trans_9 | Backdated by a few in-game days.

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Backdated by a few in-game days.

Kaylee stood, confused as can be, and stared through the door of one of Serenity’s guest rooms. Last she had remembered, the room had been empty, lodger-free. Now, it seemed as if someone had at the very least been storing things in there. She was positive she would have remembered someone living in her ship, but at the same time she very much doubted that Jayne was about to try and squeeze himself into one of those snazzy dress shirts.

What she would actually get back from the transmission sent over the omnicoms was uncertain, but for now Kaylee took a step back out of what the rest of Serenity’s crew would recognize as half of the Tam quarters. Maybe Jayne had beat up some poor guy on Stacy and taken his stuff and then...organized it quite nicely.

...yeah, Kaylee didn’t believe it for a second either.

Rubbing the back of her neck, a slightly confused mechanic made her way back towards the infirmary. There was a headache coming on, and she needed to be prepared.

[[ Closed to Serenity crewmembers, Jamie McCrimmon, and anyone who pm's me first to ask for permission because lol time constraints. ]]

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"I've not discussed that with Wash," Jamie replies firmly. He likes Wash, but he doesn't know him that well, and they haven't had very many conversations. "No, I'm quite sure we talked about it. I'm not taken to imagining things like that, ye know."

The fact that she's so convinced that they haven't discussed it, however, sends a chill down his spine. For Kaylee to not remember something so big means that someone, or something, has been affecting her. And Jamie has a rather big suspicion as to what it might be.

"Kaylee? When ye were down on XaXing, what did ye wind up doing?"

He seems pretty sure about it. "Dream, then?" It's not much better, for an explanation, but it's better than him claiming to know something that never happened and that he wouldn't have been around for anyhow. Gorram stubborn-streaked Scots.

XaXing, though. Kaylee thinks on it, then shrugs. "Did some shoppin' for supplies, took the...for a spin..." But the what? There's a short pause, during which Kaylee's eyes grow increasingly wider. Whose ship are they using right now, anyway? If Jamie's allowing her to just walk in and use the stove for heating water, it's got to be a ship he's familiar with...she hopes.

"Jamie..." She trails off, taking in the kitchen around her with some mild form of confusion. Maybe it's the TARDIS, and they've just...rearranged the rooms. Again. "This ain't the TARDIS, is it?"

"Took what for a spin?" he prompts, hoping she'll elaborate. She hasn't said anything specifically about hearing the clock, but that doesn't mean much of anything...especially about three seconds later, when she's suddenly looking around the kitchen in confusion and asking if they're in the TARDIS.

"Oh, no." The words are barely audible, but the look on his face is much more noticeable, having neatly switched from worry into outright alarm. Jamie tries to hide it quickly, however, hoping that Kaylee's confused enough at the moment not to have noticed.

Instead, he goes to take her hand reassuringly - if she lets him - and says, very gently, "Kaylee. You're on Serenity. This is your home. It has been for quite some time."

The look Kaylee gives Jamie is a clear statement of the fact that she thinks he's lost his marbles. "Helped test some things, but most of it was spent shoppin'. Not much more to the trip than that..."

Jamie is going on about something else, though, without even letting her finish, so Kaylee awkwardly trails off as she listens to his rambling. Okay, it's not really rambling, but it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. She's pretty sure she would remember ever living on a ship before Stacy. Hell, it's what she's always dreamed of, to finally go up in one of the ones she fixed, but it hadn't happened yet.

She lets him take her hand, but the expression on her face never leaves the look of mild concern for poor Jamie's memory. "The di yu are you talkin' about?"

The last thing Jamie is worrying over right now is his memory. Even if that had been an issue at this particular moment, he'd be more concerned about Kaylee. The fact she doesn't remember living on Serenity is a very troubling sign.

Still holding her hand, he reaches over to turn the burner off, figuring tea may be off the menu for the moment. Besides, if his suspicions are correct, he's going to have a fair amount of work to do to convince her of what's happened - and he has a hunch turning off the burner's going to be the last thing on both their minds.

Once that's done, he turns his full attention back to her. "Kaylee, this is important," he says, a touch of urgency in his voice. "Tell me. When ye were shopping, did ye happen to go to a store with a strange clock in it?"

It's probably a good thing Jamie turned off the burner, because Kaylee's too busy looking at him as though he's gone completely insane to worry about a stove she's never even seen before. The poor guy's lost his mind officially, that's got to be it. He wouldn't be telling her she lives where she doesn't if he was still sane. Not that she can remember where she's normally been staying on Stacy, but that's beside the point.

She rolls her eyes at him, and shifts uncomfortably. "There were a lot of shops, Jamie..." But she thinks on it for a second, then shakes her head. "Think I'd remember a weird clock, though." It's hard not to remember strange things that happen on this ship and the planets they visit. "Why?"

If she hasn't seen the clock...for a moment, Jamie thinks it might be something else. But no, Lash never said anything about seeing the clock. So it's something else that does it. Hearing it, maybe.

"Did ye hear an odd chime, maybe?" he persists, even while he's trying to think how to tell her about the clock's effects. He rubs at the side of his head for a moment, then goes and jumps headlong into the explanation.

"There was something - they said it was a clock. The people affected by it are, well, losing time." He looks at her worriedly. "They're getting younger, and things that happened to them during that time happen again."

"Odd chime?" More thinking, and then she just sighs. "I can't remember much of that trip, Jamie. Don't remember hearin' a weird anythin', 'cept what people was talkin' on occasion, but a clock ain't exactly people." Who knows, maybe she had heard it and just chalked it up to being another crazy sound of the island.

