He...got her," Jayne choked out, struggling to breathe and to remain conscious.

"Who got who?" Mal asked, confused. "And where the hell is that good for nothin' Doc?"

An anguished Kaylee answered, pointing to her room down the hall, "Oh, Cap'n...I doped him." She tried valiantly to staunch the blood running from Jayne's chest.

Zoe hastily dropped a blanket on him and tried to help her.

Spitting blood with every word, Jayne tried to explain, "River. He got...my girl."

Only slightly concerned at the proprietary way Jayne had said that, the fact that she'd been in his room (not her own), and of why Jayne had been naked at the time of the incident, Mal grabbed Jayne's face and forced him to look at him.

"Jayne, you gotta focus. Who got her, and which way did they go?"

"M'lliance CO--...ordered Morgan...killed."

At his answer, Malcolm Reynolds fumed and saw red.

"Where's his bag?" he barked at Kaylee.

Zoe, knowing Mal's experience with real wounds, looked up and said, "Sir?"

"Where's the Doc's bag?" he repeated.

Kaylee responded, still crying, "In...my room."

Angrily, he hurried to her door and kicked it in. He found the bag and rummaged through it, making sure nothing fell out. Finally finding what he was looking for, he strode over to the unconscious Simon where he lay on the bed and dosed him with a powerful stimulant.

As he shook off the drug-induced fog, Simon realized that Mal was hovering over him.

"Thank God. Captain, you've got to do something--"

Cutting him off, Mal snapped, "Not now, Doc." He then dragged the man onto his unsteady feet, grabbed the medical bag, and shoved him out of the room.

"But..."

"We have more pressing needs right now," the irate Captain barked as he helped him down the hall.

When it dawned on Simon where they were heading, he sobered up a bit more. "River?" he called, panicked, as he hurried ahead of Mal, rounded the doorway, and skidded to a halt in Jayne's room.

"What happened?" he asked, frightened but hopeful that his sister had caused this. Because in his mind, Jayne deserved it.

Zoe stood up and yanked him over to a now barely breathing Jayne. "Fix him," she ordered.

"What? And Why? No doubt whatever occurred here--"

Malcolm stepped to him, and faced him down. "Doc, I got no time to quarrel with you. Do your gorram job, NOW!"

Kaylee looked up at him and pleaded, "Please Simon! You gotta do somethin'. Somebody...they got River and we're gonna need Jayne if you wanna get her back."

Horrified that she had been taken, Simon looked down at Jayne. She's right, he admitted to himself. He might not like the Merc, but he knew that they would need his skills to retrieve her.

As he knelt to do what he could for the injured man, Jayne opened his eyes and grabbed the younger man's hand in a surprisingly forceful grip.

"I'm...sorry. Did...the best I...could to pro...tect her," he told him, choking on his own blood. And then he mercifully passed out.

In those few seconds Simon could hear the sincerity in the big man's voice and could see the anguish and fear in his eyes before they closed.

Swallowing his hatred of the man, the Trauma Surgeon in Simon kicked in and he set to work on Jayne's many knife wounds.