-1Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly or the crew. I just like the play with them sometimes.

Notes: I apologize for the length of time between updates. These past seven days have been busy with cramming for my final exams, but I'm finally free and will be able to write much more often. I appreciate all of the reviews, I always look forward to hearing your opinions, and I hope that you all like this chapter.

"Now I Lay me Down to Sleep"

"River! River wait!"

When Simon heard about the new visitor coming on board Serenity, he knew that he had to get River into a safe place as quickly as possible. The rest of the crew didn't seem to be worried about it so much, but he knew better then that. He knew better then to let his guard down so easily.

"River? Where are you?"

When he saw the Captains face, the look of worry and indecision he wore just before he allowed the visitor aboard, his first instinct had been to take River's arm and keep her from leaving his sight. He'd thought of Kaylee for a brief second but quickly realized that she was surrounded by muscle bound men ready to take care of her, specifically Jayne. It wasn't that she didn't mean something to him. Kaylee meant the world to him. Her warm smile was what had drawn him onto Serenity in the first place, that first day when his stomach had been swimming with nerves despite the confident look upon his face. In the end that hadn't been enough for her, and he suspected that River had an inkling that it would end even before it started.

"Mei Mei?"

River seemed to have a lot of those intuitive feelings. It seemed, on the surface, that these feelings were the reasons behind many of their troubling predicaments. Simon suspected that many of the crew thought this, but lately he'd been seeing things differently. Maybe it wasn't Rivers feelings that caused them to get into trouble, maybe it was his mei mei's feelings that got them out of trouble in the end.

At least he hoped that was the case right now, when she was no where in sight and two gunshots had just exploded from downstairs in the cargo bay. He froze in his place next to Kaylee's bunk and felt a shiver run down his spine. Gunshots were nothing new on Serenity, but the fact that there were only two and there were no sounds of any scuffle going on worried him. He had a brief thought of wondering why he'd ever brought his sister upon this ship in the first place, surrounded by criminals and thieves. All he'd wanted was to keep her safe and get her away from those hwoon dahns who were hurting her. What he'd ended up doing was giving her a brand new family, a family that would stand up for her and put themselves at risk just to keep her safe. What he'd found on Serenity was a home.

As he neared the bridge a familiar voice made him stop in his tracks.

"She's going to leave. Mad scientist is taking her away. Time to go!" It was River, and she was hysterical.

"River!" He ran into the bridge and opened the doors. In front of him stood River. She paid Simon no attention, focusing her total self on the pilot's chair where Wash sat. The pilot turned to him and shot him a confused look.

"I'm thinking its time for another one of those pretty pink pills." Simon glanced from Wash back to River. She was standing completely still. Looking closely, Simon spotted something. There was a single tear falling from her eye and her eyes were sadder then he'd seen them in a long time.

"Mei Mei?" He approached her cautiously. "What's wrong?" He gently ran his thumb along her cheek, pushing away the single tear. Her eyes bore into him; they were so sad and lacking in something. Simon couldn't figure out what it was, there was something different in her this time. This wasn't one of her usual fits. Her lower lip trembled slightly and her eyes glazed over.

"Be prepared for it. Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep." Her eyes begged him to understand her ramblings. He wanted so badly, at that moment, to let her know that he did understand and he did care. He knew that she could feel things, feel them before anybody else could feel them. For once, he thought he might just give her a chance to express her feelings instead of just passing them off as just the schizophrenia.

"Tell me mei mei. What is going to happen? What should we be prepared for?" He whispered the words gently, trying to calm her. He felt Wash staring at him but paid him no attention.

"Um, sorry to interrupt and all but, huh?" Wash seemed thoroughly confused.

"I think there might be trouble." Simon explained this in a matter of fact sort of way. "I heard gunshots."

"Ta ma duh." Wash replied and proceeded to punch a few buttons on the control panel. Simon turned his attention back to River who, unlike Wash, seemed relieved. Simon suspected this was because someone had finally offered to listen to her, really listen.

"If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take." She finished the prayer in her own whisper, her eyes shifting back and forth nervously. "I love you Simon." Suddenly she let out a playful yet sorrowful laugh. "Let's play hide and seek in the clouds! You're it!" Suddenly she tapped him on the shoulder and bolted toward the door.

"Oh, that girl, such a gas!" Wash commented, causing Simon to glare at him. "Don't you think you'd better find her before the bad guys decide to play too?" Wash stood from his place at the control panel and pulled a small handgun from underneath. Simon looked at him, mouth hanging open.

Wash replied to the expression with one sentence. "My wife's down there." Simon took a deep breath and turned towards the door.

"River!" He spoke in a harsh whisper, trying to project enough for her to hear him and no one else. When he heard her giggles echo throughout the hallway he raised his voice a decibel. "River!" He continued walking until he found himself in the dining area. It was completely empty and quiet, which made him nervous. It seemed like the dining room on Serenity was always full of people and noises, it was the heart of the ship.

He suddenly heard the noise of a pot falling in one of the cupboards. He quickly turned towards the sound only to feel something circular and cold pressed against his back. He didn't even have to turn around to know what was going on. He raised his hands in surrender before they could even speak.

"Guess you found me." He spoke in a defeated tone but still kept his cocky attitude. He heard the sound of someone coughing, it was a familiar sound. He knew the person but was afraid to turn around to look.

