River was never sure if she was visiting Simon in her dreams, or if Simon was visiting her. They never saw each other, though. Or, rather, he never saw her. No, his dreams were too dark and too scary for a sight as welcome as his mei-mei to be allowed to be seen.

River both hated and loved these events. Loved them because they were the only times she'd seen her brother in a painfully long year. Hated them because of what they showed her brother going through.

But she sat, unmoving and unblinking against one wall in his cell. He sat closer to the door, watching with pain in his eyes as people moved past the door without looking in. Most were faceless blobs, but River saw their parents among the crowds, laughing uproariously and ignoring their son.

Then she gasped and so did Simon, because standing out in the crowd of faceless people were the crew of Serenity. Mal and Zoë, Wash and Book, Jayne and Inara, Kaylee…

She saw Simon try to call them, but no sound emerged. And, as they passed by, laughing and talking happily, she saw her brother's head fall in defeat.

Then, the dream changed.

Even in his dreams, they questioned him. She sat against the wall, hands folded demurely in her lap, as they questioned him. They shone bright lights in his face so he couldn't see or think. They tied him up so he couldn't fight back. If he so much as stammered, there was pain. They told him that if he stammered, he had to be lying. But Simon was in so much pain that he could barely think straight, let alone speak straight.

"I…" she heard him whisper.

The dream men, his captors, moved closer interestedly.

"I…"

They were getting closer and closer, she could barely see him. River felt her heart starting to pound. Oh, no. Would he crack here and now, with her sitting right here? No…he couldn't he wouldn't…

"I will…I will…"

He looked up at them, and she was delighted to see fire in his eyes.

"I will never…ever…tell you anything. You might as well…slit my throat…right now, you Lio Cuh Jwei Ji…"

And then one of the shadow men was suddenly clearly and sharply defined, and River gasped just when Simon did, because now River was seeing herself standing in front of her brother, fists clenched and eyes narrowed and terrible and cruel.

"Mei-mei," Simon whispered.

"Kuh wu," was River's only reply. "Despicable". She held something up to Simon's eyes, and he shied away from her gaze when he saw the smoking red hot wire. The real River was starting to tremble, because the knowledge that she herself would be continuing her beloved brother's questioning was horrific and she wanted to shake Simon for even dreaming of such a thing…

This part was new.

Bad-River moved the red hot wire until it was positioned just shy of Simon's forehead. Real-River saw that her brother was trembling just as much as she was, and would not look at the nightmare before him.

"Needles in the brain, Simon," said Bad-River, and her voice was the voice she'd had while crazy. Her eyes were wild and unfocused. "Needles in the brain and in the eyes and you can't just dress me up like a gorram doll. You can't do that to me until you know how it feels."

"I…I know, River…"

River, who had seen Simon in pain too many times in these dreams, still found that the following scream was too terrible and she had to cover her ears.

But then she was running, and she was knocking the dream men aside. Punch, kick, bite, jab. For a moment she was face-to-face with herself, crazy and wild. Then, she took great pleasure in slugging the nightmare form of herself into nothing. She knocked them aside and saw Simon's eyes focus on her, and suddenly the dream men were gone. Gone, because right at that moment River was the central character in the dream. She was all he could see.

"River?" he asked hoarsely as she dropped down next to him and flung her arms around his neck.

She nodded, feeling tears in her eyes.

"It's gonna be okay, Simon. It's gonna be okay."

"What? But…no! No, it's not! River, you shouldn't have come here! That's what they want! They want to catch you, and they'll take you back there…"

She shushed him, running her hand over his back as he'd done so often with her. Eventually he stopped protesting, and merely hugged her back fiercely with hands that were suddenly free, sobbing.

The dream was painfully real. She could feel the wounds all over him, the bruises and cuts. It was painfully real to rival her nightmares, the nightmares she'd had when she was crazy.

But if River knew one thing, it was the world of the unseen.

She concentrated. Dreams, at their most basic, were fluid things. If she concentrated hard, remembered all the wonderful sounds and smells…

And suddenly they were back on Serenity, back on the ship that was their home, and they were sitting together watching as Jayne and Wash played cards, as Book talked with Inara, as Zoë listened in bemusement to a lecture of Kaylee's on machinery.

