You may want to turn on: "The World is Black" - Good Charlotte. Oh, yeah, and I don't own these guys.
"River?"
She could hear him but not see him. That was odd. She could always see him. Here it was all dark, and cold. She shivered. She wished she had her boots. Simon was always telling her to wear her boots and for the first time she actually agreed.
"River? River, open your eyes if you can hear me. Come on, mei-mei, I know you're in there."
She opened her mouth and said the first thing that popped into her brain. "Didn't used to be so dark. Where's the bright-light? Kaylee, where'd the bright-light go?"
Kaylee's voice filtered into the darkness. "I can go run get the bright-light if ya think it'll help…"
"She don't need no bright-light," Jayne's voice said gruffly. "She'll be round in a minute, ain't no cause t' waste the bright-light."
"River, open your eyes," Simon said again.
"Can't. Too dark."
"River, open your eyes," Simon said, and he sounded a little angry this time, so she did as he asked.
"Hey, sweetie," Kaylee said from somewhere above her head.
"I went away," River said to Simon, who was standing next to her, holding her hand. "I told you I was going away."
"You didn't go nowhere," Jayne said abruptly. "We're still all here on Serenity."
"Finest ship in the verse!" Kaylee piped happily.
"Finest ship in the verse," River repeated softly, and then said, "Cap'n's coming."
They all turned to the door; Mal entered, followed closely by Zoë. "How's the patient?"
"She's fine now," Simon said. "She'll be better in a few hours."
"Good." Mal looked at the girl, lying there so still and pale and, for the first time in a long time, calm. There was a tube running into the vein at the crook of her elbow and some long scratches on her arms but the long wound on her cheek from the fight earlier was looking better already.
"What about the spy?" Jayne asked.
"Oh, he's all set fer a few hours," Mal answered. "Then I s'pose we'll haveta get the bullet outa him and interrogate him gain."
"Sounds like a plan t' me," Jayne said.
"Is he asking about River?" Simon asked a bit worriedly.
Zoë nodded. "He's very interested in what she was going to say."
"We wrote it down," Kaylee said, handing Zoë a tablet.
Zoë passed the tablet to Mal, who looked down at it in earnest confusion. The writing was all Kaylee's neat, precise printing, but the words made no sense. He read it out loud to those gathered there.
He's gonna take me. Big ship, big ship, we're all riding on the big ship. Where'd he go? It's all green. Green, green, green. Simon, are you singing? He can hear you, ya know. And Simon doesn't sing neither. Here's what he's singing: In the Highways. Hear it? We're in the highways now, never gonna catch us. I hear you, Simon. Singing. You never sang before. We're in real trouble now. Green, green, green. He's coming he's coming faster, faster, I'm not dead yet! They're coming! Gonna catch us unawares like Moses on the mountain. Light me on fire, I'm ready for you. He's coming he's coming he's coming here he comes. BAM!
"What in the ruttin' hell's this?" Mal asked confusedly, looking up from the tablet.
Kaylee shook her head. "It's just what she said, Cap'n."
"She's runnin' fer Crazy Girl o' the Year Award," Jayne muttered. "Heck, make that Crazy Girl o' the Gorram Verse."
"What do you think it means, sir?" Zoë asked.
For the first time in his life, Mal had neither the right answer nor a witty retort, so he settled for saying nothing.
"'In the Highways,' that's a song," Kaylee said. "My granddad used t' sing it t' me."
"Do you think the song means anything?" Zoë asked. "I can get Wash to look it up for us."
"Might as well do that," Mal agreed. "It's a small lead, but the best we've got."
"I said that?" River asked, frowning up at Simon, who nodded in reply.
"In the highways, in the hedges, in the highways, in the hedges, in the highways, in the hedges, I'll be somewhere a-workin' for my Lord," Kaylee sang. "If He calls me I will answer, if He calls he I will answer, if He calls me, I will answer, I'll be somewhere a-workin' for my Lord."
"That's the words?" Mal asked, and upon Kaylee's nod, commented, "Religious trash, all o' it."
"What's a hedge?" Jayne asked.
"Hedge: a row of closely planted shrubs or low-growing trees forming a fence or boundary," River recited obediently.
"What else makes sense, sir?" Zoë asked.
"Maybe singin' is a metaphor," Kaylee suggested, bright-eyed.
"A metaphor fer what?" Mal asked.
"Well, ya see, that's as far as I'd gotten," Kaylee replied, a little disappointed.
"Singing," Simon said slowly. "May I see that?"
Zoë wordlessly handed him the tablet.
"When we were little," Simon began, "River always used to play these games with me. We'd have to be quiet when our parents were hosting parties, so she'd always tell me to sing if she had to do something that was going to make a lot of noise. Of course, my singing drew more attention instead of less, and we were usually caught." He set down the tablet. "What are you going to do?"
River looked up at him, wide-eyed. "Me?"
"She keeps sayin' she's not dead yet," Kaylee interjected. "Whaddya think that means?"
