A/N: So because I've been slow to update, I gave you a fairly long chapter. I've got a couple of different ideas on how to proceed but welcome to suggestions. I'm fairly certain that River is going to be very different than she was in the show/movie. I think I want her to be more warrior than disturbed, not the other way around. Please read and review, I don't have to travel for work for a bit so I'll have lots of time to write when I decide what direction I'm going in!

The crew were all crowded in the galley, sitting around the table, with Inara taking her usual spot in the kitchen area sipping tea. Wash regarded Simon and Kaylee cuddling with each other, smiling at each other wistfully.

"Seems like a whuppin' is all it takes to get anyone smiling around here when things get tetchy," Wash mused with a grin. "Maybe next time we get into a fight..." he began and turned to see his wife's face, swallowing his words at the look in her dark eyes.

She lifted an eyebrow. "And who do you think would be doing the 'whupping'?" Zoe said coolly. Wash shrunk into his seat at her hard look and clamped his mouth shut.

"You should've seen it!" Jayne was exclaiming, standing out of his chair and vigorously recreating the earlier events. "Mal had his gun pointed at the head guy, Zoe and I held the others off. He cut Kaylee free," he used a slicing motion with his hand, "And then Mal asks the guy..."

"Jayne, you're talking too much again," Mal cut him off sternly, holding Evie in his lap.

"What?! I ain't finished tellin' the story!" he complained. "So then Mal asked the guy if he was Alliance and he was all big a tough-like sayin' that the Captain didn't want to know who he was." He said mockingly.

Mal muttered an oath and nudged the girl in his lap who was listening, riveted. "Evie, bed time," he began.

"But Mal, I ain't heard the end of the story," she whined back at him. Jayne went on at the same time. "Then Mal, Zoe 'n me sprayed 'em with-"

"Jayne, enough!" said Mal irritatedly. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but he really didn't want the little one to hear what came next. Evie had turned to him excitedly, however. She wasn't naïve and had no mistake in her mind what they sprayed the men with.

"You killed men today?!" she asked, curiously looking up at him with wide green eyes. Mal ceremoniously stood up, hiking her to his hip with a long-winded sigh.

"Gave 'em two choices: Get goin' and leave us be, or we shoot," answered Mal brusquely, shooting Jayne a hard look that the man completely missed.

The room went quiet, everyone digesting the information. Simon held Kaylee close while Inara sipped her tea. Wash scratched at the table with his thumb. Book had looked up from his Bible, a disapproving frown etched upon his face. "Said they were never going to stop coming after us," Zoe said quietly to the various shocked and disturbed facial expressions around the table, her eyes daring anyone to speak ill of their actions.

"My crew comes first," Mal said, unconsciously giving Evie a squeeze at his side. "Anyone who don't get that can get off the next port." He looked pointedly at the Shepherd.

Book closed his Bible softly. "I just want to know who these men are and what they want," he said, his tone even and patient. The tension in the room relaxed.

Mal nodded. "As do I, but I don't think we will til the girl in the box wakes up from her nap. In the meantime," he shuffled Evie higher on his hip and looked down at her. "Time for another little girl to go to sleep." He turned to walk out of the mess hall.

"Hey no fair!" she protested, but couldn't hide her fatigue as she laid a cheek on his shoulder. Mal rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face was warm.

2 Days Later

"Thought the Captain told you to stay away from her?" Simon asked, wiping some sort of antiseptic from his hands as he entered the cargo bay and saw Evie skulking about the cryo-crate that held his sister. She couldn't seem to keep away from the box for some reason, in spite of Mal's orders. Something kept inexplicably drawing her to it.

"I did," said the Captain behind her, seeming to come from no where and landing two warning swats on her rear. They didn't particularly hurt but she pouted at him anyway. He put a firm hand on her shoulder and bent down, eyes not harsh but they held no nonsense in them. "Ain't no tellin' what she's gonna be like once we open this here contraption up. Ya said she was acting all sorts of loony when you were at that hospital. So there's a reason I tell you to mind. Do we need to revisit that lesson?" He raised his eyebrow when she accentuated the pout for a minute and then turned to flounce out of the room.

Mal pinched the bridge of his nose. "How shi sung chung, I must've been a real bastard in a past life to deserve all of this."

Simon cleared his throat expectantly. Mal looked up at him, puzzled for a minute, then coughed. "Don't you worry, Simon, we'll open this here contraption up just as soon as Jayne and Zoe finish their breakfast and come to back us up."

"Speak our names and we shall arrive," came the mercenary's gravelly voice. Simon and Mal turned just in time to watch him cock his rifle. Zoe came in behind him carrying a similar rifle expertly in her hand.

