A/N: I really should apologize for the late update. I wrote out this story in its entirety for another site in 2009, and then I ended up frying the flash drive it was stored on. Or so I thought. I managed to salvage some items very recently and am glad to now be able to finish posting the remainder of this story. Sorry for the incredibly long wait!


Kaylee was now shivering uncontrollably. The temperature in her tiny cell had dropped at least ten degrees. Her breath was coming out in white crystalline clouds now, and even the fleece blanket Sarah had given her couldn't keep the cold from seeping through her body.

She didn't dare wear the blanket when the door opened—if that hundan caught her with it, she knew he'd kill her for sure. Conversely, she knew that even a few minutes exposed to the bone-chilling temperature might cause her death of cold—both hers and the baby's.

Man's so worried about this little'n but leaves it to die of cold, she thought grimly. iDoes he really care 'bout the baby as a person at all? Or is he gonna just ship it off, like River? The thought of her child being subjected to the horrors that poor girl had faced had made her sick on numerous occasions.

Hurry, Simon, she thought wistfully. Please hurry.


"I gave you specific instructions," the elder Tam snapped at the quaking girl, who was in tears. "No conversation with the prisoner. None.

"There was none, doctor," said Sarah, in a shaky voice. "I did as I was told, sir."

"Really?" trilled Gabriel, motioning her over to a vid-screen. She was shoved forward by the pair of guards that had dragged her out of the kitchen area, menacing looks covering both of their faces. "Then how do you explain that?" the doctor barked, pointing at the image.

Sarah saw a bird's-eye view of the girl's cell, with the entire room in full view. There, in living color, was the sight of the poor creature wrapped in the small blanket she had managed to sneak in to her.

"I-I don't know, sir," she managed. "She didn't have the blanket before?"

Gabriel leveled his eyes at the young woman. Even caught, she still was trying to lie and protect the little wretch. "She did not, he replied. "She was under punishment, at my order. However, that's not the most interesting thing I discovered."

Sarah swallowed hard.

"You see, the prisoner had some help in getting her hands on that little piece of contraband. And, as it would turn out, there was only one person other than myself that could have given it to her." A second screen flipped on, and Sarah saw streaming footage of the day she had given Kaylee the blanket—it was her profile and her hands placing the small piece of cloth over the freezing girl. There was a yellow mark on the back of the white parka she always had to don before entering the girl's prison—one that was used exclusively for the kitchen staff.

Gabriel walked over to the girl, who now was struggling to break away from the grasp of her guards. "It was you, Sarah," he said, very calmly. "You were the only other person who had regular access other than me or my personal guards."

"You'll kill her," said Sarah in an even voice. "You'll take that baby and you'll leave her in that room to die." A hard jerk on her arm from one of her guards caused her to cry out in pain.

"What happens to that girl is of no consequence," the doctor said dismissively. "All that matters is that child. That child will restore me to where I once was—to a position I deserve."

Sarah stopped struggling. She was in absolute shock. Here was a man—a man who took an oath to do no harm unto others, to help people—casually dismissing human lives as if they were collateral damage. "You're a monster," she said, her voice eerily calm.

Suddenly she felt his hands grab her chin and force her eyes upward, his own wild irises blazing with madness. "My dear girl," he clucked. "You have no idea."


The door crackled. Kaylee immediately felt a tug on her wrists—this time they were pulling her towards the farthest corner from the door. She stood there, freezing, her naked flesh standing on end from the intense cold. There had been no time to hide the blanket—it lay in a pile near the foot of the bed.

"Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee," chided that repulsive voice. He slid inside the door, his face set in a patronizing mask of feigned concern. "Didn't I tell you before that I know everything that goes on in this building?" he said, casually picking up her treasured blanket off of the frozen marble floor.

He walked over to where she was being held, frozen in place by her magnetic bands, and ran one of his hands through her matted hair and across her tear-stained face. The old doctor's eyes fixated greedily on her swollen abdomen, now as big as a house. "I told you that if you apologized, you could have your things back. You refused."

Kaylee said nothing, trying to remain focused on what her captor would do next.

"You refused to learn your place," Gabriel reiterated. "You just had to go about things your own way." He shoved the blanket up next to her nose, shaking it in his fist. "Tell me, Kaylee," he said, a little too sweetly, "how did you come by this?"

