Disclaimer's the same as always. For this chapter I recommend: Gotta Get Thru This - Daniel Bedingfield. Read on!

Miles was standing over River in the hold. She was looking up at him with fear and hatred in her eyes. "Stay away from me I'll kill you."

"Such a pretty girl. You wouldn't kill me, would you, pretty little one?" He gently stroked her hair.

"Stay away from my sister," Simon demanded, arriving in the locker just in time. "You hear me? Don't touch her."

Miles swung around to face the doctor and the mechanic, and they could see he was carrying his small – but probably perfectly effective – gun. "You were saying something?"

"Kaylee, run and get Mal," Simon whispered.

"You're not going anywhere," Miles said, pointing the gun at Kaylee. "Stay here, why don't you, and we'll have a conversation."

"Simon," River said, "don't put me to sleep."

"Why would I do that, mei-mei?" Simon asked. He couldn't see the logic in that; having River asleep was probably the worst thing that could happen now.

"Just don't."

"I won't, I promise," Simon assured her.

"You tell me exactly what's been told to you by Falstaff Rizzly," Miles demanded, swinging back around to face River. "You tell me where he is."

"The name does not comprehend," River said, staring up at the man and his gun. "Wish I had a gun."

"Oh, honey, you? With a gun?" Kaylee said gently.

"She doesn't know anything," Simon interjected, trying to be helpful.

"Not your business anymore. He's coming to kill us and you'll never see it coming," River informed Miles.

"Shhh, River."

"Oh, no, keep talking, darling," Miles said with an eerie smile. He drew something out of his pocket, and knelt, his back to Kaylee and Simon. "I wouldn't try running off, even though you think I can't see you. I have, to quote an old but odd expression, eyes in the back of my head."

"What are you doing?" Simon asked worriedly, shifting from one foot to the other, trying to see what Miles was doing.

"You promised no more needles!" River shrieked suddenly. "No more needles! You can't just stick me like a prize pig and expect me to bleed for you!"

"What are you doing?" Simon demanded.

"She'll tell us all in due time."

"HELP!" Kaylee yelled. "CAP'N!"

"Oh, dear," Miles said sadly. "That was a bad move."

"Maybe fer you it was," Kaylee said, as they heard footsteps start running towards them.

"No more needles!" River screamed.

Simon rushed to Miles, and grabbed the older man's shoulder, trying to pull him away from River. "Bad idea, boy," Miles said. "You go about this badly, there's an embolism in this needle with her name on it."

River's eyes went wide. "Take him now before oh God oh God oh God they're coming and I'm not dead I know I'm not!"

"What is that?" Simon asked warily, watching Miles prepare a very large hypodermic needle with some sort of green drug.

"Oh, nothing to concern yourself with, Doc," Miles said, almost genially. "I was trained as a doctor before getting dumped on Wanderlust. I'll take very good care of your sister… though I'd expect her to be a mite crazier after I'm done. Not that you'll notice… she's off the deep end, as they say, huh?"

"What are you doing?" Simon demanded.

Footsteps pounded on the walk and Mal and Jayne appeared. "What's he doin'?" Jayne asked.

"Hurtin' River! He's gonna hurt her!" Kaylee answered, panic in her voice.

"Oh, dear Captain. Would I hurt your most valuable asset, after you were so nice to grant me safe passage?"

"No more needles!"

"Won't be safe passage any more if you hurt her," Mal said. "The only thing you'll be seein' for the next part o' the journey'll be the hold."

"Let's not do anything hasty," Simon said slowly, watching as Miles brought the needle ever closer to River's arm.

"Do somethin' hasty? Ruttin' hell I'm doin' somethin' hasty!" Jayne said, drawing his gun.

"Jayne! No shooting!" Mal ordered, then, in a lower voice, "We can't hurt River."

"Heck, I'm not gonna hit Crazy! I'm gonna knock some sense into Mr. Super-Spy there!"

"I'd advise against that," Miles said. "Shooting, I mean. It'll only heap more trouble on your already-troubled heads."

"Please, Simon, no more needles," River begged, almost to the point of tears. "Tell him, no more."

"It's okay, mei-mei," Simon promised her, even though he could not see how it would ever be okay, not with some crazy spy about to inject her with a drug that would do who-knows-what.

"If you let me finish my operation, I'll let you go on your merry way," Miles said, still holding the needle poised above River's arm. "If you interrupt me and I mess this up, well, it'll be on your head when we're attacked by Falstaff Rizzly without warning."

"I'd say this guy remembered an awful lot of important go-se very, very fast," Jayne said dryly.

Miles smiled. "Selective memory loss, they called it. They promised it would all come back someday… and today is that day."

"Don't hurt River," Kaylee pleaded. "Please? She's been through so much already, what's the need of troublin' her any more?"

Miles had turned to look at her, and without warning, River swung her arm in a bad parody of a punch, trying to get it to connect with the bad guy's head. Before anyone else could move, Miles had swung around, grabbed her moving arm, and stuck it with the needle. River screamed.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then Jayne, appearing to come to his senses, aimed his gun at Miles. Miles dropped the needle and scooped up his gun, pointing it at Jayne, who he apparently thought was his only threat.

Before anyone could shoot anyone, River let out another scream, followed by a gasp. Her body contracted, her back arching. Her head slammed against the wall behind her. Her hands began to move convulsively, then her legs, until her whole body was shaking.

"What did you do?" Simon asked, infuriated.

"Shoot the gorram idiot!" Jayne yelled to Mal. Then he added, "I mean the spy, not Crazy, of course!"

