"The Severed" -- an exerpt from NaNoWriMo novel

The severed had always been an unspoken horror, discussed in whispers, cast as victims or villains in campfire stories.  No one ever took it for granted, and among the packs for certain, it was tantamount to a death sentence.  He didn’t know how other cultures handled it, but he knew what happened to any severed among the packs.

             

He had seen it once, while they were visiting another pack.  Branain had been young then, but old enough to remember and put the pieces together.  He had been playing with several other boys his age, throwing a ball around and chasing each other without any need for rules or structure.

             

A hush had fallen over the whole pack before any of the kids knew what was happening.  The laughter died, the pups tucked their tails between their legs and hid behind their boys.  A woman came staggering into their line of sight around a building on the other side of the town.  She wasn’t hurt, but her face and arms were covered in scratches, as if she’d walked blindly through the forest and let all the sharp branches scrape over her skin.  The look on her face drew all the boys into a knot together, the pups behind them, staring wide-eyed at her.  Branain didn’t know her, but a few of the boys from the pack whispered the same name, so he knew she had been one of theirs.

             

No longer.

             

A loose ring of men formed around her as she staggered to a halt, their hands spread and open, talking soothingly to her.  She didn’t seem to be paying attention; he wasn’t sure she had even noticed them at all.  That face, those eyes, held absolutely nothing.  Not even pain or fear, which he thought he would feel if he ever lost Zian.  Just nothing.  When one of the men approached and led her off by the arm, she didn’t protest.  She still seemed beyond even noticing.  The other men watched them leave for a moment, then dispersed.  The boys around Branain dispersed, running off home to be with their parents.

             

Branain sat down right where he was.  Zian crawled into his lap.  He put his arms firmly around the pup and held him close, staring at the last place he’d seen that woman.  The last place he knew anyone in the pack except that one man would ever see that woman again.  He didn’t need to be told what had happened to her after that.  He knew.  He just didn’t want to.

             

When his father found him a little later, he sat down next to his son and put his arm around the pair of them.  Felic curled around them on the other side, resting his head on Branain’s feet.  Even though he knew, Branain still questioned his father, pushing for some other explanation, but Kennet didn’t pull any punches.  He explained, in simple terms a child could understand but it was still the truth, about why she had been alone, and about why she shouldn’t be left that way.

             

“No one would leave her to that pain,” Kennet had said.  “Forcing her to keep living would be mean.  For her sake, we helped her so she wouldn’t hurt anymore.  In the only way that really matters, she was already dead.  After you die, you can’t keep living.”

             

Branain cuddled close to his father, squeezing his eyes shut.  “If I lost Zian, would you help me, Daddy?”

             

Kennet’s arm tightened around him; Felic whined.  “Of course I would.  I love you.  I wouldn’t let you stay in pain.”

Doctor Where? -- Time and Relative Serenity, Part IV

“Zoe!”  Mal’s voice from the cockpit.  “What’s keeping you?”

“Someone I don’t recognize says he’s here to help?”

“I don’t believe this,” he grumbled in Chinese, sticking his head out the door.  “You think you can trust a gun-toting mercenary to at least keep strange folk in one spot....  Look, just bring him in here and keep watch on him; I need you.”

Zoe gestured toward the door with her gun, and the Doctor happily went along.  Once he stepped in, he got an annoyed scowl from Mal.  “This don’t mean I trust you.  This means I need to talk to one of my crew, and I don’t got time for your foolishness.  Quipping and crazy babble aside, stand in a corner and keep that mouth quiet.”

The Doctor grinned harmlessly and saluted.  He stayed out of the way, peering through the glass at the sky beyond and the large ship that loomed before Serenity.  They both seemed of the same class of technology, though the ship he stood in was less refined.  Most likely not aliens, then, or at least aliens that were already part of this world.

Mal and Zoe put their heads together, though she never took her eyes off the Doctor.  They conferred in low voices.  “How much did we look into that last job we took from Davin?” Mal whispered.

“Not a lot, sir.  We had to do some heavy negotiating to get an advance on the fee so we could fuel the ship just to do the job, remember?”

“Remind me why it’s a good idea not to look too close at jobs,” Mal said, rubbing a hand over his face.

“Because not all jobs do a conscience good to know what they are, even if we need them to keep flying, sir.”  It sounded rehearsed, like she was throwing his own words back at him.  The look on Mal’s face confirmed it.  “Also, it’s stupid and dangerous.”

He scowled.  “Those last two aren’t reasons why it’s a good idea.”

