Chapter 10: What I Owe To You

When River fell asleep, she found herself in a classroom.

She remembered it. The teacher was Professor Rao. Everyone else in the class was twelve - River was nine. The class was held in one of the Garden Classrooms, an airy white pavilion open on all sides to the school's beautiful gardens.

There was a planet on Professor Rao's screen. River didn't recognize it. But that was wrong, all wrong, she'd memorized the appearance and orbits and general specs of every known planet by the time she was seven. She had to know it.

Rao looked at her, and just for a moment her face looked like something long-dead. "River? River, you look tired. I think everyone's a little tired by now. Why don't we all lie down?"

River ran. She ran from the classroom full of eerily silent children who lay down on the floor and became corpses. She ran from the park, and from the bodies, and from her own mind.

She ran to the only refuge from her madness she had ever found.

She found herself walking down a street in a city she didn't know, still the child who had fled Rao's class. The city was big and noisy and dirty, and looking up she saw high smoke-stacks rising above the city to her left.

"Hey! Hey, you lost?"

It wasn't the voice she'd expected, but a girl about her own age. She had curly brown hair and blue eyes, and she smiled kindly at River. "You from one of the new families? Came off the Brigadoon last week?"

"Yes," River said, because she was lost even if she wasn't from a family.

"You shouldn't be walkin' round here alone." That voice was strange-familiar, and she looked around to see a gangly boy of thirteen or fourteen hurrying towards them. Jayne looked annoyed, and he had two other girls - one about twelve, one no more than seven - trailing behind him. "Cailey, you know you're 'sposed to wait for me to come get you."

"But she's lost," Cailey said seriously. "She's from one of the new families, Jayne, and she don't know her way around yet."

The adolescent Jayne looked at River and frowned. "Ain't you got no pa or brother to walk you back safe?"

River shook her head. "My brother went away to school," she said, because when she'd been nine it had been true. "He's going to be a doctor."

"Huh." Jayne shrugged, dismissing Simon. "Well, you can walk with us if you want. We go almost all the way to the new housing estate."

"Thank you." River bit her lip, determined not to cry.

Cailey beamed, taking her hand. "I'm Cailey. What's your name?"

"River."

"That's pretty." Cailey nodded. "That's my brother Jayne. He don't go to school, but he comes and walks me an' Lisey and Sora home every day 'cause it ain't safe. He complains about it all the time." She rolled her eyes. "Big brothers are so bossy."

"Mine is, sometimes." River looked at Lisey, the smallest one. She would die soon, River knew without knowing how she knew. Jayne would wish he hadn't swatted her away when she tried to hold his hand, which he did as River watched.

By the time they rounded a corner into a street full of tall, thin houses built of grimy concrete blocks, the terror of her own nightmare had almost faded. She felt guilty for breaking her promise to Jayne, but she'd been too frightened to think.

"This is our house. You should come and play sometime." Cailey pointed at a house with a door painted faded red. "There's lots of us. Jayne's the oldest, an' the youngest is Bella, and she's two. But Mama's gonna have another baby soon, and then there'll be eight of us. How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"Just my brother." River looked up at the house. It was dirty and old, but it felt... nice. Secure, like a fortress for the family.

"That must get lonely. You can come over and play any time." Cailey smiled at her. "Do you know your way now?"

River shook her head. "I never came this way before," she said, which was true in its way.

"Oh, it's easy. You just go right down to the end of the street and turn left, then keep walking until you see the sign with the big yellow fish. Turn right there, and you'll see the new houses." Cailey beamed. "You can't get lost from here."

"And how do you know that? You ain't supposed to go down that way, Cailey, it's too near the docks." Jayne had shooed his other sisters into the house and was now glaring at them with an expression River remembered Simon's classmates wearing when he introduced her to them. Adolescent males confronted with little girls all seemed to affect the same lordly exasperation.

"Well, River hasta get home someways," Cailey said, not in the least intimidated. "And I know 'cause Mama took me shopping with her to help carry, so there."

Jayne rolled his eyes. "Girls," he said, in tones of infinite disgust. "Cailey, you git inside. I'll take River home... just this one time!" he added quickly. "And only 'cause Ma'd have my hide off if I didn't."

"Okay." Cailey nodded. "Bye, River! I'll see you!" She ran into the house, leaving River alone with Jayne.

He prodded her along the street, and they walked in silence for a little way. "You're not supposed to be here," he said abruptly.

