Chapter 3
Simon paced in the infirmary restlessly. He hated feeling so helpless when his sister was missing. She and the Captain had been gone for almost two full days now without any sign of what had happened to them. He ran to the cargo bay hopefully when he heard the ramp being lowered. Disappointment hit him hard when he saw the mule park in the bay with only Zoe inside.
"You didn't find them?" Simon asked and then felt amazingly stupid for asking. Obviously if Zoe had found them they would be with her.
"No didn't even see a sign of em. Hope Jayne'll have better luck." Zoe replied.
Simon looked out the open door and scanned the country side for what felt like the millionth time. He prayed that he would see his sister on the horizon riding towards him but the only things he saw were snow covered hills and the forest in the distance.
Jayne returned an hour later. He had taken a horse out to scan the fields and woods in the direction that they had seen the pair go off in. Simon hurried to him quickly just like he had with Zoe, a hopeful look plastered on his face and then disappearing a second later.
"Did you see any sign of them?" Simon asked.
"Not sure. I found some blood under a tree, mostly covered in snow. Could be it was from one a them or maybe it was just an animal. Ain't no way to tell fer sure and I looked all over the area and didn't see nothin." Jayne muttered.
"Jesus where the hell could they be?" Simon asked to no one in particular. He stood looking outside once again in a daze. His focus was brought back to the present by Jayne's wracking coughs.
"We should get you to the infirmary and give you something for that. It's really not good for you to be outside in the cold air with a chest cold." Simon said to Jayne.
Jayne grunted and followed him to the infirmary without complaint. Simon set about giving Jayne a dose of antibiotics and a cough suppressant, happy to have something to take his mind off the nagging worry that wouldn't leave him alone. Once he had given Jayne the medicine, Simon went up to the bridge and sat in River's usual seat. He kept his eyes focused on the window praying again that he would see River in the distance.
Kaylee found Simon asleep in the engine room sitting in River's chair. His head was bent over the console at what had to be a painful angle. Kaylee noticed stubble on his chin and wrinkles in his clothes, it was so rare to see Simon looking unkempt and she knew that his worry over River was taking its toll on him. Kaylee gently ran her arms up Simon's back and to his neck where she began to massage the knotted muscles there. Simon woke up at the touch and gave her a grateful smile as she continued to work the stress out of his body.
"They'll be ok ya know? Mal and River are two a the strongest people I've ever known. Whatever's keepin em from getting' back I'm sure they'll both be fine." Kaylee said with her usual supply of unending optimism.
Simon grabbed Kaylee's hands from off his neck and pulled them around so that he could kiss the palm of each one.
"Thanks Kaylee for saying that. It's just so cold outside. I can't help but think about all the awful things that could have happened to them. It's starting to get dark; this will be the third night they've been missing. If they're outside in this cold I really don't know if they can survive three nights." Simon said as he pulled her arms tighter around him and rested his head against her chest.
They stayed like that for awhile; both of them scanning the darkening landscape outside for any sign of their missing loved ones. Simon began to doze off again more comfortable now that he had Kaylee to rest on. Suddenly Kaylee jumped forward and startled Simon.
"Simon is that someone comin?" She asked and pointed off into the distance.
Simon squinted his eyes and looked in the direction Kaylee was pointing. It was hard to tell in the fading light but after a second Simon could make out a dark shape that appeared to be a horse; Simon couldn't tell if anyone was on it or not. He jumped to his feet and looked at Kaylee for a second before they both turned and ran to the cargo bay.
"What's wrong?" Zoe asked when she saw the two run past her.
"We can see something outside, it might be them." Simon replied quickly as he opened the cargo bay doors.
Cold air and snow blasted into the ship when he opened the doors, but Simon didn't even notice the cold as he ran outside. The figure was closer when Simon ran out and he could definitely make out the shape of a person on horseback, but still couldn't tell if it was River or Mal. He ran towards the horse as fast as he could in the deep snow and then stopped short at the sight that awaited him.
River was on the horse hunched forward so that all he could make out was the long tangle of her hair around her face. Behind her on the back of the horse lay Mal sprawled, obviously unconscious. The horse stopped a few feet from the ship and River looked up when it did. Simon drew in a breath to see the condition his sister was in. Both of her eyes were swollen and black, her lip was split and bloody, and he even in the dim light Simon could make out dark purple bruises wrapping around her throat.
