A/N: So I decided that it was important to show what is happening with everybody else whilst River and Russell run for their lives, just a short little bit that I felt was necessary to give some credence to one particular character that I wasn't sure I was writing properly. So this gives us a little taste of what's going on with everybody else, and then of course we have to move the two of the others along a little as well, let me know what you think of everything if you get the chance

Simon was agitated, pacing the infirmary, tracing and retracing those same steps in his haste. "He didn't say how long it'd be, wouldja calm down?" Kaylee reminded him, she was sitting atop one of the pristine counters, watching his meanderings. With great effort Simon pulled himself to a stop.

"I can't," he answered her distractedly before he returned to his wanderings. "She's my sister, alright. I can't calm down, I can't stop moving, I can't even think straight, until she's back here!" he snapped at her irritably.

"Simon, she'll be alright. River's a big girl, you don't gotta worry 'bout her, cap'n wouldn'a left her behind if he thought she was in trouble," Kaylee tried to soothe him as she stood across from him. She wrapped her arms around his waist in a firm embrace, she brought her head to rest on his chest as she felt the tension in his arms start to ease. His heart was still hammering in her ears, but she suspected there was another reason for that. "'Sides… she's with Russell," she teased him. In a flash his body went slightly rigid.

"That isn't funny," he told her in a brooding tone.

"It ain't wrong neither. Ya don't like him, that's plain, what I can't figure is why? Him and her ain't never given ya cause for it," Kaylee pressed him.

"He kissed her… she kissed him!" he told her, his eyes going wide at the question.

"Even I don't b'lieve there was nothin' romantic 'bout it. To them kissin's the same as stickin' your tongue out at folks," Kaylee countered it, he'd always known she caught on better than she pretended, but he found a new respect for her, he'd noticed it too, but it was the easiest explanation.

"Then why, in all these months, has she never felt the need to kiss anybody else as a taunt? Why did she jump so quickly to promise to help him when she doesn't know how dangerous or well thought-out his plans are? It's obvious that the two of them have a lot in common, how many people in this whole mess of a 'Verse can say they can read minds? He's changing my sister, and I'm not sure what that means for her," Simon explained.

"For her or for you?" Kaylee asked him, her voice had leveled off and become harsher, it was a tone she rarely used with anybody, let alone him.

"Excuse me?" he asked her, confused by the leap in logic.

"Are you worried about her place in life, or your place in hers? River's been chaingin' for a while now, long 'fore she ever met him, you done your level best to avoid noticin'. Now he shows up and you found yourself a scapegoat to lay the blame on. An' another thing, she ain't the only one been changin'. I talked ta the cap'n, he said you been actin' strange since you came to get us, you were alone with him, and whatever he said changed things. He gave us a chance to get out back there, maybe you could try givin' him one," Kaylee argued her point for him, she turned to leave the med-bay, frustrated at that moment with her doctor.

"Maybe you gave him one too easily," Simon threw out as she turned to leave, she stopped dead just short of the door. Her body was rigid, she made a wooden about face and stared, angrily into his eyes. Immediately he regretted saying it.

"What did ya say?" she asked him, her head cocking to one side pointedly.

"Look, Kaylee, I was frustrated, I didn't mean-," he began to apologize.

"Say it again," she demanded, interrupting him in a firm, coolly detached, yet patiently level voice.

"I didn't mean-," he tried to continue.

"SAY IT AGAIN!" she barked angrily to cut him off.

"Maybe you gave him a chance too readilly," he told her as he bowed his head in defeat.

"What's that s'posed ta mean?" she asked him, there was a passionate fury in her voice. He kept his gaze averted, looking instead to one side; he didn't want to talk.

"You're soft on him, softer than I've seen you with anybody else… except me," Simon confessed.

"So what? You think I wanna take a roll in the hay with him? Is that what you think?" she asked him in an offended tone as she marched back toward him. "Let's get this straight, I mighta been flirtin' with the boys a lot, but it's mostly ta get a rise outta you, God knows you ain't exactly been knockin' down the door ta give me a proper sullyin'," she admitted to him in a frustrated voice, before giving him a firm shove. She gave a long rapid stream of mandarin curses, some of which he'd never heard before. "For a fellah s'posed ta be real smart, you sure are dumb," she told him as she stormed out of the room, she bumped into Mal as she passed the doorway, but she didn't pause to apologize, she just kept moving.

"Glad I ain't the only one hearin' 'bout this," the captain commented off-hand as he joined the doctor.

"Any word?" Simon asked him in a frustrated tone.

"Nah, I just came back from checkin' with Inara," the captain replied.

"How'd that go?" Simon asked sarcastically.

"'Bout as well as you an' Kaylee by the look a her when she left," Mal answered abruptly.

"She doesn't understand," Simon told him bitterly.

"Hey, you ain't gotta tell me, I'm right there with ya," Mal reinforced his thoughts. "Figured I'd come down here an' cool off," he added after a moment.

