Quarantine

Title Quarantine
Rating PG-13

"But Cap'n, this just ain't fair! Simon's the one who brought this on board and you're not making him kiss the dirt!"
Mal rolled his eyes, "You know as well as I do, li'l Kaylee, that we can't just leave the good doctor lying around being ill where the Alliance is likely to find him and start asking the kind of questions we don't much want 'em asking. No, Doc's staying on board shut away in the empty shuttle so's the rest of us don't catch whatever sickness it is you've got."
Kaylee's eyes lit up, "So shut us both up in there. We can keep each other company and the rest of the crew'll stay healthy and..."
She stopped as Mal's eyebrow arched. "You're supposed to be getting some rest so's you can get better. I put you in there with the Doc, you think either of you will get any kind of rest? No, that's just the start of a whole heap of trouble that I plan to steer well clear of right now. 'Sides, from what I'm told this sickness don't look too pretty, you want him to see you like that?"
Kaylee smiled a little, seemed the only person on board Serenity as couldn't see she had her eyes set on Simon, was Simon himself. He confounded her but it was just a matter of time, she reckoned, and the captain was right, she didn't want to sicken him before she'd had a chance to find the right way in. So to speak.
"But what if Serenity needs me? The capacitator's been playing up lately and the entry couplings need checked out soon or she could lose the primary buffer panel when she hits atmo." Kaylee could hear the whine in her voice, she hated begging like this, but she'd not been away from Serenity for longer than a few hours since she'd signed on. Being stuck planetside when her ship was out in the black, that was just something she couldn't cope with.
Mal reached out and stroked her hair gently, "Baobei, she'll be fine so long's she knows you'll be fine. And the only way you'll be fine is if you let the doctors make you better."
"But..."
He shook his head, "No, you're staying here, you're going to take your medicine and then we're going to come back and get you so that you can fix those entry couplings. Dong ma?"
She nodded, suddenly tired of arguing the point. "Promise?"
"Promise what?"
"That you'll come back?"