Simons Turn

(A/N I own nothing nor do I make profit from it. All Chinese swearing will be in English and in parenthesis my computer won't find the dictionary I need; WAAAAAAAAAAAA!)

Finishing the report on Rivers progress I stretched feeling my joints pop and creak. Everyone had bailed as soon as we had landed. Wash and Zoe went to finally buy that slinky dress, Mal to pick up ammo and firearms, Jayne to a bar, Inara to a client, Book to buy more bibles since River loves correcting them (not one bible has yet to survive), and Kaylee took River with her to the junkyard and shopping leaving me to finish working in peace. Standing up I headed out to pick up medical supplies, lord knows we'd need them. A cold chill ran down my spine remembering the times my friends and family required my services. Zoe, Jayne, Kaylee, Wash, Book, River and Mal had all had trusted me with their lives, trusted that my hands knew the dances to heal them; it was a gift and a curse because it left no room to hope for someone to pull through because you already know the outcome. And on that happy note I pushed that to the back of my head and focused on buying the best and the cheapest med supplies possible.

After picking up some supplies and new cuss words from the venders, I walked back to the ship and then saw a sight that made my blood run cold. The Alliance apparently did have control on this moon, because two guards were walking towards Kaylee, River and Book who were too busy talking to notice they were on a collision course with the guards. Shit. The guards hadn't recognized River yet but if they got any closer they would. Book saw them but it was too late to change course or hide. So I did what I had to do. I dropped my bag, by now River and Kaylee had noticed the guards and River shrank away. Reaching down, I picked up a small rock and hurled it. It hit its mark and let me tell you that guard was pissed and having recognized me, they gave chase and left River free to get away. The chase had just started when I felt it, a bullet tearing through the soft tissue of my back ricocheting off my ribcage and forcing its way out of my body. My knees hit the ground, I barely had time to drop the note I carried for when River took the last of what I have to offer, my freedom and my life, then the rest of my body. The last thing I saw was my sister trying to get to me, the arms of the Shepherd restraining her as the hands of my enemy took me from her, and I sent her one last thought: Live free and don't waste what I've done for you. Live and be happy Meimei, I love you. Then my world went black.

Carl was the blue hand in charge of the Tam project; the computer he was working at was a new one and he was finishing down loading when the doors behind him swished open. A man waltzed in looking pleased. The man that walked was a guard that was in charge of bringing in packages.

"We got the Tam boy." The man said sounding as pleased as he looked.

"So? We need River Tam, not Simon Tam; you daft idiot! The boy won't even tell us where she is with truth serum! So no information, just a new prisoner! The girl is probably in hands that won't let her come look for him so that is all so out the window!"

*BEEEEP*

Jumping, Carl turned to the computer. There in block letters on the screen were the words: Would you like to see: Tam, Simon File?

"Well, what have we here? I guess the Tam boy does have a secret. Computer open the file; let's see what it is, shall we?"

Back on Serenity happy was the opposite of what River was at the moment. She didn't notice the return of Mal, Zoe, Wash, Jayne and Inara; because she was too busy cussing and screaming at the resident Shepherd. She knew that it wasn't Book's fault that Simon was gone but if he hadn't held her back Simon might still be there healing and generally being a boob. Kaylee hid in the corner, salty tears painting her face a blotchy red, listening as Book sat solemn faced, still being yelled at by River whose face was in the same state as Kaylee's.

"It's all wrong! He was taken from home right out from under the watcher's eyes! Not here! Two by two no longer! He was here and she did nothing! Your entire fault! If you hadn't dammed the River he would be…home."

River was at this point waving her arms and looked like she was about to hit the Shepherd, seeing this Mal cut in.

"What the (hell) is going on here?! River, shouldn't you be in the infirmary with Simon? And where is he anyway?" And at hearing the name of the lost doctor River and Kaylee started bawling and Book hung his head in a silent prayer that the boy would be okay.

