River awoke with a strangled breath. She squinted as the bright haze faded from her view, allowing her room to bleed back into it's normal earthy colors. She inhaled deeply, pushing the wave of dizziness away before she sat up. Her mind was reeling from the dream, if that's what it really was. She wanted to deny that it was anything else but the man's touch felt too real and the room itself was something that felt almost more solid than Serenity did.

"Awake already, mei mei?" Simon's concerned voice asked from her opened doorway. She wanted to tell him to go away so she could review what she saw but Simon would only see it as lapse in her recovery and drug her. Sometimes she wondered why she let him, something told her could take him down easily. Sometimes she could feel something low in her stomach that urged her to try. She cleared those thoughts from her head, unable to understand why she thought them and the feelings they made her feel.

"Sleep is only needed in certain increments. A biological function you can't totally control and now I must quell another function." She said stiffly as she slide out from under the blanket. She gestured for him to close the door and leave but he ignored it giving her a worried look. "The girl has to urinate, Simon, she does not for you to hold her hand." She snapped, sliding the door shut on him. Simon stepped back immensely hurt by the sharp tone of his sister's voice. She'd never talked like that to him before and it set his one track mind straight to blaming the medication he was giving her. He planned on waiting until she came out but he saw Kaylee jogging up to him with an adorable smile plastered on her face.

"Capt' wants to see you." She chirped brightly. He felt a pang of guilt as he realized River's condition seemed a little less important when he saw the shiny young mechanic.

"I should wait for River and get her something to eat."

"Simon, she's big girl now. She'll be fine. Mal made it seem urgent and he's looks to be in no mood to be kept waitin'." She warned still as sweet as ever. "I'll stay and take her up for ya."

"I can't ask you to do that. She's my.." Simon began flustered and blushing like a school girl. Kaylee gave him a knowing smile and grabbed his shoulders to give him a gentle push towards the stairs.

"Ya don't have to ask, silly. Now go." She ordered him away. He gave her one last reluctant glance before walking off.

"You can come out now, River." Kaylee said finally when the last of the doctor's footsteps disappeared. The door slid open with River casting a worried look around the corner before stepping out.

"He's not going to like what he hears." River whispered sadly, already knowing that Inara was leaving like she planned, for better clientele farther into the Core than Mal could provide. River smiled sadly knowing that Inara's motives were to run where she knew Mal could never ask her to be something she couldn't, to give up the one thing she that made her who she was.

"It'll all work out eventually." River gave her an empty smile, envious of the optimism the woman she came to view as a sister always had. She hoped would Simon hold her when she heard the news.

"You're doing what? You can't." Simon shouted hotly. Mal's eye twitched again as he kept his own anger reigned in.

"You seem to be forgettin whose boat this is." Mal warned his tone deceptively mild but his face held a thunderstorm of bitterness.

"How can you put my sister in danger like this? You don't even know anything about the man." Simon asked, regretting it the instant Mal's face became darker almost like obsidian.

"What I know ain't none of your concern til I think it should be and yer sister ain't the only one I'm worried about, everyone on this ship was taken into consideration when I. made. MY. decision." He emphasized the last words as he stepped closer to the smaller man. "I don't expect you to like this but you will accept it. This conversation is over and that's final, dong ma?"

He watched as Simon's mouth thinned, he could see the pompous doc was far from accepting but he nodded slowly and stomped out furious.

Mal sighed frustrated at the turn of events. No one was going to be happy about this but he wore the tight pants of Captain around here and gorramit if they didn't respect that.

Mal watched as his downhearted crew walked into the mess. He and Inara had broken the news a few days go and since then everything was eerily silent even Jayne had kept to himself down in his bunk, doing things Mal didn't want to ever contemplate. Kaylee hadn't stopped crying into Simon's vests and he was afraid he'd find Serenity's engine rusted through if he went in there.

Inara was gone and he had news no one wanted to hear.

"Now I called ya'll in here for a good reason." He swallowed heavily before continuing, nervous at the varied reactions he knew he was about to receive. He briefly saw an eerie, knowing, ghost of a smile flit across River's face before she sat down.

He pushed himself off the table he was leaning on to turn to the broad man seated behind him. He repeated the words he had practiced over and over again.

"Gang, I'd like you to meet Angel O' Connor."