Older and Far Away.

Chapter 1: Not The Same, Always Different

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: If I said I owned them, I lied.

Author's Note: Ok. Here we are. This is the brand new version of this one. I hope that it will be more exciting then the first one. This is the sequel to "Addicted" and "Memory Lane." So, you might want to read those first, or you might be confused.

Enjoy!!! And tell me what you think!

He watched her as she pulled her long, blonde hair back into a tight ponytail. Even in doing that, she moved so gracefully. Malcolm Reynolds remembered they days when she would let it fall free, over her shoulders, in a cascade of blonde locks. But not these days. Hiding her hair was Nivia Reynolds' way of hiding from the world. This way, she went unnoticed, and she was free to glide right past Mal, pretending that he didn't see her, or that he would stop to bask in her beauty.

"Stop ogling." She said with a light smile as she pulled her sleeves down around her wrists and turned around. "I wasn't ogling." He said, walking to the counter to pull a cup off of the shelf. Nivia didn't say anything, she just took a few steps away from him to give him room to get to his beloved coffee.They stood there for a long time before Nivia turned and said, "I'll go check on River. I heard her thrashing around last night." She began to exit the kitchen when Mal said, softly,

"Niv..."

"Mal... just don't." And then she left.

"You never give me a chance to even start." Mal said, trying desperately not to sound cold.

"Because it's pointless to." Nivia said, trying to walk away as fast as her long legs would carry her.

"Then why are you even still here?" Mal called after her. He didn't hear her answer with,

"Thats a good question."

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When Nivia reached River's quarters, she didn't have a chance to knock before River said, "Come in." Nivia slid the door open, stepped inside the small room, then slid the door shut again.

"I came to see about your night last night." Nivia explained.

"Dreams. They float inside my head." River said, looking off into space.

"Wanna tell me about them?" Nivia asked.

"You don't seek my dreams," River said, starring thoughtlessly into Nivia's sad, gray eyes. "You seek the voices in my head. You want to know what his brain screams every time you walk by."

Nivia looked away. Was River right? Was that really what she wanted to know?

"His mind, and his body... they scream for you." River explained. Nivia looked deeply into River, trying to read her sole. "He wonders why you push him away," River went on to say, "Wonders what he did wrong, why you don't want him anymore. But you do... don't you?" Nivia opened her mouth to answer, but River cut her off, as she continued on her rant. "He doesn't understand..."

"Doesn't understand? What doesn't Mal understand, River?" Nivia asked.

"That nothings ever the same. That things are always different. Nothing stays the same."

Then, River looked like she had lost all interest in what she had been talking about. She sat there, starring at the air until she muttered, "Still wears the ring... different place... never the same... always different..."

Nivia watched her for a few moments, then decided it was pointless to sit there, staring at her as she combed through the minds of the others on Serenity. She got up, and left the suffocating room, rivers words ringing in her head.

"Never the same... Always different... Never the same... Always different."