Disclaimer: I own nothing; Harry Potter and the elements of his universe all belong to J.K.Rowling. Firefly/Serenity and the elements of its universe all belong to Joss Whedon. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Scary Harry

"Captain," Harry whispered back. "As unlikely as it may seem, let me deal with this. The rest of you keep working."

Mal frowned and reluctantly agreed. "Considering you're probably the only one with any sort of a weapon," Mal whispered back looking at the two very similar Chinese men. The two operatives were in fact wearing the same outfits other than one had green accents where the other had blue. Mal turned to Harry and patronizingly added, "Nice call on that one by the way."

"Thanks," Harry accepted the praise happily.

Mal eyed Harry for a moment and continued, "Considering, I think if you got a plan, we got to follow it. But please, Harry… tell me you got this."

Harry's smug certainty was in full effect and he explained, "Oh don't worry. I got this. Trust me."

"Right," Mal sighed and agreed turning back to tell the rest to continue finishing the second pallet. He assigned the Kaylee the job of keeping Simon on a tight leash.

"Miss Tam," the operative in blue announced. "Your presence here is as surprising as it is volatile."

The one in green was looking around at all the other crew members and had stopped to stare at Harry.

"Can I hurt him?" River pleadingly snarled holding the stare of the operative in blue.

"River, no!" Harry scolded her like a disobedient pet. "First we should see if we can't find a diplomatic solution."

"I am not a man of diplomacy," the man in blue replied keeping an eye on River while he turned to Harry. "But I am curious who it is that commands Miss Tam so easily."

Harry turned from his area down the assembly line and walked directly up to the infuriatingly calm operatives stopping less than ten feet from them. Harry clasped his hands together behind his back, addressing them formally. "You could say a man of diplomacy does. Though I think neither of us are naïve enough to believe anyone could tell River what to do."

Mal whispered towards Zoe and Jayne, "I don't suppose anyone thought to get one of their guns off the boat when we brought it around back."

"No guns," Harry insisted with a glance over his shoulder having apparently overheard a whisper from fifty feet away. Harry turned towards the two operatives whose attention was divided between River's manic bouncing and Harry's confident stance right before them.

Harry made sure he had eye contact and stated, "I need to know why you are here."

The one in blue looked at the one in green incredulously. He turned back to Harry with disbelief on his face, "You can need all you like. That does not necessitate us telling you."

Harry waved off the one in blue. "Your ego's too big to be an effective operative." Harry shifted his posture and turned slightly to face the one in green. "Can you tell me why you are here?" Harry asked again as firmly and formally as before.

The one in green ignored the one in blue and answered the straight question, "Our older brother failed to call our mother when she was expecting a call. She told me her mother's intuition felt something was wrong and asked us to investigate. I was training with my younger brother at the time and he agreed to join me." He glanced over at River, who was drifting about, though clearly prepared to attack. "But we certainly weren't expecting to locate River Tam."

"I didn't realize you were still looking for her," Harry argued with the operative in green. "I was under the impression she became low priority approximately two years ago."

The one in blue was getting irritated and demanded, "Who are you?"

Harry frowned at the interruption. "That was a rather abrupt change of our conversation, don't you think?"

The one in green didn't even look at the other operative, he just stared at Harry and quietly suggested, "I think he may be Harry Potter."

The operative in blue turned to his brother in green and raised a curious eyebrow. "The ghost?" He turned backed towards Harry. "Looks pretty real to me."

Harry became aware everyone had given up pretending to work in exchange for blatantly watching the confrontation the moment they said his name. He barked over his shoulder, "Finish up your jobs!" Harry feared he may have been overdoing it when he heard everyone jump into action and scurry away.

"Frank?" Harry asked into the air. "You got any ideas here?"

Before the communicator could speak up, the operative in green offered, "If Miss Tam goes peacefully, it will look favorable towards the rest of you. That's as diplomatic as we are capable of being." He seemed to understand his words were falling on deaf ears.

Harry chuckled shaking his head. "If you know Miss Tam, you know she never goes peacefully."