"Hello young man. I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. Please let me introduce myself." Suddenly he was being spun around until he was facing a whole group of strangers with guns. Two of them were holding the captains arms. Simon met the mans' eyes for a moment. He had been badly beaten but it was nothing he hadn't seen before. There was a stubborn defiance in the mans eyes that made Simon want to smirk. Even in the more dire of circumstances, Mal never ceased to give up his stubborn pride.

The man speaking to him was old and wrinkled with an evil in his eyes that made Simon's skin crawl.

"My name is Adelei Niska, and your name is?" The man held out his hand in an attempt at formality. Simon found himself smirking at the gesture. He looked up at the old man and studied him. So this was Niska? This was the man who had tortured Mal and Wash. He didn't look like much in appearance, but Simon knew what people were capable of and he didn't doubt that this man was capable of just about anything.

"The man you're about to kill." This was his reply. He couldn't give out his name. He couldn't take the chance that it would sound some kind of bell in the old man's head and send him looking for the fugitives' little sister. He looked over at Mal, who showed no sign of disagreeing with his response. In fact, the man seemed almost proud of him. Mal flashed him a cocky smile and Simon just shook his head and looked down at his feet.

Niska moved around him with a sort of grace he could not describe. It was not elegant like Inara's grace, more like a lion awaiting the fall of his prey.

"I see. You are very, how do you say, truthful aren't you Mr. Tam? Or, shall I call you doctor?" He was staring at Simon with a look of humor mixed with insanity. His fingers casually rested on the side of his mouth and a small laugh escaped from his lips. When Simon didn't answer he narrowed his eyes. "You are not as, uh, clever as you may think doctor."

With one swift motion he slapped Simon across the face, sending the man down onto the floor. Simon tasted blood and hated it. He spit it out onto the floor, but not before one of Niska's men could stomp on his fingers so hard that he felt them break. Simon screamed out in pain, thoughts of his sister the only thing keeping him conscious. He heard sounds of Mal struggling against the other men in the background, then the sound of a gunshot.

"Now, you will tell me where your sister is." Niska said it as a statement, making it clear that he was done playing games. Simon fought to keep his eyes open, the pain nearly unbearable. He opened his eyes as wide as he possibly could and smiled a bloody grin up at the old man.

"My sister is…" He paused, losing his grin and taking deep hyperventilating breathes. "My sister is dead." He watched Mal's face contort from pain to confusion to sadness all in a matter of seconds. He watched Niska's haggard grin fall into an angry frown. He watched River's eyes silently close as she stood in the doorway, a bullet hole in her chest.

"Mei! Mei!" He shouted as loud as he could and rushed towards her drooping body. He felt the first bullet enter his chest and the next enter his abdomen. He reached Rivers body just in time for her heart to stop beating.

He felt the warmth of his own blood mixing with River's as he faded out of consciousness and entered a place filled with clouds and games of hide and seek.

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General Clive Adams was a man of truth and dignity. He believed in honoring those who were heroes and spitting on the graves of those who violated the letter of the law. There was black and there was white, but there was never gray. In General Adams world, there were the good and the decent and there were the bad and the disgraceful. Anyone in between was just a liar and would be classified in the latter category. This is why General Adams was a general working for the Alliance. He was good at this job and great at telling others how to do their jobs.

So walking onto the abandoned Firefly transport Serenity was just another routine operation for General Adams. He expected to find either a ship full of dead mothers, fathers, and children on their way to a new homestead or a crew of no good bandits looking for an easy way to make a living. Either way, there would be bodies. Either way, they would be dead. But this distinction, this categorical thought process, was what would determine whether he would sleep that night or not.

It hadn't taken him long to find the first one. She was a young woman of African decent he suspected. She'd been shot several times and then covered with a blanket. There were bloody handprints on the floor all around her. He suspected that someone had come to say their last goodbyes to this woman. He closed his eyes and prayed for a peaceful nights rest that he knew he would never achieve.

Looking up, he noticed another one. It was a large man who'd been shot many times. Some of the wounds were older then the others, suggesting that he hadn't died right away. He was lying just outside of an open hatchway with a gun tucked in his hand. To the left of him was another body, another large man. The man had long scraggily hair and had been shot once, square in the heart. It was a good shot if the general had ever seen one, a perfect shot. Only an experienced shooter could do something like that in one try.

Maybe he would be sleeping ok tonight after all.

He pulled out his com and spoke into it. "You boys better get down here, we've got bodies."

Noticing that the hatchway was wide open, he slowly lowered himself into it. Two more. The girl had been shot once in the abdomen, the older man twice in the chest. There was blood all over the walls and floor, suggesting that these two were not the only ones injured. He suspected that the man had wounded his attackers before his death. Kneeling down, the general took a closer look at the man. His clothing suggested that of a man of God, a good man at that. Around the room he found a Bible and a few other things that only a licensed Shepard would be in possession of.

The gun was not one of those things.

"General?" He heard the sound of Rafferty's voice outside of the hatch.

"Down here Rafferty."

When the two younger men stepped down into the hatch they were obviously taken aback. Rafferty not so much, the general had trained him well and he was learning about the dangers of letting his emotions get involved. The other, the rookie, was having a hard time staying upright. The general had brought him along for this very reason. The boy was a solid officer and would make a great general one day, he was sure of it, but he still had not learned how to keep his emotions in check.

The young men checked around the room and at the various bodies, while the general stayed with just one. He was a man of God and yet he was also a killer. The case the general found underneath the bed suggested that the Shepard was the owner of the small handgun, and he certainly knew how to use it judging by the amount of blood all over the walls.

Suddenly the world was not moving in the same way that it used to for General Clive Adams.