"I know." She looked down at her feet. Her polished school-shoes looked out of place on the grimy concrete. "I was scared. I was at school and everyone was dead and they wouldn't make a sound."

Jayne grunted, and after a minute she felt his bony hand wrap comfortingly around hers. "Seems to me it'd be scarier if they did."

She shook her head, clinging gratefully to his hand. "It's worse when they're silent. When they just lie down, instead of crying or fighting or saying goodbye..."

He nodded. "Is that why you're all little? Because you were dreaming you were?"

"I don't know." She looked up at the grey-tinged blue sky. "I'm scared to wake up. It's all still there when I wake up."

"Ain't no hurry, I guess." He looked down at her. "It's better this way. Not as complicated."

"Because I'm little." She understood what he meant. "No kissing and all."

"Yeah." He shrugged... and then he stopped. "That's weird."

"What?" River didn't want any more weird. Jayne's home had been reassuringly normal until now.

"Up there." He pointed with his free hand.

River looked. The yellow fish was there, as Cailey had said. But the screen set into its side showed not the usual advertising, but a silent, unfamiliar planet.

River screamed, and went on screaming as Jayne's hand was torn away and she was pulled into wakefulness once again.

They left Haven two days later. Mal was increasingly worried about the Operative, and inclined to want to find shelter somewhere more secure and less populated by old folk and children.

Before they left, though, Book had pulled Jayne aside. "May I have a word, Jayne? I won't keep you long."

Jayne followed him into the church again. "Done your thinkin', Shepherd?"

Book nodded. "Watch River carefully," he said quietly. "I believe I've talked her out of it for now, but on your first night she suggested to me that the easiest way to resolve this would be for her to turn herself over to those hunting her. So that you and Simon would be safe."

"That's crazy talk!" Jayne had to fight to keep his voice relatively quiet. "She can't be thinkin' that, not after what they done to her! She knows what they'd do, she knows..."

"She did not intend to be taken alive, or so I believe." Book looked haunted. "I only convinced her that the idea was unfeasible by telling her that it would cause you and Simon great pain. She was adamant that she did not want to hurt you, especially."

"You didn't say nothin' about what I told you, did you?"

"Only that you had spoken to me, which she already knew. And that I knew she had not meant harm." Book shook his head. "Of course, with River, that doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't know."

Jayne scowled. "Yeah." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I had another dream that night. It was... different. She was a little kid... 'bout eight or nine. I dreamed I was walkin' my sisters home from school, and River was there too. When I got rid of the rest she said she ran away from a bad dream where she was at school and everyone was dead."

Book nodded. "Do you think her nightmare has any bearing on the source of her madness? This 'Miranda' that Mal told me about?"

"Could be." Jayne frowned, trying to remember. "Two things I remember that were weird. She was talkin' about death again, like she keeps on doing, and she said something about them bein' silent. Not screamin' or cryin' or saying goodbye, just... quiet. Seemed to scare her real bad."

Book frowned. "That does sound as if it might be important, but I can't imagine how. What was the other thing?"

"There was a planet on a vid-screen. I didn't recognize it." Jayne shook his head. "Soon's she saw it, though, she started screamin' her lungs out and I woke up."

"She woke up screaming for you that night," Book said quietly. "She cried and would not be comforted."

Jayne looked down at his feet. It had taken all his willpower not to run off looking for her when he woke up, those terrified screams still ringing in his ears. River had been even smaller and more vulnerable as a child, hardly bigger than Lisey for all she was older. It made it even harder for him to remember that he was angry with her. "The nightmares are gettin' worse."

Book nodded. "Jayne, listen to me. I have sought guidance from both God and my own experience of life... which, as you know, is not so limited as it might be."

"You ain't no sheltered lamb, Shepherd, that's for damn sure."

"Then believe me," Book said quietly. "I know that you fear responsibility. I know that you are wary of allowing anyone to make you vulnerable. But River loves you enough to be willing to sacrifice her life and any remaining shreds of her sanity to protect you. And I do not think you would be on your way to any Hell, Special or otherwise, if you returned her feelings. If you took advantage of them without reciprocating, or betrayed her trust... then yes. For that you would deserve any punishment an eternity can provide." He rested a hand on Jayne's shoulder. "But whatever you choose, choose it soon," he said more quietly still, looking grieved and very, very old.

