Disclaimer remains the same, check Intro for more info and soundtrack suggestions. :)

No one was around, so Miles Cromwell was taking the opportunity to orient himself on the new ship, which he thought was a piece of junk. He was studiously avoiding the engine room, because the mechanic was a bit cheerier than could be stomached when one hadn't eaten for several days. True enough, Serenity had food aboard, and would give you a four-course meal if you liked oatmeal. Miles couldn't abide oatmeal much, but he figured he'd be learning to choke down the swill if it was the last thing he did.

The captain and his pilot and the pilot's wife, who seemed to be the captain's right-hand-man, were up on the bridge. The man they all referred to as "Jayne," who seemed to Miles little more than a thug-for-hire, was cleaning two guns at the galley's table, which seemed to Miles odd. Why clean your weapons at a place where you ate? That reminded him of something someone had once said to him: "Don't shoot where you eat." But who had said such a thing, and why? Miles had cleaned a gun – he had one in his pack, and knew its workings as intimately as he knew the worship service on Wanderlust – but never at a table where he ate.

Miles moved from the galley to the corridor near the infirmary. He looked in through the window. The doctor – though he seemed far too young to be a doctor, in Miles's opinion – was sitting at the counter in the corner, head bent over a leather-bound book. Where the boy had gotten such a book was beyond Miles; he hadn't seen any books of that kind – or any books other than his own, for that matter – on Wanderlust in all the time he'd been there.

And then there was the puzzle of the little girl in the bed across the infirmary. Or, he corrected himself, the girl. She was by no means a child physically, though maybe mentally, she wasn't all there. She'd been normal-looking when Miles had boarded Serenity, but he was changing his mind about that. She was too skinny, too pale, too tiny to be a useful part of this crew. And there was something odd about her voice, something odd about the way she moved, graceful like. It reminded Miles of something, but, as usual, he couldn't remember what.

Miles wound his way through the cargo hold and back down the clattering stairs to the dining room. Jayne had mysteriously disappeared, as had his weapons. The mechanic was back in the seat she'd been in earlier, drinking something from a tin mug. Upon seeing him, her face lit up like lights at Christmas. "Mr. Cromwell!"

"Miles, please."

"Miles, then," she said with an even bigger smile. "Want some oatmeal? I can fix ya some quick like."

"No thank you," he hurried to assure her. "I just… Kaylee, is it?" Upon her nod, he continued, "I just have some questions."

"I'd hope t' have the answers for ya!" She set her mug on the table. He peered down into it for a moment as though he could divine the answers there, but all he saw was brown liquid with something white floating in it.

His stomach turning, he leaned away from the mug, and saw her smiling face yet again. "Uh… the girl, what's wrong with her?"

Instantly the smile disappeared and was replaced by a look of utter confusion. "Wrong? With River? Nothin' more than's wrong with any o' the rest o' us."

So the girl had a name. River. For some reason, he could just tell this information would be important to him at some point. Miles tucked it in his brain's files, which were woefully lacking. "The doctor, he seems very attached to her…"

"Why shouldn't he? He's her brother." She was still looking suspiciously at him.

Brother. His utter devotion and attempt to keep her suffering quiet suddenly made sense to Miles. "Any chance you know where we're setting down next?"

Finally the smile returned to her face, and it was like the sun popping out after days of storms. "We're settin' down in a bit of a place called Spake's Fault," she answered. "A little bit o' nothin' much… but I suppose after Wanderlust anything looks nice t' ya."

He nodded in assent. "Yes, it does. Thank you kindly, Kaylee."

"Anythin' t' be of service t' ya!" she said, grinning broadly and taking a swig from the mug of disgusting beverage.

Miles turned to leave and was nearly broadsided by Jayne. "Watch where yer goin'," the thug said.

"My apologies," Miles said dryly, and proceeded out of the dining room.

"River!" he heard someone shouting. "River, get back here!"

Miles leaned against the wall, listening to the commotion from down the hallway. Before the doctor could say anything else, the girl darted past him, giggling maniacally. There was a thump as she hit someone else, and then Miles heard the captain say, "Watch yerself, girlie! Y' keep runnin' bout like that and there'll be trouble a' foot!"

"What's the news, Cap'n?" he heard Kaylee ask.

Before he could answer, a voice crackled over the intercom. Miles recognized the voice as that of the pilot. "Uh… guys? We've got trouble. And it's big. And scary. Lemme flash it down t' ya."

Miles rounded the corner to see Mal, Zoë, Jayne, Kaylee, the girl, the Companion, and the doctor staring at the screen. On it was projected a huge man with scars puckering his ugly face. "Cap'n Malcolm Reynolds," the ugly man chuckled. "Bin waitin' a while t' see ya. Yer not the easiest face in the verse t' find, ya know?"