"Means she ain't dead yet!" Jayne said, as if this was obvious. "Sometimes ya gotta just… assert that."
River sat up. "Simon?"
"Yes?"
"I can hear them." She swung her legs off the bed and moved to jump down. Simon caught her by the shoulders. "I have to go hear them."
"You're not going anywhere, mei-mei," Simon said.
"I have to go hear them."
Simon looked at Mal, who shrugged, then said, "I think it'd be best to let her go… hear whatever she needs t' hear rather than gettin' us all in a fight with her. Last thing she needs right now's a fight. We've all seen her fight, have we not?"
Everyone else in the infirmary besides River nodded hurriedly.
"Here, Kaylee, unhook that," Simon said, gesturing to the plastic bag of liquid connected to the tube in River's arm. The mechanic gently unhooked it from the pole holding it, and he took it from her, holding it above River's head as River stepped carefully out of the infirmary, looking first left then right. When she had finished looking in both directions, she led the group up to the bridge, where Wash was piloting and talking to his dinosaurs.
"Wash, where are we headed?" Mal asked.
"Spake's Fault, less I hear different," the pilot replied, jumping a little at their entrance.
"What's here, sweetie?" Kaylee asked River.
"Don't you hear it?" River asked, her face a map of confusion. "The little girls?"
"Ain't no girls here," Jayne said with a scoff. "That's not t' say that I wouldn't mind havin' me some, if anybody's in the mood…"
"The little girls are singing now," River said with certainty. "Hear them?"
"Come on, River," Simon said with a sigh. "Let's go back to…"
"I hear them," River said to an invisible friend. "It's very green, I can tell you that."
"Wash, are there any hedges on Spake's Fault?" Mal asked the pilot.
"Hedges?" Wash asked.
"Hedge: a row of closely planted shrubs or low-growing trees forming a fence or boundary," River recited again.
"Oh, those. Uh… let's see." Wash brought up a map of Spake's Fault. "D'ya see any hedges?"
They all peered at the map, except for River, who was looking at the ceiling. No one could see any hedges, or anything that resembled a hedge, or anything with the word "hedge" in its title. "A false lead, you think, sir?" Zoë asked.
"Not completely," Wash said suddenly, a smile growing. "Leader of Spake's Fault, anyone remember her?"
"Oh, right, the chick with the crazy ponies!" Jayne said. "What'shername?"
"Abeni Hedge," Wash said with a great big smile on his face. "I think that's her name, anyways."
"Right you are, sweetie," Zoë said. "I remember her. She leases space ponies."
"Space ponies?" Simon asked, confused.
"Oh, they're a right magical bunch," Mal assured him.
"They speak!" Kaylee said delightedly. "And they have x-ray vision."
"What in the ruttin' hell'd you remember that fer?" Jayne questioned.
"I like space ponies!" Kaylee said indignantly. "They's a pretty sort. And Abeni's a right nice lady as well. Most as nice as Nara."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Inara said with a motherly sort of grin at Kaylee.
"Y' think she's waitin' fer us, Mal?" Jayne asked.
Mal shook his head. "We haven't heard from Abeni in years. She ain't had a job fer us, so we ain't contacted her."
"But now we're bound straight for her," Wash said. "Less of course we're turnin' round."
"Way I see it, Spake's Fault's a right good place t' have a standoff with Falstaff Rizzly."
"Is that the plan now, sir?" Zoë asked, a little worriedly. "A standoff with the PRFO?"
"We have somethin' they want. Well, two somethin's."
"And River," Simon added.
"And River," Mal conceded. "As I see it, Spake's Fault's out o' the way nuff so's no other trouble'll be there. We get out somewhere's in the desert, get ourselves some o' them space ponies, and…"
"And what, Captain?" Zoë questioned. "Send the space ponies to fight for us?"
"That's a good plan!" Wash said with a laugh. "You always come up with the best plans, sweetie."
"And we hold 'em off. Or offer 'em a trade. They want Miles and somethin' in the cargo hold, we let 'em have it and we're gone."
"I went away!" River said, a bit fuzzily, to Simon.
"But you came back," Simon reminded her.
"I'm going away again," she said, and collapsed on the floor.
"Well, ruttin' hell!" Jayne exclaimed, and crouched to pick her up. "Gorram it, girl, yer gonna get yerself killed! Ain't no reason t' be outa bed after what you just went through." To Simon, he said, "I'll take her t' bed."
"Thank you," Simon said, and meant it.
"Wash, take us to Spake's Fault and set us down somewhere outa the way, but close enough t' the town proper so's we can talk t' Abeni Hedge," Mal requested.
"Aye, aye, Cap'n," Wash said with a bright grin.
"Kaylee, you check 'n make sure everythin's shiny in the engine room," Mal continued. "Zoë, you… can stay here with Wash."
"Thank you kindly, sir," Zoë said with a wry smile. "You're not usually known for your soft-heartedness."
"Then I must be changin'."