Hi Everyone! So, I have been wanting to write this story for a really long time. I do not own Firefly or Serenity. That all belongs to Joss Whedon – and NOT FOX – who is a god among directors. You will notice that I made it so that River and Simon have been with the Serenity crew four years in this story, which is a bit longer that in the movie, but I kind of needed it to introduce one of the few OCs that are in this story.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Read and Review please – it will probably be the main thing that keeps me writing!

Chapter 1: Disturbed Dreams

A man. Dark skinned, light blue – or silver? - coat. Malicious. Frightening.

Two by two . . .

No. Hands are skin. Not blue.

Violence within him. But purpose . . . A dream of peace. Belief.

He's looking at her . . . but not at her. Another her. Past? Future? No, past. She could see Simon. Saving her. Her escape.

But the sword. The blood. He's coming! HE'S COMING FOR HER!

"Where are you hiding, little girl?"

River woke with a start, and a slight scream tickling the back of her throat that she could not let loose. Her eyes flew to the toddler dozing millimeters from her face, her sleep disturbed only slightly by River's jerking movements.

In spite of the nightmare, the child made River smile. Her baby. Her Shadow – Dow for short. Dow was one of the three pieces of rope to were fastened tightly around River's sanity, keeping her firmly where she was – most of the time. Her sleep, she knew, was never a safe place to be.

And just as she began to wonder how to baby with her dark hair but his blue eyes hidden by settling lashes came to be in her bed, she felt him settling above her slowly to whisper in her ear, "I figured you wouldn't mind her bein' my substitute rather than waking up alone, Darling."

She turned over to face her husband – husband. Who would have ever thought that after everything she'd been through, she would ever have a husband? – and he planted a light kiss on her lips that she closed her eyes to feel completely. This was the second tie that held her fast to this world that she lived in. Her surprising love for him.

She looked up at him to find him already dressed, ready to begin his daily duties. Daily – what a strange word to use in space. There was no sun that rise or fell on a ship in space, because that ship did not revolve on any axis. The only way they knew what was meant to be a day was the habitat settings engrained in the ships mainframe, but everyone knew that every now and then, when they were "deep space, corner of 'no' and 'where'", as Mal like to say, the captain would give Wash a significant nod to know to change the settings so that nights were longer, and everyone could enjoy an extra few hours of peace.

But today was not one of those days, or her husband wouldn't be such an early riser. Today they had a job. A job that she would actually be joining them on, as they robbed an Alliance vault. And while she didn't always share in Mal's eagerness to poke the bear, as it were, she did get a little bit of satisfaction in causing some distress to those who had gone to great lengths to torture her not to long ago.

Still, even though she knew he had to go, she took a minute to admire him. His shirt was faded, like most of his shirts were, and buttoned but for the collar, where she saw a few hairs poking out. His pants were also faded brown, held together by a large belt that also contained what was – for the next minute anyway – and empty holster. He had also yet to put on his coat, and she felt that he almost looked underdressed without it. But she could see it lying on the bed next to her, brown and sweeping, as much a part of him as his blue eyes. After all, it was cold in space.

"Hmm," she hummed back at him in response to his statement, "Don't know 'bout that. With you still here, almost wish you hadn't. We could have . . ." She let the sentence trail off, as she sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, careful not to wake the still sleeping child. He gave her a slight smirk and a quick kiss, before disentangling himself from her arms.

"Later," he whispered, looking at Dow significantly, as if River could have forgotten her presence. He stood up straight and swung his coat around his shoulders. He reached right under where she was laying in the bed to grab his gun out of the holster he kept there – even though she kept telling him that it was too easy for Dow to reach it there – and twirled it around his finger a couple of times smirking at her before putting it squarely in the holster. She giggled quietly.

"For now," he said, backing away towards the door as she watched him, "I've got captaining things to do." And with that, and a final wink, Mal climbed out of their bunk.

River smiled quietly, and looked down at Dow. The child was the perfect combination between her and Mal – his eyes, her hair. His jaw, her frame. His stubbornness, and her . . . reading. She almost frowned at that thought. When she was pregnant, she had hoped that her gift would not pass to her child. And even when her two-year-old – two – spoke Chinese and English fluently, as well as being able simply know whoever was walking into a room, she knew that whatever it was that made her different had been passed on to her child. She and Mal had talked about it many times, and while they both worried, she could tell how proud he was whenever Dow would correct Jayne's awful grammar. They could keep her safe, he would say. Safe of Serenity. Safe with their Crew.

And that was the third piece that held her here. The family. Serenity. All of this came together to give her a home here, one that she had happily made her own over that last four years.

But something was about to tear all that apart. She could feel it.