Wash and Zoë are lying in bed. Wash props himself up on one elbow and looks at his wife.
"I don't want you to go today."
"Why? I'll be with Mal…"
"That's what worries me. He's getting reckless Zoë. Jobs in the Core? You know we don't do that. Promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise." She grins wickedly at him.
Wash starts to sing to her.
"I like the way your sparkling earrings lay,
against your skin, so brown
and I wanna sleep with you
in the desert tonight
with a billion stars all around
'cause I gotta peaceful easy feeling
and I know you won't let me down
'cause I'm already standing on the ground
And I found out a long time ago
what a woman can do to your soul
Ah, but she can't take you anyway
You don't already know how to go
and I gotta peaceful, easy feeling
and I know you won't let me down
'cause I'm already standing on the ground
I get this feeling I may know you
as a lover and a friend
but this voice keeps whispering
in my other ear, tells me
I may never see you again
'cause I get a peaceful, easy feeling
and I know you won't let me down
'cause I'm already standing on the ground
'cause I'm already standing...
on the ground
oooo, oooo."
Zoë grabs him and kisses him passionately. Blackout.
Mal glares at the siblings. "That's it! Get off my gorram boat!"
"What?" Simon looks horrified.
"Go for a walk. Get some food. Shop for all I gorram care! Just get out of my sight for an hour or two. Don't get into trouble. Dong ma? Out, Out now! OUT!"
The Sad Café
Simon and River are walking through the back streets of Ariel, keeping to quiet empty roads and trying to look inconspicuous. Simon is wearing clothes more suited to Mal, tight pants and a beige shirt, the collar open with suspenders, and River has on a long black skirt and bluey-purple blouse of Inara's. Her hair is piled up onto of her head.
River takes Simon's arm and grins at him.
"Remember when we used to live like this?" River said her eyes gleaming. "Free, easy…"
Simon nods.
"We used to go out Simon. No hiding then."
Simon ssshh's her, but she starts to sing.
"Out in the shiny night the rain was softly falling
The tracks that ran down the boulevard
had all been washed away
Out of the silver light the past came softly calling
And I remembered the times we spent
Inside the Sad Café.
Oh, it seemed like a holy place
Protected by amazing grace
And we would sing right out loud
The things we could not say
We thought we could change this world
With words like "love" and "freedom"
We were part of the lonely crowd
Inside the Sad Café"
River gets hold of his hands and makes him dance with her. He finally smiles and sings to her.
"Oh, expecting to fly
We would meet on that beautiful shore
in the sweet by and by
Some of their dreams came true
Some just passed away
And some of them stayed behind
Inside the Sad Café"
Simon turns River in a perfect pirouette, and she sings back to him.
"The clouds rolled in and hid that shore
now that Glory Train,
it don't stop here no more"
Simon puts a finger on her lips, and twirls her closer to him with a brotherly smile. They dance together. Just being two people without a care in the world.
"Now I look at the years gone by
And wonder at the powers that be
I don't know why fortune smiles on some
And lets the rest go free"
River puts her head on his shoulder, and sings very quietly against it.
"Maybe the time has drawn the faces I recall
But things in this life change very slowly
If they ever change at all
There's no use in asking why
It just turned out that way
So meet me at midnight, baby
Inside the Sad Cafe
Why don't you meet me at midnight, baby
Inside the Sad Café"
Simon steps away and bows theatrically to River. "Thank you for the dance mei mei."
In the next second someone steps from the shadows, and bodily picks River off her feet. She screams, as three more men leap on Simon. The man holding her covers her mouth with his hand. Simon struggles and manages to hit out at one. Two of the men grab his arms and the third punches him in the face. Simon spits blood out, as a second punch hits him in the solar plexus. He sags, winded in the men's arms. The man's laughs and punches him round the head. The men drop him and leave him lying in the gutter. River keeps screaming through the man's hand.
End scene.