"Male cardinals sacrifice themselves should the female need to get away." And with that River took off toward the infirmary at a run as if hoping to find her Geigei waiting for her. Mal turned to Book for an explanation.

"There was more Alliance control here than we thought and Kaylee, River and I went for a walk and I didn't notice the Alliance guards until we had nowhere to go. But Simon did, and he distracted them long enough for us to get away. He got shot and taken away by the guards in the process."

Kaylee stood.

"I'm going to go check on River."

"I'll go with you." Inara said. Kaylee nodded and they left the room to find their youngest crew member.

"Any chance of getting Simon back from the feds before they go off planet, Shepherd?"

"I'm afraid not, they went off planet the second they caught him. Put the word out but no one's biting. Simon did drop us a note before he was taken." Book said reaching into his pocket and producing a small slip of paper, handing it to Mal. There on the front of the note in Simon's neat core handwriting was his name. Unfolding the paper, he read the note out loud. At this point Inara and Kaylee reappeared having been unable to coax River out of the locked infirmary. It read:

Mal

In the event that I am killed or something happens to me that renders me incapable of caring for River, please take care of River. There is a bank account that should have enough money in it to cover the inconvenience. In addition I have left River's medication and instructions on how to distribute it in the infirmary drawer with the medical tape, if all else fails Jayne can find it. Tell River that I'm with the old king and I'll see her on the 13th, she'll know what it means. Tell the crew I'm sorry. Tell Jayne that he has my blessing but if he hurts River and your reading this Mal will have to do the honors for me and hold the shotgun. Tell Kaylee that she should take a chance, you may never get another. Tell Wash and Zoe that they may want to wait to have that baby. Tell Book that I'll miss his lectures. Tell Inara that what is most important is what we always take for granted, and that she may need to brush up on companion dating laws. And Mal I'm sorry I never got to tell you this in person but I never had the nerve. What I wanted to tell you was that I ~~~e ~~~.

Sincerely,

Dr. Simon R. Tam

"What happened to the paper? I can't read some of the note." Mal said squinting at the water-ruined blobs of ink on the page willing them to move into letters and give up their secrets.

"It fell in a puddle when he dropped it. By the time I pulled it out some of the writing was washed away."

"What do we do now?" Kaylee asked, her eyes glued to the resident companion and mind turning Simon's words over in her head.

"What Simon asked us to do. Take care of River, and we'll start by getting her out of the infirmary." Mal said heading to the infirmary. Walking up to the infirmary door, he knocked.

"River?"

Rivers quiet voice snaked its way out of the infirmary doors and to the crews' ears. "She's out looking for Simon, not here, go away."

"River, Simon left us a note and he has something he wants me to tell you but I can't tell you through the door." Mal smiled as slowly the infirmary door inched open.

"What is it?"

"It makes no sense to me, but he said you'd understand." Mal said as River slowly moved out of the infirmary, and he signaled for Jayne to block the doors in case she changed her mind and bolted.

"It says that he'll be under the old king on the 13th. Mean anything to you?" River nodded her eyes threatening to let the tears run.

"Every Spring their parents would take them to Yameni to the home of the king of oaks his crown kissed the heavens themselves. The Brother would climb to the top and see the world as the king did, but the River was scared that the king would drop her. So the brother told her to climb to the top and that if the king did drop her that he would catch her. So she climbed and saw the world as the king did and as she feared the king dropped her but there to keep his promise the Brother was there to catch her and deliver her back to the earth. And every time the River climbed the king the Brother waited for her at the bottom. He told the River that if anything should separate them to go to the tree on the 13th and he would be there waiting to catch her again."

"Oh" Mal said pacing the floor thinking of what Simon had written and what had been lost to the stupid puddle. Yameni was two weeks hard burn from here, and they didn't have the supplies.

"Mal?"

Mal jumped at the sound of his name. Turning he looked at River, her kicked puppy eyes were on him.

"Yes, River?"

"Will he be there to catch me?"

"I don't know." Mal saw the look of pain on Rivers face.

