After Mal, Zoe and Jayne had gone to meet Badger, the remaining four shipmates were left to their own devices to pass the time until the hopeful return of their fellow comrades.

Tiny delicate feet pitter-pattering, up stairs and down corridors as River travels the quiet confines of the ship, searching for something that she herself is not quite sure what it is she is looking for. Her feet finally bring her to the control room and stand her behind the pilot's seat. The empty pilot's seat. Even though she has assumed duties as pilot, River knows she isn't Serenity's pilot, and never will be. She isn't unnerved by the fact that no matter how long she flies the ship or works in the control room, it will always be "Wash's Control Room". There are still plastic representations of Mesozoic flora and fauna littering the room. And while someone inevitably steps on one, or is constantly working around them, the thought has never crossed anyone's mind to considering boxing them up and moving them out of the way so that life can continue unhindered by memories of things of the past. And River would know. No, that was not what drew her to this room. Something inside of her was looking for something else and hadn't a course in mind, therefore the control room; a place for direction and guidance. That was what River hunted. As pilot she had a momentary sense of direction, at least physical, as she plotted courses and navigation coordinates but the direction she sought was of an intangible kind. Not having found what they were seeking, delicate feet twirled about, leading their owner from the control room, past the engine room from which murmured low voices lost in conversation, and on to yet another unknown destination on the ship.

"I just don't know what goes through her head some days. She is aware of how disjointed she is with reality, sometimes, but I don't know if she any control of it at all or if she has simply given in to her delusions."

"Oh Simon, River wouldn't give up and do that, she just seems…well lost some days. I think maybe we all are." Kaylee said, resting her head on Simon's shoulder. Sitting together in her hammock, listening to the machinery hum in the engine room, Kaylee never felt more at peace. "It's just that there has been so much change lately that it has taken a bit of adjusting to. Not that I am complaining now that I have a cute, fanciful doctor to call my own." She said playfully pulling Simon closer.

"Hmm, about that Kaylee, you may have to take that up with the Captain, he was just saying something today about the perks of having a cute doctor aboard to tend to him." Adding lightheartedly "I'm afraid he may be planning to steal me away from you."

"I'm in shock I would never of thought…"

"I know I am a bit surprised myself I had always thought the Captain and Inara would finally both come to their senses but I guess my charming ways have…"

"Not that part, I was talking about you showing a sense of humor you silly ben dan. Anyways I doubt the Captain would ever dare to come between me and my man. He already lost in one war, I don't think he would want to lose another." She said tussling Simon's hair. After several moments of quiet Kaylee added, "I just wish Captain and Inara would just unbend their pride to see that what they are fighting is the same thing each other wants. It took so long for you to finally see me that I would hate for them to never take a chance to have the same."

Ten tiny, dexterous toes, leading the way with their teenage passenger trailing after. Finally stopped in front of a door. A door. With just a push and a whoosh, an obstacle was removed and the toes led on, marveling at the change from cold metal grating and hard unyielding ground to soft luscious tapestries. Embracing the toes and comforting the feet they continued forward until…

"Mal, haven't you left by now and how many times do I have to tell you that my shuttle is…Oh, River it's you. Excuse me but it is just such a habit that when someone enters unexpectedly that I assume it must be Mal."

River walked farther into the shuttle only to pause and then abruptly lay down flat on her stomach, spreading arms and legs to resemble a bear rug. With her eyes closed and her body wiggling deeper into the rug fibers, Inara was quite at a loss as to what was going on.

"Uhh, River dear, is there something I can help you with?"

"Comforting, soft yet durable and accommodating, a rug for a room for a person of the same. But who is to help the helper? Who is to give comfort to the one who is the comfort giver?

"River honey, where is your dear brother Simon?

"Simon is gone, Kaylee too, only Simlee left."

"Why don't you come over here and sit down next to me so we can talk River honey" Inara suggested, patting the bed reassuringly to coax the fey little girl up off of the floor. With a natural grace that companions-in-training labored years to attain and which young initiates would envy, River rose, flowing over the floor to settle softly on the corner of the bed farthest from Inara.

"We haven't talked much lately and I find that a shame. Even though I was off of Serenity for what seems like a lifetime I also feel as though I never left in the first place. Yet in the time since I have been back so much has changed. Strange how those incongruities exist and yet that doesn't bother me, I suppose I have changed." Pensively drifting off, Inara looked towards River, "It appears you have changed as well my dear. Imagine, you a pilot, it only seems like yesterday we met you arising screaming out of that cryo box, why…"

"No need to equivocate Inara, we both know where you are heading with this conversation, or at least I do, so please be direct. I do not need to be coddled and prodded towards a dramatic climax like you with your patrons. Respect me for what I am, not what I was, or in that respect may be."

Such a sudden and unsettling change as River turned from a vulnerable lost little girl to a sharp, mature sounding woman, as though the two personalities were unconnected within the same body.

"And who are you River?"

"Well that is the point of this conversation. Here we are, let's converse."

"Very well, I suppose I should ask, what is it is that you think you are? Who is River Tam? A fugitive? A sister? A passenger? Crew? A pilot? A psychic? A psycho? What is it that you really are River, can you answer me that?"

"Fish don't notice the water around them even though everyone else does, likewise with me. Humans don't respect the air around them until they are gasping for it in the vacuum of the Black. How can I know what I am unless I step outside of myself? Skin and bones, what is the weight of that against a soul? A feather on a scale weighing one's self, but how much does a feather weigh in the weightlessness which is the Black? The Black it weighs goodness not by feather or scale, but.."

Abruptly sliding closer, Inara grabbed River by her shoulders,

"River stop that right this instant. Why do you keep doing this sweetie? You make perfect sense but then you slide into this illogical nonsense. We can't help you if you don't tell us what you need."

"It is only nonsense if you don't know what it means." River replied as though that statement answered everything as she rose and strode towards the door. "Maybe you should be the one to revise your perception of who you are in relation to others, not just I."

Long after she left, Inara sat silently on the bed with River's last words echoing through her head along with visions of the crew. River and Simon, Kaylee and Zoe, Jayne, Mal. Shipmate, Confidante, Companion, Lover?