Firefly fanfic.
Regan and Gabriel Tam had always loved their children. At least they thought they had, they thought they knew their children inside out. But, after Simon went, they read over the letters their daughter had sent them. They realised they had missed things, obvious things. Not just misspelt words.
Drops on the pages, not of tears as they had first thought. They thought that River just missed her parents and her big brother and her home, but these drops were of blood.
It was a sunny day and, were it any other day, the Tam's would have been out, enjoying the sunshine. But Gabriel Tam sat in his study, bent over the letters his daughter had sent him, occasionally scribbling something down.
"Regan!" He shouted, half elated, half disappointed.
Regan came rushing into the study, he had been in that room for days, maybe he had finally cracked.
"I've got it! What Simon was talking about!" He yelled out, waving a small piece of paper in his hands. Regan snatched it out of his hands, eager to see what on earth he was on about.
She squinted closely at it and read aloud.
"They're hurting us. Get me out."
"What do we do now?" She asked.
"Well, it's official" He sighed "We're terrible parents."
The crew of Serenity sat down to eat.
It had been 15 years since Miranda, and quite a lot had changed. River had got better, but was still not completely with it sometimes.
Simon had finally got his foot unstuck from his mouth and asked Kaylee to marry him. She, of course, said yes and together they had a beautiful daughter named Jennifer Serenity Tam. Who, believe it or not, had become unlikely friends with Jayne.
Wash and Zoe were still happily married, albeit with a few 'Lovers spats' here and there.
Shepard was still the man with a questionable past, but a man of God all the same.
And Mal and Inara were, well, 'complicated' .But things had seemed to get better, he had stopped barging into her shuttle and stopped calling her a whore (well, at least not to her face). But, then again, when were things between an ex-soldier and a companion ever going to be straightforward?
"We should set down on Persephone in a couple of hours." Wash said, tucking into his protein bar soup.
"Good." Said Mal, not looking up from his food. It had been days since they had a proper meal, and they were all intent on enjoying it.
After dinner was finished, Mal got the playing cards out. He sat opposite Jennifer and started to deal out the cards. The rest of the crew stepped back, these games tended to get a little… competitive to say the least.
They were one big, happy, dysfunctional family. Dysfunctional they were, but happy all the same.
With Gabriel and Regan, things were different, a lot different.
They seemed happy on the outside, but that was just a charade. Ever since their children had left, they grew apart. He buried himself in work to forget the pain and the embarrassment. She kept to herself and her maid, usually. They never usually spent more than five minutes in the same room together and, on the rare occasions they did, it would usually end in a shouting match and tears.
The truth was that they were unhappy, but they couldn't be seen as unhappy. They wanted a divorce, but they couldn't, that would bring even more shame on the house of Tam. So, they carried on, their marriage unhappy and broken. But no one ever knew.
Soon, the time came round for their annual 'rustic' outer-rim break. This year they chose Persephone, nice 'rustic' feel and not too primitive.
Regan was excited, maybe this was the thing to save their marriage. After all, she did still love Gabriel.
Serenity touched down, to Kaylee's delight, in a junkyard. Jayne, River, Zoe and Mal had gone off to a job, Shephard was praying for their safe arrival, because, you know why.
Jennifer and Wash were using bits of old pipes as imaginary lightsabers (they'd seen them in an old Earth-that-was movie and naturally thought they were pretty cool). Inara had gone off to a client for 'Tea' as Kaylee described it because, even though she was thirteen, no one (not even Mal) wanted to have to explain to her that her Godmother was a companion.
Kaylee was searching through a large pile of scrap metal when she fell in.
"Simon! Simon!" She yelled. When he saw her, or more accurately her feet in the air, he burst out laughing.
"Simon! Simon! Simon, this is NOT funny! Get me OUT!" She yelled at her husband and wiggling her legs in the air as she got more and more agitated, only succeeding in making Simon laugh even more.
Further down the junkyard, the Tam's private shuttle set down.
"Why have we landed on a junkyard Regan?" Gabriel demanded.
"It is all part of the rustic feel Gabriel, come on, let us look at some of the other ships in the dock." Said Regan, patiently.
And so, they walked down the junkyard and suddenly they got to a beat-up old Firefly class cargo ship with Serenity painted on the side.
"Regan, is it just me, or does that man look like Simon and the girl looks like River?" Asked Gabriel.
"God Gabriel, I think your right." Replied Regan. This was the first time they'd agreed on something since River and Simon disappeared.
(It is worth mentioning at this point that Jayne, River, Mal and Zoe had returned from the job, but since they had a few other jobs on Persephone lined up, they thought that they would just stay a while).
"You folks looking for a ride?" Asked Mal. "If you are, hope you aren't in any rush, we're staying here for a few days." He added, he didn't want to disappoint.
"Actually," Regan started. "Do you have a Simon or River Tam on board?" She asked nervously, they were known to be against the Allience now and if he was on the right side of the Allience, he could alert them and they could end up in jail.
To her relief he asked "Are you with the Allience?"
"No." They replied, their children better be bloody grateful when they get home.
"Simon! River!" He yelled.
"What?" Asked River.
"You already know Albatross." He shouted back in reply.
"Simon, River!" They yelled, their children! Their children! They were right here, right now!
"Mother!" Simon yelled.
"Father!" Yelled River.
There was a whole load of hugging and talking, by this time most of the crew had gathered round them to see what all the fuss was about. And no matter what anyone said Jayne was NOT crying, there was just something in his eye.
"Wait, what's going on?" Asked Kaylee, who, by the way, was still headfirst in the pile of scrap metal.
"Oh, yeah, right." Said Simon and Jennifer rushed to Kaylee's aid and grabbed a leg each and managed to pull her out.
"Oh Simon, who's this?" Asked Regan, looking somewhat disgusted at Kaylee's grease-stained coveralls and big, chunky combat boots and Jennifer's old stained t-shirt and leggings and her glittery, multi-coloured, old bracelet/necklace/fake choker thing. But, her eyes stopped at her revolver in the holster hanging from her waist.
Regan opened her mouth to point this out, but then thought it best not to.
"This is my wife, Kaylee." He told her, pointing to Kaylee "And this is my daughter, Jennifer." He added, pointing to Jennifer.
"You, got married… and had a daughter…" Said Gabriel, slightly dazed because he seemed happy, he was on the run, he wasn't supposed to be happy.
Jayne thought this an appropriate time to start chasing Jennifer around the junkyard.
"So, why don't you and River come home?" Asked Gabriel.
"Why?" Asked River.
"Were happy here. Aren't we River?" Asked Simon.
"Yeah, we are." River told her.
"It's okay darling, you don't have to lie to us." Regan told them.
"But, we're not lying." Said River.
"Yeah, we love it here!" Simon told them.
"So you're not going home?" Asked Regan, looking rather faint.
"River, we have a slight situation over here." Said Zoe, Wash couldn't find his favourite dinosaur and Zoe thought it best to use the psychic.
"Be right there." River told her.
"Bye mother, bye father. Have a nice ride back home." Said River waving and then turning to run off.
"Why aren't you coming back home?" They asked again.
Simon turned to see his wife squealing and jumping up and down, she had found a new compression coil. Then he heard his daughter squealing, Jayne had caught up with her and proceeded to tickle her.
"This is my home." He told them, with a look of pride on his face "Serenity is my home."
"I think we better go and find the hotel. Goodbye Simon." And with that they left.
Simon thought over what they said, and then what he told them, and he realised if it's true what they say, that home is where the heart is, then Serenity is the only home he and River ever knew.