"Then who will catch me?"

"I will as long as it takes for your brother to get there."

Carl stood staring at the body in front of him. "Are you sure this is the right corpse?"

"It ain't a corpse, it has to be dead to be a corpse, she's just missing a mind to run the brain. But she functions just fine." Noticing the way Carl was staring, he smiled. "She's a beauty ain't she?"

"Yes, she is. What did you mean no mind?"

"They wanted to see if they could use it as a weapon, you know replace the mind on the Rebel leaders with one of our own. She was made from DNA stolen from a baby and grew from a test-tube; they wanted to see if they could transfer the mind of the original child in to this body. This body is all ready to go and still has the room for the kids own memory. But they screwed up in the stealing process."

"How so?"

"The original child was a male and as you can see this one ain't male, so they scrapped the idea. But the way I figure it the change should still be possible."

"You still have the equipment?" Carl asked surprised, typically when a project was scrapped it was all destroyed. The man jabbed his finger at a machine in the corner.

"I can have it working in a jiffy just need a mind to put in it."

"Who was the original child? The file only told me that she was in storage."

"Some kid by the name of Simon Tam."

"Well isn't that interesting."

Opening my eyes I saw the room they had dumped me in. The floor was white and looked sterile as was everything else; the sight gave me no comfort. I attempted to stand up only to find I was strapped to the table I was laying on, similar to the ones I had used at the hospital for psychiatric patients. Looking for some form of salvation I noticed a similar table not ten feet away. There was a blanket covering it and whatever was on the table but given the shape I could guess. The blanket was moving so it was it alive.

"Ah, good you're awake, just in time."

Twisting my head I could see the man that had spoken. He was your average geek hair parted at the side and slicked down and thick horn-rimmed glasses but what scared him was the bright blue gloves the man, Carl according to his nametag, was wearing.

"Just in time? For what, may I ask?" If I wanted out alive I was going to do the opposite of everything Mal would do in this situation. And the first thing was to remain polite.

"Well Simon," I mentally gagged at the sound of the leer he put in my name. "We've had a hard time thinking of what to do with you. A man like yourself is hard to find, someone who will give up everything for their sister. We figured that you wouldn't tell us anything to help find your sister so we had to think of something else. And you will have most likely left your sister in the hands of someone you know won't hand her over or let us near her, so an exchange or ransom is out of the question."

"Good guess." I said wincing as the ropes cut in to my arm.

"Thank you we thought so too. So you can see our dilemma. But then we found out that you Simon were supposed to be an experiment, but then there was an accident and then your sister was born and the information was lost. Well the accidents been fixed and your sister isn't here so let's begin." I didn't like the look on Carl's face and my eyes moved with him as he moved to the exam table with the cloth on it.

"The experiment was to see if the mind could be moved, transported from one body to the next. The machine will drill a hole in your head and in to your brain. There it will copy every brain wave your mind ever sent out and send it to this one. It will be like down loading a file on to a computer only much more painful." Carl noticing the look I was giving the cloth smiled. "This is your knew body, but you can see it when you're in it." Carl raised his hand and signaled that he was ready for the experiment to start. I heard the machine drill whirring behind me and a felt a blinding pain in the back of my head. Then it was like someone was slowly flicking off the lights in my head before leaving entirely and then even my voice was gone. And everything was black, yet not black. There was just nothing there and nothing to show there ever had been anything there, just an absence.

And then someone new came in and hit all the lights at once. Blinding light, deafening noise and burning pain greeted me with open arms. My chest felt heavy, my breathing labored and my muscles screaming in pain as if I'd run a marathon. Twice. Then a new blackness opened its arms to me in the form of sleep, and enveloped me.

"Did it work?" Carl asked eyes focused on the two prone figures on the beds trying to guess which held water and which held nothing. The man at the controls smiled.

"Yep. It's alive! ALLLIIIVVEEE!"

"What are you doing?" Carl asked worrying about the man's sanity.

