Chapter 10

Simon sat on the rock, shocked for a moment. All he could hear was River's desperate shout of Kaylee's name ringing in his ears. After only a second he jumped down and followed his sister back towards Serenity.

He arrived out of breath and for a second he didn't see anything wrong. Just as he was thinking River had been upset for nothing he heard an ear splitting scream that he recognized as his wife's. He ran into the ship to find River holding up Kaylee in the kitchen as the rest of the crew ran in drawn by Kaylee's screams. Simon ran to his wife and picked her up and set her on the kitchen table, she grabbed onto his arm and dug her nails in.

"Simon it hurts, somethin's wrong!" She exclaimed and screamed again. It was then that Simon noticed the blood darkening the thighs of Kaylee's coveralls in a quickly spreading stain.

Simon swore under his breath and turned to the crew, "Someone go get my bag along with a pillow and blanket!" Jack ran off to get what Simon needed.

"Captain go get any clean towels we have and some soap and hot water." Simon said to Mal.

Mal turned to get what the doctor needed for once not upset about being ordered around on his own ship.

Kaylee had stopped screaming and Simon saw that she had lost consciousness. He tapped her face gently and said, "Kaylee bao-bei wake up. Come on I need you to open your eyes right now."

Kaylee however showed no signs of coming to and her face was growing steadily paler. Jack ran in then and thrust Simon's med-kit into his hands. Zoe took the pillow from Jack's other hand and positioned it under Kaylee's head as Simon began to pull her coveralls off. Once Kaylee's pants were removed everyone was shocked by the amount of blood covering her legs and the table.

"Doc you wanna tell us what's goin on?" Mal asked. Simon didn't look up and for a minute the Captain thought maybe he hadn't heard him.

Then he quietly said more to himself than the others, "She's hemmoraging and the baby's heart beat is low. I need to do a C-section immedieately."

Everyone drew a breath at the thought of Simon having to do surgery without any of his equipment or even an infirmary to do it in.

The silence was broken when River screamed and grabbed Simon's arm, "She can't breath Simon, you have to help her now!" Simon thought she was talking about Kaylee, but when he saw her chest rising and falling steadily he realized she was talking about the baby.

It was chaos in the room for the next few minutes as Simon shouted orders to Zoe and Mal as they helped him prep Kaylee for surgery. River continued to whimper and babble nonsensically helping to add to the chaos. Jack sat down on the floor with his wife and held her, hoping this would calm her, but it didn't seem to help.

Simon looked up a moment later and shouted, "Everyone be quiet!" The room again fell into silence as Simon began the incision on his wife. Even River managed to quiet her mutterings until they heard a baby's cry a minute later.

Everyone jumped up excitedly as Simon handed the tiny baby to Zoe who began cleaning her off with one of the clean towels they had brought to the galley. Simon glanced over at his daughter quickly and then turned back to his wife and continued to stitch her up.

Zoe cleaned up the little girl and felt only a moments sadness when she thought about Wash and the children she never got to have with him. River appeared at her side then in that quiet disconcerting way she had and reached out one hand to touch the top of the baby's head. She stayed that way for over a minute while she read the baby and the baby in turn settled down and stopped crying. River finally smiled and took her hand off the baby's head. Simon finished cleaning up Kaylee ten minutes later and after giving her the last of the sedatives to keep her quiet while she recovered he then walked eagerly over to where the crew was gathered around his daughter.

"Well Simon it looks like you have a healthy baby girl, she's really strong, breathing nice and steady." Zoe said and handed him the baby. Simon looked uncomfortable for only a moment holding such a tiny thing and then he became transfixed with his new child.

"Wow, she's real." He said and then realized how stupid that sounded.

"Whatdja think that Kaylee just got fat er somethin'?" Jayne replied sarcastically. Simon gave him a nasty look but didn't reply just continued to stare at his daughter.

"Is it ok to move Kaylee Doc?" Mal asked.

"It should be fine to move her while she's still sedated as long as we do it carefully so that we don't pull any stitches, because I'm completely out of thread, so don't anyone else go getting hurt ok?" Simon replied and smiled at the crew.

Mal and Jack carried the still unconscious Kaylee to her and Simon's bunk, while Simon followed behind carrying the baby. After the new family was settled in their room the rest of the crew left them alone so that they could have some privacy.

They all gathered around in the galley to begin cleaning up the blood from the floor and table. Everyone laughed at Jayne's pouting and grumbling about how babies don't belong on a gorram ship.

An hour later the crew was beginning to get drunk on the wine Kaylee had figured out how to make. They sat around the campfire outside laughing and talking, getting louder by the drink.

Simon sat in his bunk listening to the laughter of the rest of the crew outside. He couldn't seem to quit looking at his daughter. She was just so perfect, he could see Kaylee and himself in her features, but was surprised by how much she resembled River. Kaylee sighed in her sleep and began to move her head. Simon quickly got up and went to sit on the edge of the bed next to his wife. He was happy to find that her vitals were strong and in another few seconds her eyelids began to flutter.

"Hey how you feeling?" Simon asked quietly and smiled down at his wife. Kaylee looked around seeming confused to be in her bunk and not in the kitchen.

"Its ok, we're in our bunk, everythings fine." Simon explained.

"Is the baby ok?" Kaylee asked while reaching her hands down and finding her now much flatter stomach. Simon held the baby up so that Kaylee could see her.

"She's just fine, both of you are." He said delighting in the huge smile that lit up Kaylee's face as she saw her new daughter. Simon helped her to sit up more on the pillows and then placed the baby in her arms.

"Oh Simon, she's so perfect!" Kaylee exclaimed. "But she's so tiny are you sure she's ok?"

"She's doing fine, she's a few weeks early but her breathing is strong and so are her reflexes." Simon comforted his concerned wife.

"She looks like you so much." Kaylee commented as she ran one finger down her daughter's cheek.

"Actually she looks a lot like River when she was a baby." Simon said. "But look at that cute nose, she definitely got that from her mother." Kaylee tried to sit up more and cried out quietly in pain at the movement.

"Try and stay still bao-bei. I'm sorry I don't have any pain killers to give you, so you're just going to have to stay still until you heal some." Simon instructed and tried to help his wife become more comfortable. After he got her settled he stretched out on the bed beside her and watched as his wife began to feed their daughter. Simon knew he couldn't think of a more beautiful sight in the entire world.