Jayne nodded. Book didn't have to say it. River was marked, and likely Jayne was too. Odds were good they didn't have long. For himself, Jayne was more than a little inclined to let the whole question slide, since getting himself killed somehow would at least mean he didn't have to either hurt her or risk getting hurt himself. But River...

She'd suffered so much. A small, unselfish part of him that rarely got listened to was telling him that the least he could ruttin' do was give her a little happiness before she got killed or too crazy to remember who he was.

The bigger, angrier part told it to shut it. The least he could do was no gorram thing. River was Simon's responsibility, not his. He didn't owe her anything. Didn't owe anyone anything. Twenty years of running from anything resembling responsibility, twenty years of telling himself that his freedom counted more than anything else, bore down on that little unselfish part and crushed it into silence.

He turned away from Book without a word.

"Inara?" Wash stuck his head into the galley. "Wave for you."

"Who from?" Inara had been having a quiet cup of tea, feeling almost maternal as she watched Simon and Kaylee talk quietly over a half-forgotten game of dominoes. Simon was still moving far more slowly than Kaylee would like, but Inara thought that patience had paid off. He was at least letting Kaylee comfort him and raise his spirits when he wasn't with River.

Who was still locked in the store-room. Inara had tried to reason with Mal, but he'd been insistent. Jayne had tried making demands, which hadn't worked either. River barely seemed aware that she was locked up. There were times when Inara wasn't even sure River knew she was on Serenity, or if anyone was with her.

"It's from Sheydra - she ran the school, didn't she?"

"And I assume she still does." Inara frowned. "I'll take it in my shuttle. And... Wash? Tell Mal and watch from the cockpit. Sheydra and I were never close, and it seems strange that she'd contact me now."

"Will do." Wash nodded and disappeared.

Sparing a mechanically reassuring smile for Simon and Kaylee, Inara hurried to her shuttle. She took a moment to make sure her hair was neat and her simple blue gown unspotted, but she knew her appearance would shock Sheydra anyway. The gown, though a soft raw silk pleasant on the skin, was simple and loosely cut. Her hair was loose and unstyled. She wore no makeup, and only her trained grace and practiced smile still hinted at her former profession.

"Inara, are you all right?" Sheydra's first words were precisely as Inara had predicted. "You look exhausted, dear, have you been ill?"

"Just a busy few weeks, Sheydra, that's all. I'm feeling perfectly well." Inara smiled another automatic smile, watching Sheydra's face closely.

Her former classmate was upset. No outsider would have been able to tell, but Inara knew Sheydra well enough to know what it meant when her speech was a hint faster than usual and her words peppered with endearments. "That's a relief, dearest... you were so distraught when you came to us, and then retiring... well, I've been more than a little worried about you. You're sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine." Inara decided to offer a little bait, just a very little. Mal's influence, she was sure, showing her hand to get a response. "One of the girls - the younger one - has been ill. It's worried us all, and I imagine it's starting to show." She touched her temple lightly, as if worried that lines might be forming around her eyes. "Do I look that awful?"

"Not at all, dear, just tired." Sheydra smiled - but not a sincere smile. The professionally-unforced smile of a Companion. "Although speaking of the girls... I'm worried, Inara. There's been some local trouble... the usual thing, fussing about immorality and so on. It's upset our girls, and I'm worried that there might be some real danger to them. We're such a long way away from the rest of the Guild here."

Trap. Inara could hear Mal's voice whisper it in the back of her mind. "I can't promise anything, of course, but Captain Reynolds has just finished his last cargo run. I'm almost certain he'd be willing to take on a job at my request, and he's quite good at settling... local trouble." Inara smiled brightly, her voice taking on a confiding tone. "And Jayne... the mercenary I mentioned... is getting positively sulky over having nobody to shoot at."

Sheydra laughed musically. "The lout who's having a romance with his gun? Yes, I remember. Well, I can't deny he'd be useful, but perhaps you might hold him in reserve just at first? I don't want him frightening the girls... or giving them inappropriate ideas, either."

"He might, at that. He's very... masculine." Inara's smile was genuine this time, just imagining the horrified reaction she was sure was going on in the cockpit. "I'll talk to Captain Reynolds. If he agrees, perhaps he and I might come down and discuss the situation with you in person?"

"That would be wonderful, Inara, thank you." Sheydra smiled again. "I look forward to seeing you."

Inara made her goodbyes and signed off. Then she sat motionless, waiting. Less than a minute later, the door opened.