Simon whirled on Mal. "Back up for what? That's my sister in there, not some sort of wild beast!" he exclaimed, the last words ending on a higher, more desperate note.

Mal tried to put a calming hand on his shoulder, but the doctor shrugged it off. "Now, now, Simon, you heard what I told the little one. We don't know what she'll be like when we open 'er up. I just have to make sure the rest of my people are protected, dong ma?"

"So you'd just put her down like a rabid dog?" he said, the pitch in his voice growing even higher in disbelief. Mal blew out a breath while simultaneously clenching his teeth and reached for Zoe's rifle, opening the chamber to show Simon the round in it.

Only it wasn't a round. The ammunition was dart-shaped and had some sort of fluid in it. "Tranqs, Doc. All that'll happen if she gets uppity is that she'll take another nap 'til she's not so cranky anymore." Mal handed the rifle back to Zoe and turned to stare down at the Cryo-crate. "Had enough bloodshed this week," he said, then his eyes met Simon's again. "Don't you think?"

"I'm so tired of being treated like a little kid!" Evie exclaimed to Inara emphatically, kicking the bed post in the Companion's shuttle. Not seeking to have any of her stuff destroyed, Inara put a calming hand in the middle of her back and led the girl to the seat in front of her vanity mirror, easing her down and picking up a hair brush. She began to soothingly sweep the brush through the girl's fiery red curls.

"But you are a little kid," she said calmly.

Evie scowled in the mirror. "Well, I'm mature for my age. Seen a lot, done a lot. Hell, sometimes I think I'm more mature than Kaylee!" she said huffily as Inara continued to brush her hair. Inara's lips twitched in their effort not to smile.

"Yes, but Kaylee isn't a minor and you are," she said indulgently. "Besides, Mal often treats her like a little girl too. She doesn't complain because she understands why." Evie's face screwed up in complete confusion and Inara let out a small titter of laughter. "She knows it's because the Captain loves and cares about her."

That hardness crept into the girl's eyes. The defense mechanism that Inara loathed, one that she had developed during years and years of abuse. She knew that it wouldn't go away overnight and praised God that she saw it less and less over time, but her heart ached whenever she saw that the girl found it necessary to form that shell around herself.

"Mal doesn't love me," was all the little girl said. Inara's hand halted in her brushstrokes. She turned the girl's chair so that Evie's hard green eyes were looking into her chocolate brown ones.

"How could you even begin to believe that that is true?" she asked, her eyes searching the child's face.

Evie met her eyes and then, embarrassed, looked down at her feet. She picked at a splinter on the arm of the chair. "Never says it, is all," she said sullenly.

Inara let out a half-laugh, half-sigh. She put her delicate hand underneath the girl's chin and raised her face to meet hers. "Mal isn't the best man with words," she began. The girl tried to look away but Inara's hand held firm in her own gentle way. "But you have to know he loves you. Even without explicitly saying it, every day he shows you how much he loves you. His actions speak louder than words ever could."

The hardness left Evie's eyes then and Inara could see that the little girl believed her. Then another look crept onto her face. It was a mixture between amusement and accusation. Realization dawned on Inara as she stood up quickly and turned around, crossing her arms over her chest.

She shook her head. The girl was mature for her age. How else would she have been so quick to figure out that Inara's words could just as easily be applied to the Companion herself?

"I think we're jest about ready, Doc," Mal said, looking up at his mercenary and his Second perched at on the catwalk at the starboard and port, rifles aimed down at the cryo-crate.

Simon nodded and walked soberly up to the box. He lifted the latch slowly then pushed lightly on the lid. It was heavier than he had anticipated so he put his back into it and grunted as he pushed harder. Finally the lid began to move slowly, inch by inch as he pulled, until it fell to the ground with a clatter.

Fog crept up as the freezing cold air of the cryo-crate met the warmer air of the cargo bay. Mal kept one hand on his pistol, watching intently as Simon looked down. He crept closer and looked in, but could see nothing.

Then the fog began to clear and Mal could make out the form of a young woman resting in a fetal position, naked as the day she was born. Simon stared down in awe. Mal waited a minute before asking, "So did we get the right girl there, Doc?"

Simon barely had a chance to nod before they heard the screech come from the box and the teenager shot straight up, hair stringy, face pale, brown eyes wide and unfocused—looking like a complete maniac.

Evie had calmed down significantly. Inara had twisted her locks into a fiery French braid and now was laying on her bed, reading. Evie was still in front of the vanity, playing with some of Inara's jewelry. She had just picked up an exquisite piece, a jade bracelet and ring that were connected by a small golden chain and was about to try it on when it hit her.

