken. He was standing about two steps below him, but thanks to his height there was not as much a difference between them as there might have been.

"Hello there," said Monty amicably. "I'm Monty Walters. I don't s'pose we've met, but I reckon that any friend of Mal's is a friend of mine."

As he said this, Monty as sure to watch the man's face. While he didn't doubt that the man was most likely a member of Mal's crew, that didn't necessarily mean that the man liked Mal. In fact, Monty could remember quite a few people who didn't like Mal. The man seemed to have a habit for picking fights. It couldn't hurt to see how this man really felt about his captain. Mal was Monty's friend, and if he had some sort of mutinous crew member on his hands, he had the right to know.

[Simon Tam]

On second thoughts, it probably would have been better to assess who this person was and see if he was going to pose any kind of threat before just walking on down as if it was just someone he knew back from a visit someplace else, Simon thought. Well, it was too late now, and judging by the fact that he’d not yet been shot or punched, this man wasn’t about to kill all the crew before commandeering the ship or something. Running his hand through his hair, Simon quickly glanced up at the gangway from which he’d just come, but there was no-one in sight. They were probably all on the bridge or something. Well, he was here now, and instead of looking somewhat worried, he smiled at the man, trying to seem as though he was completely unconcerned about the fact that there was someone strange on the ship. Whether he achieved this or not was another question entirely.

“Good afternoon,” Simon replied, sounding less cautious now. He was almost certain that this man – Monty Walters – was not going to suddenly pull out a gun and shoot him, although he couldn’t be entirely sure; that was River’s job. “Oh, you’re a friend of the captain’s,” he continued, any trace of concern that had been left in his expression fading away. In all honesty, he’d not known that Mal had all too many friends outside of the crew; most of the people he’d fought with in the war had been killed, and it seemed to Simon that most of the people that the captain had met recently had preferred to try and kill him rather than have a friendly conversation, but apparently he’d been proved wrong.

“I’m Simon,” he continued, shaking the man’s hand. “Simon Tam. I’m the medic here.” Simon was still cautious about giving out his full name to people he did not know, even with the assurance that they’d received that he and River were no longer being persecuted in the way they’d been before, but if Monty was a friend of Mal’s, then he didn’t see much need to worry. “Can I help you with anything?”

[Monty Walters]

Monty smiled, a genuine smile that showed how pleased he really was with this Simon fellow. He seemed nice enough, and more importantly he seemed to be on fairly good terms with Mal. In Monty's experience, there weren't a whole lot of people who really liked Mal. Those who did tended to be decent people. It wasn't a foolproof judge of character, but it had worked fairly well in Monty's experience.

"Yeah, Mal and I go back a ways. Back to the War, in fact. A bit longer, by some people's reckonin'." Monty took a look around the mostly vacant docking bay. "I don't suppose Mal's hanging around here, is he? Don't suppose you could show me the way to the bridge, or wherever he is?" Monty knew perfectly well where the bridge was. Once he was on a ship, he rarely forgot the layout. It was a habit he had picked up during the war and never quite lost.

"You know, I don't think I remember you from the last time I was here." Monty didn't want to seem too curious. After all, most men had at least a few secrets they weren't comfortable sharing with strangers. Still, he liked to know a bit about a man. "Have you been on the ship long?"

[Simon Tam]

Simon couldn’t help but smile back at the older man; it seemed that there wasn’t always a lot to smile about here (apart from if you spoke to Kaylee – as far as she was concerned everything had a positive side, something which Simon usually failed to see) and so it was nice to have the cargo bay filled with a genuine smile – one not accompanied by a grimace of pain and a shout for someone to be taken to the infirmary. Of course, people being wounded was the reason that Simon had a job here – without bullet wounds and the like, there would be no reason for Mal to keep him on the ship at all – but even so, Simon much preferred it when people were happy and weren’t shouting. Especially when they weren’t shouting at him; at least that had pretty much stopped now, except from when he tried to stop River going on a raid. Honestly, he had to put his foot down sometimes, didn’t he?

“I have no idea where Mal is,” Simon replied honestly; he had kept to himself most of the morning, and though it was likely that Mal was on the bridge, it wasn’t a given. Still, the ship wasn’t too big; unless he was hiding in a cubby hole, which was extremely unlikely, it shouldn’t take too long to find him. “But of course I can show you to the bridge.”

