A/N: Hey, I have readers! Thanks to those that left a review. I know this story has been a heck of a long time coming, but it's nice that some of the folks I sent out the signal to came back to read. Can't stop the signal ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 2

Simon Tam was not altogether comfortable. There might be a multitude of reasons for his feeling uneasy, but chief among them involved his sitting in a room across the hall from where his sister was being ravished by her lover.

It wasn't that Simon expected River to never grow up, he just hadn't seen it coming quite so quickly. Before the Academy, she had very definitely been no more than a kid. Her condition since then being what it was, she could still be entirely child-like at times, at least when she was at home and he was taking care of her. Her adventures since he left for Ariel, her trip into the black with Jayne Cobb, it had certainly caused Simon's mei mei to grow up fast. Now she was eighteen and a woman in all kinds of ways that a brother never needed nor wanted to think on. Of course, River's giggling and moaning from the next room meant it was very difficult to ignore.

"No, no, no," the young doctor intoned as he got up from the edge of his bed and made for the door.

He muttered to himself as he locked said door behind him and hurried off down the hallway. Any sound was better than what he was hearing right now, any sound at all! It wasn't that he didn't trust Jayne with his sister. Though at times it might seem that River had no control over her own mind or actions, Simon was certain enough that her being tied to her bodyguard was by choice, not by coercion. There was such a clarity in her eyes when she first explained her love for the man called Jayne, Simon never once doubted it. Though he had never heard the literal words from the man himself, it was also clear to Simon that Jayne cared a great deal for River. He would hardly have risked his life so many times over just for the sake of sex or money. No man could be so desperate or so foolish.

The rest of Simon's uneasiness came from his being a veritable fugitive now. It was his choice, some might say, but he didn't see it that way. When it came to ensuring the safety of his sister, Simon saw no choice at all. Besides which, his only other real option was to stay in society as the son of cold-hearted parents who would forsake their only daughter's mind to the Alliance. He could not be seen to condone that, he simply wouldn't do it, and so here he was.

"Here I am," he said to himself, turning a small circle in the softly furnished area behind the galley.

Wandering around too much would doubtless get him into trouble with the Captain, who had expressed a distinct wish for passengers to remain in their rooms for the time being. Had it not been unbearable there, he might've complied. Now he was out in the open space between rooms and unsure where to go for the best.

"Hey there, Dr Tam," said a voice, making him spin around so fast he almost lost his balance completely.

"Hello," he greeted the young mechanic politely. "Um, you're Kaylee?" he checked.

"That's me," she confirmed, grinning big, perhaps just because he got her name right, though Simon was sure she had that same wide smile on her face from the moment he met her on the ramp. "You need something, Doctor?" she asked him then, at which he couldn't help but chuckle.

"You should really call me Simon," he told her gently. "I'm not exactly a doctor anymore."

The smile fell from his face as he said it, and Kaylee couldn't fail to notice. How a person stopped being a doctor just like that, she couldn't understand. Unless of course he'd been fired from his job. She figured it was best not to dwell on that since asking about it might just make Simon mad or upset. Those were the very last things she wanted.

"So, Simon," she said purposefully. "How'd you like Serenity so far?"

"Uh, well, I don't really know much about ships," he admitted awkwardly, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. "But she seems like a fine vessel."

"Oh, she's the finest Firefly you'll ever sail on," the mechanic readily agreed, sliding a hand gently down the nearest wall. "Keep her running just the best I can, with what supplies we got anyhow."

"You must be very knowledgeable in the art of mechanics," said Simon, polite and complimentary as his breeding caused him to be.

That was not to say that his words were untrue, or that he didn't mean them. On the contrary, he couldn't imagine ever understanding how a ship's engine functioned at all, and here was this pretty young woman who knew it all.

"I ain't so smart." She blushed prettily, eyes dipping to the floor. "I mean, I just fix machines. You fix people, bein' a doctor and all," she reminded him, hands in her overall pockets as she shifted in place. "I could never be that smart."

"It really isn't so different, I suppose." Simon shrugged. "I mean, the inner workings of any being, be they mammal or mechanical must be-"

"Kaylee!"

The yell came so suddenly into the middle of what Simon was saying, he was quite startled. Looking left and right for the source of the voice, he found no-one there at all. It only made sense when the mechanic before him stepped towards the wall and hit the button on what had to be a comm unit.

"Right here, Captain," she said into the box.

