The Fault in Our 'Verse

Chapter 1


Kaylee was curled up in a cold corner of her engine room. Small, silvery tears streamed down her face, like raindrops on a window. Her auburn hair was messy, as if she actually cared to fix it. Nothing mattered anymore. Serenity's engine hums were low and somewhat sad, as if Serenity was asking what was wrong. Kaylee hugged her knees to her chest, withdrawing herself further from Serenity or anyone. She heard the mournful bustle of her crewmates as they tried to keep themselves occupied enough not to face the truth. Wash was gone. Kaylee couldn't handle herself. She felt like a five-year-old who was told that her gerbil died. But this was bigger than that. This was bigger than anything.

Simon couldn't find Kaylee. He was pretty worried; Kaylee didn't handle death particularly well. And this wasn't one of River's infuriating games of hide and seek. Is she okay? His first bet was that she was out on Serenity, possibly washing all the blood and gore applied to Serenity's exterior to help them pass through Reaver space. He only found Inara repainting Serenity's symbol. After that it seemed obvious were Kaylee was. The engine room.

Kaylee could look only at her hands. They were small, with many small scars from sharp objects in the engine, burns from whenever the engine caught on fire and so on. She could name all of the places they had been when she got those scars. She acquired most of them when they were out in the black, but there were various ones from when they were in the world. There was Whitefall, Triumph, Higgins' Moon, St. Albans, and Miranda.

Simon started towards the engine room. He grew concerned about how Kaylee was feeling; he was a doctor after all. At Mr. Universe's home, Kaylee was shot by poison darts during the Reaver attack. Simon was wondering if either the medication or the poison could be altering her mood. Walking with a limp, he got to the engine room door.

Kaylee could hear his walking about. After all, who had a limp besides Mal or Simon? Mal had the rest of the crew to distract, so she was sure it was Simon. She sat up a little bit.

Simon knocked gently on the door before coming in. Kaylee wiped her face with the sleeve of her coveralls.

Simon looked at her. His gaze was full of empathy. All of that madness was hard on all of them. He slowly and cautiously made his was over to Kaylee, gingerly kneeling down next to her. He caringly slipped his well-muscled arm around her. "Kaylee…" He began." I know all of this is hard on all of us, but sitting away from everyone and keeping to yourself like this isn't going to help anyone".

Kaylee looked up at him, tears continuously falling. He then slowly wiped away the tears on her wet cheek. Simon hated when she got sad like this.

"No, it's all my fault." Kaylee said, her voice shaking. She buried her face into her arms and started to cry more.

"Kaylee, what are you talking about?"

"It's my fault Serenity spun out of control. I wasn't in the engine room. It's my fault that we didn't land smoothly." She began to sob. " It's my fault Wash died!"