How long had Simon been on Serenity? It felt like a lifetime; so much had happened since rescuing River from The Academy, so many things that Simon would never have imagined himself doing. Not all of them had been good things, that was true, but all of them had been life-changing in one way or another, if only to reaffirm his thoughts that he had done the right thing in venturing out into the black. “I’ve been here about a year, now,” he replied, wondering how a year could seem so much longer than it was. He could hardly imagine life without Serenity and her crew now; they were so much like his family…better than two-thirds of his real family. Unless something major happened, or River decided that she wanted to settle somewhere (which was unlikely, but possible), Simon couldn’t see himself leaving Serenity any time soon; he’d been about to at several points, whether through his own choice or that of the captain’s, but it had never happened. And now he had more to tie himself to the ship than ever; this was his home for the foreseeable future, and it wasn’t something that Simon was opposed to in the slightest. “It seems like a lot longer, though.”

[Monty Walters]

Monty chuckled. He supposed that it wasn't a big surprise that Mal would be tricky to find, even on his own ship. Mal had never been someone to do things by the book. However, Monty was sure that if Mal was genuinely needed, he would show up right away. Still, he might as well go check the bridge. Even if Mal wasn't there, Zoey might be, and it had been a long time since he had last seen Zoey. It would be fun to see her again and swap embarrassing stories about Mal in front of the rest of his crew.

"I know what you mean," Monty said as he surveyed the ship around him, "It's easy to lose track of time out in the black. I myself have been on Teresa for a couple of years now, but it seems like I've always been flying the old girl about the 'Verse." He chuckled as he thought about his ship. How long had it been since he had bought it? He wasn't even entirely sure.

"Sure, let's go to the bridge. Maybe we'll see Zoey, and I can finally meet that man that Mal told me about--the one she married, the one with the big mustache. What was his name?"

[Simon Tam]

In many ways, Simon had done far more in this past year than he had done his whole life. Sure, he’d become a doctor, one of the best doctors in Capital City, and had had a wonderful, high-paying job, but that wasn’t everything. He’d never had a sense of adventure; had never even been off-world. There’d been no need to go anywhere else when there was a fantastic med school and he had his pick of places to work once he’d completed his internship. He’d never met anyone outside of work who wasn’t of a similar social standing to his family and he had supported the Alliance, until he learned of what they had done to his sister. But being out here, he had done so much more; hiding, making friends, planning a thieving job (which was something he’d never thought he’d approve of), being shot (something that he didn’t want to repeat in a hurt), falling in love…it was just one year, but it had had such a huge impact on Simon’s life. There might have been awful times too, but the good ones made up for that. It hadn’t been how he’d expected his life to be, but he wouldn’t have changed it for the ‘Verse.

“Wash had a moustache?” Simon asked, though it wasn’t a question that was directed at Monty. Yes, Wash, and Shepherd Book too. Good things had happened in the past year, but their deaths were two of the worst. Being a doctor, Simon hated to see anybody die, especially friends, but to know that if it hadn’t been for him and River, they probably would still be alive was something that he regretted deeply. Haven had been targeted because there was the possibility that he and River were there, and they would never have gone to Miranda and be chased out by the Reavers if River hadn’t needed to go there so badly. For a moment, Simon was silent the two who had been among the most accepting of him and his sister. “Wash. He was called Wash. But, uh, he got killed a couple of months back...”

[Monty Walters]

Monty's smile faltered slightly. He knew how hard it was to lose a spouse--though technically, "Bridget's" marriage to him had never been legal. Still, he knew how it felt, and could only imagine it would be worse for Zoey. She had been married longer than she had, and--Monty assumed--this "Wash" hadn't been a con artist like "Bridget" had been. Because of Zoey's stoic attitude, a lot of people assumed she didn't feel emotions as much as the average person did. Monty knew that this wasn't true...she hurt just as badly as any other person, she just kept it inside. She was probably hurting a lot right now.

"Well....that's a damn shame," he said, all the joviality gone from his voice. He was silent for another moment. There was not a whole lot that he would be able to say, because he had never known Wash. He knew that any sort of comment or remark meant to be a comfort would most likely sound hollow and empty coming from someone who had never known the man. The best he could do was give a respectful silence, at least for a moment. He knew what it was like to lose crew members, as smuggling was a sometimes dangerous business, and knew that usually after such a loss all Monty wanted was to be alone for a while. As he was quiet, he thought about something that Simon had said.

"A couple of months back....say, that would be right around when that video leaked out onto the net, wouldn't it?" Monty raised an eyebrow as he looked at Simon. "Word out in the black says that y'all here on Serenity had a hand in that mess. That the truth?"