"Sorry. Bad joke." The man said blushing.

"Riiiiight, well when he-sh- it wakes up tell me."

"Sure," Watching as Carl left he turned to look at the woman laying there. "Well my dear you're finally complete. I promised you a mind and now you have it, you listened to all my problems so now I'm going to get you through this. Lord knows that you're going to need it." He said stroking the woman's hair away from her face. "Good night, my angel." He kissed her forehead, walking to the door he turned off the lights and headed off to pick up some clothes for when she woke up because waking up in a woman's body is one thing waking up in a woman's body in a paper dresses was another.

Mal jerked awake at the sound of Rivers screams a nightly occurrence since her brothers capture and Mal was really starting to understand why Simon looked tired when everyone else had a good night's rest. Pulling himself from the arms of his warm bed and to see what nightmare was plaguing her tonight, after reading Simon's extensive notes on River he learned that there were several problems with River, that several dreams took turn plaguing River and how to deal with each. Walking down the halls of a not so peace full Serenity he walked into Rivers room to find that she was missing. Walking to the only place he could think to find her. Upon entering Simon's room he found her fast asleep and standing in the corner was Kaylee.

"Thanks Meimei." At the sound of the endearment River sleeping form let out a small sob.

"We have' to get him back Captain." Kaylee said her tired eyes trained on River. "We can't take care of her like this and she can't handle not having him around even with Jayne giving her extra attention." Mal laughed at the fact that not only had he not seen it coming but that the clueless Doc had.

"Is that what he meant?" Kaylee smiled.

"Yep, and I know what he said to you in the letter."

"Well?"

"Well what?" Kaylee asked looking at Mal with a confused look.

"What does it say?" Mal asked slightly annoyed at the way Kaylee was playing dumb.

"Not my place to say, Captain. Simon will tell you when we get him back."

"Kaylee…"

"River lost his mind." Mal looked at Kaylee as if she had lost her mind.

"What?"

"River told me that she can feel a person's mind even if she too far away to read their mind. She said she lost her connection but that she felt a new one like his mind just moved to a new residing place. It's had her busy all day trying to figure it out." Mal raised an eyebrow at the news. Noticing that Kaylee was yawning big enough to make a camel jealous, Mal smiled.

"Well we should get back to bed. Or the ship is going to fall right out of the sky."

"Right Capt'm." Kaylee said practically sleep walking back to her bunk. And judging by the resounding 'Bonk' and wail there was no need for the practically. Mal glanced at Rivers sleeping form and sighing trudged back to his bunk.

Alright either someone clocked me over the head with a hammer or they set my brain on fire. Squinting my eyes against the light and whatever else was trying to make entry through my visionary organs. My chest felt heavier than normal and my arms and legs felt fine but different like they had been cut off and then reattached. Daring to open my eyes I found the pain had lessened enough for me to look around the room. White and as sterile just like the last one. I shivered. And remembering what the scientist said I looked down at my body and froze. I was…Female? Well that tops my most weird moment by a long shot. My skin was still the same lily white, my hair was still the same black but now stretched down to my waist, my height was now around 5'9, my face was more round and softer featured. I was what most men would call a knockout. I frowned. This was going to make finding River harder, because now I also had to convince them it was me.

"Well how do you feel?" I jumped, well as one who is strapped to an examining table can, and turned my head to see the person who had spoken. The man was around 6'4 and built like a tank. He had red hair; his eyes were brown with flecks of gold in them and he was dressed from head to toe in black.

"What?" I asked brilliantly, yep nice to see I'm putting that fancy education to good use.

"How are you feeling? Are you in pain? Hungry? Tired?" He asked as if I was a child that didn't understand a math problem everyone else had gotten.

"D. all of the above." I say rolling my eyes.

"Well, if you feel well enough to be sarcastic then you're fine." He said chuckling. "You know you're just as I thought you would be." He said eyeing me like an artist would his best work.

"W-what do you mean? Where am I? And who are you?"