"Really?" The operative in blue replied with a smirk. "I was under the impression she was very docile and easily controlled for a number of years. I was also led to believe that only occasionally was she even resistant."

The one in green ignored his brother and looked at Harry with a small grin. "It is refreshing that you seem to know exactly who we are and yet you still have supreme confidence in yourself. I do not hope you are mistakenly stalling for time."

Harry shook his head with a smile. "When you saw the transport ship, you sent out the call for immediate backup. They probably said it would be what… ten minutes?"

"Five," came the muffled voice in Harry's pocket.

"Five minutes," Harry corrected himself with a nod. "Yes, I'm sorry to say that your call did not get through. And none of your calls will get through. Your backup is not coming."

"He's bluffing," the one in blue announced.

"What can you hope to accomplish through diplomacy?" the one in green questioned. "Miss Tam will have to be taken, and all of you will have to be tried."

"You misunderstand me," Harry explained as began to pace slowly in front of the two operatives. "I'm not searching for a diplomatic way to keep us out of trouble." Harry paused and looked right at the operatives with a dangerous smile. "I'm searching for reasons to let you live through this night."

The one in blue began to take Harry as a serious threat now, and calmly began to pace as well. "I think you may be overestimating yourself."

Harry shook his head. "There's that ego again. You don't even know me. You just assume yourself superior."

"Even if you are capable of what you are attempting to imply," the one in green argued. "You will find one of the first things an operative learns is that my life matters very little, especially as it is compared to my purpose."

"Which is why I'm struggling here," Harry admitted. "The life of an operative has negligible value. Perhaps even more to enemies than it has to allies."

The operative in green shook his head at Harry. "You are quibbling over small points and ignoring the larger impasse we are at."

Harry turned towards the man and inquired, "And that is?"

The one in green smiled at how open Harry was to hearing truth, even if it came from an opponent's mouth. "Your ability to leave this place freely. Or at least from your optimistic perspective, to leave here…" He considered his words and finished playfully, "without a fight."

"Is that all we need?" Harry said wryly with a smirk. "To fight you?" Harry turned towards River, who was still waiting to pounce. "River," Harry called out and saw her snap her head at Harry with a grin. Harry flashed a smile back and declared, "Non-lethal."

Before the operative in blue could get his arms up to shield himself, River tilted down and whipped a roundhouse kick across the agent's face that sent him reeling. She began bouncing on her feet, bursting with energy, adrenaline, and an itch to kick some ass.

The operative in blue recovered almost immediately and assumed a strong defensive position opposite her. River was up on the balls of her feet, as she kept rocking back and forth in restrained energy. Finally timing herself to the ticks of the machinery running behind her, she snapped into action at the operative. A weak near side kick was telegraphed and blocked, as she spun the weight of her tiny body around. She planted her right leg behind the operative and pinned his arms against his body. With a shoulder thrust and spinning backhand, she sent the man flying end over end, crashing down into a trash bin on the assembly floor.

River leapt gracefully into the air like a jungle cat. She got over four feet off the ground as she readied her knees and elbows and crashed right on the spot the operative in blue rolled over to vacate. He was back on his feet and circling around River.

Kaylee could feel her boyfriend's frustration and didn't want to let him interfere, so she grabbed a handful of his bum and kissed the snot out of him.

Harry held back the operative in green, with just a movement of his hand. Harry and the operative in green were watching the brutal display River and the other operative were putting on. The operative had regained his bearings, and he and River were blocking and defending each others' attacks with equal ferocity. Loud wet sounds accompanied every shot that connected solidly to the other's flesh.

Harry saw Kaylee had Simon sufficiently under control and turned to the operative standing cautiously next to him. "I'm slightly tempted to just pop right on over there, to demonstrate to you how fast I can be, and slam my boot down breaking your brother's leg. But that'd just be showing off. And I think we'd both rather that you don't get hurt."

"A goal that I do not expect Miss Tam to share," the operative in green remarked as River landed a solid punch to the back of the other man's ribs.

Harry tended to agree but only shrugged in response. "She's got all this excess energy. This just gives her a temporary outlet for it."

