A/N: So sorry this took so long, I was busy and distracted and had trouble making Kaylee sound right. But reviews motivate me to write more! *nudge nudge wink wink* Thanks for reading!

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Chapter 2

Downstairs was quiet. The stairwell opened into a foyer at the front of the hotel, where a thick red carpet did its best to hide a scuffed plank floor. Nobody was at the front desk either, though everything was in place. Even the stationary, with its ostentatiously designed logo of 'Merliot Falls Inn', was neatly stacked.

"Over here!" Tam's voice came from the hall to the left. River walked over, and met the girl at a large wooden door. There was a sign on it declaring he room beyond to be the "Ye Olde Merliot Lounge and Alehouse".

"It's locked," complained Tam.

"And the soundproofing is on," River added, gesturing at a flowing red dot by the handle.

"Why would it be soundproofed?" asked the girl.

"Oh, you know, in case of exceptionally big parties," River smiled reminiscently. "I've had it a few times myself, though once or twice it was so nobody would hear the shots." She looked over at Tam, who seemed unperturbed by this disclosure. River shrugged mentally. The girl was definitely odd. She pulled out her gun and leveled it at the door. "So let's see what's inside, shall we?"

The shot was loud in the silent hotel, for all that it was a simple energy burst. This was mostly because the door, not built to withstand anything above maybe a kick, exploded into the room. It made little difference to the occupants, because the floor of the barroom was already littered with debris, and all the would-be carousers were dead or unconscious.

"Kaylee!" Tam cried suddenly, and ran across the room to kneel beside a young woman slumped against the wall. Her bright teal jacket and flowered cargo pants were dyed red with the blood leaking from a gash in her side, and she was unconscious.

River hastily stowed her gun in her belt and grabbed a handful of napkins from the bar. "Here," she said, handing them to Tam, who was already easing the young woman's jacket from her shoulders. "Staunch the wound, bind it with–" Casting around the room, her eyes lit upon a tattered tablecloth. "With this," she finished, ripping off a strip and passing it down.

The woman stirred and opened her eyes. "R-River?" she quavered, pain in her voice. She struggled to sit upright. "Simon–"

"Sh sh," Tam scolded gently, pushing her expertly down. "It's okay. I need to bind your stomach, Kaylee. You have to stay still."

Kaylee relaxed against the wall. "River," she said bemusedly, "you even know how to do this?"

"I've watched Simon repeatedly," Tam assured. River, checking the other bodies, raised a skeptical eyebrow. Not the most comforting statement where heavy bleeding was concerned, though with this girl it might just be true.

"All dead or unconscious," she announced, returning from her circuit of the lounge. "Nobody else will be waking for at least another hour." She knelt on Kaylee's other side. Surreptitiously checking the improvised bandages, she noted that Tam had bound the wound with the skill of a practiced field surgeon.

"Can you tell us what happened?" she asked Kaylee. "You were attacked?" River's mind raced. This was supposed to be a humans-only zone, but whoever had done it, she would bet her genes the Doctor had somehow gotten into the middle of the conflict.

"Yes, where's Simon?" Tam added urgently. "You were supposed to be with him."

"They took him, River, I don't know where–"

"Who took him?" River interrupted. "Could you start at the beginning please?"

Kaylee eyed her suspiciously. "Who're you?" she demanded, surprisingly strongly for someone who'd been leaking blood for hours. "You ain't no Alliance patrol, or local police either."

River wished for some psychic paper, but before she could respond, Tam piped up, "It's okay, Kaylee, this is River Song. She's looking for someone, too, her Doctor."

"That's funny," said Kaylee, " 'cause those guys were lookin' for a doctor too."

"What guys?" River asked with a growing feeling of dread. "The beginning."

"Alright," Kaylee replied, still sagged against the wall. " Me 'n' Simon came in for a drink, after seeing the waterfall, at about, I dunno, nine? It was fair crowded, we was chatting, then suddenly a bunch of goons blast in from outside." She gestured weakly towards a pair of large glass doors, now reduced to pieces, that opened to a porch overlooking a scenic plain.

"What did they look like?" River questioned.

"Dunno, they never took off their helmets," responded Kaylee. "They were wearing some sort of weird armor, blue an' silver, and all their voices sounded the same."

River cursed. "Sontarans. Of course. Why can't that man ever go anywhere without an alien invasion? He must plan it! 'Peaceful vacation' my–" She broke off under the combined amazed stares of the two girls.

"There's no such thing as aliens," Kaylee ventured a bit timidly. She turned her head to Tam and asked in an undertone that River was clearly not meant to hear, "River, is this woman all right? She seems a bit..." she tried to raise her arm to her head, gave up halfway, and circled one finger by her shoulder instead. River stifled a smile. She'd been called worse things than 'cookoo'.