River's back arched again and her head thumped the wall once more. The manacles swung with her moving arms, clanking and scraping the grating.

"Shoot him or I will!" Jayne said angrily, in disgust.

Simon grabbed River's arms and began undoing the locks holding her to the grate. "Kaylee, hold her legs!"

The mechanic knelt to do as the doctor asked. Zoë and Inara appeared in the doorway; Zoë's gun was drawn. She quick-glanced at Simon and Kaylee, wrestling with River, who was mid-seizure, and Jayne and Mal, who had their guns drawn and focused on Miles, who was pointing his own gun – small but probably perfectly effective – right back. "What's going on, sir?" she asked calmly.

"This maniac did somethin' t' Crazy," Jayne filled her in, even though he was not the "sir" she had been addressing.

"What did you do?" Mal asked. "I'll give you a chance to answer fer yerself."

Miles was still smiling his eerie, serial killer smile. "Captain, she'll be fine. Do you think I'd harm your most valuable asset?"

"My most valuable asset right now's this here gun," Mal answered. "Now, answer me. What did you do to her?"

River sucked in a deep breath, her first in several minutes. Her lips were turning blue, and Simon, looking at her hands, saw her nail-beds going dusky blue as well. Kaylee ducked as one of the girl's bare feet attempted to connect with her head, though she knew it was probably an accident; River was in no position to be kicking anybody with intent to kick. Simon's eyes had gone small and angry as he glared at Miles's back, but his voice was full of panic as he spoke to River. "Mei-mei, listen to me. Come on, come back to us. Mei-mei, can you hear me?"

"Shoot the ruttin' fool!" Jayne said ferociously. "I'm still referrin' to Mr. Bad-Spy himself, course."

With a shake of his head, still smiling, Miles said, "She'll be fine in a few minutes, and she'll tell me exactly what I need to know."

"I'll tell you what you need to know," Mal said. "I'm downright angry with you, stranger."

"Shoot him!" Jayne yelled. "He is a ruttin' fool that don't deserve t' live much longer! Look what he did t' Crazy!"

"Violence isn't the answer," Miles said.

"Like hell it ain't!"

"River," Simon said, trying to hold down his panic, though it was obviously growing in an exponential way, "can you hear me? Come on, come on…"

"Cap'n," Kaylee said despairingly, her eyes wet with tears and looking at the captain.

"It'll be all right, Kaylee, don't you fret your pretty head," Inara said from the doorway. Miles turned to look at her, and when he did, Mal shot him in the knee.

"Okay, move!" Mal ordered, his gun still trained on the spy, who had crumpled into a ball, clutching his knee, which was now sporting a lovely bullet hole. Mal stepped forward carefully, until he could pluck the gun from the spy's limp hands. "Jayne, take River to the infirmary."

The thug nodded and scooped up the girl, who appeared to weigh less than a feather in his large arms. He ducked as her spastic arms nearly clocked him in the head, and struggled all the way out of the storage locker, her body convulsing and her back arching in his arms. Simon ran out after him.

"Zoë, let's escort our passenger to somewhere… a mite more comfortable, whaddya say?" Mal suggested. "Kaylee, will you and Inara please clean up the mess Mr. Cromwell made here?"

"Excellent suggestion, sir," Zoë said with a trace of an ironic smile. She and Mal hoisted Miles off the grating and dragged him forcefully back to his bunk, where Mal tied him against the bunk.

"What about my knee?" Miles demanded angrily, but as though he was holding back a floodgate of tears.

"What about it?" Mal asked.

"It is bleedin' all over the place, sir," Zoë said.

"You shot it, you xiong-meng de kuang-ren!"

"Watch yer mouth or yer gettin' off fore we get t' Spake's Fault. And you don't want none o' that kinda trouble."

"I need to hear what she's going to say!" the spy said angrily. "If I can't hear what she's going to say –…"

"Then what? You wasted your drug fer nothin'?" Mal asked, a tinge of a smile on his face. "Sorry t' say, Mr. Cromwell, that I believe you've wasted that drug. Only a few people are gonna hear what River Tam has to say… and I don't believe yer on the guest list. Zoë, pat im down, make sure he doesn't have any more needles stuck in those oh-so-fashionable pants o' his."

"Yes, sir," Zoë said, although she looked as though she'd rather jump into a pit of scorpions. She quickly rummaged through the spy's pockets and took off his shoes, the better to make sure he wasn't concealing anything. She found only a few coins and a scrap of paper. "Nothing dangerous, sir."

"Well, then, I'd say we should leave Mr. Cromwell here to bleed and think a bit, whaddya say?" Mal said. "It's rather poetic, ain't it, bleedin' and thinkin'. I'd say he's got some time do a fair bit of both."

"I'd say that's a perfectly legitimate solution, sir," Zoë said, smiling at him.

"Good. Mayhap when we come back, he'll be a bit more obligin' t' talk t' us. Whaddya think, Mr. Cromwell? Is that the truth?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Miles gasped. "Anything you want."

"Wish we'd done this fore he went off 'n hurt River," Zoë said quietly as they were leaving.

"What, shot him? That was a long time comin'," Mal admitted. "First time I saw his sorry face, I knew he'd be shot on my ship one way or nother."

"What was all that go-se about him being on our side?" Zoë questioned as they moved away from the bunk and towards the infirmary. "Who's the bigger threat here, the spy or Rizzly?"

"Rizzly, seein' as I haven't shot him yet." Mal holstered his gun. "Let's see what the good doctor's been able to do."

Translations: go-se: garbage

xiong-meng de kuang-ren: violent lunatic