Hello There Dear and Avid Readers (Please be Dear and Avid Readers). Since you are reading this it means I have updated. Wow, amazing, yeah nobody start calling the Pope to report a miracle. Anyways I hope to have a few more installations to add before the next semester rips my soul away again, till then let me know if you appreciate, enjoy, hate, (preferably Love) my writing and I will try to keep them coming. Thanks.

Back to Our Terribly Irregular Fanfic...

"Captain Reynolds, good to see you back in the same state in which you left us in." Simon said meeting Mal as he emerged from the hatch into a corridor shortly after the rest of his team.

"We were a little concerned when it was Jayne calling back. Thought perhaps you and Zoe ran into some trouble and were incapacitated and left under the care of the merc's mercy."

"Not today, although I have no illusions as to just how long it would take before Jayne made his grab for power and turn Serenity into a flying brothel, but not today at least. Is everyone in the kitchen for our little crew meeting already?" Mal asked as they headed towards the kitchen themselves.

"As far as I'm aware, Inara was in the kitchen preparing tea for everyone and Zoe and Jayne should be there as well with your new guest by now. May I ask what his destination is or purpose in being here is?"
"You don't wanna know Doc, you'll find out soon enough, trust me on that. I only want to tell this whole mess to everyone once and that will be more than enough for me. What about the rest of the crew?"

"Well Kaylee was still trying to figure out what is wrong with the doors and River disappeared off somewhere on the ship after the hatch was opened. I am sure she will show up somewhere soon enough though."

"Yeah, that is kinda what I'm worried about." Turning a corner they nearly collided with Kaylee.

"Captain! Good to see you back." She positively bubbled.

"No thanks to those goramn doors. What's much the purpose of doors if we can't well use them in our many frequent and speedy getaways?"

"Not a problem Captain, doors open just fine. Soon as you started coming down the hatch she popped right open. Not so much as a squeak. Guess she was just feeling cantankerous."

"Well I don't want to be seein' it happening again Kaylee, dong ma?"

"Then you just better take that up with Serenity, seeing as there was nothing I could do about it." She finished just as they arrived in the kitchen. Already seated around the table were Zoe and Jayne. Inara was passing out delicate cups of her brewed concoction, which Jayne accepted begrudgingly upon learning it contained no alcoholic component. Dr Wyman was standing off to a corner clutching his steaming cup and looking rather uncomfortable. That was when Mal saw the reason why; River.

Sitting on a stool with her knees drawn up to her chest it looked as though she was staring clean through Dr. Wyman right to his shriveled, tortured remnant of a soul and Mal could see her mouth moving. Saying who knows what to someone unacquainted with River's peculiarities. Striding towards them Mal came in just at…

" Remus suckles not on the milk of wolves but drinks deep of the hate and rage of a thousand odd lives. To reach him Romulus will have to jump more than a trench or wall. No coronet of metal awaits Romulus after this deed either, instead both shall be crowned by the roots of the land and worms writhing among the soil as you rule as co-emperors of the dark and silence, which is the fate of all mortal men, although yours sooner than most."

'Well isn't this just a cozy conversation. Looks like you already met River our little pilot huh, Dr Wyman?" Mal asked the man who looked as though he had just met a barefooted ghost with eyes and hair of darkness sitting on the stool next to him.

"This…is River? The River the entire Alliance would have given anything to have back?" He stammered.

"Yep, this would be the one. Couldn't well imagine the 'verse could handle another quite like her. Though she may not seem like much right about now, but give her something sharp and deadly, or even just her feet and hands and…"

"No, not that. She knows me. Well, not met me but…" He shook his head turning to Mal. "Did you hear what she said? Did you tell the rest of your crew my purpose in contacting you?"

"I have not told my crew anything regarding you yet. That's the point of my little crew meetin' and while I heard what she said; hearing and knowing are two different things with River here. We don't right follow everything our little albatross says but most the time she makes plenty o' sense."

"No, she makes more than perfect enough sense if you can follow. I understand a little, but only because I have some knowledge of Earth-That-Was mythology as a result of my lifetime of study." Turning back towards River, "How do you know about me and my brother Miss Tam? And about Earth-That-Was?"

"I breathe. I live. I am." River answered staring at the shaken Doctor who was now leaning wearily against a counter.

"There is no scientific explanation…it's impossible…she…can't…"

Mal had quite enough of the crazies for the day and thought it high time to get this business settled, one way or the other. Ordering Wyman to sit before he fell and River to get along over to her brother Mal was rewarded by quiet compliance by the former and a razz-berry from the later as she bounded off the stool impishly to settle in a open chair next to Simon at the table.

Looking at his crew gathered around the table Mal wondered what right he had to even consider, much less suggest to them, taking this job. Eyes staring back at him, Mal saw one pair, dark and deadly. Filled with not just strength but also pain, looking straight back at him saying, Just spit it out Sir. Words aren't gonna' break us. A deep breath, then Mal began to introduce Dr. Wyman and to detail the Doctor's proposition as his quiet crew sat gathered around the table.