The access shaft was close, warm and filled with wires and tubes. Serenity told her what each of the wires and tubes did, the reason for their purpose, and which ones were getting old and tired. Running her hand along the length of one, River smiled in the darkness, not saying a word. The ship understood her without speech, in fact it had no way of hearing her speak. The crew around the ship were mostly quiet, their minds quiescent in the dreamless stages of sleep, except for two.

Mal felt like purple in her head, swirling and roiling with excitement. Inara must be visiting his dreams again. Sometimes he visited her dreams much the same way. Even so, the hazy purple glow invading her mind from one direction was eclipsed by hot fiery swirling red and pink from another. Serenity showed her the access tunnel leading to the engine room, but River already knew anyway. The passionate colors drew her with their intensity, as they always did. She'd felt them before, and would again. Reds and pinks were much nicer than browns and blacks and blues. And in watching, listening, feeling, she could share the excitement and the happiness. If she had to drown in the colors and emotions of others, she might as well swim in the nicer ones.

Peeking out of the vent, she saw exactly what she expected. Kaylee lying on a towel, surprisingly clean for a cloth in the engine room. A soft buzzing throbbing sound emanated from her hand, filling River's ears, bringing warmth to her middle. Said hand moved rhythmically in Kaylee's middle, and shortly the thrum coming from the plastic object in Kaylee's hand (which was a slightly darker shade of pink than the swirling color of Kaylee's mind). River noted almost absently the lack of Kaylee's clothing, her eyes drinking in the soft curvy figure so often hidden by overalls and stained work shirts.

"Mmmm, Simon, just like that..."

Kaylee's voice startled River and she nearly gasped out loud, but clamped her teeth shut and kept watching. Kaylee's intensity filled her as it always did, excited and pure, joyful and vibrant. No one else allowed quite the same range of colors as Kaylee did, and no one else focused on the bright ones quite as much. If she could make the words describe how she felt, love would be among them, but no one ever seemed to understand the things she said very well. Simon came closest usually, but all of her family showed surprising moments of insight.

"Oh God, yes, Simon! I'm almost there!"

The swirling colors drew her in, distracting her from logical thought with a torrent, a gush, a tsunami of pinkish reddish love. The maelstrom caught her up and carried her along, and when it finally settled back down into some semblance of calm, River slipped silently back into the access hatch. River didn't think that Kaylee would be too bothered by her sharing the feeling, but then sometimes they all could be confusing, saying one thing when she could clearly feel that they felt something different. Besides, Simon might get that tight knot of pink and blue feelings again and make her feel like her tummy was compressing into a black hole.

In other sections of the ship, some of her family was stirring, others dreaming, but the momentary quiet darkness of earlier had passed. River didn't mind much, she didn't sleep a lot anyway, and somehow, the swirling colors of the crew and the dark, calming presence of Serenity just felt right.