Chapter 12

River sat on the counter watching her brother as he worked on synthesizing some new medication. Her eyes scanned him, watching each precise, methodical movement as he carefully worked with the vials set out before him.

He was more relaxed today, if not a bit tired. River smiled happily, her eyes bright. It was the first time since he'd broken her out of the Academy that she had felt him so relaxed. Oh, he was tense, trying to work, trying to find a cure for her, but his heart was light, the tension he had carried for so long gone; replaced by new, fresh, and sometimes overwhelming feelings of love.

She loved Kaylee, loved her as much as Simon. She needed Simon. He needed her. She could give him something River could not. River couldn't make him happy. She wouldn't get well. He couldn't cure her no matter how hard he tried. Kaylee could make him happy.

But there was something – out there, that threatened that happiness. And River's eyes narrowed as she tried to grasp onto the sliver of darkness and crush it in the palm of her hand.

When Simon looked up from his microscope, his brow furrowed. River was looking at him, no –through him – her hands clenched so tightly together her knuckles had turned white.

"River?" Simon covered her hands with his and gently pried them apart before she drew blood. "Mei mei? What is it?"

"Coming." A tremor wracked her body and she wrenched her hands away and stared at him with a horrified look on her face. She launched herself off the counter and gripped his shirt in her slim fingers, tugging it so hard it began to tear. "Don't go! Don't leave me!"

Simon's arms dropped around her shoulders and he hugged her tightly to his chest, trying to soothe her fears. "I'm not leaving you. I'll never leave you."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." River looked at Kaylee standing in the infirmary entryway. "Don't go." She reached out to the mechanic, her hands shaking.

When Kaylee was close enough, River pulled her into their circle, clutching Simon and his mechanic tightly. "Love you."

Kaylee pressed a kiss to River's hair. "We love you, honey."

Simon met Kaylee's eyes over River's shoulder as he said slowly, "Yes. We do."

Much later, after everyone had gone to bed and the lights had been dimmed for the evening, Kaylee lay curled around Simon, her skin damp, and her face flushed. She snuggled against his warmth and buried her face in his neck, inhaling the intoxicating scent of sweat mixed with him. She ran her tongue along his collarbone and giggled when she felt him tense.

"You are insatiable." He tightened his arms around her shoulders.

"Waited a long time for this. We have a lot of time to make up for." Her lips closed over the hollow where his neck met his shoulder and teasingly drew the skin into her mouth.

He groaned and the sound reverberated through her lips but she could feel him tense, as if he wanted to say something but wasn't sure if he should. She pressed a long, lingering kiss to the side of his neck, just below his ear before lifting her head to squint at him in the low light. "What is it?"

Simon sighed sadly.

"River?"

"A few things," he admitted with a frown. "River mainly."

Kaylee shivered, her body cold all of a sudden. "'Cause of what she said today?"

Feeling Kaylee's body tremble, Simon drew the blanket over them and hugged her tighter against his chest. "She said a lot of things today. To what, specifically, do you refer?"

"Well, she looked real afraid of somethin'."

"She's afraid of something happening to me for some reason." His fingers began to absently trace circles across her back.

"This job? On Osiris maybe?"

"It has to be that. She'd been getting better. But lately, her behavior has been more erratic."

"Maybe she knows somethin'." Kaylee flattened her hand on his chest and then lifted her head to rest her chin on it. "I don't want you to go either."

Simon kissed her gently. "I don't particularly want to set foot on Osiris, or any Core world, right now. But the job –"

"– is not worth losing you over."

"Alexandra Bai is paying us a lot of platinum to bring this cargo to her. She wanted me to deliver it personally." Simon had wondered at the specific instructions himself but he hadn't voice those concerns to anyone other than Mal. And he knew the Captain would definitely not have discussed them with Kaylee.

The light normally present in her eyes had dimmed. "I jus' have a bad feeling is all."

"You know River doesn't really know what she's saying when she has these episodes." Simon quickly kissed the tip of her nose and then pulled back to look at her.

"I'm just afraid she'll be right." Kaylee tightened her arm around his chest. "Just got you. Don't want to –"

He pressed a finger to her lips. "You won't."

Kaylee pressed her lips to his chest and snuggled closer, feeling the warmth from his body seep into hers, despite River's cryptic mood worrying her.