“No,” Zoe said with a straight face.  “They’re not.”

“Might I point out that they’re still trying to talk?” Wash said as he fiddled with some dials.  “I can only fake the communications error for so long before they just decide to board us and talk that way.”

“I could talk to them,” the Doctor offered, not thinking twice about breaking the command not to talk.

“Who is this guy?” Wash demanded, looking over his shoulder at the Doctor.

“Someone who doesn’t get to represent my crew,” Mal interjected before the Doctor could answer.  “I don’t know who you are, why you’re here, or even how you got here, but you stay out of my business, okay?”  He ran his hand over his hair.  “Things never go smooth....  One thing at a time.  Wash, keep delaying.  We’ll go ahead and let them board.  You,” he pointed at the Doctor, “out.  Zoe, go with him.”  Mal followed them out as they headed back down to the cargo bay.

Halfway down the hall, they heard a squeal of unmistakable, yet feminine, rage.  The Doctor recognized Amy’s voice and took off, gun-toting soldier be damned.  Mal and Zoe were right on his heels.

Doctor Where? -- Time and Relative Serenity, Part III

The Doctor had a hunch.  Not really based off anything in particular, just a hunch, that he would need to know what was going on right now between the captain and the pilot.  The gun-happy moron in front of him wasn’t likely to make that happen any time soon, so the Doctor turned to his greatest weapon to get him to where he needed to be.  He opened his mouth.

“Having a bit of trouble?” he asked amiably.

“Nothing you need to concern your stupid little tie about,” Jayne assured him.

“I like my tie,” the Doctor said, fiddling with his bowtie in a very offended manner.  “Bowties are cool.”

Jayne cocked an eyebrow.  He switched to Chinese momentarily, but only the Doctor realized.  “Big stupid pile of stinking meat....”

“Hey!” Amy snapped, pointing a finger at him.  “There’s no call to be rude!”

Turning to her, a lascivious smirk crossed his face.  “I can show you rude, girl....”

Rory pulled her back and stood between her and Jayne, staring him down.  Though he didn’t cut an intimidating figure--not the way Jayne did--there was something in his glare that he’d gotten during all the time traveling with the Doctor and all the trouble he’d seen that made Jayne’s smirk falter just a bit.  “If you want to touch her, you’ll have to go through me.  Something tells me that captain of yours would be very upset if you did that before he got his answers.”

Not one to back down from a challenge, Jayne approached Rory to look him in the eye.  The gun was still between them, but not pointing at anyone in particular at the moment, since the challenge was between the two of them.  “I got lots of ways of getting through a stupid melon-head,” more Chinese, the Doctor noted with amusement as he edged out of Jayne’s peripheral vision, “that the captain won’t mind a bit.”

Amy and Rory noticed the Doctor’s subtle movement and immediately decided to keep this going as long as possible.  “Sure of that, are you?” Amy asked defiantly.

“I think I know him a mite better than you,” Jayne shot back, sticking his chin up with superiority.

“That’s funny,” Rory said, exchanging a baffled look with Amy, “since it really seemed to us that he didn’t respect you at all, and barely trusted you to get things right.”

“That ain’t true!”  He lost his smirk, though, and the gun was pointed at them again.  The pair of them backed up a step or two, and Jayne followed them, placing the Doctor firmly out of his sight and free to sneak off after Mal.

Seizing his chance, the Doctor started sneaking up the stairs, then paused when he saw a figure watching him.  Turning slightly, he caught sight of River again and smiled at her, crossing his lips with a finger.  She just kept watching, but didn’t make a sound, so he took that for assurance she wouldn’t give him away. 

Up the stairs and through the door he’d heard the captain disappear through, the Doctor looked around and spotted a couple figures down at the end of the hall, one seated and the other wearing the brown duster he’d seen before.  Perfect!

“Who’re you?”  His progress was halted by the sound of a gun, yet again, and he held his hands out to show them empty before slowly turning around.  Zoe held her gun leveled steadily at his chest, a wary look on her face, and a glance down the hall toward where Wash and Mal stood.

“I’m the Doctor.  Here to help.”  He smiled disarmingly.  Unfortunately, disarming smiles didn’t actually disarm people.

Doctor Where? -- Time and Relative Serenity, Part II

They stepped out of the Tardis one at a time, Amy and Rory watching Jayne warily while the Doctor looked completely unconcerned.  “One of you three is about to tell me how you rutting got on board.”  Jayne looked at each in turn, frowning.  “Come on, then!”