"Are not you and I to do battle as well now?" The man in green inquired of Harry.

Harry shook his head and crossed his arms, keeping on eye on River. "You know that's the problem with operatives. You're too focused and determined. You dull the senses and lose your humanity."

The operative in green didn't seem to bristle or show any emotion, other than a mild interest in listening to Harry.

Harry continued to explain, "You are not agents of the government when you are this blind to everything else around you. You're merely tools to be wielded, free of independent thought. Because when you show independent thought, you are expelled from the program and often terminated. You're just an instrument not an agent or a representative. It's like fighting against a hammer. There's nothing to be gained from destroying the hammer."

The operative in green seemed to consider Harry's words and asked, "So how do you plan to defeat an instrument?"

"You outgrow and stop using them. They become outdated." Harry explained noticing Inara shutting down the machine she'd been manning, while Mal was also finishing up. "Like guns." Harry turned towards River and the other operative who were still sparring. "River? That's enough."

River's swing halted about an inch from contacting the operative's unprotected nose. She slowly backed away and walked over towards Harry, while Jayne was trying to unobtrusively load the finished second pallet onto Serenity. Harry nodded to Zoe, who flipped the switch on the generator and powered down the workroom floor. The loud whirring sounds slowly stopped and the lights flickered out leaving only the barest of emergency lighting and limited visibility.

The operative in blue was wiping the blood off his lip as he walked up next to his brother in green.

Harry turned towards them both, knowing he had their complete attention. "As operatives, you have learned all about focus and determination." Harry turned straight towards them both, his eyes glistening dangerously, while River just paced, catlike directly behind him. Without the machines running, nor the generator, the room echoed with an eerie silence. Harry whispered to them, "But you have a lot to learn about power."

The two operatives both jerked forward onto their knees, clanging loudly as they hit the floor. They struggled but found themselves completely unable to move. They grunted in pain as their backs were arched and they were forced to look up at Harry standing ominously over them.

"Look into my eyes," Harry commanded in an even deeper voice. Harry had learned a thing or two about showmanship and how to win respect and attention. He knew he should probably just obliviate these two and get out of here, but his damn ingrained sense of righteousness wanted to give the operatives the benefit of the doubt. He saw the necessity of Legilimency and read all of their surface thoughts and intentions. He quickly spotted the perfect opportunity and deposited a compulsion that their structured minds wouldn't resist. Both of these men's first priority right now was their brother.

The darkness in the room and the strange wind swirling made the glow in Harry's eyes almost hypnotic. Harry whispered to the operatives, "You are going to have to trust me when I say you are far from ready for someone like me." Harry was taking his time slowly enunciating every word, thick with underlying meaning. "And I'm not in the mood to rule this universe." Harry grinned deviously. "Not today."

After drawing out the silence long enough to make the operatives severely uncomfortable, Harry turned towards Mal. "Captain?"

Mal, suddenly realizing he wasn't just a spectator to the scene, replied, "Err yeah… we're all loaded up. Waiting on you two."

Harry nodded his thanks and told the operatives, "Gentlemen, your brother is perfectly fine but he will need to be here, alone, to explain why everyone else on third shift quit this morning. There is no record you came here nor will there ever be. Please make sure you're not around when the new business day begins in a few hours." Harry's eyes flashed red as he wore a small grin. "Don't forget to tell your mother that Dick was taking a nap on the job because everyone quit and that he simply forgot to call. Stick with the only story there's any proof of and then… everything… will be just fine." Harry assured them with a smile. He nodded at River who turned and walked up onto Serenity.

Harry turned to Mal and said, "Sorry about the delay, Captain. Sometimes I think the tenuous hold on my humanity depends on not the people I kill, but the ones who are willing to accept my mercy." Harry patted Mal on the shoulder and followed the Captain onto Serenity.

As the ship started to hover, and the cargo bay doors were beginning to close, Harry turned back towards the operatives once last time. Harry yelled over the roar of the engine, "There is an old saying you may have heard: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. Roughly translated it means 'never tickle a sleeping dragon.' Good day gentlemen."