"So..." Mal said, and she turned to see him smiling his crooked, it's-all-going-to-hell smile. "Trap?"

"I'm afraid so."

"A trap rigged with a couple of dozen girls in their teens who have no idea how much danger they're in or how to protect themselves from it?"

"Exactly."

"Oh, this'll be fun."

She couldn't help smiling at his disgruntled expression. "Well, you do always like to meet them first."

"That's true. Can't be shooting at a man I don't know. It'd be rude."

River had wedged herself into the angle of the store-room's ceiling. Perspective was key. If she looked down instead of up, perhaps clarity would be easier to find.

Wash was reading. She could taste his tinny worry, but ignored it as much as possible. He was at least being quiet - once she'd explained that she required silence in order to invent a trap for smiling tigers, he'd considerately taken out a book and left her in peace. Wash was always kind.

Looking down had helped. The view from above was always clearer than the view from below or to the side. Patterns were easier to see. "Jayne," she said firmly.

Wash looked up from his book. "I think it's Simon's turn next, actually."

"Jayne now." River glared at him. Single words were easier to get out than sentences.

"I'll see if he's around. Uh... why?" Wash stood up, tilting his head back to look her in the eye.

"Opportunity knocks once, and I will have its skull for a supper-bowl if it eats Daddy, but trapping it alive may mean more than a useful pelt and bones." River frowned and shook her head. She knew what she meant, but clearly Wash didn't. "Jayne."

"Right. Got it." Wash banged on the store-room door, and River heard Simon open it. "She wants Jayne. Now."

"Why?" Simon sounded puzzled, and River rolled her eyes.

"She's trying to say something and I have no idea what it is." Wash understood, and River allowed herself a small sigh of relief. "Jayne can usually figure it out, though, so go get him. I think it might be important and with Mal sure this call from Worthington is a trap..."

"I'll get him." Simon went away.

Two-point-six minutes later, Jayne ducked into the store-room. He'd been avoiding her since they left Haven, except when it was his turn to sit with her. Even then he'd been distant, with Book's face and a strangling, frightening weight on his chest coming up behind his eyes whenever he looked at her. River was beginning to regret not hitting Book when she'd had the chance. Clearly he'd said something to upset Jayne further, and it wasn't helping her clarity at all.

"Where..." Jayne looked around, and then looked up. "You worried about the light seein' you again?"

"The light seeing her?" Wash trickled thin, sticky puzzlement.

"That's what it was last time she was on the ceiling."

"Perspective is key. To observe from above is enlightening." River's hair was swaying like seaweed as it hung down from her head. It was distracting. "Wash's head is a pitcher with ears for handles."

"She said - "

"Go away and stop listening. That I did get." Wash grinned. "Before you came in, she said... uh..." He frowned, trying to remember the exact words. "'Opportunity knocks only once, and I'll have its skull for a supper-bowl if it eats Daddy, but trapping it alive may get us more than a pelt and bones.' Something like that. And I'm going away now." He shut the door behind him and locked it. They were all still careful about that.

Jayne was silent for a moment. "Okay, that one's got me stumped. I mean, I guess you figure the Operative's down there - whatever that is - and if we catch him it'll be useful for more'n just a body. But I don't get the supper-bowl bit."

"You will. Mal and Inara just left." River slid down from the ceiling to land in front of him. "We have to go now."

He blinked. "Go where?"

"To the school. The tiger is smiling behind Sheydra's skirts and will pounce, and if he is not intercepted he will claw blood and secrets from them until they die." She took a deep breath. "I left Boadicea in the Maidenhead."

"I got her." Jayne had clearly forgotten all about that, but he offered the reassurance honestly. "I wasn't leavin' without Boo and the others, and I made Mal get Boadicea too. You had the claim-tag right in your pocket."

She hadn't even noticed, lost in the horror of returning madness. "I must go unarmed. I'm not to be trusted." She took his hand. "But we have to go, and you must do as I say. I have a plan, and I'm smarter than Mal."

"So the plan might actually work, crazy or no crazy." He frowned. "I'll get in big trouble if I let you out."

"But Mal and Inara will be alive. Serenity is a bundle of sticks, strong only when united. If we are broken one by one we are weakened as a whole." River looked up at him, pleading with him silently to understand. "Please, Jayne. I'm crazy, I know I'm crazy, but I can see the paths of the future like spider's webbing and I'm nearly sure that this one has the best chance of survival at the end of it. Nearly sure. Except the other, but Book says I can't take that one because it would hurt you."

