A/N: As previously stated, elements of the movie are going to be in this story but there's a lot that will be different too. I do love to read your comments and opinions though, so thank you for all the reviews :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 20

The video feed recording from The Maidenhead gave them the information they needed, though it meant watching the footage more than once before all became clear. Actually, it was listening that was more important. Not only did Simon receive confirmation that River had indeed spoken the name Miranda before she began to tear up the bar, but there was something else too. Music, strange voices, a commercial for something that both he and Jayne failed to hear at first. In the end, it was Kaylee that recognised the jingle.

"Oh, that stupid music!" she complained. "For three days straight after we left Beaumonde, all I kept on doing was humming that gorram thing."

"What is it?" asked Simon curiously.

"Fruity Oaty Bars," Kaylee told him easily. "Y'know, the ad with the geisha girls and the octopus and all? Kinda silly, but the tune sure does stick in your head. I guess that's the idea."

Simon stopped the footage and ran it back one more time. Jayne stared at him like he was crazy, wondering what they was achieving by watching over and over, especially the early part before River flipped her lid.

"There," he said, pointing to the screen.

"There, what?" asked Jayne, frowning hard. "So she's starin' into space, so what? Ain't the first time, won't be the last."

"That's the thing, I don't think she is staring at nothing, but rather something," Simon explained. "This wall was where the vidscreen was, the one displaying the commercial that Kaylee was talking about."

"So, an ad made her go all... fighty?" she tried, not getting it at all.

"Perhaps." Simon nodded. "Fruity Oaty Bars are a Blue Sun product. Blue Sun is a part of the Alliance. Those same people did this to my sister, made her what she is now."

"Who, not what," said River herself from the doorway.

Her eyes were as blank as they had been on the screen moments before as she stood en pointe, staring in at them all.

"Mei mei..." Simon shook his head, knowing he should have chosen his words more carefully even if she wasn't nearby. "You know I didn't mean-"

"She knows many things," said River, swallowing hard. "Knows too much, sees too much. Still can't quantify the why, the wherefore."

Her words faded, gaze shifting to look into nothing a moment. Jayne watched her carefully, mindful of what she might say or do next. River never hurt him nor Simon nor anybody aboard this ship on purpose, but if she lost control, he knew better than most just exactly what she was capable of. She knew it too, and was probably the most afraid of it out of anyone.

"Bao bei?" he tried and failed to get her attention.

That bothered him, at least for a little bit. After a few seconds more, River shook her head and refocused her eyes, this time on the corridor before her. She walked away then like nothing had happened and Jayne felt a shudder run through him that weren't good.

"She ain't right," he said to Simon. "Since Beaumonde, she... she just ain't right."

His brother-in-law well understood him, he couldn't not now. As much as River had been 'not right' for a while now, it was different since the incident at The Maidenhead. She was more distracted, perhaps by her own surmising as to what had happened there. It was as if she were trying to access something beneath the surface. It was only when he thought of this that something clicked in Simon's head, about the commercial on the footage they had been watching and discussing moments before.

"Subliminal programming."

"Sub-what now?" asked Jayne, clearly lost, and not for the first time when he was in conversation with Simon.

"Subliminal, it means a secret message inside what you think you're seeing or hearing," the doctor explained in the most basic times he could find. "You could be watching a commercial, thinking that's all there is to it, but in the meantime, other images are being laced in between the pictures you can see, or sounds inserted between the words you think you're hearing. It's enough for your brain to register but not enough for your consciousness to recognise."

"You talkin' 'bout brainwashing?" asked Jayne, shaking his head.

"Exactly," Simon agreed. "If that was done to River, it would be quite easy to trigger a response with a similar set of images inside some other source. The commercial at the Maidenhead, for example."

Simon paused a while, taking a moment to think over his own theory and giving Jayne the time he needed to make sense of all that had been said in the last five minutes. It was a lot for the smartest man in the room to grasp, never mind a person who was more brawn than brains.

"So somethin' in the ad made the little woman lose her mind?" he said at last, arms folded acrossed is chest. "You know that for sure?"

"No, not for sure." Simon shook his head. "To be absolutely certain that a theory is true, tests have to be performed. If we want to know if the ad was the trigger, we would have to show it to River again and see how she reacts."

