Patience, by hossgal (PG)

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Fandom: FIREFLY
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: leadensky
Author’s Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:

Sure, we’re supposed to root for Our Heroes, whatever the fandom, but I’ve always had a soft spot for supporting and guest characters. What happens to those people who make only the briefest of appearances in canon, but whose lives are deeply touched during that time?

This story takes a look at Patience, and the lasting results of those actions taken by Mal and his crew in the pilot, Serenity.

Once, shouts and the sound of running horses would have pulled her from the bed no matter the weather or the hour. This was Whitefall - her world, her town, and no one raised hell without her leave. Her place, her people. Three years ago, a man walked down main street, shooting holes in lit upper story windows as he went, drunk as a missionary after High Mass. From the dirt street, he was only shattering glass and ventilating a few yards of tarpaper. Patience herself shot him, still wrapped in a quilt but wearing her hat, three hundred meters and one bullet through his head. She went back to bed and slept until daybreak. After breakfast, finding the drunk's body still on the street, she stripped her sheriff of his badge and run him out of town in his longjohns.

Once upon a time. Now she needs a nurse to help her rise from bed, and a pair of canes to walk. Patience shuts her eyes and wishes she could close her ears to the distant brawl.

Patience