Disclaimer: I own none of these characters; they are the intellectual property of Joss Whedon, I would imagine. I am using them without permission or the intent to earn money from their use.
***
Now, I got nothing against innocence, as a rule. It's a good enough thing for those who got it. Take Kaylee, for instance. She's about as innocent as it is possible for a person to be, and she's always happy, near as I can tell.
It ain't such a happy thing for those of us without it, but maybe that's not a bad thing. I don't have to worry about Zoe, and even Wash and Jayne, because I know they don't shock easy, and they understand the kind of darkness that eats men's souls out here in the black. Kaylee doesn't, and I don't ever want her to.
I wouldn't mind if this purplebelly did, though.
It's clear, by the way he's lookin' at me, that he thinks he's tough. He thinks he's seen it all. Snippy little remarks about smuggling, the way he looks at me when he calls me "Sergeant." He ain't ever been farther away from his clean, happy little planet than he is now, but he thinks he knows every gorram thing there is to know about life out here, about the war, about me.
And I gotta say, his innocence ain't doing me much good. How am I supposed to explain to this kid the fear that crawls up your back when you hear the word reaver in these parts, how it tightens your throat and makes it hard to breathe? How do I make him understand why people I know, friends even, killed themselves rather than be taken alive? How am I gonna tell him about the pile of bodies we found on that ship?
I can't. He can't understand. I could talk 'til I was blue in the face, and he'd think I was lying to save my own skin. There's something real ironic about having a green kid in a clean-pressed uniform tell you about "men in his position." How many times has he heard about reaver attacks and laughed? How many times has he had fellas like me sitting across from him, fellas he thinks are cold-blooded murderers, and smirked at them without being scared they'd jump up and knife him?
Too gorram innocent. The reavers are getting bolder these days. May be there'll come a time when Harken's shiny Alliance ship won't scare them off, and he'll see with his own eyes what happens out here to people who ain't alert, who go too far from places they know and dismiss the locals' warnings.
Maybe, someday. But I don't intend to be here when it happens.
"It won't matter! You won't find him. But I know where he'll go."