Thanks for giving me a second shot !


Chapter Two

Both Mal and Kaylee found themselves burnt up inside by the look River had given them as she turned away. Kaylee had seen her fair few chidings, but she'd never quite felt so low as when she'd been fixed by that look. It was though she had betrayed River, really personally betrayed her, and she couldn't stomach it. There were enough tensions on board.

Mal, on the other hand, seldom got himself a good scolding, but was pretty sure he had found it (from a slip of a girl dressed as an innocuous flower no less) and it was downright confoundin'. And the Captain was not a man who enjoyed being confounded.

So when lil' Kaylee caught him in between his bunk and the kitchen look with cheeks so red he at first blamed the doctor, he was more than willing to agree to her proposition. Dinner with everyone together. That'd least give them a casual setting. If he'd angered the little one, at least he could get everyone on his side for backup.

"Dinner time!" he yelled up into the bridge. "Everyone down. I'm starvin', so don't make me wait!" Kaylee went to Inara's shuttle to ask more politely.

Soon, the eight of them found themselves around the table. All present and accounted for, except the instigator.

Mal turned to Simon, trying to keep his voice even. "Where's your sister?"

"You turned Moonbrain loose?" Jayne turned, his voice accusatory.

"Settle," Mal said sharply. Despite the tensions, Jayne settled beautifully, and Mal sighed. If nothing else, he could still give orders.

"River is seventeen years old. I don't keep her locked in a room, especially when she's having a reasonably steady day," Simon said, a bit sharply. Wash gave him a look, and he tempered his voice. "However, I don't know where she is."

"Saw her earlier," Zoë piped up. Wash nodded in agreement.

"Same," Jayne conceded, and then Kaylee gave a bit of a nod.

"Great," Wash said, his voice unchanged. Humorous as ever. "So we know she's still onboard. Or at least was an hour or two ago."

"Try not to talk that way, dear," his wife replied, squeezing his hand.

They all finished dinner in a somewhat awkward silence, with Simon excusing himself early to go look for their wayward member.


"There shouldn't be jellyfish onboard," River whispered to herself. "In space, they wouldn't bob. Bob. Bob." She bobbed her head in time, imitating a jellyfish. Then, she fell silent, listening to the footsteps moving below her airshaft hiding spot.

"Simon," she mouthed to the jellyfish bobbing alongside her head, smiling briefly as it nodded back. She could feel him. He radiated blue, crusting over silver, he was anxious and her stomach hurt inside like beestings for a second.

"They'll see," she whispered.

Bob, bob, bob said the jellyfish right back.


Mal caught Simon after dinner, pacing up and down the galley with one hand meshed in his steadily-scraggling hair.

"Haven't found her, huh?"

He wheeled around, having failed to notice Mal's advances, his hand still in his hair. "No, I haven't. I haven't a clue where she could be. She was having a good day, and I figured…"
Mal tried to contort his voice into some semblance of gentleness. It had been a while, but he found the voice usually reserved for Kaylee, who he still had to apologize to. "Don't tear yourself up too much. Days are just hours glued together, more for her than any of us."

Simon tried to smile, but he looked weary.

"Look, why don' you try to get some sleep. She likely went to have a chat with Serenity and just found a quiet place to catch a nap." Simon looked ready to protest. "She's gone for a stroll, and she'll do it again. No one knows the ship like that mei-mei of yours, and she'll likely be coming out by morning."
~~~~~~~~~

Captain Daddy was here.

He'd been so angry these days, she told the jellyfish. They'd all been so mad.

But there he was, taking off his own layers of brown and laying them over the blue, the way Simon had given her blankets when she was scared.

The jellyfish was bobbing away, following its friends.

"Illogical percepts. No jellyfish in space," she whispered to herself, but found herself trailing silently after it.

Beneath her, quiet singing.


The next day, when no River revealed herself asking for some pencils or breakfast, Simon found himself doing something he hadn't done in a long time.

Standing outside the Washburn bunk, he knocked his knuckles into it a couple times. He was rewarded about six-seconds later by Zoë looking out at him. "Doctor? Is everything alright?"

"I can't find River," he said, his sleep-deprived countenance begging her for something, much like his sister the day before. "I haven't a clue where she went. I just wanted to know if you'd keep an eye out."

One thing he liked about Zoë, though he'd never be confident enough to tell her, was the fact that she took him seriously. "Of course."

"I've had my eye out," Wash added in from the behind. "Noticed she wasn't at dinner. Haven't seen anything yet though." He raised his voice, grinning. "Hey River! No hurry, mei-mei, but when you come out you can be the T-Rex!"


She giggled.

The dinosaur was soft orange now, lighting up the blue. The jellyfish had left during the night, but now her arms were turning orange, and there was green-tan-beige on her side.

She laid down on her back, feeling Serenity beneath her. "Home, home, home, home," she whispered to herself, feeling the edges of her eyes. She was tired, Simon was restless, and she curled up and was still as her skin blossomed into colors-not-bruises just beneath the dark.