She felt pain flicker inside him, and knew Book had told him about her aborted plan. "That one ain't no good," he said shortly. "This one... well, I guess it's what we got. I still can't fly a shuttle, though."

"I can. If you can keep me focused until we land."

Mal knew something was wrong. The school was a shade too quiet, and he saw no students outside despite the cool, clear autumn day. "Definitely a trap," he murmured, tucking his hand under Inara's elbow in his best imitation of a lovestruck suitor.

Which he was, in a way. He just didn't usually advertise it.

"There are nearly thirty girls in training here," Inara whispered. "River's age or younger. Sheydra said they might be in danger, and I don't think she was lying about that part."

"Neither do I." Mal grinned suddenly. "Think she was really worried about them bein' overcome by Jayne's manliness?"

"I would be, in her place. You may not see it, Mal, but there's a certain appeal in unbridled masculinity. It's very... challenging." Inara couldn't help grinning at his faintly nauseated expression. "They are adolescent girls. Subtlety isn't their strongest point as yet."

"Still." Mal shuddered theatrically. "Jayne? Fearsome thought."

"Inara!" Sheydra appeared at the top of a flight of stairs, hurrying down just a shade too quickly. Mal knew damned well that a Companion was trained never to appear hurried or ungraceful, even when running. "I'm so glad you're here. I didn't dare hope you'd come so quickly."

"Sheydra, are you all right?" Inara clasped her friend's hand, sweet concern in her voice.

"Yes, yes, of course. I'm fine. It's just - "

"It's just that there's an Alliance Operative here, likely threatened your girls to make you bring us here," Mal said very quietly.

Sheydra paled. "I don't - "

"It's all right," Inara said just as quietly. "We knew. But we wouldn't let anything hurt the girls if we can help it. I assume he wants us brought to him?"

Sheydra nodded jerkily. "He's in my study."

"Well, sounds simple enough." Mal spoke heartily, and just a little more loudly than usual. "Why don't we head on up to your study and talk it over?"

Sheydra gave him a grateful look, and Inara squeezed his arm. He would sacrifice the girls if he had to, of course - his own crew had to come first. But he'd protect them as far as he was able, and not just because it made Inara happy with him.

They were led into the study, and then... nice flair for the dramatic... a tall man stepped through the other door. Big fellow, Mal noted, moving with the same easy stride that Jayne did sometimes. Lot of muscle, good physical control. He was much darker-skinned than Zoe or Book, with a face that had the expressionless look of habitual impassiveness - leavened just now with a faint hint of a smile. "I must say, Captain, I'm somewhat disappointed. I thought you would be more difficult to draw to me."

Mal smiled thinly. "You'd be the Operative, then," he said, and a slight flicker of the eyelids was all the proof the other man gave that he was right. "Well, since you extended such a gracious and relatively un-bloodstained invitation and all, seemed as I might as well stop by and say hello."

"I see. A wise move, Captain." The Operative inclined his head. "I do hope we can continue to address this situation like civilized men."

"Oh, so do I." Mal glanced at Sheydra, who was pale and trembling. "For example, releasing the girls and their teachers unharmed now that they've served their purpose. As an indication of good faith, you understand."

"But of course." The Operative nodded. "I do apologize for the inconvenience, ma'am. My men and I will be vacating the premises as soon as my conversation with Captain Reynolds concludes."

"Thank you." Sheydra turned and fled. Mal wasn't sure if that meant the Operative was even more dangerous than he feared, or if Inara's cool courage in the face of danger was unique among her former sisters.

Mal guided Inara to a seat. A polite nothing of a gesture, but it put her within arm's reach of a poker which should make a decent enough weapon, and let him move between her and the Operative. "So. You've made something of an effort to get me here, without undue fuss or bloodshed. Since you didn't just shoot me when I walked in here, I'll take it as you want to talk. All right. Let's hear it."

"All business, Captain Reynolds. I respect that." The Operative pressed his fingertips together, staying on his feet just as Mal did. "I will be forthright, then. I think you're beginning to understand how dangerous River Tam really is."

Mal shrugged. "She is a mite unpredictable. Mood swings, of a sort."

"It's worse than you know."

Mal almost laughed at that. If the Operative thought to scare him with that, he didn't know much about Mal or pretty much the entirety of Mal's life to date. "It usually is."

