Chapter 1

He watched as a Firefly transport ship docked. His stomach growled empty of last week's food. The boy reeked of garbage and rotten food. He surveyed his current situation and suddenly the Firefly looked like a really nice place to stay. He got up and made his way towards the ship.

The crew of Serenity wandered off taking in the sites while two of the crew members tried luring passengers onboard. Everything was going quite smooth today. Even Captain was in a good mood.

Finally, the crew left their post to talk to a lady who wanted on their ship. The dump child ran into the ship and jumped into an open crate. He closed the lid on the crate and curled into the fetal position. He wasn't sure what he would do once he was flying but it was bound to be better than here. The passengers boarding talked about boring stuff. Everything seemed like meaningless chatter. Then this, "Wash, we're all on board. Set course for Andri. We got ourselves a trade to go on there." An intercom roared to life, "We are shiny Captain. Leaving atmo in 2 minutes. Aim to be on Andri in 3 days."

"Jayne, help me put the goods away before any of the passengers trip on it."

"Whatever you say, Captain." The crates around the boy's crate were jostling his crate and the sound of boots was getting closer. The child rolled against one of the walls of the crate. A gruff voice barked, "I didn't put no goods in this crate." The lid of the crate flew open and the child was staring down the barrel of two guns.

"Get up nice and slow there, yo chr. Put your hands over your head." The man wearing suspenders and a brown coat was the one doing the talking. Even though he was the smaller one, he was the scarier.

"Don't shoot, please! Don't hurt me!" The boy rose to standing height, barely reaching over the top of the crate. His hands reached for the sky

"Step out of that crate now. Don't make my life any more interesting than it already is." The guns didn't let up any. The boy's hands started shaking. When the scary man saw his face, he lowered his gun. His eye was swollen shut, his lip was split, there was dried blood on his face. He only had a pair of raggedy pants on. He smelled like luh suh.

"Please don't shoot me! Don't make me go back please, please!" The rest of the crew came down the metal stairs into the cargo bay and saw the child cowering in front of Mal and Jayne. The boy stumbled to the ground out of the cargo container. The ship's mechanic pushed through the men and ran up to the boy.

"What's your name, di-di?" The boy skittered away from her when she tried to embrace him. He landed on his bum against one of the crates.

"Reed." He rubbed his eyes looking like he was going to cry. "I'm sorry, don't take me back. I can't go back." Reed picked himself up and faced the captain.

Mal couldn't stand looking at the boy's face. The critter was on the verge of tears and Mal wouldn't stand for it. "Stop those tears. I ain't going to take you back." Captain Reynolds made as to possibly clap him on the back and the boy drew back. Someone had hurt him. Mal sighed and then said, "I spit on child beaters. I ain't going to hurt you, but it's obvious someone did. Doc, get this boy to the infirmary. The rest of you go do your jobs and I'll be dealing with those passengers."

He bent down. "I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds." The captain reached out and picked up the boy. "I'm just moving ya." The boy was hoisted over Mal's shoulder and put in the infirmary. The boy barely protested. The captain could feel the boy's ribs rubbing against his shoulder. Who in the 'verse would beat on a boy this small?

Once he made sure that Reed was taken care of in the infirmary he went to go over ground rules with the passengers. None of them didn't seem half as interesting as the boy from the cargo hold. That was a good thing.

The captain went up to the cockpit. Wash was navigating a course to Adri. "What's going on Captain? I heard a commotion going on." He swung around in his chair.

Mal took on a soft voice. "We've got ourselves another passenger, Wash. He's just a littl'un. Stowed himself away in a cargo container. He's in a bad way." He cleared his throat. "See to it that we get to Andri on time. I'd prefer if we didn't have our passengers and this cargo for longer than required." The passengers were just about ordinary. No surprises like the last time they took on passengers. River entertained them by dancing with a couple of them and it was actually like real shindig. It turned out to be a proper night. There hadn't been word from any of the crew yet about the kid so that must have been good news.

Mal went down to the infirmary to check on the critter. Simon had him bandaged up good and he was laughing at something Inara had said. "Doc, a word please." They walked out into the hall, "How is he?"

Simon frowned and then sighed. "He has a lot of bruises, cuts and a possible concussion. It's apparent someone beat him recently, but he won't tell me who. But he's not been well for a while. He's malnourished, and he's had some stunted growth. I can give him some growth hormone, but we'll just have to wait for him to get better at this point. Then maybe if he trusts us he'll start talking." That was when Mal frowned as well. He didn't like people who beat the innocent.

"Did he say where he came from? How old he is?"

"Nothing. Completely quiet. I'd say he's about 7 years old, but he's small. Again malnutrition."

"Well then let's get some food in that belly." He said it loud enough for Reed to hear. Reed jumped off the exam table and ran towards Mal.

"Where can I get some of that food?" They all laughed as Mal hoisted the kid on his shoulders and carried him to the dining room.