Monty didn't normally consider himself to be a curious person. However, from the moment he had seen that video and heard that Mal was involved, he had had to know. If it weren't for Mal being involved, he probably would have dismissed it as a hoax...he hadn't thought even the Alliance could stoop that low. But if it was the truth...well, there might be more riled up folks around the 'Verse than there had been in a powerful long time. Not since the Unifcation War....Monty had heard whispers floating around the Black. Whispers that another war might be brewin' up. And he had no idea if that was a good thing or not.

[Simon Tam]

The worst thing about being a doctor was that for every life you managed to save, there was always going to be another person who died. When he’d worked in the ER, Simon had always done his best to save as many lives as possible, advising his colleagues and even taking over a patient if it meant that he could keep another person healthy. That was what he’d always wanted to do with his life, for as long as he could remember; make people better. It was harder out here, though; so much harder. Gun wounds could be fatal pretty much instantaneously, even if he was on hand to try and help, and the Infirmary on Serenity was nowhere near as well equipped as a hospital would be, even if Simon always made sure that he had enough of everything that might be necessary. Still, nobody had died on his table for an awfully long time; he was a good medic. It just made him so sad to have people die that he couldn’t try and save. If he could have done something to bring back Wash and the Shepherd, he would have done it in a moment. Life was the most precious gift.

“Yes…yes it is. He was a nice man,” Simon replied, also lapsing into a moment of respectful silence. He had liked Wash; the man had been one of the first besides Kaylee to really accept him and his sister onto the ship, and though he hadn’t really had all that much to do with the pilot, he had been a good person. It was always the good who died young; why couldn’t the Alliance hun dans who had messed with his sister’s brain have been the ones to get hurt? It had been the same on Miranda; all the innocent people who had done no wrong had been the ones to get killed by the Alliance, not those who had been the ones to hurt others. It wasn’t fair…but then, when was life ever fair?

It seemed that Monty and Simon’s minds were working along the same lines, or had at least reached the same point; as Monty asked Simon about the message that they’d broadcast across the whole Cortex, a smile appeared on Simon’s face. “I’m glad to hear that people are still aware of that,” he replied. How could anyone forget? It was so dreadful, so disgusting, and yet another thing that made Simon dislike the Alliance. It had been the thing that had really made Simon see why the Independents had fought so hard against the Alliance in the Unification War, something that he’d not quite been able to understand even when he had no longer agreed with the Alliance. “We may have had something to do with that, yes.”


hun dan ;; bastard

[Monty Walters]

Monty nodded at Simon's confirmation. He was actually not too surprised that Mal had been involved in the mess. It seemed like just the sort of shindig that Mal would get himself involved in, to be honest. Now that he was sure, though....there was no backing out of involvement. Monty was going to have to pick a side in the conflict that was sure to come. Just after the Unification War, he would have rejoined the Browncoats in a heartbeat. But now....Monty wasn't sure if the fire was still in him. He remembered the hurt of the last war as well as anyone. It would take a lot to make him willing to join an army this time around.

"Well..." Monty trailed off, not quite sure of what he was going to say next. Words didn't always come to him easily, he had never been much of a talker. He preferred to let actions speak for themselves. "Tell me....was it all true? What the vids said about Miranda, and the Alliance, and....the Reavers." Monty didn't say the word 'Reavers' lightly. No one who voyaged out to the edge of the 'Verse did. There were too many ghost stories about them that weren't ghost stories at all. Any man who travelled through the black knew at least ten tall tales about what the Reavers had done, and most had at least one story that was all too true. That was one reason that the video had caused such a ruckus. If the Reavers had been made by the Alliance, then they had a lot to answer for.

"If what was in that video is true, you folks on Serenity ought to be careful. There's trouble brewing out there....a lot of folks ain't happy about what they seen. There are rumors about another war. And if I know Mal....well, he'll end up right in the thick of it."

[Simon Tam]

Going to Miranda had been one of the hardest things Simon had done, and one of the most sickening, and given his history as a surgeon and everything he had done to get River out of The Academy, that was saying something. All those people – ordinary people, like himself – had been put to sleep by a drug that had clearly not been tested thoroughly. It was involuntary euthanasia, on the hugest scale, and it disgusted Simon; saving lives was what he did, and to see all those people dead had been awful. The knowledge that it had been the Alliance that had done that was even worse; for many years, Simon had supported them, and now he wondered what had ever led him to that belief. From what he knew now, it seemed that all the Alliance did was harm people; they’d changed his sister almost out of recognition with their torture, and now they had killed every single person on this planet. Well, almost everyone; those that were left had become the most awful creatures imaginable. The only problem was, they weren’t imagined. The Reavers were well and truly real.