"Well, I need you to be right here on the bridge," Mal's voice told her sharply. "So get your pigu to moving, mei mei."

Kaylee promised to be right there and then keyed off the comm. She turned apologetic eyes on Simon.

"Looks like I gotta go," she said with genuine regret. "But if you wanted something interesting to do, you could go get the Shepherd and start to work on dinner?" she suggested sweetly. "Sure'n everybody would be glad of the meal, unless you had something else to do?"

"No, I could try my hand at food prep," he agreed, wandering off toward's Book's room.

Anything if it meant he would be far away from River and Jayne's activities!

Of course, the couple themselves were completely oblivious to any uncomfortableness they might have been causing. Their passion duly spent, they were now lying in their bed, body's still entwined, contemplating their new situation.

For River, this ship already felt like home. She ought to find that strange, she supposed, that such a new place could make her so comfortable, so fast. She wondered though, if it had so much to do with Serenity as it did the people here, and the freedom such a ship represented.

Here was Jayne to love and protect her, and Simon to always care. They were far, far away from those that would harm her, the parents that gave her away, the evil creatures that played with her fragile mind. River shuddered at the very thought of it all, her body shaking against Jayne's own so he could not fail to notice.

"Hey, now," he said, shifting to see her face. "What's goin' on, little woman?" he checked, looking into her big brown eyes and hating to see pain, however brief.

"She... I remember bad things," she said carefully, forcing herself to concentrate on the reality of the present and not the confused delusions of the past. "Fine now. Safe and warm," she sighed, curling further into her lover's embrace.

"Always safe with me, bao bei. Y'know that," he reassured her, kissing the top of her head.

Of course she knew it was true, always and forever. River had never felt as truly settled as she did with Jayne. He was the most unlikely match for her, she was aware of that, but it didn't matter. Her head pillowed on his chest and his hand running gently over her hair, this was where she needed to be, where she would always wish to be, she was sure. Still there was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that would not quite let her be. All should be well now, she was certain, but there was something... something...

River fell asleep, still wondering on the tingling sensation somewhere inside her mind. Jayne's arms around her kept the nightmares down to a dull roar, but always there was a shadow passing through every happy scene her subconscious might picture. She hoped it would fade away if she tried her best not to focus on it. Unfortunately, River was a genius, and knew quite well that it wouldn't really work.

"If there is something wrong, it ain't here," said Kaylee as she rolled back out from under the bridge console on her trolley. "All present and correct," she confirmed.

Wash ran a hand back through his hair and checked over his control panel one more time. If Kaylee said nothing was awry with it, he ought to believe her, and yet something was distinctly wrong. No matter what he tried to do with regards to the course they had plotted, however many times he re-keyed the numbers into the nav comp, they were veering off.

The problem was not in the engine room, Kaylee was positive of that. Next place to check had been the bridge itself, and yet the only areas to look had been investigated without success. It was making Mal twitchy, almost literally in fact. Of course, he had every reason to be, he hoped Wash and Kaylee could figure out what was up, he certainly wouldn't be able to. A good Captain he may be, but engineering and mechanics weren't his strong suit.

"I employ the two o' you for a reason," he said snippily. "Now best you get to thinkin' what else the problem could be here or... well, when we all crash and die, it's gonna be your gorram fault."

Kaylee would like to think he was joking, even though she kind of knew that what he said was true. The fact was they could be veering into the path of an oncoming ship, a planet, an asteroid field. Serenity couldn't survive that, not even a little. She wracked her brains for what could possible be wrong that they didn't think of yet, eyes going back to the console. If there was nothing there and nothing in the engine itself...

"D'un yi shia..." she said suddenly. "Outside the ship. Not inside amongst the workings, nobody would've had the chance to sabotage that."

"'Cept our new passengers, maybe?" said Zoe with a look.

"You and the Captain was watching them the whole time," Kaylee argued. "But when we was parked up on Persephone, who's to say somebody wasn't anywhere around, even under Serenity?"

"Ta ma de! You could be right!" said Wash, reaching for the set of switches that would fire up the outboard scanners.

If anything was somehow attached to the ship, he ought to know in the next five to ten minutes. Hopefully, that would be soon enough.

Attention was fast taken from the scanner when a scream went up from the 'verse only knew where, travelling the length and breadth of the ship with its ferocity. All heads turned to look, each person knowing Inara wouldn't ever make such a din. That only left one option - River.

To Be Continued...