Kaylee hesitated. She didn't want to put Sarah in harm's way—the girl had been so kind to her, even risking herself to try and give Kaylee a little comfort in a place where there was none to be had. "I…I don't know," she said haltingly. "Woke up and it was there."

Gabriel smiled, a small widening smile that showed no mirth. "Really? That's your explaination? You "woke up" and found it?"

"Yes."

The man turned, as if to collect his thoughts for a moment. "Do you know the name of the girl who brings you your food?" he asked.

"No," Kaylee replied. "She wouldn't talk to me."

"Oh, but I think you do, my dear," the elder Tam trilled. "In fact, I think you know fairly well."

"I don't," Kaylee insisted.

"And yet, you continue to lie." Gabriel pressed one of the buttons on the door remote, calling in the guards that stood outside. Within seconds, each had one of Kaylee's arms held tightly in their grip. "I hoped it wouldn't have had to come to this.

The girl screamed, longer and louder than she had even during her first few weeks in her cell. She cried and protested every step as she was dragged out of her cell and down a long, winding hallway—a hallway that was different from the ones that led to the many examination rooms she was subjected to. Every step was forced, and she was hit around the head and shoulders several times in an attempt to make her stop screaming.

She finally was pushed through a set of frightening-looking double doors, the old hinges creaking as they swung gently from the motion of being opened. There was the same black marble covering every inch of space, just as in every room she'd been in in this place, but this time there was only a single fluorescent panel shining a half-powered light onto what looked like several sets of dangling chains.

Kaylee's eyes widened as she realized what the monster was about to do. "No, please," she whimpered, trying to counter the forceful shoves her guards were using to inch her towards the light. "Please…the baby…"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, my dear," said Gabriel. "Do you honestly think I would let anything happen to that little miracle?" He chuckled, and Kaylee glimpsed a sight of the face of a truly psychotic man. "Did you know that the human body is capable of withstanding a tremendous amount of abuse?"

"You're insane!" Kaylee cried as her wrists were shackled into the dangling ends of the chains. A second set was attached to her ankles, rendering her completely immobile.

"My dear, insanity is what your dear husband had when he decided to throw my life's work into the reclamation bin," Gabriel replied, calmly taking a long, inch-wide leather strap into his hands. "The boy had no concept of sacrifice for the benefit of one's position."

Kaylee thought of all the sacrifices Simon had made since he'd boarded Serenity. His practice, his license, his savings—his entire life had been sacrificed in order to give his sister a chance at one. He lived with the thought of being arrested, being shot at, being starved because supplies were low, being attacked by Reavers—just so River could dance and fly a ship and be a relatively normal young woman.

"That child will be a valuable asset to the Alliance, Kaylee," he continued. "A Reader of immeasureable value. And this time, the government will be able to start its work on perfecting more like it. There will be no "waiting period," no time for anyone to get attached to the child. A perfect sacrifice to the betterment of society," he finished, a tone of satisfaction lingering in his voice.

"In any case, Kaylee, you will have to learn about subservience to your betters," Gabriel said. "When you tell me the truth, the pain will stop. And I'll know if you're lying, my dear—as you can see, I've already been perfecting my technique."

He pointed to a steel exam table, lying just at the periphery of the flood of light. Kaylee turned her head to see the torn and bloodied body of Sarah lying on the tabletop. She was dead.

"Now, in that case, a steel-tipped cat-o'-nine-tails was used," commented her captor. "For you, we'll just use this leather strap. There won't be any blood shed, but you'll wish there was." Gabriel stepped back, preparing to take his first swing. "I advise you make this quick, and save yourself the pain involved."

Kaylee said nothing. She instead began to silently cry for her friend, whose only crime had been to be kind to her.

Gabriel made his first strike, and Kaylee bit back a scream. There would be no flesh tearing, no blood spilled—but the bruises that would run up and down the backs of her arms, her legs, and her back would grow at a slow but painful rate.

After three hours of slow and painful beating, she was carried back to her cell, her entire backside intact but turning several shades of purple.

He had finally broken her resistance. He began to count down the days until the birth—it wouldn't be long now, he thought-when the com unit in his pocket began to crackle.

"Sir?" came a voice over the line.

"Yes—what is it?" he replied.

"There's been a breach, it looks like…" The voice trailed off, being lost to static, but then another voice came over the unit.

"Where is my wife, you son of a bitch?"

It was a voice Gabriel had never expected to hear again.