I don't own any of the characters, I just work here.

Simon was worried, and when Simon was worried Kaylee was worried. When Kaylee was worried, the Captain was worried, and when the captain was worried everyone else went ahead and got worried too.

River had not been seen for several cycles, her cabin was locked and Mal suspected she was sneaking around at night to scavenge food from the galley. Simon had last seen her in the corridor after they'd taken off from Thracia; she had shouted something about linoleum and blue hands before barricading her door.

That was why Kaylee was waiting in the galley in the middle of the sleep cycle for the second 'night' in a row; struggling to stay awake and catch their pilot. If nothing else they needed her back for flying duties, Mal, Zoe and Kaylee herself could deal with the run-of-the-mill stuff but landing would be a lot easier with River at the controls.

Zoe and Simon had both pointed out to her that there was no way she could catch River, what with her uncanny brain and all, but Kaylee maintained some hope that she might come out if it was just the two of them…

….

There were flashing lights and smells and it was all a fake and the labcoatpeoplebehindglass were watching. They had their hands on her shoulders and on her wrists and inside her head.

River crouched on top of the dresser in her room, narrowed eyes glowering at her bed.

Performance. That was what they wanted. They had constructed their weapon and now, like a rifle, they wanted to assess how well it performed its prime directive. When they pulled its trigger would it fire in the desired direction? Would it misfire and turn on its masters?

She slid from her position on the dresser like fluid, soundless, stalking her pillow.

"Will you perform this task?"

No Threat. Thisiswrongthisiswrongthisis wrong

"Subject is unresponsive..."

"Well I can see that, idiot."

The instruction makes no sense, target is unarmed, restrained, No Threat.

"You can do it, c'mon, take the gun… don't feel bad, he's done bad things, he's our enemy…"

There was a spider under her bed. She crawled after it. It ran up her hand and tickled, she put it in her pocket for later.

Maybe if she complied, they'd stop the needles… Maybe she could go home?

….

Kaylee was straddling the divide of consciousness and unconsciousness; she was awake, but not entirely aware that she was awake.

The spider skittering across her face rectified that situation.

She spasmed forward and swiped her hand across her face in an involuntary movement evolved for one purpose: getthisthingoff!

So swift was her instinctive reaction that she was unaware of why it had happened. Rubbing her eyes with tired palms, she put it out of her mind and looked at the clock on the wall. It was 2am by ship time and her alarm would have her up at 8, it was time to call it a night.

As she made to stand up she noticed that River was sitting in the chair beside her, eating an unidentifiable piece of dried something from the cupboards and watching her with large, unblinking eyes.

Kaylee was too tired to question how River had managed to sneak up on her, so instead she tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

"Evenin' meimei, long time no see…"

River tilted her head to the side, like a cat contemplating something it was trying to understand. "It's morning." She motioned to the clock.

Kaylee sighed, "I know honey, I'm just making conversation."

River just continued staring at her. Kaylee wondered if River actually understood that this unnerved folk and did it anyway for shits and giggles.

"Y'know that we all care 'bout you right?" Kaylee began, she'd had a speech planned but had forgotten most of it. It probably sucked anyway. "You've gone an' got everyone in a state."

River pursed her lips and cast her eyes downward. "Got scared for me, he gets the needles out when he's scared."

Kaylee supposed she meant Simon, who had indeed been trying to coax his sister out of her cabin, syringe in hand, since she'd had her episode.

"Meimei, he's just worried about you… an' that's the way his doctory brain works, he goes all medical on any problem he can get his hands on. Maybe that just ain't gonna work for you."

River continued staring at the table.

Kaylee pressed on, "Will you come out if I make Simon promise not to give you any medicine?"

River shrugged.

…..

Six hours later, Kaylee was trying to make good on her offer to River, unfortunately Simon was convinced his sister needed the antipsychotics and sedatives.

"Maybe if ya just tried talkin' with her about it, or about anything, instead a' chasing her around the place with yer syringes she'd feel better!"

Simon didn't even look up from the bowl of porridge he was eating for breakfast.

"Her condition is physical… You haven't seen the damage those húndan inflicted on her brain. She needs proper medical attention and treatment, not psychobabble!"

Kaylee crossed her arms. "Well you ain't ever tried it! Soon as you smell a problem with her it's off to the infirmary, an' you know she's scared o' medical stuff, to stick 'er with needles. I'm her friend and I think…"

Simon cut across her, dropping his spoon and glaring across the table. "Which one of us is the one with the medical degree again? I can't believe I'm getting opinions on an advanced neurological condition from a frakking mechanic who doesn't know anything abou…"

The rest of his sentence was lost as Kaylee slapped him across the face.

Jayne snorted into his bowl. Everyone at the table knew he had just gone too far.