"We've got –"

She reached up and covered his mouth. "Don't wanna talk about this no more."

Simon kissed her fingers, slid one hand down her arm and the fingers of the other down her cheek. "And what would you prefer to talk about?" A playful smirk crossed his face.

"You've gotten much better with the talkin' but –" She stared coyly up at him through her eyelashes. "There's other things you can be doin' with your mouth instead of talkin'."

He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. When she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss, he swirled his tongue across her bottom lip before thrusting it into her mouth.

"I do believe," Simon said as he rolled her onto her back and leaned over her, "that you wanted me to," he dipped his head and trailed his tongue over her collarbone, "to use my mouth in a more," he nipped gently at the soft skin of her neck, causing shivers to race down her spine, "beneficial way."

"Uh huh," were the only words Kaylee could string together as his mouth slid lower.

"All right, message sent." Mal leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "We're about three days out, which meets Ms. Bai's request to be notified in advance of our arrivin'."

"I don't like pretty boy here goin' instead of –"

Simon's head snapped toward Jayne. "Didn't I ask you to never call me pretty?"

"No, that was Mal, honey." Kaylee giggled and squeezed his hand.

"Oh." Simon rolled his eyes and turned to Jayne. "Never call me pretty. Ever."

Inara smiled triumphantly at Mal as her gaze shifted to Simon and Kaylee's joined hands. Mal was still a little uncomfortable by their display of affection, which only encouraged Inara further.

"Yeah, he ain't pretty." Wash offered with a lopsided grin at his wife. "My Amazonian queen here is pretty. Simon's just – well – "

"Small?" Jayne smirked.

"Ain't so." Kaylee answered in quick defense, smiling brightly at Simon, who flushed crimson as the full meaning of her words struck him.

"Oh god, I don't need to know that!" Mal hissed, glaring at every one of them – including Book, who had thus far wisely stayed out of the conversation.

"Well, she'd know," Wash agreed, grinning stupidly.

River shrugged. "It's true."

"River!" Simon, Kaylee and Mal cried at once.

"Now that I didn't need to know," Jayne shot a disgusted look at River and then at Simon. "What kinda family you two grow up in anyway?"

Simon glowered at Jayne and pointed to his annoying, bratty sister who had the uncanny ability to embarrass him in any and all situations. "Hello – psychic!"

River cocked her head and smiled at Jayne in her psychotic, crazy girl way. "Yes, I know all your thoughts. They're – disturbing." She smiled sweetly at Simon. "Worse than yours lately."

Simon closed his eyes and sank defeated into his chair, muttering, "Blocks. Psychological blocks. Must work on those."

Kaylee, looking more amused than upset that Simon's little sister knew everything about their sex life, brushed a hand through his dark hair and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, it ain't that bad."

"Yes. It is." Mal said quickly and then changed the subject. "Anyway, Simon is making the delivery as per the instructions. Zoe and I will follow."

"And if you're seen?" Book asked, genuinely concerned that Simon would be walking through a core world undisguised. "Perhaps I should go with him. This Alexandra Bai doesn't know who I am."

"No." Mal discounted immediately but Zoe considered the Shepherd's words.

"Might be a good idea, Sir."

"Can't protect me if you go," River said, her voice sounding small and frightened all of a sudden. She reached for her brother. "Don't go, Simon."

Simon's annoyance at her previous teasing remarks evaporated. "Mei mei, I'll be okay. You'll be safe here."

River curled her legs beneath her and rocked in her chair. "Not safe anywhere. Not anymore."

A well-manicured hand flicked off the viewscreen as Alexandra Bai leaned back in the ornate wooden chair and folded her fingers together. She glanced around the room, at the elegantly framed photos of various events she had attended over the years. Beside her stood her husband, a recent photo of him revealing a middle-aged man wearing high-ranking military attire, another showcasing a neatly pressed suit.

Her eyes came to settle on an older photo of her holding a little girl in her lap, a dark haired boy sitting beside her looking very proper and dignified despite the girl child's attempt to pull his hair. Alexandra glided to the photo, the hem of her dress barely whisping across the carpeted floor. This side of the wall bore images of less formal events; friends and family, dinner parties filled with laughter and love. She brushed her fingers over the little boy's face, those unmistakable lifelike blue eyes drawing her to him just as they did every time she saw him.

TBC