"Mei yong ma duh tse gu yong!" Jayne cursed colourfully and loudly, too close to the doctor's ear for comfort. "You gone nuts or somethin'?! You wanna put her through that all over again? On purpose?!"

"Jayne, it may be the only way..." Simon began to protest, but it was clear he didn't want to hear it.

"You think I'mma gonna let you do that to my bao bei? After everything else she's already been through. You're more fong luh than I thought you could ever be, Tam!"

"We can't help her if we don't know what's making her worse!"

"This ain't how we're gonna help her!"

"Listen to me, you incompetent ape!"

"You wanna go three rounds, boy? 'Cause I'm promisin' you here and now, you wouldn't last one!"

"Enough!"

River's voice cut through the argument with alarming clarity. Simon and Jayne, who were literally toe to toe and as close to nose to nose as they could be with Simon at a height disadvantage, turned as one to stare at her. She looked oddly calm and a little too much like somebody's mother come to scold them for being unruly. They hadn't even noticed her return.

"He's right," she said, looking at Simon.

Jayne smiled too wide. "See, told you-"

"No," River cut in before her husband had a chance to even begin to gloat. "Guh guh is right," she insisted. "Must be tested, graded. Hypothesis proved or disproved," she explained, eyes dipping to the ground.

Whether she hated the idea of the tests or just upsetting Jayne, Simon couldn't say for sure. He suspected a little of both, and it dampened his victory in this fight, that was for sure. The last thing he wanted was to upset his mei mei, but if this was the only way to help her, then they must try.

"She is sorry the truth hurts," she said then, looking at Jayne. "He must understand."

"Yeah, well, he don't," he shot back at her, steeling himself against the tears he saw in her eyes.

Determined as she was to do this, no matter what he said, Jayne knew it was killin' her to fight with him. Killin' him too, but that didn't mean he weren't as much of a stubborn ass as the next person. Met River's eyes and knew she saw that. Neither of them was backing down on this.

"You two are so smart and know everythin'," he said, looking from her to Simon and back. "Makes me wonder why the gorram hell I'm here."

"Jayne..." Simon tried to placate him but soon changed his mind when he saw the glare it earned him.

"He is husband," River reminded him.

Jayne let out a hollow laugh and moved past her to leave.

"For all the gorram good that does me," he muttered as he went.

He didn't tell her not to follow but River knew better than to try, saw the thought of it in his head if nothing else. Her hand went to her arm and she shivered from cold that was not real. It was inside, a freezing around her heart because her lover would forsake her. He did not mean to be so cruel, she knew. She had to be truthful, honest, but so did he. There was no way to see eye to eye, and so they must stand back to back. No shoulder to shoulder until the deed was done.

River's eyes closed as Simon came over to reach for her.

"I'm sorry," he said softly, but she shook her head.

"No need," she told him sadly. "No use."

She turned to look just in time to see Jayne disappear towards the bridge. He heard none of what she said and cared less for it right now. Coming upon the Captain, his second, and the pilot all talking about a new job they was headed out on, Jayne didn't even think about it, just volunteered himself.

"You want muscle, I got plenty," he told the Cap'n, folding his arms as if to prove his point. "Gotta get off this gorram boat awhile anyhow. May as well be useful, make myself a little extra coin."

"Afraid there ain't no more cash to be made." Mal shook his head. "We'd be takin' the last of the meds from Ariel out to be sold. You already had all your share there was to have."

"Don't matter none," Jayne insisted. "Just get me off this boat, Cap'n, afore I do somethin' we'll all regret."

Zoe and Wash shared a look, and Mal couldn't meet Jayne's eye.

"Guessin' you heard some o' what happened back there?" he checked, hiking a thumb back over his shoulder.

"Pretty hard to avoid," Wash noted. "All couples fight, you know," he said, all sage husbandly advice.

Jayne snarled at that.

"We ain't you," he said gruffly. "Ain't like nobody else, and since I ain't one for talkin' on what I'm feelin' about nothin', I'd take it as a kindness we go do this job already. Fast'd be better'n slow."

"Fine." Mal nodded once. "Less trouble we have aboard the better my world turns. Zoe, you'll take charge here until we get back. Wash, set up the shuttle. I'll load up the goods. We'll head out as soon as we're set. That work for you, Cobb?"

Jayne was pretty sure the sympathy he saw on Mal's face then got to him more'n anything else.

"Sooner we get, happier I'll be."

To Be Continued...