Note: This chapter is a little shorter than usual. But the next one will be longer. Enjoy.

Chapter 4

"So River is not here with him?" Regan sat at the edge of the bed, absently brushing her fingers through her son's damp hair.

"We sent her away with a friend when we went ta break him out," Mal folded his arms as he spoke. "If we failed, we didn't want the Feds to be able to trace her location back here through us." The stories Simon had told them were either clearly false, or some change had come over his mother since her children had been gone. She was not the blind, unconcerned parent Simon had made her out to be.

Jayne leaned against the open doorframe, clutching Vera, while Mal, Kaylee, Samantha and Regan sat in various locations around the small room.

Regan nodded, seemingly accepting the Captain's answer.

Samantha drew some blood and turned to the Captain. "I would like to test this. Perhaps I can determine what medications he has been given."

Mal nodded to Jayne and the two headed to the infirmary while Regan simply stared at her unconscious son.

"You love them, don't ya?" Kaylee's voice was sad. She and Simon had spoken at length recently about how abandoned and alone he'd felt when his parents wouldn't help him. He'd seemed reassured that she was now there for him. That he could fall asleep in her arms feeling safe and loved.

"I've never stopped."

Never one to beat around the bush, Kaylee bluntly asked, "why didn't ya help 'em, then?"

"It's - we didn't know. We - it's terribly complicated." She trailed her hand along Simon's cheek, marveling at how young he looked while asleep.

"I don't see howso." Mal said with a shrug. "Your kids in trouble and ya help 'em. Nothin' complicated 'bout that."

"We didn't believe - we thought Simon just missed his sister." Regan turned sad eyes on Kaylee and Mal. "They've been so very close since they were children."

"Shoulda tol' ya somethin' about 'em then."

Regan nodded, but continued as if a floodgate on her emotions had opened and she could finally speak about everything that had happened. Gabriel didn't like to discuss it. He kept everything inside. She'd never even had a chance to grieve for the children she'd lost.

"Simon was so obsessed with finding her. He was caught in blackout zones, he wasn't behaving properly at the hospital. It was damaging his career. We - people - thought he was going crazy."

"He's the most sane man I know." Mal admitted with a glance toward the bed. "His sister, on the other hand – is a bit – odd."

"He gave up everything for River," Kaylee said sadly as she looked down at Simon. The memories of simply lying beside him and watching him sleep, causing tears to well in her eyes. "He had everythin' a person could want. But he gave it all up." A tear slipped down her cheek she remembered the hurt and abandoned look in his eyes that night. She knew it had taken a lot for him to drop his carefully constructed barriers, but she had simply held him, and whispered assurances that he was not alone. She would always be with him, always be there for him.

Regan nodded slowly, her carefully composed control slipping. A tear marked a solitary path down her cheek and she made no move to wipe it away. When she looked up, Kaylee was moved by the raw emotion radiating from the older woman's eyes.

"Can you tell me what's happened since -" Regan looked at her son, so innocent and small in the bed beside her.

Mal nodded and told her how Simon had come to join them on Serenity, with Kaylee filling in the gaps with some cheerful bits. The mechanic's bubbly personality radiated brightly throughout the melancholy room. Simon had been given back to them – to her. Even if he wasn't quite normal right now, he was back. And he would get better.

Regan chuckled at Kaylee's account of some of the more improper - to her mind - things her son had done over the last year. It was clear the girl cared for her son, perhaps more than she realized. Regan pushed the thought to the back of her mind. She would ask later. When Simon was better.

Samantha returned a few moments later, a concerned look on her face as she glanced at the still sleeping Simon.

"What is it?" Regan asked, worry creasing her pale features.

"He's got a multitude of unidentifiable drugs in his system. I've started tests to try to identify them, but it will take a few hours."

"We're not goin' anywhere." Mal said.

"Will there be any lasting damage?" Regan asked, her fingers tightening around her son's.

"I don't know," Samantha admitted with a sigh. "It is likely he has a few rough days ahead of him."

Fear twisted her insides, as Kaylee asked, "What that mean?"

"Well," Samantha took Simon's temperature and his vitals. "As the drugs leave his system, he is likely to have a period of withdrawal."

"Like comin' down from bein' high on drops?"

'Yes."

"Couldn't that kill him?" Regan asked. She knew children, and even grown adults, died every day from overdoses of narcotics like drops.

"Unlikely. The medication currently in his system have been there for a good long while. If they were going to kill him, they would have done so when first administered." She favored each of them with a sad look. "The next few days are going to be very rough on him."

"Did they do somethin' to his brain?" Jayne asked as he held Simon down for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

Kaylee's cheeks were wet with tears and she helplessly watched while Samantha shoved yet another needle into his arm to try and calm his hysteria.

Every time Regan tried to get near her son, he would mutter sadly about trust and love, before covering his head, convinced she was simply a figment of his imagination.