The two operatives finally found themselves capable of standing again. They looked at each other and didn't say a word. After three seconds of silent conversation with their eyes, they both turned and went back to their ship to leave.

"Harry?" Mal asked softly.

Harry turned to the Captain with a bright smile. "Yes, sir?"

"Are you nice Harry or scary Harry?" Jayne asked keeping his hand on one of his guns.

Harry laughed and smiled. He dropped his voice and stood with what he called Dark Lord confidence. "Can't I be both?"

"No!" Mal insisted. "What the hell was that?"

"I'd say that was a pretty successful job," Harry said resuming his normal tone of voice. "Listen, we can talk more, but let's do it on the bridge." Harry briskly headed towards the front of the ship. He pulled out his communicator and talked to Mr. Universe while he walked. "What's on the waves?"

"I've got an idea to try but so far exactly what we expect," the handheld device replied back. "I'll keep you updated."

"Lovely," Harry replied happily, idly glancing back and noticing everyone on the ship other than River, Kaylee, and Simon, was following him. Harry reached the cockpit and greeted, "River! How do you-"

"Listen you fay-fay duh pee-yen," Simon snarled. "If you're going to play mind games with some gorram top federal agents, you better-"

Harry waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Leave the decision making for River up to her obsessive, compulsive, controlling, wiser, over-protective brother. I got it. Won't happen again. It's all my fault, I'm sorry." Harry rolled his eyes at Simon's confusion, and said a little louder, "As I was saying, River, how do you feel?"

"Fantastic, invigorated, focused," River replied, turning briefly just to smile.

"Skies are clear?" Harry clarified.

River nodded. "We're on line for Persephone for as long as their sensors can read us. Once we're out of range, we'll change course."

"Excellent," Harry replied. "And you were never lost to your instincts? No delay or change in assuming control of your mind?"

"Nope," River announced. "You know you would have felt that right away."

"Yeah, I know."

"You just don't want to spar with me."

"No, you're right. Tonight reminded me I need to get some practice in."

Mal was getting a bit irritated, but Simon was the first to crack. "What are you two talking about?" Simon demanded.

"I've caged some of my triggers," River explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Jayne turned to Inara and asked, "Do you speak Bug?"

Harry helped them out and added, "River's begun asserting more control over her mind. In the same way the government implanted triggers to certain characteristic or personality changes, River can keep those things separate if she wants to, or she can call on the trigger. So you could say, she went to her cupboard and opened up a can of whoop-ass."

"I'll say," Jayne heartily agreed.

"She's been wanting to exercise some of her skills in a friendly sparring atmosphere," Harry explained. "You're all welcome to join us for that, by the way. But anyways, I told her we needed to make sure she wouldn't become a slave to her own instincts or be a danger to anyone. So she tested it out with our friend in the blue trim."

"And now that it's been combat-tested," River smiled while she kept looking forward as they flew. "Harry has to let me kick his rump."

"Oi!" Harry indignantly exclaimed.

"I mean friendly spar," River innocently corrected herself.

Simon turned to Kaylee. "You know that idea has some merit." Kaylee slapped her boyfriend's arm knowing that he was picturing Harry getting beaten by a little girl.

"Can we please talk about what just happened?" Mal interrupted. "I'm referring to outside of River's head. You remember the operatives that dropped by? The scary Harry ordering us around and sicking psycho pet River on them? The one that was rutting glowing as the operatives dropped to their knees in front of him?"

Harry looked surprised. "You thought I was glowing? Because that sounds pretty lame."

"No," Kaylee shook her head. "It was scary."

"I was just trying to intimidate them," Harry admitted. "I was armed and if they hadn't convinced me, I would have… given them some forced selective amnesia."

"You what?" Simon asked in shock.

"Forced selective amnesia?" Zoe asked. "You were going to scramble their brains?"

Harry shook his head. "Not quite that severe. I would have removed all of their memories of meeting us."

"Well why didn't you do that?" Mal insisted.

Harry frowned and admitted, "Because I prefer giving them a choice and seeing if they choose the right way, before taking away the choice entirely."