"My name is Sam and I'm your big brother."

"Gorramit, River! That's not safe!" River had for the past three hours had been reenacting the day that she and Simon had first entered Serenity. And had just gotten to the part where he jumps off the cat walk and is pointing a gun at thin air, a loaded gun, acting as if she was fighting to keep hold of it. The crew was watching in fascination from behind things that, should bullets fly would hopefully stop them. Mal being the fearless and most likely brain damaged leader that he was; was the one attempting to remove the gun from River's hands.

"River give me the gun." Mal said finally yanking the gun from the moonbrains hands. "You could have killed someone, namely yourself. What were you thinking?!" River stood there for a second before starting to cry. And Mal wished for the millionth time that he would learn to keep his mouth shut and that Simon was here to calm River down and then apologize profusely and chew him out at the same time for upsetting her. Only Simon and the Shepherd had the ability to apologize and lecture you at the same time. Turning to River he only had a moment to process what she was doing before he had a new corset made out of 100% River.

"Ouf." Mal grunted as River tightened her hold still sobbing.

"Thought if she retraced her steps she'd find what she lost." Mal sighed. River had been doing things to remind herself of Simon. When asked she had said that she would forget and when he came back she would not remember him. Those things included doing imaginary surgeries one almost not so imaginary, the Shepherd now locks his door at night, her excuse was she was looking for his faith, wearing Simons clothes, she had at one time tried to walk around shirtless, nagging Mal about medical supplies and sleeping in Simons room. All in all Mal was starting to miss the real Simon.

"You're my Brother?" Okay his eyes don't have that crazy look, he looks well dressed, he isn't shaking and he doesn't smell like alcohol.

"Yep."

"And we are related how exactly?" I ask arching an eyebrow.

"Well my mother was the head scientist of this project. And when she died she arranged for me to be guardian and made me promise to finish my sister. You see she lost my sister during child birth and so then when she made you, you took the place of my sister in her eyes. And I intend to keep my promise to keep you safe." He said beaming at me.

"So what's my name?"

"What's your what?" He asked confused.

"My name, did your mother give me a name?"

"Why do you care?" He asked defensively.

"Because my name is Simon and that's a boy's name." I said "And I'm curious as to what Mother named me." I don't know why I just referred to her as my mother, but something about it felt right. And the strange man in front of me made me feel safe as if I had known him all my life.

"Simone." He muttered just loud enough for me to hear.

"What?"

"Your name is Simone. Mother didn't want to change it too much from your original name so she was pleased to find out that your name was Simon."

"Simone, huh? It's a beautiful name."

"It means 'one who hears' rather fitting seeing as you heard your sisters cries for help."

"How did you?"

"Know? Simple the only person she talked about was you. I know everything about you from the videos of River in her cell. And no I had nothing to do with your sister's experiment. As a matter of fact the only way I knew about it was because you broke her out, and since you're the subject of my Mothers experiment they told me what you did. I'm impressed that you gave up everything for her."

"I had nothing without her, and I was nothing without her. She is my world, my reason for getting out of bed every morning to be someone I'm not."

"I know how you feel."

"Really?"

"It's exactly how I feel about you." I laugh I can't help it he just makes me feel at ease and I can talk without stuttering.

"You don't know me." I gasp out still giggling. My voice is higher and sounds like warm honey.

"I know you run your hand through your hair when you're frustrated, that you sing River to sleep after a nightmare, you graduated at 16 from the best medical school and that you have never lost a patient that didn't want to die, and that you have a taste for men." At the last comment I blushed. "Course now it might be easier to get a date and not get teased for it."

"That is none of your business!" I snap at his teasing, my mouth contorted in a sneer.

"On the contrary it is my business as to who dates my sister. You deserve better than some outer planet trash." I rolled my eyes at him. He smirked in return.

"So would you like your clothes now?"

"What?" I looked down and saw that my new body was only covered in a paper dress like my patients used to wear. I screamed.