"She threw you out?" Simon corrected him.

"No!" he answered incredulously, Simon didn't buy it. "No… I left on my own," Mal insisted, Simon just kept staring at him. "Alright… I'm in hiding, but only 'cause she looked REALLY mad, face all scrunched up like that, it was scary really," Mal admitted grudgingly with a reminiscent shudder.

"It's like Kaylee doesn't understand… she's my sister," Simon sighed.

"I know… and she's my crew. How can they expect us to just let that go?" Mal agreed with him.

"I don't even know what I did to make her so mad," Simon explained.

"Well… I ain't a reader like your sister, but I'm a-thinkin' that accusin' Kaylee of havin' ulterior motives was your mistake… just from what I saw," Mal commented as if it were obvious. "It's not like that with Inara… what could I have done?" Mal asked hoping to gain sympathy.

"You called her 'whore'," Simon said plainly.

"How did you… you weren't even-," Mal began stuttering.

"Mal… every time you two fight, it escalates the moment you call her a whore, I don't have to hear the fight, because I've heard it before," Simon explained. "Hundreds of times," he added for effect. "A day," he finished piling on. Mal gave him an exasperated look.

"We're in trouble aren't we?" Mal asked him after the two took a moment of quiet contemplation.

"Why do you say that?" Simon asked him perplexed.

"We agreed, you an' me, that only happens when we're in trouble," Mal pointed it out to him. Simon made a introspective look as he considered the historical evidence before nodding. Sadly, Mal was right. ~

Russell awoke with a start, bare chested, he glanced around quickly, he was in a familiarly unfamiliar room, sterile white walls adorned with various tooth-related diagrams and equipment. There was an overhead lamp over him, he'd expected to be lying on a table, instead he found himself reclining in a chair. A dental clinic? he thought to himself.

"Sterile environment, away from prying eyes, and medical equipment if needed," River said flatly as she entered the room.

"Awful forward a ya, takin' my shirt off like that," he teased her playfully as he looked about. She pressed her mouth into a thin line as she rolled her eyes, but she didn't deign to reply. "How long was I out?" he asked her as he got down to business, finally finding a new white shirt on a nearby counter.

"It's almost morning now, we'll have to move soon," she told him.

"Ammunition?" he pressed.

"Three bullets left in one gun," she answered.

"What about the others?" he asked.

"Empty," she shrugged.

"Why does that always happen?" Russell said dryly as he tried to figure something out.

"Bad planning," she answered him simply, as if she'd already thought of it.

"What's that mean?" he asked her, he was still angry but now curiosity was winning out.

"A gun is the wrong weapon for you. I noticed it when we played chess and when you engage in a unarmed combat, you excel at controlling a situation to the best of your abilities, you examine different attacks and responses and plan accordingly. You have a very patient, cerebral, controlled aspect to your approach. The aspects of a firearm counter this… a gun is a weapon of emotion, not reason, cause and effect are minimal, the ease of the weapon combined with the seemingly extensive ammunition available makes it easy for a person to begin shooting and lose track of their expenditures. You should use a weapon that fits you better, something that makes you consider each shot closer and makes you less prone to waste, the ease of pulling the trigger means you don't stop to think about the consequences… you need a weapon of thought less than one of emotion, of control not waste, and of patience not instant gratification," she explained her analysis.

"Such a weapon don't exist, even a sniper rifle don't fit that quite right," Russell dismissed.

"No gun, of any kind, will, pulling a trigger is simply too easy, when something becomes that easy there is no thought to it," she reminded him.

"I ain't goin' at nobody with a sword if'n that's what you're sayin'," he answered her dismissively.

"Just… talk to Inara when we get back, she will know the perfect weapon for you," she told him with an exasperated sigh and a roll of her eyes. Russell took a moment to think this over before she felt him reorient his focus to the task at hand.

"This is gunna be fun… I got GRIMM lookin' inta an escape route," he told her.

"Then you will not mind the bounty on my head," she mentioned.

"You had a bounty on your head for a while now," he shrugged.

"The Alliance has upgraded the price, information on myself and anybody seen with me is now worth 250,000 platinum," she informed him.

"I'm gunna need a change of clothes," he informed her with a sigh.

"I took the liberty of securing some for us both… I'm afraid you'll have to leave your armor someplace," she told him.

"Kitten, the escape plan I got… it requires us ta do somethin' a lil bit crazy," he began to explain to her.

"That would depend on how loosely one defines the phrase 'little bit', would it not?" she asked him with a knowing smirk. "You plan to steal an Alliance Gunship from their military base… which will require a known fugitive and a covert dissident to sneak into an Alliance facility," she clarified.

"You disapprove?" he asked her.

"I am surprised that with your ego it has taken you this long to try something of the sort," she answered with an unconcerned shrug. "Simon would never let me do this," she told him a moment later. "I think it sounds… fun," she admitted after a moment, she was enjoying the idea of the challenge.