"Mal needs help." She whispered hoarsely and then fell forward and slid off the horse as she lost consciousness.
"Zoe, Jayne come help me now!" Simon shouted over his shoulder as he hurried to pick River up off the snow.
Zoe ran up next to Simon and he could hear her draw in a sharp breath of shock as well when she took in the condition of the two. Moving quickly she pulled Mal off the back of the horse and with Jayne's help picked up the unconscious captain and carried him towards the infirmary, Simon hurried after them with River in his arms.
Once they were both laid out on the exam tables Simon began to assess them both trying to determine who was in need of his care first. As much as Simon wanted to help his sister it was obvious that Mal was in bad shape and needed help immediately.
Mal's face was bright red and despite having been out in the cold, sweat was pouring off of him. Simon quickly started and iv to re-hydrated him and then swore under his breath when he took Mal's temperature.
"How bad is it?" Zoe asked.
"He's got an infection of some kind. He has a fever of one-hundred and four degrees, if it gets any higher it could cause brain damage or kill him. We have to get him cooled off quickly. Go outside and get a bunch of snow, we need to make some cold packs to put around him." Simon instructed without ever taking his eyes off his patient.
As Zoe and Jayne left the room to get the snow Simon took Mal's shirt off to apply the heart monitor to him. As soon as the shirt was off Simon could see the source of the infection; a bullet hole in Mal's right shoulder. The wound itself wasn't severe, but it was flaming red, swollen, and there was a large red streak heading from the wound towards Mal's heart. Simon quickly gave Mal a shot full of strong antibiotic and then removed the bullet and cleaned out the wound before dressing it.
Zoe and Jayne hurried in with four buckets full of snow.
"Jayne pick up Mal and hold him for a minute." Simon instructed.
Once Mal was off the exam table Simon laid the snow in an even layer across the table and then covered it with a sheet.
"Ok lay him back down." After Mal was lying on the snow Simon covered him with another sheet and then put the rest of the snow on top of him.
"There isn't anything more I can do for him until the fever goes down some. We'll just have to wait and hope the antibiotics help his body fight off the infection." Simon informed Zoe and then turned to help his sister.
Zoe and Jayne discreetly left the room to give River as much privacy as they could when Simon began to undress her.
"Wuh de mah!" Simon swore loudly when he saw the extent of the injuries his sister had. She was covered in bruises from head to toe, her back was badly scratched up, she had what appeared to be hand prints bruised around her neck, and he could clearly make out the impression of fingers prints bruised into her thighs. Simon's heart felt like it sank into his stomach when it dawned on him what those bruises probably meant. Hadn't River been through enough without having something like this done to her? Simon allowed himself a few seconds to curse the unfairness of the Verse and then he stood up straight and forced himself to enter doctor mode. He knew he couldn't think of River as his baby sister right then if he was going to help her properly he had to think of her as a patient. This was the thought he kept in mind as he set about cleaning up what had been done to her.
Simon walked into the galley an hour later to find the rest of the crew anxiously waiting for them.
"How are they?" Kaylee asked, her eyes were red rimmed and it was obvious she'd been crying.
"Mal's been shot, it wasn't life threatening, just through the shoulder. But it's badly infected and the infection is in his blood. I put him on some really powerful antibiotics and cleaned out the wound. If the infection clears up he'll be fine, but it's too soon to know if that will happen or not." Simon explained.
"What about River?" Jayne asked with uncharacteristic tenderness.
"Its… well it's bad. None of her injuries are life threatening, she'll recover physically at least." Simon trailed off not sure if he should tell the crew what had happened to her. It then occurred to him that they would find out eventually, it was a small ship and secrets were never kept for very long.
"She was beaten badly, she's got some broken ribs and a few cuts that needed stitches and she was raped." Simon finished.
The word raped seemed to hang in the air as everyone processed what had happened to the young girl. Kaylee was the first to react, she put her head down on the table and began to cry loudly. Jayne stood up abruptly making his chair crash to the floor. He swore loudly and punched the wall making a loud metallic clang echo through the room. Inara muttered under her breath something that sounded like a prayer. Zoe didn't seem to react at all, but there was a look on her face that Simon thought seemed more dangerous than any he'd ever seen.
"She gonna be ok?" Kaylee asked through her tears.