"Back on topic, Kaylee," she insisted. "What did the Sont—the armored men want? Did they say why they shot you all up?"

"They shot up the bar a bit when they came in," Kaylee continued obediently. "Few people got hurt, then. They had some sort of lasers. When ev'ryone stopped yellin', they started askin' for a doctor. 'Where is the doctor?' they kept sayin', prodding people with guns. So Simon stands up—we'd both hit the floor when they came in–and said he was a doctor, an' did they need help?" She paused, and coughed a little, clutching her bandaged side.

"Do you need water?" Tam asked anxiously.

"I'm fine," said Kaylee unconvincingly. "Listen, River, when Simon said he was a doctor, one of the goons said he was under arrest." Tam gasped, horrified, but Kaylee went on. "But it weren't Alliance, they said 'fer crimes against the something Empire'. It might've been Sontaran, Miz Song," she conceded, turning to River.

River nodded, resting her hand on her gun. Sontarans...

"But what happened to Simon?" Tam asked persistently.

"Two of them grabbed him, an' they were just about to take him off when another man ran in. Dressed sort of funny he was, too nice for this place, an' he had this silly little bowtie. He kept callin' out that they'd made a mistake, that he was the doctor, not Simon, an' they should leave ev'ryone else alone."

"Of course," River said, chagrined. "So they took them both. Sontarans aren't big on initiative, they'd figure they can always kill later whichever one isn't right."

"They'll kill him?" Kaylee cried, alarmed. Tam was wide-eyed and fierce.

"No, don't worry," River reassured them. "The man in the bowtie was my friend, the Doctor, and he won't let anything happen to Simon."

"How can he do that?" asked Kaylee. "The took him same as Simon, with two guards and 'is hands behind his back. He don't even got a gun!"

"He doesn't need one," River replied surely.

"Kaylee," Tam interjected suddenly, "how come you're hurt? You said most of the people were still okay when they took Simon."

"A bomb," Kaylee answered, voice growing slightly faint. All the talking was wearing her out. "One of them whatcha-ma-call-ems, Sontarans, left it. Threw it in, said it'd be our glory to die, and walked out. He was hardly outta distance when it blew."

River got up and walked through the center of the room. She spotted an anachronistic shard of metal and picked it up, eying it closely.

"Looks like a C-12 Novabomb," she estimated. She turned back to the young women. "You shouldn't have survived this," she commented. "Nobody in this room should have."

"I think your Doctor might've done something to it," Kaylee suggested. "I saw him look back when the Sontaran was setting it, and he pointed somethin' at it, silvery and green-shiny. None of the Sontarans saw, but the bomb sort of clicked quieter."

"That sounds like him." River dropped the sliver of bomb and moved toward the shattered glass doors, adjusting her gun belt.

"Wait," said Tam, standing and stepping daintily over Kaylee.

"Wha—River, no!" Kaylee protested. She tried to push herself up from the wall, but slid back down with a whimper. Tam turned back.

"Kaylee, I have to go get Simon back," she said gently.

"Call the Cap'n," Kaylee argued. "Get him an' Zoe down here for help. I know you're you, River, but you can still be shot."

"No, Kaylee, sleep, and call Mal when you wake up, or get someone else to. Some of them should be up by then." Tam stood, gesturing to the other patrons, still unconscious or dead. "Don't worry, Doctor Song and I can handle it."

Kaylee did not look reassured, but he eyelids were fluttering closed in shock-induced exhaustion. River watched Tam closely. She knew she hadn't mentioned her newly acquired doctorate to the girl. She'd barely thought about it since meeting her. A psychic of that talent bore watching, especially in such an otherwise xenophobic environment.

"Are you coming?" she called. Tam finished tucking Kaylee's sleeping form under the remains of the tablecloth and crossed the room to River.

"One moment," she responded calmly. She leaned over the nearest body and quickly frisked it, rising with a double-barreled shotgun and a case of spare bullets. Expertly, she loaded the gun and clicked it. She smiled at River. "Now I'm ready. Would you like to draw yours?"

"Yes," River said, palming her gun in one hand. She looked out across the empty prairie and pointed at a path of crushed grass stretching into the distance, at a slight diagonal to the right. "Easy trail to follow. Sontarans aren't big on stealth."

Tam nodded confidently. "No, they'll prefer brute force." She glanced at River as if to make certain she was still there. "Then it's as your Doctor would say, 'Geronimo!'"

Guns ready, they began the hunt.