A/N: I noticed reading this again that I seem to use a lot of dialogue. It must come from my drama training. I'm in a lot of plays, one reason why I haven't updated (that, and graduation...) Here's the next chapter, and enjoy!

Chapter 5: Nightmares

"Well, she's been a lot better since Miranda," said Simon, laying down a roll-out mattress and some blankets for Sida to sleep on. "Every once in awhile, she still has nightmares about the 'Academy.' I'm going to go see about getting you a pillow." Simon left the room, allowing Sida a chance to talk with River.

"They really humped you, didn't they? All those lies, how come you didn't see through them?" Sida asked the young girl. Simon didn't give her much of River's background, but she seemed to know. "I think I got lucky."

"I didn't grow up on the rim; I believed in them. Wish I could have seen." River replied, her head tilted to the right slightly as she remembered. "I function more like a girl again, everyday gets better, but I still have to learn how to be real." River seemed to be talking to herself more than Sida, as she didn't make eye contact with her. Simon re-entered the room, interrupting their conversation.

He tossed the pillow onto the mattress. "We should get to sleep, it's getting late," he said.

Sobbing, crying out. "No, I don't want...Stay away!" River shouted in her sleep. Sida blinked the sleep out of her eyes and sat on the bed next to River. "River, 's'not real. They can't hurt you anymore," Sida said, soothingly, trying to get River calm without waking her. River jolted awake with a scream, which caused Simon to shoot out of bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, before he could cross the room, Sida had wrapped the sobbing,
frightened child in a warm, sisterly embrace. "Just a bad dream," the two said in unison.
Sida began to rock River and sing, an old lullaby her ma had sung her as a baby. Her sweet yet untrained voice fill the room. "Do you need anything?" Simon tried asking River, who had already drifted back to sleep."

Mal and Simon sat at the table in the mess, talking about the previous night. "I don't know how she did it. When it was River and I, it would take hours before I could get her to sleep without using drugs. And when I woke up, they were already awake, cycling through my encyclopedia. Sida followed everything River said."

Mal didn't respond for a short while. He thought back to when he'd come home for a brief visit after the war.

Ma and Sida were sitting on opposite sides of the table, not speaking. Both seemed to be fuming angry. Mal looked at the two questioningly, wondering what row had just taken place.
Sida and their mother rarely fought, but when they did, it was frightening. "I just think you'd have a chance to be something in this galaxy, get off this back-water moon and work in some Alliance city as a yao-ren lawyer or something," Ma said, her voice sad and angry at the same time. She wanted the best for her daughter.

"Money ain't important to me. You saw what they did to the Independence, how the war changed Mal. He don't even believe in the Lord anymore. They want to control every last one of us. Make us all 'civilized' while we get stuck in the same routine, no freedom, no control over our own lives. I don't want that. I want to stay here, work the ranch once you're gone, or go travel the 'verse with Mal. I'm not goin' to this gorram school." Sida stormed out of the small ranch house's kitchen, and blew past Mal, heading outside. He took her seat as his mother put her head in her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"She got noticed by an Alliance run school, could learn so much, do so much better for herself."

Mal shared the memory with Simon, aware of how he rarely shared his past with anyone. It was too difficult usually.
"I never realized that the school they was fighting about was the 'academy' till just now.
Sida always seemed to hold herself back, for fear we would be standoffish with her. She didn't want to intimidate us."

"You think maybe she's a reader, like River."

"I'm thinkin'."