A/N – I do not own the story, characters, or content of Firefly and Serenity. They are owned by the brilliant mind of Mr. Joss Whedon and the idiots who were crazy enough to cancel him.
Chapter 1
I'll come back for you, I promise...
The whispers of the night were keeping River up later than usual. The steady hum of the engines and the eerie quiet at this hour weren't helping any. She doubted even Wash was up at this hour, the ship probably on auto pilot for the time being, him spending a few hours with his wife in bed. Simon and Kaylee were already fast asleep in their own bunks, and she didn't think of waking Jayne or the Captain. Inara and the Shepherd might provide some company, but it wasn't really company she was after, more someone to keep the voices away, and even they couldn't do that.
Every time she started to drift, the images and words would come, like they were a river and her mind was the dam. They would flood in through any crack, any hole they could find in the dam and eventually they would simply burst through. She hated when this happened, because she wasn't herself when that dam was as if she were watching someone else take control of her body. She had flashes, like pictures; deep her mind of the memories of what would happen. But they were only flashes, as if they were memories saved on a computer, but not really hers. She glanced up at the clock kept on the wall. 0335, it read. It was set to Universal time, the same time as every clock in the entire universe that used the Universal time system. Most everyone did, for some reason or another. Regardless, it was 3:35 in the morning and she had not slept a wink….for 3 days. She closed her eyes again, trying to summon sleep.
She took a deep breath, breathing in the wonderful bliss of the flowers around her. They smelled simply like heaven, and tickled her nose. She laughed the first laugh she managed in a long time, not since she left home. It was all fake, she knew. The flowers were artificially grown in an Alliance greenhouse not far from here, and then placed here for decoration. The smell and pollen they gave off were fake too. She didn't care, for once, she was enjoying the moment.
It was a rare day at the Alliance school, a free day. For once, there were no lessons today, and all the children were allowed to do whatever they wished. Some took the opportunity to catch up on studies, some were playing sports on the school grounds, and River was just enjoying the beauty that surrounded her, even if it was artificial.
The one thing that wasn't was the boy sitting next to her. Tall for his age and handsome to match, Bryndon was from Londinium, one of the central planets in the Alliance. He wore his blonde hair shaggy and his bright green eyes were always wide. He often joked about the government and spent hours debating with River about politics. This is why she enjoyed his company, he didn't believe the Alliance's propaganda anymore then she did.
"And another thing", he continued, his rant going on for about 20 minutes now, "the Reavers are real, my friend! As real as the…well not the air we breathe, but you get the point. It isn't just a fairy tale to scare kids into behaving. My dad says he saw a pack once, eatin' each other alive he said. Gruesome bunch, them. Why, when we play Alliance vs. Reavers on the playground, how come nobody wants to be the Reavers? Cause they cannibals, that's why! You believe it River? Eatin' each other and what not? River?"
"River?" the eyes looking at her now were not Bryndon's green but her brother, Simon's, tell-tale gray. His dark hair was cut neat and short and he was shirtless. He often spent a lot of nights late in the lab, working on a medicine to cure her. It showed in the dark circles under his eyes. "River, I just came in to check on you. Why are you crying? Did you have a bad dream?" Even through the tears, she couldn't help but smile. Simon, always treating her like she was still a little girl.
"I'm fine Simon, just a bad dream like you said." After a moment he nodded. He kissed her forhead and hugged her until she stopped crying. Well, she may not be a little girl anymore, but that doesn't mean she didn't enjoy hugs from her brother.