"What…?"

"Ssh…" she said again. "Don't ask. Don't think. Just watch."

And he did, sitting there numbly and watching the crew. River knew that, in his tired mind, he knew that some of them were dead. But, slowly, she saw the illusion start to take effect. She saw him start to slip into this dream, leave the bad dream behind.

So, when Kaylee bounced over to him and asked his opinion about her new socket wrench, he pushed himself upright without any signs of pain and off they went together.

River watched them go, smiling sadly as Simon seamlessly integrated himself into the cheerful, happy scene.

Because, when the dream suddenly shattered like a delicate crystal, she knew that Simon would be returning to bright lights and terrible pain. And, as she awoke on the prairie to Jayne's snoring, she knew that she was millions of miles away and could do nothing to help him now. No matter how much she wanted to, River could not hold his hand.

But by the time Jayne had woken up, grumpy as usual, River had dried her eyes and was working on breakfast.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Silence.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Silence.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Silence.

"Are we…"

"Bai Tuo, Uhm Jin Yee Dien."

"Yes, Jayne."

"Why're you so ruttin' eager to get there? You're the one who's gonna be out in the open drawin' the fire."

The smile River gave him was stranger than usual. "I'm just happy to be useful, Jayne," she said monotonously.

Like many of her statements, this one had a suspicious ring to it, and Jayne's eyes narrowed.. But the last time he'd taken his eyes off the road he'd ended up (according to River) stuck face down in a rock crevice. So he decided to let it slide.

"We'll be there in maybe ten minutes," he finally said. "You still want a grenade?"

"Yes, Jayne. And I'd like to use Jennifer, if that's all right."

Jayne shrugged. "Jennifer" was a new gun, only just earned her name. A small, customized pistol with quite the shiny laser scope and the ability to fire armor-piercing rounds. He hadn't yet developed too much of an attachment to her, so he consented. River smiled happily when he did.

"When we get there, here's the plan," said Jayne, as she loaded Jennifer and took off the safety. "You stand out there in the open. You're freakishly fast, you can pick 'em off no prob. Once you've thinned the heard, I'll step in with Vera."

"How many bandits do you think there are, Jayne?"

"Dunno, but the headman said there was plenty to keep us occupied. I'd say maybe…fifteen, twenty. But it doesn't matter, 'cause you're gonna do your job and shoot 'em dead, aren't ya?"

"Yes, Jayne. I'll kill the bad guys."

Again, this had a suspicious ring. But when Jayne risked a glance at River, taking his eyes off the rapidly moving ground, she was busily polishing Jennifer's stock with the hem of her dress.

"Did you…" he asked suspiciously. "Did you…sleep okay last night? Didn't have any of your freaky dreams, did ya?"

"Yes, Jayne. I did." River bit her lip, suddenly worried and anxious. "Simon's not doing very well. When I woke up I was crying and crying…" she smiled dreamily, and the sudden change of attitude made a shudder run up his spine. "…but then they sang to me, and everything was okay. Hush little River, don't say a word…Wash is gonna by you a pretty bird…if that pretty bird don't sing…Sheperd's gonna buy you a new Bible…if that new Bible doesn't satisfy established logical theories…Kaylee's gonna buy you a…"

"Okay!" snapped Jayne, because her eerie, singsong voice was audible over the whine of the mule and was creeping him out even more than the girl typically did. "Big singalong, I get it! Now shut your mouth, we're almost there!"

The tents and roughly built shacks that he assumed must be the camp came into sight a few moments later. Jayne hit the brakes on the mule and did a hard turn to the left, towards the river. There were a few dead trees scattered around the clear waters, but it was the only cover for miles around. Jayne set the mule down on the opposite bank from the camp, and shooed River out.

Lightly, moving like a shadow even in the hot afternoon sun, River slipped out of the mule and settled lightly down on the grass. She crept forward, so soundless that it made his ears ache.

Just as she reached the river, River easily vaulted up into the dead trees and clung to a high branch with the barest of rustles. She inched over to a tree opposite, reached over, and transferred herself to it. Then, she touched down silently on the grass and off she went, tearing across the ground towards the camp.