“All of it,” Simon replied quietly; it wasn’t a comfortable subject to discuss, not even among those of them who had seen it first hand, and a few words was all it took to confirm the story. If only it was a story; a tale told round a fire on a weekend break. The sort of story Simon had thought the Reavers had belonged to until he’d come aboard Serenity. Yet another black mark against the long list the Alliance had gained in Simon’s eyes in the past few years; they had an awful lot of gou shi to answer for. “Reavers are worse than anything out in the Black, and to know that the Alliance created them…” His words trailed off, not feeling that there was anything more he could say on the subject. There was only one thing worse that the Alliance could have done, and they had already done that, three years ago; torturing his sister, a fourteen-year-old, into insanity. There were so many things that Simon would never be able to forgive the Alliance for.

Simon shrugged. “We end up in the thick of everything, here on Serenity,” he replied, trying to lighten the conversation a little, it having strayed into dark territories. However, knowing him, he’d failed completely; judging when something was appropriate or funny in a conversation was not exactly one of his strong points. War wasn’t something that Simon wanted to get involved in; he was not a fighting man, nor one in favour of conflict, unless his sister was involved…which she wouldn’t be, if there was a war. He would take her out of here to somewhere safe, where she wouldn’t have to feel the pain of the people around her. Except there wasn’t anywhere safer than Serenity; trouble might find them easily, but they were always on the move, away from the Alliance radar, and the people here were his family now. Their family. They’d lost everyone they knew when they’d been disowned, and Simon wasn’t sure he could force River to just leave these people she had come to love. The people he had come to love; he couldn’t leave Kaylee behind, not to mention anyone else. No, as dangerous as it would be in the event of a war, Simon would have to stay here on Serenity. “Do you really think there’s going to be another war?”

gou shi ;; crap

[Monty Walters]

Monty sighed. Did he think there would be another war? It was hard to tell...no one could predict these things. After all, if everyone knew when a war was coming, it would be a lot easier to stop. The signs were all there, though. People were angry about the Reavers. The Alliance was denying everything. Tension was building. And all of it was from that one video, released all over the 'Verse. If half of the rumor Monty had been hearing were true, then things were about to head in a very bad direction for the Alliance. War or no war.

"I really don't know if there's going to be another war or not," he said to Simon. "But I do know that folks ain't happy about what they've been hearin' about the Reavers. They're pretty riled up towards the Alliance, and it doesn't look like the Alliance is going to do much to stop it. So....it could be. Either way, I'd be careful here on the Serenity if I were you. If another war comes rolling around, you can bet your life that Mal will end up in it somehow. If that's not something you can deal with, you might be on the wrong ship."

Monty felt a bit odd, giving Simon such a forbidding warning as that. However, it was the truth. Simon seemed like a nice enough guy, and Monty knew that nice guys tended to fare badly in wars. I twas entirely possible that there was more to Simon than met the eye, but Monty didn't want it on his conscience if Simon got dragged into a war he wasn't prepared for. Then again, no one was ever really prepared for a war. It's not the sort of thing that a man can prepare for. You just found yourself caught up in it, held on, and tried to get through it alive. If you're lucky, you do. But plenty of folks just weren't lucky enough.

Of course, if there was a war, doctors were going to be in very short supply. There was no doubt that Simon would be a valuable asset to whatever side he chose. Since he was riding with Mal, that meant he would probably side with the Independents....the Browncoats, or whatever they called themselves this time around. Then again, he carried himself like someone from one of the more 'civilized' planets. Monty had never known Mal to make a pro-Alliance person part of his crew, but stranger things had happened. He made a note to himself to ask Mal about Simon later. He had grown curious now about where the man was from.