"I don't know. Whoever did this to her they were unbelievably brutal. Something like this would be hard for anyone to recover from and with her mental state not being completely stable… well I just don't know." Simon said bitterly.
Suddenly from the infirmary came a high pitched insistent beeping noise. Simon turned and ran room with the rest of the crew directly behind him.
When Simon entered the room he found Mal on the table shaking violently, his heart monitor racing at a furious and uneven rhythm. Simon quickly injected Mal with an anti-seizure medicine and breathed a sigh of relief when his body relaxed and the heart monitor began to slow down. Once the seizure was over Mal began to shiver from the effects of the fever and the snow that was rapidly melting around his sweltering body.
Zoe was standing anxiously behind Simon. "Doc? What's goin' on?" She asked.
"He's having seizures. It's to be expected with a fever this high, but I had hoped they would be easing off by now. His fever hasn't gone down at all, even with the antibiotics and the snow." Simon replied sounding extremely worried.
"Isn't there anything you can do?" She asked.
"Nothing more than I'm already doing. We just have to hope that his body will start fighting the infection." Simon said distractedly.
He turned around and saw Zoe looking at River's sleeping form with a haunted look on her face.
"He's strong Zoe, before this he was in great health. I think he'll pull though this." Simon said kindly trying to reassure her.
Zoe blinked and gave him a startled look like she had just realized he was there.
"Thanks Simon I know you're doing everything you can." Zoe replied and then hurried out of the room.
Simon remained in the infirmary that night sleeping in short shifts and then waking to check on both his patients. He woke up startled at one point because of Mal yelling. He was thrashing on the exam table and muttering. Simon figured he was having fever induced hallucinations.
"River please no. Zoe… I'm sorry Zoe." He mumbled.
"Mal its Simon can you open your eyes?" Simon whispered as he leaned over Mal.
Mal opened his eyes slowly and looked around in confusion. His eyes were glazed over an unfocused because of the fever, but after a second he focused on Simon.
"Doc?" He asked in a harsh whisper.
"Its alright you're on Serenity"
"River?" Mal asked and frantically began to look around the room.
"She's alright, she's right over there." Simon assured him.
"How'd you find us?"
"We didn't. River brought you back to the ship. You were on the back of her horse." Simon explained.
Mal's eyes widened a little, but then his eyes rolled up into his head and his back arched off the table as another seizure hit him.
"Shit!" Simon cursed and gave him another injection of the anti-seizure medicine.
Mal relaxed after a few seconds but didn't regain consciousness again.
Simon turned to check on River and started a bit when he saw that she was awake and staring over at him and Mal.
"Mei-mei, you're awake. How are you?" He asked and hurried over to her side.
"How is he?" She asked.
"Holding on. He was awake a second ago, that's a good sign." Simon assured her.
Simon picked up River's hand and noticed that she stiffened a little at his touch, but then she squeezed his hand in return almost painfully hard. Tears filled her eyes and she drew in a sharp intake of breath.
"It's going to be ok River. I know this has to be so hard for you, but we're all here for you." Simon comforted.
River stared at him for almost a full minute before suddenly sitting up and wrapping her arms around him. He returned her hug carefully not wanting to hurt her broken ribs. She buried her face in his chest and began to cry, silent sobs that wracked her entire body. After fifteen minutes or so she began to breathe more evenly and finally let go of Simon. His shirt had a large damp mark on the front from her tears and she smiled up at him sheepishly.
"Mei-mei do you want to talk about it?" He asked.
River shook her head and lay back down on the bed.
"Not with you Simon. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you about that." She whispered.
"Its alright mei-mei, I won't force you to. But if you change your mind I'm here for you."
River nodded and her eyes began to droop closed.
"Get some sleep. We'll all be here when you wake up." Simon assured her as she began to doze off.
River opened her eyes sometime later in the night and glanced around the darkened infirmary. Simon was sitting in a chair slumped over the counter fast asleep, Mal was muttering and moving fitfully in his sleep. River stood up from the bed and leaned over Mal. His head was jerking back and forth and she could see his eyes moving frantically behind his eyelids.
"Shh… it's ok Mal. We're safe now. You have to get better alright? You have to come back to me, I need you." She whispered finally telling him the things she'd been wanting to say for so long.
"I love you Malcolm Reynolds." She whispered into his ear and then kissed him gently once before returning to her own bed.