She's just about to ask him why it matters so much when he continues. It's a bit hard to believe at first, but once she puts her mind to concentrating on it she can think of a couple people acting strangely. Maybe that's part of it? She doesn't think she's one of them, though. How could she ever?

"...and that means they're goin' through everythin' backwards?"

Jamie doesn't respond immediately - he's looking at Kaylee, trying to puzzle out what's going on. If she did hear something, she clearly doesn't remember it. But just as clearly, she doesn't remember things about Serenity either, so if it's not the clock...then what? Oh, if only the Doctor had come with him. He'd have a better idea of what was going on.

The Scot nods, then. "Aye. That would be about right. Except they remember what's happened here, on Stacy. At least, the people I've seen this happen to have. I suppose some might forget."

She doesn’t enjoy being watched like that, and certainly not when it’s one of her friends looking at her as though she’s an engine part that’s been so twisted up you can’t tell what it was supposed to do anymore. Awkwardly, Kaylee shifts feet and looks across the counter to the rather large dining table. No, she’s pretty sure she would remember that giant hunk of wood. Her eyebrows knit together as she takes a look around the room. “It’s a Firefly,” she says, more to herself than Jamie. “They discontinued these a long while back.”

It’s troubling, this idea of losing time. Kaylee looks back to Jamie and shakes her head. “What do we gotta do to stop it?”

"They're going to figure out a way to destroy the clock, but..." In the meantime, there's Kaylee, and he's still not sure what to do. "Right now they're saying ye should talk to medical if ye think you've been affected by it."

As Jamie will fail to do later.

For now, though, he's still uncertainly trying to feel his way through the situation. And part of that is trying to convince her that maybe it's a good idea if she does go talk to medical, clock or no clock.

"Kaylee. Do ye remember how old ye told me ye were, back when we first started to become friends?"

"Pretty sure I ain't affected by it," Kaylee grumbles. But if Jamie thinks she might be, well... He would know better than her if she couldn't remember things, and she really doesn't think Jamie would be one to pull a prank about something like this.

She shakes her head with an exasperated sigh. A conversation about age isn't exactly first-and-foremost on the list of remembered talks she's had with Jamie.

"Can't say I do, but I was 16 when I first popped, wasn't I? Gotta be around 17 by now..."

Any lingering doubts Jamie had about whether or not the clock was affecting Kaylee vanish at that, the words causing him to swallow reflexively. That worried look creeps back onto his face again, and this time it stays.

"Kaylee, that's..." he pauses for a moment. Is it better to not say, perhaps? Would she even believe him if he did? But, maybe if he does she'll see what's happening. He's mentioned to her before that he's around 20 now. And if she still remembers the ship, she should remember that. He hopes.

"You're my age, Kaylee, more or less. Or ye were, before this happened."

If it weren't for that look on Jamie's face she probably would have burst out laughing at the idea. He's so serious, though, and a small flicker of doubt crosses Kaylee's face.

"Your age," she repeats slowly, trying to get the idea of it to stick. "Jamie..."

It still doesn't make any sense, but Jamie wouldn't lie about something like this. The color fades from her cheeks. "Jamie that ain't possible--how is that possible?"

"I-I don't know," Jamie admits, wishing he had a better idea of how the clock did what it did. Maybe that would reassure her.

Without that, though, he has to do the best he can. Taking a step forward, he reaches out to try and take her hand and provide some small comfort.

"There's a lot of the crew working to fix it, Kaylee. Ye have to believe me on that."

There isn't much that could reassure her at this point, Kaylee thinks. There's got to be something else here. Jamie's got his facts wrong or...anything. Anything that isn't something that she doesn't know what to do with.

She takes more comfort in Jamie's hand around hers than her face lets on, though her fingers betray her when they grasp tightly on to Jamie's.

"I believe you." How can she not?

It's not at all because of that betrayal of Kaylee's fingers that Jamie shifts his other arm around her to draw her in for a hug. Well, okay, it's not completely because of that.

Regardless, he thinks she needs a hug right about now. It's the least he can do for bringing up the subject in the first place...and for what he's about to say next.

"Look, Kaylee...would ye do me a favor? Would ye go with me, to medical? Talk to someone there so they know?"

She is far from in the mood of protesting hugs. If anything, it gives her someone to cling to while she sorts through all of the crazy ideas in her head.

When Jamie proposes going to Medical, she simply nods against his shoulder. At least he’s offering to go with her, instead of just sending her off to it by her lonesome. That makes things a little bit better.

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.” Just in case.

As worried as he is, and as important as he thinks it is to get her down to medical, he holds on to her for a bit longer.

It's something meant as much for him as for her. The thought of Kaylee getting younger and younger until she's simply no longer there scares him in a way he isn't sure he can put into words.

He can't protect her from this, and he hates it.

Eventually, he loosens his grip - although he doesn't let go entirely. "We'd best go then, but...Kaylee? If ye need me to stay with ye after for a bit, I will."

If anything, Kaylee is glad for the extra time to just cling to Jamie. She still isn’t sure if what’s going on is true or right or not, but the possibility frightens her in more ways than she can count. And if it’s true...

It’s a little bit hard to let go when Jamie pulls back, but she does it. When she speaks there’s a small tremble in her voice that she really doesn’t like. “Might take you up on that.”

Quickly, she pulls away to walk down the hall. She’s seen a few Fireflies come through her daddy’s shop, so it isn’t hard to know her way around them, just...confusing. Different.

Hopefully medical will help.

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Backdated by a few in-game days.

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