Confusion. Disorientation. Fear. Inexplicably her body was flooded with these emotions, seeming to come out of no where. She dropped the bracelet and bent over, putting her head between her legs and breathing heavily, feeling as though she was going to pass out.

Inara set her tablet down and came over to her, concerned. "What's the matter, honey? Are you feeling alright?" she asked, putting a hand to her forehead. Suddenly Evie shot straight up again, eyes wide as she looked in Inara's direction, her gaze going right through her. Without a word, she stood and ran from the room before Inara could do anything to stop it.

The long and lithe teenager climbed from her resting place and every bit of her shook as she padded to the floor and leaned her back against it, hand covering her face to protect herself from the light, from any dangers, from the world she had just crawled into. Simon slowly went to her calling out, "River? River, it's me..." He reached out to her and she screamed again, lurching backward into the back wall of the chamber that used to contain her. Simon reached out and grasped her upper arms gently, trying to force her to look at him. "River. It's okay. It's okay... I'm here," he coaxed.

Her eyes finally registered the face in front of her, breathing heavily. "Simon...?" she asked. Then tears welled up in her eyes. "Simon, you found me..." she said, a few tears spilling out onto her cheeks. "They... they want me to... they talk to me," she began, suddenly looking about at her surroundings wildly. Zoe and Jayne still had their eyes fixed behind the scopes of their weapons high on the catwalk Mal watched the scene unfold in front of him, thoughtfully silent.

"They're gone now. We're safe. I'm here," Simon said, pulling a robe he had borrowed from Inara out and placing it around her shoulders. He tried to pull her close to him, but she suddenly resisted. Her chin shot up and her gaze focused on something above them.

Simon looked in the direction she was looking and before he could register what she was staring at, she was up, her arms tucked into the sleeves of the robe with it wrapped around her and she was running toward a chain that hung from the ceiling of the ship.

She displayed startling strength as she quickly climbed the length of the chain. Mal saw what she was heading towards and shouted in a harried voice, "Tranq her! Now!"

"If I tranq her, she could fall!" Jayne shouted back. By that point she was over halfway up the chain- about 20 feet off the ground. There was no telling what kind of injuries she would sustain if she fell from the height, especially if she was unconscious.

Mal looked worriedly at the little girl standing on the bridge that led from the cargo bay catwalk to Inara's shuttle, staring wide-eyed as the strange teenage girl made her way closer and closer to her. He licked his lips and drew his pistol.

"If you don't shoot her, I will," he said, taking aim at the figure who was now at the top of the chain and was using momentum to swing her body on the chain to a point where she could jump on the catwalk. Inara came out the door of her shuttle, but froze in the doorway when she saw the weapons.

"No, you can't!" yelled Simon, pushing the Captain as he fired, making the bullet fly far left from where he was pointing it. It ricocheted off the hull and struck one of the wooden boxes, not too far from where Mal was standing. Mal growled furiously. He snarled at Simon who was undaunted as he tried to wrestle the fatal weapon from Mal's hands. There was fear as well as anger, tickling the back of Mal's brain at the knowledge that the crazy sister of his was making her way to his seemingly frozen-in-place young charge and the woman he- and Inara. Finally he managed to elbow Simon in the gut and the doctor went down, gasping for the breath that Mal had knocked out of him. Mal turned with his weapon pointed just in time to watch River clamber onto the catwalk and plant herself in front of Evie.

Evie's emotions were befuddled as she watched the entire scene ensue, the crazy girl from the mental ward climb like a demon up the chain, brown eyes intent on hers. First, she was afraid of the intensity in the way that the lunatic girl made her way to her. Normally she would've looked around for a weapon, something to hit her with, to defend herself. Or she would've ran away, hid in one of the hundreds of nooks and crannies that Serenity afforded her. But something else commingled with the common sense reaction of fear. Something soothing. It was as if someone was forcing a calmness into her body, easing her anxiety. The fear was still there, but it was dulled quite a bit, seemingly from an outside force that had entered within her psyche.

"You heard me..." was all the girl said as she laid a hand on Evie's shoulder. "You can hear me," the girl said. There was relief in her voice and Evie didn't understand. She looked up at the girl, quizzically, but now without any fear whatsoever. Suddenly, a shot rang out and River's eyes went wide with shock. She turned slightly and then fell down upon the metal catwalk with a clang. She rolled over so that she was looking up at Evie, who still seemed frozen in place. "You found him. You saved me. Saved... us..." she trailed off, eyes closing. "Thank... you..." she managed before he breathing became shallow and silent.

"Evie!" Mal shouted after Simon's sister collapsed to the ground, effectively snapping her out of her trance. Inara rushed to her.

