DISCLAIMER: Firefly charactars are not mine. :( *le sigh*

River sighed as she stared out the window of the IFO ship. Her brow furrowed deeply as she tried to remember just exactly how the hell she ended up on this gorram ship after all. It hazed together in her mind, she remembered reading Mal's conversation with Sergeant Houghton. He was a desperate, desperate man and she'd agreed to meet with him and hear him out; ON THE PREMISE that she was allowed to give him a piece of her mind. Which she did – scared Jayne and Mal just as much as the big hun dan Sergeant. She'd known all along the Sarge had a nephew in the Academy and this was more personal for him than it was political. You are more than our only chance, you give me hope he can be normal again. The Sergeant had said this over and over in his head, even out loud a few times. I know. It's the only reason I'm not decimating you where you stand for what you did to me.

Now she stood on the large ship, hell it was more like a drifting city. Four floors of crew quarters, a ship deck, a cargo bay, a munitions hold that Jayne would have needed to change his pants over. There was even a whole level that was nothing but med bays on one side, and a HUGE, fully stocked cafeteria on the other. She drew her lips back in disgust. Too big. She missed Serenity, and its crew, and her brother, and her bao bei. Especially her bao bei.

He was off with the rest of Serenity, picking up cargo for the IFO on Ares. River, who now cursed her impulsive compliance with other people's plans, agreed to go ahead with Sergeant Houghton as her intel would provide invaluable into infiltrating the Academy. Simon knew just as much as she did, he's the one who'd STUDIED the Academy's layout when he broke her free. His knowledge was just as valuable, but he was needed in case cargo dealings on Ares with south. She sighed in acceptance that she was the only Serenity member to go ahead to the IFO ship. If something happened to her beautiful Jayne, she wanted Simon there to fix it.

"Miss Tam," the Sergeant strolled next to her "any new thoughts?"

"No, our plan is perfectly solid assuming that the subjects will be on board with our plans as well. I WILL be able to reach them the night before." They were setting up camp in a hotel across the way from the Academy – River would barge into the student's dreams and see if any of them would be willing and able to help them with their endeavor.

"What if some of them are loyal to the Academy and alert them to our plans?"

River took the time to sufficiently roll her eyes and stare at him in her best 'are you ruttin' kidding me?' look. "Because I'm a genius. Don't you think I'm smart enough to cloak myself until I know their true intentions?"

"You really think of everything."

"And don't you forget that. Now, if the hands of blue are present, which they will be," she was trying to instill a proper sense of fear into him over this particular topic "that will be more difficult. I think the students are immune to their sonic instruments. They emit a sonic wave that destroys human tissue through the ear drums unless you keep a soft hum in your throat going at exactly the pitch of A above middle C on a piano. That will counteract the sonic waves at a ratio that makes it bearable to endure. Do you have harmonic destabilizers in case we need to do that manually for the rest of you?"

"You know you're terrifying right?" he smiled warmly at the invaluable asset and wonderful young woman before him "I believe we DO have harmonic destabilizers."

"Every soldier needs to be armed with one. These men are vicious and ruthless. I want no more to suffer at their hands." She squinted into the Black, holding her breath for the moment she saw Serenity come into view. "It was fabled that they can't be killed, hell for the longest time we thought they were robots; not true. They very much can die and I would like to be in charge of that detail."

"Sounds like you have a plan."

"I do. I plan on my crew being with me most of the time, but for the blue hands – I prefer if nobody else is around that I will have to worry about. Can you please give those orders. Unless they get past me – leave them be. I can't worry about friendlies when I have such a dangerous foe."

"Consider it done." He smiled and stared into the Black with her. In fact, he couldn't wait to see Serenity either. The sooner they came, the sooner the job was done, the sooner he could get this creepy-ass girl off his ship. Invaluable. Wonderful. But definitely creepy.

"14 days, 9 hours, and 38 seconds I was without you!" her arms held tight to a mercenary's neck and her legs gripped his waist. Mal rolled his eyes at Simon as the two stone cold killers babbled on like teenagers and then unabashedly sucked each other's face off.

"Well, I've had enough of this for a lifetime," Mal scoffed and strolled off his ship into the ship hold of the IFO Battle Class: ATLANTIS. He greeted the Sarge and formally introduced him to the rest of his crew. They all had their jobs to do – Simon was to go debrief all the medical staff on what to expect once the Academy students were taken on board, Inara and Kaylee were to ensure the IFO was satisfied with its shipment and then get Serenity ready for a hard flight on Osiris. They were the get away vehicle for over a dozen IFO soldiers and over 2 dozen scared, prolly crazy teenagers. He started debating why in the gorram hell he'd agreed to this. Zoe's orders were to be at his side at all times. Make sure nothin' got fishy or troublesome. She'd always been the brains. Hell, she'd even been the brawn a few times too. And Jayne, Jayne was to… well, actually, where in the hell was Jayne?

"Sir," Zoe stopped him mid-question. Mal didn't even remember asking anything out loud "If you give them 30 minutes now, it'll save hours of them being with us but not paying attention to a single thing. Let them be."

He stared at her, less incredulous than he meant to be. He wanted to launch into a tirade about 'his ship' and 'what he pays them for.' But, as always, Zoe was right and Mal was humped. "Right then. Sarge, what did you and my little Albatross lay down for plans?"

"God I missed you," he growled into neck as he breathed in the soft musk of her skin.

"Yeah?" It felt so good to have him back, she tried to quantify her feelings with rationality – he was her anchor, her foundation, the solid ground on which she stood – blah blah blah. She knew the good gorram truth right at this moment was his body felt great under her hands. His biceps bulged against her sides, her breasts pressed firmly against his chest, and his growing arousal nudged her just enough to let her know how much he'd missed her too. And he'd missed her something fierce! "And here I was worried you'd forgotten about lil' ol' me," she teased.

He had no words to tease back. He probably coulda thought of something but he was too interested in the soft piece of skin right... there. Oh yeah, right there! He brushed his kiss swollen lips against the dip under her jaw, so soft, so delicate, so… my god! Did she just moan? His breath caught as her hands clamped in his short hair, just enough to bring herself forward as her hips bucked against him. "Riv," he felt his knees weaken, "What are we doing?" She knew his question was pleading her to allow him to take her back to his bunk.

"We are teasing me and taunting me to ensure that I provide natural lubrication for the next couple hours," she smiled and climbed down from his grip. "I'll race you to your bunk," she winked "Any person with clothes still on forfeits." She took off, ripping her tank top over her shoulders as she took the stairs.

"Oh no you don't!" he was out of his boots before he took a step.

A/N - WARNING: Next chapter will prolly contain a fair amount of smut. I'll try to keep it classy folks! :) There you've been warned.