Author's Note: Appreciate the review very much, Eloisa. You're correct, the switch from present to past tense was meant to signify the end of the dream. I thought that yes, it would make that switch more clear if they had both been housed under one chapter, instead of split as they were, but it seemed like then the first chapter would have been an oddity: a good deal longer, and with more 'breaks' in it than the chapters to follow. At least, that was my reasoning at the time. I figured that it's quite likely that dreams will again come into play in this fanfic, and that would help to make the separation more distinct, as repetition is a pretty good teacher.

And I'll admit that I was a bit wary of making the first chapter too hefty because people might not take the time to read an overly long chapter.

In any case, thank you, and thank's for pointing that out! I'll try to it more clear next time (assuming there is a 'next time'). Hope you continue to enjoy this fanfiction.


Chapter Three
Girl Overboard

"Right, we get in, load up, and get the hell out." Mal nodded to Jayne, Zoe, and Wash. It was clear that the rest of them were not to be wandering off the ship at any point. "We're sitting hot with all that medicine, and this ain't the place we're selling. We keep our heads down in this system, after what happened with Niska in Paradiso, ironically enough, concerning medical supplies."

"Hey, now that was an entirely different situation-" Simon began to interject, mostly because the idea and plan for stealing the current supply of drugs had been his own creation.

"And don't I know it! No one'll admit faster than me that stealing from immigrants worked like slaves is a far cry from casually lifting a few trinkets from an Alliance hospital." Mal's eyes met with the doctor's, and then turned to the others gathered before him. "Just saying that we want to be low profile right about now, best's we can. This is just a pit stop on the way to some lucrative business—we ain't aiming to start no fusses or call attention to ourselves any more'n we have to." There were assenting nods from the crew.

"Jayne, I want you to see to our weapons and ammo. Wash, get our fuel cells back to a level that resembles something decent. Zoe, I want you to come with me, we're going to secure that everything is nice and set in order for our deal to go down smoothly."

"Ah, c'mon Cap, when does it ever not go smoothly?" Wash asked, giving the captain a quirky grin—but there was a definite cheer underlying the sarcasm. They had finally scored big, at least big enough that they might be getting real food instead of protein mush in a short time.

"Real cute," Mal attempted a straight face, but found himself returning a bit of Wash's smile. "The rest of you, I don't want anyone off the boat. Wash is in charge, and fueling shouldn't require no one to unload."

"Right-o, Captain!" Kaylee chirped, and flounced off, back towards the engine room—there were a few incoherent words about the possibility of strawberries, or even pineapple, and then she was gone.

"Shiney," Wash agreed, an orange-blonde eyebrow arching, as he shared a smile with Zoe. The first mate leaned to him and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek before she and the two other men headed out.

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"River, no, no—we have to stay on the ship." Simon was unsuccessful at catching the girl's wrists, as she evaded him with perfect ease. She began to run, only it was a sort of graceful trot, her dress billowing behind her like a sail or a flag. Even if she wasn't sprinting, or even moving that fast, she had a way of staying two steps ahead of him at every turn through the ship.

"No Simon, you have to stay with Serenity. Keep Her company for me?"

"This isn't a game, River-" The girl was unmistakably moving towards the cargo bay exit, and as they turned the next corner he could see that the door was open—Wash was standing close-by, discussing the prices with a working man as the fueling process was nearly finished. Simon had been trying to play a game with River—or rather, was watching her draw and adding in his own input, though she didn't seem to be listening to him at all—whenever she had suddenly stood and said something like, She's here. "River, there's no one you have to meet out there."

"You're wrong." The dead clarity of her statement confused him for a moment—usually if she was on the 'unstable' swing in the pendulum of her sanity, she was not so concrete about things.

"Mal said to stay on the ship," It was his last chance, Wash didn't even notice as the girl lightly jogged through the cargo bay.

"A misunderstanding. No one ever leaves Serenity. Do not worry." Wash finally looked up—as River ran past him, in between him and the man he was talking to. Her dark hair lifted out behind her like a banner, and then she was gone through the opening.

"Mei-mei!" Simon shouted, but the girl had disappeared into the crowd outside the ship. "Damn it," he sighed under his breath—this wasn't going to go over well with the captain, he knew that much, especially with what had just happened on Ariel.

"Uhm, doctor? Simon? Did your witch-sister just run off the ship? Tell me she didn't."

"She did."

"Aiya, huaile!"

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"You lost your gorram moon-brain sister!" Jayne exclaimed, roughly dropping the supplies he had picked up. They were back at the ship, with the meet time rolling around quickly. "I shoulda just-"

"Hey now Jayne, you wanna share whatever it is your screaming at our nice Doc for?" Mal's voice cut through the larger man, who immediately stood straight, where he had been lowered in Simon's face. The captain was already very sensitive about any situation where Jayne brought up the doctor or his sister, due to recent events and all, and Jayne had no intention of being threatened with getting thrown out the airlock again.

"Oh, I think you'll like it Cap," Wash piped up, coming down from the bridge at their arrival. "Ya know how you like it when things go smoothly? And then you know how they never do? Well-"

"River's gone." Simon cut the other man off, unwilling to deal with his jokes in this very frustrating situation. River had left about 15 minutes beforehand, and the only thing holding Simon back from running right after her was the fact that it would be more efficient to wait until the others came back, for their help. And if he went and got himself lost on this gods-forsaken little moon, then they'd just have twice the trouble.

"Gone?" Mal lowered his head, but kept his eyes trained on Simon, a gesture that was disproving and displeased. It was the look that said, 'If I'm not going to like this, neither are you'.

"She ran out of the cargo-bay hatch when I was haggling with the fuel-ie," said Wash.

"You didn't go after her?" Zoe asked—unlike Mal, whose countenance was appearing more sour with every passing second, she was much more stoic, matter-of-fact.

"No. She disappeared into the crowd, and I thought it would be best if-"

"Right. We're finding the girl. Wash, you're staying with the ship again. Zoe and Jayne, me and the Doc. Message back to the ship if you find her. Zoe, you two head east to that big bar and the housing area, then head inward. We'll go west to the shopping district, and then come inward. We meet in the middle, hopefully with a seventeen-year-old girl in tow." Jayne bit back a groan, but couldn't fight the sneer of frustration and annoyance. Mal turned specifically to Simon. "You and I are going to have a little chat when we get back, Doct, about what it means to follow orders."

Simon nodded. No way he was going to weasel out of that one; it was better to just suck it up and find River. He would worry about the captain later.

Chinese-English Translations.
Pronunciation refers to how it has been pronounced by the actors on the show.

aiya huaile: pronounced 'ai ya, hwai luh', meaning 'shit on my head'.