"That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship," the Operative said very seriously, upping the intensity of his tone a notch or two. He was good, very, but Mal had been serving with Zoe Alleyne - and then Zoe Washburne - for too long. Used as he was to listening for the tiniest variations in pitch and tone, the Operative might as well have been shouting. "She is an albatross, Captain."

"Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck 'til some idiot killed it." Mal didn't even have to look at Inara to know she was making a face. "Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint."

The Operative nodded, conceding the point. "I've seen your war record. I know how you must feel about the Alliance."

That was a new tack, and one Mal was happier about, although there was no happiness in his voice. "You really don't."

"Fair to say." The Operative inclined his head, and Mal suppressed a frown. The man was making too many concessions early on, trying to lull Mal into the mistaken belief that they were two reasonable men. Mal had used this trick before, and he wasn't like to be taken in by it now. "But I have to hope you understand that you can't beat us."

Mal looked the man in the eye and gave him the honest truth. The Truth that the Browncoats had fought themselves to bloody rags for, and the Alliance had never, ever been able to understand. "I got no need to beat you. I just want to go my way."

"And you can do that - once you let me take River Tam back home." The Operative moved slightly, strolling across Sheydra's fine carpet, and Mal moved with him. Staying between him and Inara.

Mal opened his mouth to continue the verbal fencing... give the Operative a little touch of the rogue, perhaps, put him off balance... but the thought came to him sudden that that ruse wouldn't work. "Why?"

The Operative's eyelids flickered again. Mal had surprised him. Good. "What do you mean, why?"

"Well, I personally consider it unlikely that you've gone to all this trouble to stage a tearful reunion with Mother and Father Tam, but I could be wrong. Alternatively, you could be tryin' to take her back to that experimentin' place she escaped from, or you could be working for some rival facility wants her, or you could just be plannin' to kill her outright and be done. Maybe it's just my past shady business dealings talking, but I have learned the hard way never to just hand over a dangerous cargo without askin' what it's wanted for, just in case it might be turned on me someday."

The Operative inclined his head. "I assure you that River Tam will never reappear to turn on you, Captain. As to the rest... I need her, Captain. River is my purpose and I will gather her to me. The brother as well. That is all you need to know, and whatever else happens is incidental in the greater scheme. Should you put them in my hands and leave, then you need never think on this matter again."

Mal looked into the man's eyes. He was almost convinced that he meant it.

"Your approach is flawed. All wrong. You must begin again."

Oh, no. Oh, God, Buddha, and holy space monkeys, no...

River moved silently through the same door that the Operative had entered by. She was wearing one of her loose flowing dresses - the pink one with the little white flowers, Mal noted absently - and her hair was tousled around her face. She had her creepy little smile on, and her eyes were wide and fixed.

"Why is my approach flawed?" the Operative asked, his eyes widening slightly but his voice carrying no hint of surprise.

"You should ask me first." River tilted her head and stared at him. "If you want to take me away. Approaching the father before the daughter to ask her hand is improper, and is sure to lead to refusal."

"Approaching the what?" Mal asked weakly. For a wonder, he'd actually understood what River was saying - but he still didn't get it.

"He brought me to life," River said, smiling at the Operative. "Woke me within Serenity's belly. Rebirth alters familial parameters, do you see?"

"Yes, I see." The Operative's voice was almost gentle. "You are very fond of Captain Reynolds, aren't you, River?"

"Yes." For the first time River looked Mal in the eye, and his heart damn near broke at the grieved expression that flickered across her face and was gone. "River's first father let them take her away and torture her and did nothing to save her. He was angry when Simon tried to rescue her. The Captain protects her, though she is not his flesh. He is better. She favours him over the other."

"Oh, River..." Inara sounded as if she were crying, but Mal couldn't force himself to look away from River even for a second. "Baby, you shouldn't be here."

She shouldn't be here. Mal had gone to great lengths to ensure that she wouldn't be, and someone had set them all to naught. And it was worse, now that she'd said what she'd said and looked at him the way she had. He had woken her, there in Serenity's hold, and waking someone from cryo was pretty damned close to bringing them to life. He could see the sense it had made in her crazy mind, when she'd realized that the crew were already half family and tried to fit herself into it because she was frightened and lonely and she knew that Simon was almost as young and scared and lost as she was, so he couldn't protect her, not really, but Mal could...

