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Text in italics is a flashback.
Set 6 years after FF as we know and love it. Serenity was attacked by Reavers; everyone escaped except Mal who stayed behind with his ship. Everyone else was lost and scattered to the winds. This is their story.
Scattered to the Wind
Chapter 1: Letters, Pseudonyms and Grease FairiesSimon leant back in his chair, propped his feet on the coffee table and continued to read the medical journal in his hand. River came barrelling into the room clutching a handful of post.
"We have letters! All of us. Jayne's coming." She answered his question before he asked it.
She flung herself into a chair in their spacious lounge in their small house on the outer outer rim world, Tanulia. River threw the letters at him so he could look at them. She seemed so normal now that he almost couldn't remember when she hadn't been like this. The cocktail of drugs he gave her was working. She only had her 'moments' when she was really tired or sick or something.
He frowned at the writing, there was something familiar there but he couldn't quite place it. The names read Grace Scott and Dr. Ryan Scott – their aliases; sometimes he completely forgot their old names it had been so long.
Jayne entered the room and nodded to Simon. "So what's the post then?" Round his neck was a bright orange knitted scarf, and Simon didn't need to ask to know it was a Mama Cobb creation.
Simon flicked through the letters. He passed one to Jayne, and frowned at the other one. "Its for Book," a pause. "All the same handwriting."
Jayne looked up from the letter. "That's odd. Book's been dead nigh on three years now."
"I know that Jayne." Simon thought back to nursing the dying Shepard and shuddered inwardly.
Jayne shrugged good naturedly, and sat in the other chair in the room. It had taken a long time to work out where he and Simon stood with each other. But now they were firm friends. They had struggled with the lack of first Mal's mediation and then Book's. If it hadn't been for Book and River, Simon and Jayne would have come to blows long ago. What started off as an uneasy truce was now a strong friendship. Jayne kept up his smuggling business, buying and selling whatever came his way. Simon and River kept their heads down.
Jayne slit open his letter and squinted at the page. "Jayne… I know you ha…haven't changed. You still rush…headlong into situ…situations and you will with this. Come alone." He frowned at the page. "Its not signed. And there's a string of co-ordinates for Echo."
Simon and River opened their letters at the same time, and started reading. Simon started in shock. The first word on the page was 'Simon', despite his alias on the outside of the envelope. River finished first and looked up.
"What does yours say Simon?"
He read it out. "Simon. I know you'll be sceptical about this; it's in your nature. But this is in your best interests. I'm not Alliance so don't be worryin'." He showed Jayne the letter. "Same co-ordinates. No signature. River?"
"Dear River, I know you've taken care of your daft big brother and kept him out of mischief. Trust me, I know its hard but you should."
"Well this is mighty irregular," Jayne said.
Simon nodded, and dropped Book's letter on the table. "Do we go?"
Kaylee rolled over and squinted in the early morning sunlight. Someone was hollering her name downstairs.
"Kaylee!"
"Coming Mama," she cried back.
She sat up and yawned. She'd been dreaming. About a pink dress and a dance, so many years ago. She shook that thought away. It didn't do no good to think about those days. But she had, for years. Of Him. Of little River and even of Jayne. It was as if Serenity's second shuttle had melted from the face of the 'verse.
They'd gone back in Inara's shuttle for Mal and Serenity, but she was gone. No Reavers, nothing. No sign of Mal. It had been a week before they could get back. Zoë had voiced their fears. Mal was dead at Reaver hands and Serenity was now scrap metal or a Reaver ship. Kaylee remembered crying a lot back then. Without their captain they all seemed lost. Kaylee asked to come home. It was only meant to be temporary but now six years later she was still here. Working with her daddy when there was work to be done.
She had worked so hard to try and find the others, but she didn't really know where to look. Jayne had even kept himself off the Alliance wanted list. That wasn't like Jayne. That probably meant he was dead. And if Jayne was dead, what hope did Simon and River have? She'd seen the wanted bulletins in town for the Tams, but they were old, not updated. River, all wide-eyed and afraid. Simon looking every inch the upper class good boy. She prayed so hard that the Alliance didn't have them. There had been other men in those intervening years, but nothing concrete. Her parents bugged her about never finding the 'right' man, truth was she had, but he was gone. Lost to the 'verse, and her, forever.
Kaylee felt tears brimming in her eyes and brushed at them angrily. These people were long dead; crying now wouldn't bring them back.
Kaylee shoved the covers off her, and padded downstairs in her pyjamas. These consisted of a pair of drawstring trousers, striped in purples and a pink strappy top. She kissed her mama on the cheek, who handed her a letter. This in itself wasn't strange. Zoë and Wash sent her letters all the time, she knew where they were living; Inara was harder to track down with her work but she always sent Kaylee pretty things from her travels.
Kaylee glanced at the writing on the envelope, it seemed familiar but she didn't pay it much heed. She ripped it open with her usual exuberance and scanned the letter.
'Kaylee, mei mei. I don't want you to be alone anymore. I want you to see tranquillity, one last time.'