"You alright?" Kaylee asked as she stepped in the kitchen for a drink. Their passenger was pacing, walking circles around the table and talking to himself. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the young man who came on board about the time she did at the Docks. He seemed so happy when the Captain took his money and let him by but he hadn't been very friendly when she greeted him. He mostly just looked scared.

She hadn't bothered him after that since it was possible he was scared of girls - it wasn't common but she'd seen it before - or just sick and didn't want to spread whatever he had, but she couldn't exactly give him space if he was wandering a common area like this.

"Have to stay awake…" He said, not stopping his rounds though he looked up at her with haunted eyes. "They won't help but I can't sleep. Don't let me sleep, alright? Wake me up if you see me start to drift off."

"Looks like you'd do well to get a bit of rest, though." Kaylee pointed out with a concerned frown as she made her way to the cups around his circling. "Sleep's nice, why don't you want to do it?"

"It's not nice for me… really, really bad nightmares. Trust me. Just… help me stay awake until we get to Deadwood."

"You talk to Simon?"

"The doctor? Yeah… he won't help. He doesn't understand and I don't blame him. I just have to stay awake." He said, looking back at the floor as he continued pacing.

"That's weird. He's usually really thoughtful." She leaned against the counter and sipped her drink as she watched Jerry. It was possible he wasn't right in the head so Simon turned him down. Watching him act like this it was easy to believe that was the cause but at least he didn't seem dangerous. If he was Mal would have… she frowned as she looked up to see Jayne watching the boy from one of the doorways.

He looked thoughtful, skeptical, amused and armed. That wasn't a good sign…

Without another word she gulped what was left of her drink, cleaned the cup and hurried off in search of the Captain. She really hoped they were overreacting to his odd behavior. Jerry seemed nice… just a little strange. She found Mal in the cockpit talking to Wash about the pro's and con's of potential shortcuts.

"Zenme le?" Kaylee frowned, looking between them. "That guy really dangerous or somethin'?"

"Doc says he's fine but I'm thinking my pocket's too light for this. Kid don't seem right in the head and we've got enough to worry about." Mal said, hardly sparing her a glance before looking back to the console. "Kaylee, I want that engine in top form and us far from here as possible fast as possible, dong ma?"

She bit back an angry reminder that he hadn't picked up a few parts that would help a lot with that. "Shi."

Before she could get more irritated, she spun and returned to the engine room. It wasn't often she found herself needing to take a deep breath and calm down but when she did it helped to be in her favorite place on the ship. It was already tuned as well as she could get it with what she had on hand. None of the parts were about to bust and that was a blessing, but a few were getting a little worn and Serenity's performance would improve if she could ever convince Mal to release enough money to get replacement parts before the old ones completely died. On the few occasions that had been managed she kept the old part as a spare… just in case. Some lessons had to be learned the hard way and since that last happened she'd even put some of her own money to making sure essential parts were kept on hand for emergencies.

She dropped into her hammock and sighed.

"Fast enough won't be fast enough." River said from beside her ear.

Kaylee clapped a hand over her mouth just in time to keep from screaming at the unexpected sound. "Aiya!"

"Did you know you can sleep while you're still awake?" River asked as she meandered back out of the room.

She took a deep, shaky breath and released it slowly. As much as she liked River she hated when she did that sort of thing… Why was that guy so obsessed with not sleeping, anyway? Kaylee shook her head and decided he could stay awake all he wanted - she was going to take a nap.