"Harry," Mal asserted himself. "We do not have the convenience of a minor conscience issue when it directly affects the safety and the security of my crew."

"Agreed," Harry replied. "I wouldn't ever intentionally endanger anyone. This is just for my own peace of mind. But for what it's worth, we can have all the reports those two file squelched, renamed, misfiled, deleted, and rearranged to point elsewhere. I'm almost certain they'll never say a word to anyone about this."

"They won't," River said with certainty.

"I will kill when it's necessary, Captain," Harry assured him. "But I will not kill, when it is not necessary."

Mal sighed and nodded. He turned to look at everyone in the room assembled quietly and smiled genuinely. "Do you guys realize we just picked up over four million platinum worth of cargo?"

"Yeah!" Jayne cheered.

Smiles became infectious as they all caught each other's eyes and realized they were right in the midst of getting away with it.

The impromptu interrogation seemed to be winding down. Remembering what had stood out most to her, Zoe asked Harry, "Wait, Harry. How did you get them to bow to you?"

"Bow to me?" Harry said with surprise. "Is that what it looked like? I think they may have both tripped." Harry seemed to be avoiding people's eyes as he quietly added, "Simultaneously."

With a half dozen disbelieving scoffs Harry looked up and tried again, "Perhaps a tremor? A little terraquake?"

"Three Hills is protected from terraquakes. You've got to go further out than that to find planets with unstable tectonics." Simon argued.

"Massive shifts in magnetic polarity?" Harry suggested. "Perhaps both operatives have had their knees replaced and the titanium was… something?"

"Harry," Mr. Universe's voice spoke up from the communicator. "Just… stop trying. Please."

"Can do," Harry brightened up considerably. "So what's the good word, Frank? We in the clear?"

"Well I decided this would be a good time to go ahead and try that thing you'd hypothesized," the communicator informed.

Harry saw everyone looking at him for explanation and asked, "I'm going to need a little more than just that."

"As soon as the two operatives arrived back at their ship," Mr. Universe replied. "They received black flagged top tier security verified messages. They informed them in very curt words that jeopardizing covert missions can be forgiven for citizens, but it is grounds for extermination for agents of the government. I carefully explained that they should know very well the only reason the agency would have ever been called off searching for River Tam and that they should have recognized the situation this evening for what it was. Their actions officially did not happen and I told Peter Johnson that he had better keep his ego in check or humility won't be the only lesson he learns. Then I snuck in a crash and reboot routine that triggered an erase and shutdown from their logs, including erasing those messages. Only one outgoing communication since and that was a short call to their mother. And now they've set course to return home."

"It worked?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Of course it worked," Mr. Universe smugly retorted. "It was my idea."

"I was the one who said next time we get pinched we should act like superior and more covert operatives higher up in the Alliance," Harry insisted pointing to himself. "It was my idea."

"Your ideas are harebrained schemes lacking reason," the communicator calmly explained. "But they have on occasion inspired my ideas, which are always logical, error-proof, efficient options you couldn't possibly come up with on your own."

"That sounds about right," River jumped in.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "You know helping to organize your muddled noggin is definitely one of my more cockamamie ideas."

Simon remembered his interrupted tirade earlier and heatedly raised his voice. "I wasn't finished! Because I don't care who you-"

"River," Harry faked a smile loudly interrupting Simon. "Why don't you take your brother and go celebrate our success tonight in the form of alcohol, cheers, and singing? You could even dance. Then perhaps you can break the news to him that you are an independent person and he should be irrationally irritated with you for tonight more than he should be at me for quote-unquote allowing you to put yourself in danger." Harry saw River was smirking and Simon was not amused. Harry hurriedly continued, "If you're feeling daring you could even try and convince him you weren't ever in much danger. This was a grand success we should be celebrating not overanalyzing and sucking the fun out of life."

River nodded and left the pilot's chair for Harry. "Come along Simon. I think it's about time you stopped sucking life and started sucking-"

"River!" Simon interrupted as he got up to follow his sister.

"I think 'Kaylee' makes more sense than me but that's not quite where I was going," River calmly replied.

