Zoe leaned forward over the pilot's chair and looked out across the vista of Persephone. She was worried.

She had come looking for Wash, as she needed to share the information that was now churning in her mind - but as usual he was avoiding her. There'd apparently been some kind of problem with Serenity's engine that Kaylee needed help with. Something to do with the transmission. Which was gonna tie him up - "most of the evening".

More like his transmission, she thought angrily. Ever since she had brought up the subject of a family he'd been as jittery as a gorram jackrabbit and just as hard to pin down. She understood his reticence of course. She just wasn't used to him avoidin' a subject. Normally it was him that chased her, not the other way round.

For the moment though, she reasoned, that was another problem for another time. Right this second she had sumthin' more pressing to deal with.

River.

The girl had come to her earlier that afternoon. Zoe'd been clearing the shuttle like Mal'd asked. River had crept up behind her, as quiet as a mouse, just as she'd been wrapping up the last of the baise curtains Inara had left behind.

"Zoe?" the young's woman's voice had trembled, echoing slightly around the now empty vessel.

Zoe started, and turned. "River, honey! If there's one thing I'd hoped you'd picked up on your time with us is that it ain't a wise move to creep up on me, or Mal , ever…..even if all we're armed with is some rather attractive upholstery."

She smiled at the girl, hoping for some reaction, but receiving none. "I'm particularly mean with cushions." Zoe prodded.

But River just fixed her with that slightly vacant, but simultaneously alert stare she so often wore. Then she said, adopting a tone she recognised as Mal's: "Rule One: No touching guns."

Zoe nodded, cautiously. Uh, she thought, I know she's only a few years off twenty but when she fixes me with that look even my blood cools. She ain't right. Still, it ain't for me to question the Captain on this.

"Uh..yes honey, well done," she said, instead. "That sure is an important rule. Afterall we don't want to find you creepin' around –"

"I broke it," the girlthen blurted. "Killed kitty." And then her face had crumbled.

It had taken Zoe a while to understand after that. The girl began to decant a sea of rhymes and tales that created a wild haystack in which Zoe had to find a needle of clarity. It hadn't helped that River had also regularly collapsed into near-hysteria while following some other line of thought about something… blue?

But after a long period, she had got to grips with what she thought River was telling her. That she - not the gorram paid muscle - had killed that gorram beast of a desert cat - andwhat's more she didn't know how. And that she was afraid she was a threat to Serenity - and her crew.

The girl also seemed to think that Zoe already suspected this. When it became clear that Zoe had had no idea, River had quietened and withdrawn. Her face had paled into an expression offearful resignation. That look, thought Zoe, is like she's just signed her own death warrant. But she had no clues as to why.

But what to do now? Zoe lowered herself into the pilot chair. Distractedly, she picked up one of her husband's plastic toys and started to twist it in her hands. Where the hell was the Captain when you needed him.

The girl obviously believed she was capable of killin'. Now of course Kaylee had also made this claim, which had been downright unsettlin', but at that point River herself had not seemed convinced, thought Zoe.Almost as if she herself had thought that if she had done anything like Kaylee claimed, it had been a dream, or a fluke.

But not now. The girl was convinced that she had shot that beast, not Jayne. Now the thing was, had she convinced herself of this – or was it really true?

Mal was due back later tonight. Zoe considered. She couldn't go find him, mainly 'cos she had no idea where he was – but more importantly, if River truly represented a danger, she also couldn't leave the ship. Someone with a mind to shootin' had to stay on board.

She had confined the girl to quarters so far - but all the same, would that stop her if she got a mind to murder? Not even the girl seemed to know. Which, realised Zoe, put the whole question of the Tams bein' here at all back on the table.

One thing became clear however. She knew that they were unlikely to get the truth from Jayne, even if he did come back. Gorram lying piece of...

Zoe clenched her jaw.

So somehow, she and Mal had to find out the truth for themselves. And then, decide what the hell to do, and fast.

River sat huddled in her room, her arms wrapped around her legs. Simon had come in just an hour ago, his face fixed with concern, but she had waved him away with excuses. She was ill. It was a reaction to the drugs.

Thankfully, he had trusted her. Believed her. She couldn't tell him the truth. That was she was terrified of what was about to happen – and of his reaction when he found out.

Would he still love her? Would he stay with her, knowing what she might do? Or had he, understandably, reached his limit of self-sacrifice?

He was a doctor. He was built to save lives. She washis antitheses.

Still, she realised dully, she would no doubt soon find out. She rocked gently to and fro, as she started to revisit her decision to tell Zoe what had happened down on the terraform. And how she had that gun in the first place.

She had madethat decisionconvinced that the whispered conversations and dark looks she had seen pass between Mal and Zoe had meant they had known. Afterall, it stood to reason that Jayne would have told them, after their last meeting. The vengeful feelings she had felt from him that evening had been like a hurricane.

Of course, River had no idea that the very hurricane she had created within him had died down only moments later. That the words she had spoken had appeared to whip up a storm, when really they – and the feelings they had evoked in him – had actually knocked the wind out of his sails. And that at that very moment, he was looking down his glass, unable to understand why he felt half the man he did a week before.

But River had also confessed to Zoe because she had reached a point that she could no longer keep her fears about her powers to herself . For as much as she was terrified what Mal may decide – and what Simon may think - she was equally terrified what she could do if any of the crew gave her reason to believe she was under attack.

Over the days that Jayne had laid low in his bunk, she had gone through a million possibilities of how this could happen, in her head. Mal pulling a gun on her if she surprised him. Zoe accidentally striking her. Perhaps even Wash appearing to fly into danger?

Were these things enough to unlock her safety catch? And for her to move into that cold, unfeeling dreamlike state she had felt with Niska's crew and the terraform creature?

There was no way to be sure. But equally, it appeared there was no safe way of finding out. Her shooting lesson had proved that such situations had to be real, in order for her to react.

Of course, she reasoned, it may be that her brain could detect the difference between an accidental and intended attack. Or somehow refuse to strike a person who she cared about. But it would mean that someone would have to take a risk. To pretend to strike her, to see.

Who would take that risk? It was too much to ask of anyone. In fact, the only person that might – the stupid, beautiful boy – would be Simon. She couldn't bear to bring him injury. Or.. death.

There was a possibility that she might stop at injuring an attacker, rather than killing. But she knew in her heart that she had not been built for mercy. Once she started – whether it be with weapon or by hand – she knew that she would never.

Stop.

Unless her attacker stopped her first.

River looked down at her hands.

"What am I?"