"I try to keep it that way," Mal answered. "And who might you be?"

"Ah, lemme introduce meself," the ugly man replied. "I'm no other than Falstaff Rizzly. And I believe you have two things I want."

"Oh, do we?" Mal asked, as though he was surprised.

"Well, make that three," the man amended. "You've picked up a passenger, haven'tcha?"

"I fail to see what business that is of yours."

"Well, you keep im from me, it'll become yer business faster then you kin spit." The ugly man snorted and drew a massive hand across his nose, which was bisected by two scars. "And what's more, you've got a girl."

"Oh, God, not this again," Jayne muttered. "Everybody wants her so bad, they kin have her."

"Jayne, you're talking," Mal said out of the corner of his mouth.

"This girl… she'll tell ya why that man you've got on board's nothin' but trouble," Falstaff Rizzly continued. Then he smiled, which looked as out of place on his face as a tattoo of a spider monkey would have looked out of place on the lovely Companion's face. "He's nothin' but trouble, mark m' words, Cap'n."

"What's the third thing?" Mal demanded.

"Believe it's in yer cargo hold. You may've picked it up awhile ago; you may not even remember why you've got it. Well, it's not yers. You set down anywhere in this verse, we're all over ya." He smiled again. "My men are the best trained anywhere in the verse."

"Funny, the Alliance thinks the same thing of their men," Mal informed him.

"Well, ya best be thinkin' what you've got that doesn't belong t' ya. Although, considerin' the work ya do, I'd wager there's a lot on board that's not yers." Rizzly leaned forward, close enough to tip his hat to the assembled audience, which he did. "Be seein' ya."

The wave clicked off, and Wash's voice said via intercom, "What in the hell was that?"

"His name's Falstaff Rizzly," Mal answered.

"What does he want, you wager?" Zoë asked.

Mal shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"He's going to take me."

"River," Simon said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "River, no one's taking you anywhere."

"Cept maybe back t' bed," Jayne muttered, but quieted upon the captain's death glare.

"He's going to take me and you'll never see me again."

"No one's taking you anywhere," Simon repeated.

"Take her to bed," Mal said quietly to Simon, who nodded.

"He isn't who he told you is! He remembers! He remembers! They're going to kill us all and he's going to sit there and drink our blood from his cup! He's going to bathe in it, laugh at us for being silly enough to die and he's a liar! He's always lying and cheating and taking from the rich!"

"River," Simon said, more urgently, but still trying to be calm. "Come on."

"No!" she shrieked. "He is lying! Look deep in his eyes, he's not who he says he can be!"

No one saw it coming, least of all Miles. Before anyone could blink, the girl had scooped up a wrench Kaylee had left on the table, and clunked Miles in the head. He managed to stumble down the hallway, clutching his head, dizzy. With her other hand, she drew a knife no one had noticed missing from her boot and took a swing at Simon with both weapons. He ducked, trying to grab her around the stomach, and sustained a long cut over his eyebrow and possibly a concussion.

"What in the ruttin' hell's the word, Doc?" Mal yelled, but Simon was too busy clutching his forehead to hear.

Mal and Zoë had drawn their guns, as had Jayne, but none of them moved to fire for fear of hitting someone innocent. River moved in between them, keeping the door behind her at all times.

"Doc, ya got a drug fer this?" Jayne demanded.

Groggy from the pain, Simon managed to shake his head in the negative before he collapsed on the floor. Kaylee instantly knelt next to him.

River applied the wrench to Mal's forehead and then sliced him across the arm with the knife. Jayne moved carefully around her, remembering last time's crotch-grabbing incident. "What's the gorram word to put her sleepy-bye?"

"I don't know," Zoë said worriedly, wishing that Simon had taught it to them.

"He isn't on your side! He's going to kill us all in our sleep!" River shrieked.

"River," Mal said cautiously. "River, think about what yer doin'."

"Shoot the gorram girl!" Jayne said to Mal.

"He's going to kill you," she said, softer, shaking her head as though in disbelief. "You're never going to see it coming. Don't say I didn't warn you… his hands, his hands!"

Mal moved to jump for her. He missed, knocking the arm with the knife across her face. She didn't even flinch as the knife ran temple to chin, opening up her face like a crevasse in an earthquake. With one last pained glance at Mal, she ducked out the door and ran towards the passenger's bunk.

Down the hall, she found his tiny room. Miles had managed to stumble into his room and now lay on the floor, unconscious. Uncomprehending as to what had happened, she put a hand to her face and brought it away bloody. She wiped it on her dress. Then she moved to lock the door. They would be coming after her. And Simon would put her to sleep again, but before he did, she had to show them that they were wrong about their "peaceful" passenger.