"I'm alright!" she called back, looking down at him and then around at her surroundings. She felt Inara wrap her arms around her, squeezing her tight.

Jayne pumped his fist in the air. "Nailed 'er!" he shouted. Inara released Evie and they both looked down at the teenager. She had a tranquilizer dart sticking out of her upper arm and seemed to be sleeping soundly.

"Stay there!" Mal ordered as he followed Simon up the stairs, taking two at a time. Simon immediately went to his sister's side and placed two fingers on the side of her neck. Registering a pulse, he sighed with a relief. Inara did the same. Mal came to stand beside them, arms folded, regarding the girl tensely. She looked frail and innocent, breathing heavily in her sleep. But he'd seen the way she'd climbed that chain and was willing to bet that she had even more surprises and feats of strength that she'd demonstrate in the future.

"Was that really necessary?" Simon hissed to Jayne as the giant man approached, Zoe hot on his heels.

"'Course it was," Mal assured. "You saw the way she was coming at-" he went to gesture to Evie, but there was nothing but emptiness where there once was a scared little girl rooted to the ground. "Now where in the Hell..."

"She was here a moment ago," Inara said as she looked around, baffled.

"Probably hidin' from you," Jayne put in gruffly.

At Mal's surprised look Zoe added, "You told her to stay out of sight. Once the shock of what just happened wore off, she likely realized how much trouble she was in." She raised her eyebrows, a humorous glint in her dark eyes.

Mal heaved out his breath and raked his hand through his dark brown hair, his heart rate finally reaching a normal level. "Always knew I'd die young. Didn't think it'd be from a little critter causin' a heart attack," he breathed out. Inara put a comforting arm on his shoulder and looked at him sympathetically.

Simon was still checking his sister over for other injuries. "Get her to the sick bay. Make sure she stays there. Restrain her if you must, 'cause I'm warning you Doc, she pulls another stunt like that again, I can't guarantee she won't be shot with something to make her stay down. Get my drift?"

Simon huffed a little at that but nodded and then stooped to pick River up in his arms, as if she were a young child instead of almost grown. He started towards the infirmary.

"Oh, and Simon?" Simon halted and turned to once again face Mal. Mal's eyes bored into his. "If you get in my way again, I'll likely riddle you with holes on principle."

There was a moment's pause as everyone grew tense. Simon's eyes never wavered. "Yes, Sir," he said finally and turned on his heel to tend to his sister.

The cargo bay was quiet once again, the events of the last few minutes washing over everyone. Finally Mal broke the silence. "Now where is that irksome little ying chi?" he looked around and then looked at Zoe, Jayne and Inara expectantly. "Well, help me find the scamp!"

They'd looked high and low for the little beast that managed to elude them. Jayne sighed. Wasn't like she could've left the ship, them being in the black and all. Was likely she'd moved spots a couple of times while they looked or she managed to carve out a new hidey hole somewhere on the Firefly class transport.

"She'll turn up," Jayne grumbled to himself, heading to his bunk for a well deserved nap before supper. He pulled up the door and disarmed himself, putting each knife and gun in their proper spots, patting them as if they were beloved pets rather than lethal weapons. He turned and nearly jumped out of his skin as his eyes landed on the tiny overall-clad body curled up in his bed. "Son of a-" he nearly exclaimed, but his words came out a whisper as his brain registered that she was fast asleep.

She must've been hiding there all along. Clever brat probably knew they'd never look for her there, she'd never had cause to come to his bunk. It's not like he welcomed her following him around or sharing space with her like Inara did in her shuttle, Kaylee did in the engine room or Wash did on the flight deck. He didn't fancy hanging out with a little kid. Besides, his bunk was far from kid-proof, he thought as he shoved some of his nudie magazines into one of his dresser drawers.

He regarded the little girl. Her knees were pulled nearly to her chest as if she had been hugging them to herself, but now only one arm wrapped around her torso while the other was curled underneath her, her tiny hand curled in a fist next her slightly snoring mouth. He thought about calling up Mal, but one look at her slack freckled face and her braided red hair half undone on his pillow tugged uncomfortably at his heart.

He grabbed his coarse blanket from a nearby chair and spread it over her, pulling it to her chin, forcing himself to purse his lips disapprovingly. He headed back towards the door, telling himself that the only reason he wasn't kicking her out of his bed was because he was better off bench-pressing a couple of reps with the Preacher. Besides it's the only way anyone will get any peace 'round here, he thought to himself. He stopped before he lifted the hatchdoor and looked back at her, lips twitching in the tiniest hint of a smile, then he shook his head and exited the room.