Here you go! I apologise now - there is a bit more angst! I just can't help myself.

Please read and review - I'd love to know what people think of Jack!

Chapter 10: Jack-in-a-Box

Jack leans back in the chair and looks like he owns the room. He interlinks his fingers behind his head and grins at them.

Rumour had it Jack Quicksilver had been an Independent soldier once upon a time but to look at him you wouldn't think so. He had no visible scars and if they were anywhere else Inara didn't want to know. Zoë would just shrug and say that there were a lot of Independent soldiers in the war. Mal only snorts and won't say anything more about it. But somehow Inara can't imagine Jack in the war. He doesn't have the slightly world weary attitude that tells you he has seen it all.

"So Mal needs me to break in a rescue him? Boy he will like that."

Kaylee leans forward across the dining table. "We really need your help."

"I know," he smiles at her. "I might be prepared to work a bit faster if you…"

"Jack! Enough." Inara snaps. "This isn't a laughing matter. People could die."

He reaches into the pocket of his coat and pulls out a data reader. He slides it across the table to Inara. "Here."

She steps forward and picks it up, flicks it on and studies it for a moment. "What is this?"

Jack gets up and moves behind her. He leans round her and points to the data reader's screen. "Blueprints. To the house. Far as I can figure you would be held either here or here."

Inara nods. "I didn't see much of it."

Jack flicks a button on the data reader. "Now this is interesting. Financial records. There have been a lot of trips recently. Both in and out of the system. And even better, a private eye…"

"What?" Inara turns her head to stare at him.

"The Tams have been looking for you for a long time."

Kaylee's eyes go as wide as saucers. "You mean?" She looks at Inara. "Simon and River…Do you think they know?"

Inara nods. "By now they do yes."

Jack looks back and forth between the two women. "I ain't going into this blind. Do you care to tell me what is going on?"

Jayne rams his good shoulder against the door and hisses as the impact reverberates into his injured shoulder. The door remains solid as ever. He snarls at it animalistically, and backs up a few paces to try again.

"Gorramit Mal help me!"

"I don't think that door is going to budge Jayne," Zoë says steadily.

Mal is already lining up beside Jayne. So she sighs and leaves them to it.

"Gotta…gorram…TRY," Jayne grunts as the two of them bounce off the door.

They back up again and run at the door faster this time. Again nothing happens except for the large thud as they rebound off the wood. Jayne glares at the door as Mal is rubbing the feeling back into his arm.

"It's been two weeks Zoë. We've sat here being fed like dogs. Not anymore!"

Zoë winces as the edge of distress in his voice and looks at Mal who just shrugs.

"Time to fight harder Zoë."

Simon is sat on his bed when Regan enters the room. She quietly sits beside him. He looks tired, she thinks, and there is the tiniest hint of tightness at the outer corners of his eyes. She may not have seen him for years but a mother's sixth sense tells her he is in pain.

"How are you feeling?"

His hand unconsciously goes to his side and hovers above his ribs. He winces, "Still sore, still broken." There is a touch of defensiveness in his voice. And it cuts her to hear it there. To her.

She touches his face gently. "My poor baby boy. My baby Simon."

Simon pulls a face. The face that all boys pull when their mother is embarrassing them.

She smiles at him. "I looked in on River. She's sleeping now. Why aren't you?"

"The drugs I gave her calmed her down." He pauses. "Thank you. For what you did." His thanks seem slightly stilted. Then he winces again and grunts in pain.

"Simon?"

"I'm…okay…" he says breathlessly.

Regan lowers her hand. "But you're not sleeping?"

He shakes his head and his mouth flickers up into the ghost of a smile at one corner. "Can't. She's…not while she…" he blinks, swallows and doesn't finish the sentence. Somehow Regan isn't sure he means River. A mother always knows.

He looks up, bright eyed. "You didn't know did you? What was happening to River…there."

Regan shakes her head and can't say a word. She wishes she had known. Really. Then she could have stopped it. But she had rather have believed that Simon simply missed his little sister than the ramblings about codes and conspiracy that would ultimately tear her family apart.

"I wanted to blame you for so long…" Simon's leans sideways towards her and rests his head on her shoulder.

He sniffs so she glances down at him. His eyes are closed but she gets the sense that he is trying not to cry.

"I am so proud of you Simon. My brave boy."

The tears leak out now from under the still closed lids and he says nothing.

Regan lifts her arm gently round him and strokes his hair tenderly, silently. If she says a single word then she will lose this moment. And she does not want to.

Kaylee creeps into Inara's shuttle in the middle of the night.

"'Nara?" Inara remains fast asleep so Kaylee grabs her shoulder and shakes her. "Inara!"

"Huh? What?"

"You asleep?"

"Not anymore," Inara says sitting up, her hair all over the place. "What's wrong?"

Kaylee plonks herself down on the bed beside Inara, curls her legs under her body. "Do you think they're still alive?"

Inara blinks in the darkness. "What? I know they are."

"Not Simon. Nor River!" Kaylee starts to sniffle. "You didn't see them!"

"Kaylee…" Inara reaches for her and her hand encounters the soft flannel of Kaylee's shoulder in her favourite pink pyjamas.

"D'ya think it was quick?" Kaylee murmurs, moving up to sit beside Inara against the pillows.

"What?"

"What they did to Simon. When they…" she swallows "…killed him. Do you think it was quick?"

"I'm sure Simon is fine."

"You don't know that. What if he's dead?" There is a pause. "Do you think it hurt?"

"Kaylee…don't…"

"I hope it didn't hurt." Kaylee's voice is muffled.

In the dark Inara can't see Kaylee's face properly but she knows that she is crying now.

"What will I do?" Kaylee continues miserably.

"Kaylee. We're going to get them. All of them. Listen to me," Inara turns Kaylee's face to her with her hand. "Its Simon's parents. His family. Not some big bad monster who doesn't care about him." Inara puts her arm around Kaylee and hugs her tightly. "It's going to be okay."

"Can I stay here tonight?" Kaylee whispers.

"Sure."

Kaylee snuggles herself down on the pillows and falls asleep. Inara lays there and watches her for a long time and finally allows herself to cry silently for Mal.