Amy and Rory looked to the Doctor.  He blinked at them.  “What?  You two know as well as I do; why do I always have to be the one to explain?”

“Oh for the love of--What’s going on?”  They all looked up at the stairs above the cargo bay to see Malcolm Reynolds jogging down the steps, the tails of his coat swishing.  “Jayne?  Care to explain?”

“Stowaways, Cap’n,” he said simply, smirking at the three captives.

“Really?”  Mal crossed his arms and stared pointedly at the big blue box behind them.  “They just stowed away on the great blue crate that was not part of our cargo?”

Jayne worked his jaw for a moment, glanced sideways at his captain with wide, slightly baffled eyes, then shifted his weight and cleared his throat.  “Uh, yeah.  Guess so.”

Mal rolled his eyes.  “Right then.  How about one of you three explains?”  He turned expectantly to the time travelers, but the next voice came from the other side of the bay.

“They’re right where they should be.”  Everyone looked up at the quiet voice, even Jayne looking away from the intruders.  “Right where they wanted to be.”  River cocked her head at the police box and smiled a little.  “Here to help.”

“Help?”  The Doctor raised his eyebrows and smiled at her benevolently.  “Help with what?”

She shrugged.  “Don’t know.  Neither do you.  She does.”  River pointed at the Tardis.  “Not telling, though.”

“Yeah, she’ll do that.”  The Doctor and River shared a secret smile together.

“Yeeeah,” Mal said, pulling attention back to himself.  “Sweet as her nonsensical babbling is, I’d like an answer in plain English, if that’s not too much trouble.  Or am I interrupting crazy time?”

Unfortunately for Mal, he still didn’t get his answer, as Serenity rocked just then, and Wash’s voice sounded over the comm.  “Captain, you might wanna come up here....”

“Gorram it!  Jayne,” Mal said, pointing at him and glancing significantly at the trio before he darted back upstairs.

“Got it covered, Cap’n.”  The Doctor eyed the gun that was once again leveled at them with vague annoyance.

Doctor Where? -- Time and Relative Serenity, Part I

The Doctor straightened his bowtie with a mysterious smirk.  “You’ll see.”

Amy leveled a suspicious glare at him, putting one hand on a hip while she stuck a finger in his direction.  “Don’t you go all mysterious Time Lord-y on me, mister.”

“Doctor,” he interrupted cheekily.

Amy ignored him.  “I asked a simple question, and you’re usually positively busting to brag about whatever you’re showing us.  Now spill.”

He mouthed the last two words of her little tantrum, making a disgruntled face, then flipped a hand at her while he busied himself with the dials of the Tardis.  “Rory, control your wife.”

Rory laughed a little, his smile melting when Amy gave him the same withering look that she’d been pointing at the Doctor.  “Yeah, good one.”

“Just hold your little Scottish horses,” the Doctor said, pouting at the pair of them.  “It’s not exactly a secret I can keep longer than it’ll take to walk out the doors.  Just wait.”

Amy folded her arms and leaned against the console, staring the Doctor down when he came over to try to get at the controls behind her.  “Could you just--I need to--Amy, would you--”  He got no response for any of his stuttering requests, and finally walked around her, very close, staring her down the whole time, then reached around and flipped a switch.  The normal sounds of the Tardis faded along with a telltale thump as they set down on whatever the Doctor had wanted them to land on.  Flashing her a smile, he gestured to the door.  “After you.”

She harrumphed at the sparkle in his eyes and stalked off to the door, Rory trailing at her heels.  With a flourish, she pushed the door open and promptly stopped dead in the doorway.  “No.”

“Don’t block the exit.  That’s a fire hazard.”  The Doctor waited patiently behind the pair of them, resting his elbows on the railing as he watched for Amy’s expression, smirking to himself.

She spun around.  “That’s impossible!”

In answer, he gestured around the control room of a time-traveling blue box that had multiple dimensions inside it, and had appeared out of nowhere on her front lawn when she was a little girl.

“Point taken, but--but--that’s--”  Amy pointed behind her, unable to really look at it again yet, mouthing the word a few times, much to the amusement of her observer.

“I’d appreciate it,” said a voice from outside, “if y’all came out real slow-like.”

“Amy,” Rory said in a low, warning tone.  “There’s a big man with a very large gun pointed at us....  I think we should step outside or close the door.”

“I’d do the first one,” said Jayne Cobb, smirking at them as he cocked his shotgun.  “That door looks a might flimsy from where I’m standing.”  He grinned.