"I don't know." Samantha sat back on her haunches and exhaled a breath of relief as Simon quieted. "I don't have the equipment here to find out."

"What do you need?" Mal asked, resting his arm gently around Kaylee's shoulders.

"Well, a neuro imager would be useful." After reading portions of the journal Simon had kept for his treatment of River, she had a very bad feeling about what they could have done to him. Perhaps an internal scan could get to the root of his hysteria.

"That shows a pic a the body, right?" Jayne asked.

"Yes." Samantha answered with a slight tinge of awe in her voice. How would such an uneducated man -

"We got Simon to one a those sos he could check out his sister."

Samantha's eyes widened. "Where? How?"

"Simon tol' us how ta get inta the hospital on Ariel City and -"

"Lao tyen yeh. I heard about that. It was all over the Cortex for weeks. Security in our own hospital was stepped up because of all of the medication that went missing."

Jayne puffed out his chest proudly. "Yup. We did that."

"He's not getting better, is he?" Regan asked, moving to sit beside her son. He was quiet now, but his breathing was still elevated.

Samantha sighed. "It's only been twelve hours. It can take a week or more to recover from drug dependency. And he has more than just one type in his system and they are acting like the most powerful narcotics ever manufactured. Some of these I can't even identify, and some I know to be experimental; a dangerous combination. I just don't feel comfortable administering a smoother for one, without adversely affecting the combination already in his system. I don't want to keep him sedated. I need to be able to monitor him, see if they've done something other than inject unapproved drugs into his bloodstream. His reaction to different stimuli will allow me to do that."

Jayne shook his head, thoroughly confused. "How 'bout speakin' sos the rest of us can understand."

Samantha wasn't sure if she could explain it in simpler terms, but she tried. "If I give him a commonly used smoother to combat one of the drugs in his system, it is likely it will combine dangerously with one of the others already there."

"So he could die?" Regan understood perfectly, wishing she didn't.

"If I choose the wrong combination." She sighed. "Yes. He could." She glanced down at her patient one more time before moving to the door. "I'll keep reading through the journal he kept while treating River and maybe that will give me some idea of how to treat him."

Zoe's voice crackled over the intercom. "Captain. Shuttle One incoming."

Regan's eyes lit and she whispered, "River."

TBC

Chinese Translations for Chapter 4:

mei-mei - little sister

Lao tyen yeh – Jesus

Response to reader comments:

Pokey – I love stories that deal with their parents as well. That's one reason I wanted to bring Regan in. So many people make them out to be bad people, but you'll find I don't in this story. They were just people who were used by their government.

JEM515 – I'm glad you're excited and I'm glad you think everyone is in character. That's real important to me. Blue handed men are very chilling. We haven't seen the last of them. Regan and Gabriel Tam appear in one of my favorite episodes of Firefly, 'Safe'. They aren't, for some reason, credited, so it took some investigating to find out what their names were.

Aurelia30 – Oh, her arrival will be mostly good, somewhat painful. You know me. I love angst….As far as it being Dad who didn't want to help River, that's not entirely true. They simply didn't know, and they didn't believe their normally very upstanding son. That's my take on it anyway.

TheCardboardMoon – That is mentioned, yes. I had to bring her in. I just simply love stories that have one or both of their parents. Probably why 'Safe' is one of my favorite episodes. There are more surprises to come. The story is done. I'm just waiting on the beta.

Ashley – Glad you like it! She'll react appropriately :)

Jessclifton – Glad you're still enjoying it.

Angrymonkey – I love the Tam parents as well. That's why I had to bring her into the story. One or both of them are in my next story as well.

Thedummie2 – Oh, I think I've been posting fast enough…sorry this one took longer…

Angw – Ohh, I like it when readers are on the edge of their seat. Simon is back, but he's a bit -different. Not that anyone will notice, though….he's got a bad few days ahead of him.

Earsflappn – yes, there is appropriate guilt to come.

Devianttart – Yes, there are more twists. And an ending that – well, you'll just have to see.

Eri – Yes, I found I really enjoyed writing a crazy Simon story. You haven't seen the movie? Whyyyy? It's on dvd now. Now excuse! Well, since you haven't seen the movie, I'll try and explain in as few words as possible. Obviously S/K got together in the movie – that isn't of my design just for this story. And the 'Miranda incident' is in the movie. Reveals that the Alliance Parliament hid the existence of the planet and the fact that chemicals they put in the air to calm the people killed the entire population and – made the Reavers.

Vampbarbie – Yep, momma is on the scene. Makes for some nice angsty moments. :)

Scott – Oh, there's more than one reason his hysteria has lasted so long:)

The Scribe3 – Why would Kaylee be upset with Regan? The girl is too bubbly. Can't hate anyone. Besides, Regan kinda redeems herself in this chapter.