Simon could be heard whining, "How can I hate that man even more now? I didn't think that was possible."

"What are you doing?" River asked Harry oddly.

Harry was reaching over his head in an arc stretching with his right hand over to the left. He then switch and reached over to the right with his left hand. "I'm exercising, warming up my muscles. You couldn't even guess how many years it's been since I did any sparring."

"Six," River said offhandedly.

"Okay," Harry corrected himself as he began pulling his knees up to his chest. "Let me rephrase that: you can guess, you just won't be right." He was jogging lightly in place and enjoyed the uncertain looks River kept giving him. "Got to get my blood flowing. Shake the dust off these old bones. Grease these creaky, rusted joints."

"How old are you?" River asked suddenly, not particularly expecting a straight answer.

Harry shook his head and began doing crouches. "A lady never tells."

"Simon?" River asked, turning to her brother who was sitting up on a catwalk with Kaylee and a tub of popcorn.

"Yes?" He called out biting back a massive grin.

"You are going to be prepared to treat us, right?"

"Relax," Simon assured her. "Harry here probably knows a trick or two about medicine. Besides, you're not trying to kill him, are you?"

Harry looked up at Simon hearing the hopefulness in his voice.

River shook her head. "Not today. Err… well not right now at least."

Harry looked over at River and tested her mindshield. Sensing that she was unprepared, Harry gave her the equivalent of a mental poke in the belly, alerting her and reminding her of the position she was in.

River refocused herself and gave Harry an irritated stare.

"Go easy on me," Harry said with a nod. "I'm a little out of practice." And with that proclamation, Harry jumped back and began swirling his fists with his palms aimed down. He made for a pretty ugly sight, like a nineteenth century English boxer.

River looked around the cargo bay, since they'd hidden away their latest plunder and booty. It was practically empty. Standing on the stairs, leaning onto the rail watching below them were the Captain and Jayne. The Captain looked curious and Jayne looked like a kid on Christmas Eve. Up on one of the catwalks above the impromptu exercise area and dueling arena, Inara and Zoe sat with their legs dangling over the side, whispering to each other, probably about Mal's shortcomings. Directly across from the two women, Kaylee and Simon were cuddled up next to each other. Kaylee held a large tub of popcorn in her lap, while she rested her head on her boyfriend's shoulder. River caught the childish joy in her brother's eye. She smirked back at him and gave him a wink.

The moment after she winked at her brother, River spun around at Harry in a windmill kick aiming to land down onto Harry with the full force of her momentum.

Harry would have felt it even if he hadn't been her mindshield. As soon as she left her feet, she had committed herself to a specific area. Harry calmly turned around twice from her and was out of range. Quicker than River would have thought possible, Harry had moved back towards her, taking the offensive and dropping down to sweep her leg.

River saw what was happening and managed a short hot-step of a landing shifting her weight to her back leg, letting her front leg go limp as it was pushed away. River barely realized Harry was a lot faster than he looked, when a second sweep kick had immediately followed his first one and sent her crashing to the floor landing painfully on her back.

Harry had hopped up and away from River as soon as he had negated her balance.

"Oof," River wheezed when she landed ungracefully and the surprise showed on her face. She lay there a moment and saw the heartbroken look on her brother's face. She tilted her head towards Harry and whispered, "Oh you… bitch."

Harry kept a healthy distance from her as his eyes were twinkling. "I said go easy on me. I didn't mean you should just give up and let me win."

River arched her back, hopped to her feet in one smooth motion, and immediately began attacking Harry furiously. She gritted her teeth as she unloaded relentless punch after punch, with a few interspersed elbows, knees, and kicks.

Harry was calmly keeping up with her, deflecting and blocking every attack River was making. Harry was trying not to pick up on the thoughts inside her mindshield but couldn't completely ignore her when she was focused this hard. Every swing and swipe from River was dodged or parried. Knowing nothing from her was going to get past his defenses this way, Harry figured he'd make her aware that she was mentally broadcasting to test and see if she could instinctively keep him out.

