Okay! I love Firefly and Serenity, so I just had to do a story. I couldn't resist. I really hope you enjoy it!
"Does this hurt?" Simon asked as he gently prodded the scarring tissue surrounding the deep gash that stretched down Zoe's back, near parallel with her spine.
"No, Doc, it doesn't hurt at all. I only nearly lost my spine." Zoe snarled sarcastically. Simon resisted rolling his eyes; Zoe was anything but a pleasant patient.
"Well, I think I'm going to need to take a few scans to see the extent of the…"
"No." Zoe said firmly.
"But…" Simon tried again.
"No." She said again. "I can't."
"It's for your own good…"
"It's not good for the baby." Zoe said plainly.
"What?" Simon asked.
"I'm pregnant, Doc." Zoe whispered. "And you ain't getting anywhere near me with one of those scanners so long as I am."
"You're pregnant?" Simon asked in bewilderment. "Are you sure?"
"I'm pretty sure I'd know." Zoe said rudely.
"How?" Simon asked.
"Well, you see Doc, when a man and woman love each other…"
"I don't mean how, I just mean, is it…"
"It's Wash's." Zoe confirmed. Simon nodded solemnly.
"Alright, then, I'll just do some test to make sure everything is okay and that the fetus is healthy." Simon said.
"Just do what you need to do, just don't get all technical with your terms." Zoe told him, lying back in bed. "And don't tell anyone."
"But…" Simon started.
"I'm not ready for that yet." Zoe whispered, Simon merely nodded.
After running several tests, Simon cleared his throat.
"The baby? Is it okay? Is it a boy or a girl" Zoe asked. Simon's face split into a wide smile.
"You're going to have a perfectly health… Baby girl."
Zoe bite her lip, tears filling her eyes, and, in an extremely un-Zoe like manner, she threw her arms around the astonished Doctor and held him close.
"Thank you. Thank you so much. Listen Simon, I'm glad you're here for me."
"Doctor-patient confidentiality. I wont tell a soul." Simon promised.
"I know." Zoe said, "Thank you for that."
"Come on, get to bed. You need your rest, you're sleeping for two now." Simon said jokingly.
"Stupid joke, Doc. I'm not even going to dignify it with a laugh." Zoe said, patting Simon on the shoulder. "I thought you were suppose to be a genius or something!"
Simon chuckled softly.
"Night Zoe."
"Night Doc."
Zoe slide off the table and left the infirmary, her smile showing the gratitude she felt.
River Tam tossed and turned in her sleep, hearing a voice in her dreams that was unfamiliar, but something in her remembered it. She saw memories, not her own, but she was the one who had to live with them. The voice whispered to her, haunted her, slowly broke her with the loss of innocence.
"Run, there is nothing left for you." The voice told her. "Their all dead or to far gone. You're all alone, it's so quiet it's deafening. You're trapped. You want to go home, but no one is there. A perfect world, drenched in blood, the perfect crime of innocents, the loss forgotten, set aside. It doesn't matter, nobody cried. They just lie down and fell asleep, they're all lost, they're all gone. They hurt you but it isn't them they are gone, but still here. You're all alone, nobody cares, but you still feel them, they're still there, haunting, hiding, hurting. They will never leave, the silence is suffocating, slowly killing everything still breathing. Help me… They're hurting us. It wasn't our fault, why are we the ones who have to remember? Let me forget. Let us forget. Make it go away."
A pair of brownish green eyes swam through Rivers sleeping mind, begging, pleading, crying. All alone, left for dead, nobody to care, nobody to save her, nothing to break the silence. Rivers eyes snapped open, a blood curdling scream issuing from her, a single word playing on her lips.
"Miranda."
Simon sat bolt upright and hurried to his sisters' side.
"River, what's wrong?" He asked, feeling her forehead.
"Miranda," She whispered. "It's suffocating. Miranda. All alone. All alone. Miranda, Miranda. Memories, not mine, sights I didn't see. Oh, Miranda, it's silent."
"I wish she'd be silent." Mal said grumpily as he stumbled into the room. "Can't you make her shut up?"
"I don't know what triggered this." Simon told the Captain. "She's been doing so good.
"Fear, white hot. Two by two, hands of blue. Leave us alone. We're always alone. They're hurting us. Oh, Miranda." River began to sob to hard, her words lost in the tears.
"Shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh." Simon murmured comfortingly. "Mei-mei. You're safe."
River looked at her brother through tear filled eyes. "They're hurting us. We're so alone, just kill us. Their hurting her, she's so alone, it's so quiet."
"It's okay, River." Simon assured her.
"It will never be okay. It will never be right. They are lost, and so is she. It's so cold. So quiet."
"Is she going to be getting any quiet herself soon, right?" Mal asked. River glared at him, in her 'how stupid are you?' way.
"Shhh!" She snapped. "Quiet. Everything's quiet. No sound, no thought, no life. Quiet."
"It's okay River. Everyone knows, what happened on Miranda will never happen again."
"You mean, what happened to Miranda." River whispered.
AN: Okay, I really hope you enjoyed the first chapter, this is one of my all time favorite shows, so I figured I ought to do a tribute to it. Please Review!
Midnightfarie