Kaylee didn't quite know what to do with herself after that, so she stormed out of the galley. As she was doing so, the captain stood up as well but instead of leaving, he strode behind Simon's seat and without breaking stride, hauled him from it by the back of his collar and dragged the still shell-shocked doc out the opposite door of the room.

Recovering the power of speech, Simon started to protest as Mal pushed him against the railings of the cargo bay gantry.

"What the hell are you…"

Mal put his arm against his medic's throat, lightly enough that he could still draw breath, but couldn't quite speak.

"No. Shut the fuck up and listen to me ya Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze, You do not speak to anyone on my boat like that less'n they deserve it, and that girl who puts up with you and your anally-retentive crap is not on the list of people who deserve it. Dong ma?

Simon made a noise that sounded like "gaaah"

"I'mma take that as a yes. Now, so far, all your medical shenanigans have done when applied to that sister a' yours is make her too whacked-out to function like a normal human bein'. You need to start accepting that maybe you can't fix her up the way you want, and maybe you should accept help when people who care about her and, for some strange reason, your pompous ass offer it to you.

"Gaaah."

"Shiny, here's what yer gonna do now; Yer gonna go find Kaylee and ask… nah, beg for her forgiveness, being on yer knees would probably be a good idea. Then, if you're still alive, yer gonna go sit outside your sister's door and let her know that ya ain't gonna stick her all over with needles."

He withdrew his arm from Simon's neck. "We on the same page here?"

Simon looked angry and embarrassed. "Yes captain… sorry."

The captain shook his head as he went back to his breakfast. "I ain't the one you need to apologise to…"

….

Despite the captain's instructions, Simon wasn't sure he could face Kaylee. So he trooped up to the habitation corridor, leaving his syringes and medicines in the infirmary along the way, and sat down outside River's door.

"Meimei? You in there?" He queried the steel door.

Silence.

"Great." Simon said inwardly. He tried to figure out how to put words to his thoughts.

He shuffled over so he was sitting with his head leaning on the door, looking up into the bridge and out through the window at the void outside.

"I uh, I'm sorry if I scared you before… with the medicine." He began. "I honestly thought it was the best way to help, to make you better."

"When I got you out of that place, I swore that I'd do whatever it took to bring back my little sister."

He stopped to think for a moment.

"The others reckon I might not be able to do that and um, it made me pretty mad. I said some stuff to Kaylee that I really didn't mean, so I'm gonna have to work out how to fix that now too… I just really wanted to help and maybe I knew they might be right so I got angry at them."

He shifted his shoulders against the metal and rolled his neck. As he did so there was a crunch and a grating noise from above him.

River stuck her head out of one of the ceiling panels and regarded her brother for a moment, her hair reaching nearly halfway to the floor in a weird curtain around her head.

There was a slight noise from down the corridor. River contorted her back in an almost impossible fashion and stared down at Kaylee's face peering around the corner at them.

River slid her arms out of her hiding place, lightly grabbing a pipe on the ceiling beside her as she slid the rest of her body out, her grip on the pipe flipping her the right way round as she let go and landed silently on the floor.

Kaylee walked slowly up the corridor to meet them, arms behind her back and an unreadable (to Simon) expression on her face.

River whipped her head around to look at Simon, who was still sitting on the floor; she examined him as though he was an interesting specimen that she hadn't encountered before. Then she broke into a huge grin.

"Si-mon's in trou-ble!" She sang before racing up the corridor, bypassing the steps up to the bridge and disappeared from view.

Simon jumped up to pursue her, but Kaylee grabbed onto his arm.

Wondering whether she was about to slap him again, Simon put his arm behind his head and looked at the floor.

"Emm, I'm sorry about earlier…"

He was cut off again, this time by a hug.

"I heard what ya told River. I reckon I'd be mad if I thought someone was sayin' I weren't good enough to fix up Serenity."

She drew back and gave him a stern look. "Don't think I ain't mad at you though…"

Simon grimaced. "Listen, I really am so sorry about what I said and I'll try and make it up to you however I can."

Kaylee beamed and hit the door release across the corridor. "I was hoping you'd say that! Back rub, come on!" She practically dragged him down the ladder.

…..

Zoe marched up the stairs onto the bridge and sat down in the co-pilot's seat. River was cross-legged in the pilot's chair, fiddling with a dial on the heading indicator.

Crossing her legs and checking on all the instruments, Zoe spun the chair to face River. " Decided to do your job today huh?"

River smiled, but didn't look up. "Needs someone who knows what they're doing."

Zoe chewed her lip and nodded slowly. "Well we're headed to Beylix, I think I can handle the situation here. Why don't ya go let the captain know you're back on duty?"

River spun her chair slowly, as she revolved to face Zoe she stuck out her tongue and puffed out her cheeks. When the chair completed its rotation to face the door she leapt out of it and danced down the stairs.

Zoe watched the space where she had been for a few seconds.

"Uh huh…"