[Simon Tam]

The last thing Simon wanted to be involved in was another war. He hated war; so many people got hurt, even more got killed. Innocent people who were just living their lives the best they could got dragged through the mud just because of where their house was or what their sister’s husband had done. On the face of it, it might just have been the armies that got involved, but in reality, absolutely everybody did. Whether war was at home or on a far-off planet, people were still mixed up in it. To the leaders, it was just Private Smith who had been killed in the line of fire, but Private Smith might have had a wife and three children to support back home. Those commanders who ordered troops to their deaths had no idea that there were people whose world would come crashing down around their ears if their relation was harmed. If conflict could be avoided, then in his eyes, it should be at any cost. After all, he was the sort of person that would have to deal with the wounded, the one who would see people dying in front of his eyes as he failed to save their lives. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t help, because if he was offered the chance, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to turn it down, not after everything he’d seen, but he wished that his help wouldn’t be necessary. He wished war wasn’t necessary, but it seemed that sometimes it was the only way for two sides of an argument to resolve themselves. One thing was sure, though; this time, the Alliance wouldn’t have such a large following. This time, they wouldn’t win.

They couldn’t; since the wave had been sent out, there had been outrage at what the Alliance had done. Anyone who had even set foot on a spaceship knew the stories about the Reavers. No, not stories – that implied something that was told to children to keep them quiet when they were playing up. The Reavers were as real as he or Monty was, and they had been created by none other than the people ruling the ‘Verse. “The Alliance deserve to have a mutiny on their hands,” Simon replied, his voice quiet but betraying his hatred for the organisation that he had once supported. How could he ever have believed in them? He had seen what they had done now; his eyes had been opened, and there was no way that he was ever going to even think about supporting them again. They had harmed his sister – that was the worst thing they could ever have done as far as he was concerned – but they had also killed the entire population of a planet, save for a few which they had made into the worst creatures to walk on the ground. They ensured that the rich, central Alliance-supporting planets got richer, while those living on the Rim got poorer and poorer. They had ruined Simon’s life, because of their treatment of his sister (and had taken away her childhood while they were at it), and he was only just beginning to get it back again. He couldn’t stand by and let them take away the lives of others too.

“Serenity’s as safe a place as any,” Simon replied, although he did appreciate Monty’s warnings. However, Simon knew that he wouldn’t be able to leave the ship now; he’d been meaning to on several occasions before and had never managed it; these people were his family, the ones who cared about him and who he cared about it return. This ship had brought its fair share of danger to Simon’s door, but it had also been the safest place he could have been. He would never be able to leave, not unless River wanted it, or Kaylee wanted it. “Mal might have a nose for trouble, but we’ve seen our portion of that here.”

[Monty Walters]

Monty shrugged at Simon's claim of Serenity's safety. Sure, the boy probably had a point. After all, there were few men Monty would trust with his life more than Mal. The man was horrible about finding trouble, but he always tried damned hard to get all of his crew right back out of the trouble unscathed. It was a hard 'Verse, though, and 'unscathed' wasn't all that common during the war. But Mal had always done his best, and Monty couldn't think of any captain he'd rather be working with if another war came up. Odds were that he would have to act on that decision before too long, if the winds of civil war kept on blowing through the Rim.

He didn't doubt Simon's claim that they had seen their fair share of trouble on Serenity. Monty had gotten a good look at the ship when he approached, and was experienced enough to be able to judge a few things. Serenity was not young, as far as ships went, but she was well cared for. Even so, he could see more than a few cuts and bruises on her that made him want to wince. Knowing Mal's sunny temperament, he found it more than likely that the captain would have picked more than one fight on his way across the 'Verse. There were more than enough people out there itching for a fight, even for the average person. Factor in the fact that Mal was a smuggler with a vendetta against the alliance, and might very well be responsible for another Unification War, and you had a recipe for trouble. Truth be told, anyone flying with Mal had to be ready to get into at least one close scrape. Monty knew that he had seen his fair share.

More than just seeing the ship, something about Simon told Monty that the boy had seen a scrape or two himself. Sure, he carried himself like a city-boy from one of the Core planets, but Monty saw something in him. A sort of...."strength" was the word, he guessed, that most men didn't get till they'd seen a fight. Most men his age still thought they were immortal and didn't care about anything. Simon looked like he knew more about the world than he cared too. He might seem a bit out of place on a ship like Serenity, but not like he couldn't handle himself here if had to. Monty found himself curious about the man's story again, but managed to quell it down. His curiosity tended to get the better of him, but nothing good ever came of prying.

"Yep, you're in good hands with Mal," said Monty, remembering some of the scrapes the two had gotten into during the war. They seemed a lot funnier with nearly a decade between him and the gunshots. "But he gets into more trouble than a badger in a beehive. Has he ever told you about the time we hijacked an Alliance food shipment?" The old war stories were coming back to Monty easily. It had been too long since he'd told them. Of course, all too soon he might have a brand new collection....