"I'm broken, shattered into millions upon millions of tiny little pieces and it's impossible to put me back together again. I'm humphrey-dumpty but still you won't stop trying to pick up piece after piece and put me back together again, why?"
(can you see the cracks in my skin? I can feel them deep inside but you can't see them at all)
Even as the words came out (rambling and spilling from my lips) his hands and fingers reach out to pick up even more of the shiny pieces, doing so even when they cut him up and bleed him dry.
Each piece (never-ending supply of broken bits) he picks up with a eager grin, the one that for me never falls away (until I do something insane), but still all they do is strip him of his dreams and happiness.
(my brain, that's filled to the tippy-top with everyone and everything, that got us in this mess to start with)
"Shh, River, don't talk like that. You're the reason I did it all, for you and if it never ends I'll do the same thing until I die and it will always be for you not because of you. River, you're all I need, you're my everything."
Along with 'shh', that pushes away the budding tears (the ones that hands of blue laughed at) comes the warms hands that with one touch melt away the fears and for another day make the guilt, for being the broken little sister, fall away.
(until I see the shining doctor in all his glory and know he could be so much more)
"That isn't a good enough answer (doesn't satisfy the curiosity that killed the cat) but I'll take it. But don't forget that you also have Kaylee, I see her making eyes at you and you doing the same."
My answer, muffled by the tears that never go away, (along with voices piled on top of one another) just like all the rest of them, came at the perfect time, when the soon-to-be third member of our strange little family came in.
"K-Kaylee! H-Hi."
"Hiya, Simon."
And in a second he went from loving big brother with warm hands and fingers (ones that pull me in and don't let me free until I'm better) to a bumbling, blushing idiot and that results in giggles from Jayne and I,
(the one that flinches when he sees little old me)
"Kaylee, will you marry Simon and be my sister?"
While saying this, without a hint of shame for doing so (as his cheeks grew even redder), I could see it as clear as day, the day, the time and place that my words would sing true.
(flower petals, rusty ships, and guns, the perfect wedding for us big damn heroes)
"River!"