"Don't overdo it, River," Harry suggested with a smile. "I know they say second best is the first loser, but you'll still be our first loser." Deftly blocking every attack from River, Harry turned his head away from her and observed the six people in audience. Harry was impressed to see everyone, including Simon, was just staring at the friendly spar with wide shocked eyes and varying degrees of agape jaws. Harry could only smirk as he continued to parry all of River's attacks without even looking in her direction. He felt the moment when River's patience was at an end and she was about to shift towards a more violent, underhanded plan of attack.

Harry snapped his head right at her, startling her for just a split second. It was enough though for Harry to deflect her swing, lean into her pinning her arm down. Seeing his opportunity, Harry jabbed two fingers right into her unprotected throat, which reflexively sealed her windpipe and knocked the breath from her body. Harry whipped his hand up and tweaked River's nose, emboldened by her shock. She swung her arms wildly, but Harry merely hopped forward past her, slapping her rear end soundly as he went. "Olé!"

The smack of flesh and Harry's joyous cry echoed around the cargo bay as River gasped for breath rubbing her neck, her face reddening in anger.

Simon yelled out from the peanut gallery petulantly, "Foul!"

Harry snickered and chanced a glance upward at the Doc, only to see River had taken the opportunity of Harry's brief look away to snap back into action. When Harry saw her coming, he got a real bad feeling. She had been doing an Uncle Vernon impression with the blustering and puce color. But now River looked simply pale and sweaty from the workout. Harry's apprehension grew when she began to swing her arms harder and faster with punches that were not being mentally screamed into the mindshield. He probed gently and found she was keeping her movements all to herself. This was a good sign for River, but made things a lot more difficult for Harry.

Harry was barely able to keep deflecting River's attacks, while initiating only a few weak counters of his own. River was easily capable of blocking all of Harry's attempts as she kept inching closer and closer to Harry. Seizing the moment, River faked a backhand slap and pulled up limp leaving Harry's defensive arm out there waiting. She grabbed a firm hold of Harry's arm at the elbow spinning her body into his and jerking when she was positioned in between his own arm and body.

With a clear loud wet muffled pop, River had wrenched Harry's left arm cleanly out of its socket.

Harry grunted in pain, while a number of gasps echoed around the room. Harry had disengaged and River had backed away from him with victorious grin. Harry was rubbing over his shoulder making it appear as though he were feeling the damage. In truth he was wandlessly healing it and numbing it with the only generic healing spell he knew. Harry was gritting his teeth as he subtly forced it back into place.

Simon made everyone chuckle as he'd jumped to his feet and cheered, "That's what I'm talking about!"

River was relaxing a bit but keeping her eyes on Harry the whole time. "I do hope our first loser hasn't overdone it."

"So that's how you wanna play it, huh?" Harry grinned straightening himself up. He cracked the knuckles on his right hand, preparing it, while he hugged his left arm close to his body.

"You might want to get that looked at," River suggested innocently.

"Oh no," Harry assured her. "You don't get out of this unless you're forfeiting, or have learned your lesson."

"My lesson?" River grinned back at Harry.

Harry nodded and leapt into action. He jumped towards River, swinging his leg around in a spin-kick that she could only brace her body to take. Rolling with it, she was immediately on the defensive as Harry kept swinging a variety of kicks at her while he clutched his left arm against himself.

"Yup, your lesson," Harry answered shifting his balance with every spin and alternating plant foot. "One of the most classic strategies," Harry lectured in between his flurry of high and low kicks. "Be your strongest where your opponent thinks you are weakest." A forceful mental poke in the belly caught River completely off guard. Just as she comprehended Harry's words, River actually shut her eyes in frustration. It was the exact moment that Harry's closed left fist on his secretly healed arm connected with River's unprotected chin in a vicious uppercut.

The small young woman was unconscious before she landed.

Harry pumped his fist in the air in victory. "Yes!" he screamed proudly, only to see looks of complete shock and abject horror on the rest of the crew's faces. Harry then remembered where he was and what he was doing. He saw River had a little smile on her face as she was down for the count. He also spotted that she had a small dribble of blood pooling out the corner of her mouth.