She looked at him again, and Mal's throat tightened and his jaw clenched so hard he felt his teeth shift in their sockets. She looked so small and sad, and he wished she'd told him before. A man should know he has a daughter, not be left to think himself merely a captain until it was too late to say anything or protect her the way he ought.

"I don't want him to die," River said, pointing at Mal as she turned back to the Operative. "And he would never give me up. Certainly not to one whose proposal is so poorly presented." She gave the Operative a disapproving look. "And you may not take Simon. I want that understood at once."

"I am afraid I have no choice. My mission is to take both of you, and I will not fail in it."

"Your mission is to silence the silent secret." River laughed, an eery high-pitched giggle. "You don't know it, but it's quieter than you can imagine. Empty, silent dead... it drove me mad, you know. Do you want to know what it is?"

"No. It is not my place to know."

River stepped back, and the Operative stepped forward, maintaining the distance between them. "I didn't tell Simon," she said softly. "I didn't tell anyone. Even when I found the words, when I began to speak with my mouth again without screaming, I hid it away inside me. It made me crazy. If I told them, it would make them crazy too."

The Operative nodded. "I believe you. Nevertheless, I am required to take Simon also. I promise you that I have no intention of hurting your Captain, or any other member of the crew - but I will do so if you force me to."

River tilted her head again, and lifted her hand to stroke the Operative's cheek lightly. "You've been calling me. I heard you."

"Yes. I've been looking for you for quite some time now." He had the effrontery to smile at her. "I'm glad I've found you at last."

"Yes. And you won't kill anyone now that you have me. The blue hands liked to kill everyone who saw me, but you know you don't have to do that." River patted his cheek again, then put her hand in his and drew him into a corner beside the door she'd left open. "Shhh... I'll tell you what happened to them, but you mustn't tell. It's a special secret."

"So you were the one. I wondered, when they were never found." The Operative nodded, leaning forward confidentially. "Tell me what you did, River."

"I had a secret. They didn't know I had it, but it saved me." River had a disturbingly sly look on her face. "I'll tell you, if you promise to be kind to Simon. You can't hurt him."

"I promise that I will cause Simon no unnecessary pain," the Operative said gravely. "That is all I can offer."

"And you won't hurt the Captain or Serenity? She's my mother now, you know."

Mal's fists were clenched so tightly that he thought he could feel the bones creak. Just let her distract him a little more...

"I won't hurt them unless they attack me."

Inara's hands closed bruisingly hard around Mal's arm as he tried to step forward and pulverize the man for daring to look at River that way, as if he actually cared about her pain. He looked back at Inara and she shook her head, gesturing at the door... which was perhaps open a little more than it had been before? Just a little?

"Then I'll tell you." River smiled sweetly. "My stone helped me kill them."

"Your stone?" The Operative frowned very slightly. "I don't understand."

River's smile widened. "Jayne."

The frown deepened. "Jayne? Do you mean Jay-"

Vera's butt cracked sharply against the side of the Operative's skull. He hit the floor limp and rolled a little as Jayne stepped through the door. "Huh. Some super secret operative guy. Didn't even hear me comin'."

"I told you it would work if you took your boots off." River smiled at Jayne's feet, which were as bare as hers.

"Okay... first, what the hell?" Mal found his voice again.

"Explanations later. We must take our prize and flee before his minions come to gather him up." River smiled at him. "We rescued you, and now we have a prisoner."

"A pris - no! We are not taking that hun dan on Serenity!"

"We have to. He'll start killing if we don't." River knelt to stroke the Operative's short hair as if he were a cat. Without warning, she dug her nails in and clawed the side of his face from hairline to chin. "He's wicked. Mustn't be let to walk the worlds."

Jayne's head turned. "Someone's comin'. Time to go."

Mal had a dozen things he wanted to say and no time for any of them. "I will see you two back on Serenity, and then I will want an accounting!" Inara pulled him away as Jayne knelt to sling the Operative's unconscious body over his shoulders.

Teng - flying dragon

Yin hui - obscene, coarse

Ni Zi - little girl

Biao xiong - male cousin

Dong ma - you understand?

Wu Ji - dancing girl

Hun dan - bastard

Bai Chi - idiot

Bu Jing Chuan - whaling ship, whale-catcher

Mei Mei - younger sister

Feng Guang - scenic view

Xie xie - yes

Wu Dong - I understand

Ba Ba - father, Daddy

Go Se - dogshit