Harry turned up to an aghast-looking Simon. "Umm… Doc? You might want to take a look at your sister here." Harry waved to everyone and rubbed his sore arm. "I'm going to be up on the bridge." Harry scurried out of the cargo bay before Simon had made it down the steps.

"Simon still won't let me spar with you," River complained.

Harry chuckled. "I may have gotten a bit zealous, but that's only because we both want to win. Hurting you is just a bonus to embarrassing you."

"I know!" River insisted. "You'd think me kicking your heinie would be enough of a bonus for him, but he keeps touting the fact that my Doctor hasn't cleared me yet."

"I thought you were just knocked out with a small split lip?"

River sighed. "I got a little bruise too."

Harry was looking at her face and chin closely, then her arms. He saw her legs spilling out from under her skirt looked as unblemished as everything else. "I can't see it."

River huffed and turned towards Harry. "Yes well, next time please try not to slap my bottom so hard."

Harry bit back a snort and suggested, "Perhaps you'd let me practice some?"

River's eyes glistened dangerously as she smiled at the idea. "Take it up with my Doctor."

Harry laughed imagining that conversation. "I really don't think that's gonna go over too well."

"He still wants to know how you managed to heal your shoulder," River pointed out. She kept her eyes on Harry and innocently added, "Somehow I don't think calling it magic is enough of an answer for him."

Harry shook his head and looked at River, wondering how much she knew, and how much she was just fishing. "And is it enough of an answer for you?"

River smiled as though she knew more than she was telling. "I don't really care as long as I get to pop it out again next time."

"Captain!" Harry called out as Mal walked past Harry and River at the bazaar. "What exactly are we doing here?"

Mal kept on walking as Harry and River fell into step behind him. "When you pitched your idea, I sent out a few missives just to see who might be interested in our cargo and what they'd be willing to pay. Now I know any numbers we get are going to be about half of what we eventually settle on, but we probably have to spread this around. I doubt anyone's going to want it all."

Harry followed him and suggested, "I may know a guy who could be talked into a pallet if the price is right."

Mal stopped and turned to Harry. "A pallet? As in half the score, a pallet?"

Harry nodded. "Dirty Duncan's got the coin, and he's a stand-up guy. Something you won't always find way out on the rim."

"Find out what he'd be willing to pay and for how much," Mal replied. "Most people I know couldn't even move more than a box of the stuff. Except maybe Patience and I'm not so sure we want to try our luck with her just yet."

Mal arrived at the Post Office counter and cheerfully greeted, "Amnon Duul! How are you doing?"

"Oh gorramit, Malcolm Reynolds," the man behind the counter known as Amnon shook his head with a smile. "Are you bringing me more trouble as usual?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm bringing you just about the most trouble you'll ever find," Mal grinned. "Amnon, I'd like you to meet Harry."

Harry stuck out his hand to shake. "I'm not that much trouble. Personally, I think the Captain brings it all on himself."

Amnon nodded and agreed. "Yeah, that sounds like Mal."

"What do you got for me?" Mal asked the man with a grin.

"Here you go," he announced kneeling down in front of some cabinets. "Got three letters for you. Hey, you still fly with Jayne Cobb?"

"Yeah," Mal nodded curiously.

"Got one letter for him too. You wanna sign for it?"

"I can, but hang on a moment," Mal turned and looked over towards the custom-made grenades booth. "Jayne!" He called out. "You got post!"

Jayne stopped his browsing and hurried over happily. "Yay! Another care package from Mom?"

"Nope," Amnon announced. "Just a letter this time. Sign here."

Jayne signed his receipt and looked at the crudely fashioned envelope. "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, it's from Matty! I didn't even know he could read, let alone write." Jayne grinned and ripped into the letter. The joy in his face turned into a look of shock and fear. He turned to the Captain, stuttering, "M- M- Mal? Mal? Mal I got to go. I can't- I mean…"

"Hold on there, Jayne," Mal tried to calm him. "What's up? What's going on?"

Jayne just limply handed the letter to Mal who accepted it and read it silently.

Dear Jayne,

Mama's dying.

Sincerely,
Matty