*Disclaimer: Still not my characters, setting, 'Verse, etc... Please don't sue. All I have to give is ... nope.. even my laptop is borrowed. :)

Still not Beta'd.

She knew they were coming. She sensed them, she sensed him. What River didn't sense, however, was the floods of grief that would pool off the entire group. She'd lost consciousness when she sensed the break in time, even though it was a full week before the incident. The crashes of these new emotions, though, were enough to jolt her from her coma.

It was grief, terror, guilt all spinning and webbing between the new crewmates. A lost mother, a lost brother-in-law, a horrific loss of a daughter, a betrayal, a brother left for dead, a patriarch lost – all the waves of death and blame blasted her in a wash of shadows of memories and stabs of emotions.

"Stop!" she cried out and slid from the exam table, trying to hide behind it.

"Try to stop thinking whatever you're thinking," the doctor instructed them.

"They can't. It's not them," she gasped for air as she tried building walls up against the barrage.

Rick's crew looked to each other, then to the crew of Serenity for answers. They weren't thinking anything they shouldn't have been. What was the doctor raving about? The sharp-dressed space dweller was crouched beside the crazy girl, smoothing her hair and telling her everything would be okay. Maybe they were safer with the walkers. At least they knew the stakes and rules in their own world.

"She's…." Mal started. Rick knew he was holding back, not out of ignorance, but out of distrust.

"She ain't right," Daryl finished for him.

"Off my boat," Mal pointed. Any ounce of him that had compassion for this group was erased. Nobody, and he meant nobody insulted his crew.

"Mal," Inara warned.

"You know she does come off as… unusual to most folks, Cap'n. Let 'em stay," Kaylee pleaded.

Mal paused. His assassin was calming down behind the exam table, and if he cold-blood murdered eight people by leaving them on this moon, his conscience wouldn't let him sleep at night – much less the look on Inara's face right now. "Get us off this rock. I'll deal with you all later. Her name is River. Don't go near her." Mal stormed up the stairs with his pregnant first mate.

"'She ain't right?'" Rick turned to Daryl. "You had to say that?"

"I ain't lyin'."

"You know we're guests here," Rick crossed to speak to him as privately as possible. "You can't go insulting our hosts."

"Yeah. Won't happen again."

"We can all hang out in the cargo bay," the cheerful mechanic sang. "I'm afraid it's a mite boring sometimes, but once we get Captain Grumpy-Pants on our side, we got lotsa games and stuff."

"I don't think he's too keen on being on our side," Rick gave a sideways smile. "What can you teach us that'll make it easier to live once he drops us off somewhere?"

"Drops us off?" Lori stopped him.

"That what he seems keen on doin' doesn't it? Look, at least we don't have to worry about walkers for a little bit it seems. I still think it'll be best if we stick together."

"I tend to agree," T-dog wiped his brow. "I mean, at any time we could be whipped back to Earth and maybe dropped right back where we started. I'm still trying to pinch myself to see if I'm dreaming. If I'm not, I want you all by my side when I get back to Earth."

"What went on down there?" Inara walked with them. "What was Maggie talking about disease? And what are these 'walkers?'"

They exchanges stories and information regarding the outbreak, their group, and their losses; in return they learned of the 'Verse as it stood. Alliance, Independents, reavers, space travel, planets, moons, terra-forming, Companions, and how they all came to be on the Transport, Firefly Class Serenity.

"What about her?" Daryl nodded back toward the infirmary where Simon was leading a young woman with a hand around her shoulder. She looked at the group, then to the doctor – her long hair flowing against her knitted shirt with every nod of insistence. He couldn't tell what she was saying, but the doctor was blatantly trying to talk her out of it.

"She's… special," Kaylee started.

"Sure am," she broke from the doctor's grasp. No surprise there, he didn't look like he could hold on to a legless kitten. "I am Alliance trained. They messed with my brain. Now I can kill with my bare hands, wield any weapon handed me. But now there's something wrong with my brain. I get waves of people's thoughts if I don't concentrate not to. And my brain now picks up on the future, the past," she twitched violently as she passed Carol. "I am so sorry," River melted from her charging storytelling and boldly hugged the grieving mother, "she is with angels now. I know." River stepped back, clutching her stomach as a wave of nausea passed over her from the blast of sorrow from Carol at the mention of her daughter.

"Watch what you say," Daryl barked at her and wrapped a protective arm around Carol. They were the same age, but she was so much like his mother. He couldn't help his mom back then, but watching Carol triumph over her worthless dickhole of a husband – he wished he could have seen his mother triumph like that. She died of an overdose before she ever got her revenge. He saw so much of his mother in Carol. The 12-year old boy that was helpless back then was all grown up, and hell if anyone was going to touch this woman, physically or mentally, while he was on watch.

"It was meant to be a comfort," the large brown eyes of the crazy girl glassed with tears that surprised her. His words stung. For weeks he had flooded her with images, feelings, glimpses – and his first words to her weren't the soft comforts she'd imagined they'd be. They were harsh and threatening. They were not an invitation but a warning. "I'm sorry," the corners of her mouth twitched down and she retreated back to her brother.

"That was a little harsh," Glenn said. Inara noticed the entire group had a chemistry between them that was either like siblings or lovers. There was a comfort with open opinions, an ease with the truth that none of them shied away from. They were so different from her crew. Mal with his shifting temperaments, Zoe with the stone walls she'd built around her heart, Simon with his propriety and pretense – they all held faults that they tried to hide from those they were intended to be the most intimate with. They considered each other family, but didn't live like it. She drank in the laid back exchange between the new crew.

"It's a little harsh bringin' up things we try to forget," Daryl countered.

"I don't want to forget," Carol corrected him with a strong but grateful glance. "I want to remember her every day. She deserves it."

The tears in Lori's eyes and the clenched jaws of Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog told the story of how fresh this loss was to them.

"She does," Daryl agreed with her finally with a brotherly squeeze and let her go. She was definitely stronger than his own mother. Definitely.

"You're gonna feel a little queasy as we switch from planetary gravity to artificial gravity. Just want to warn you," Kaylee chimed right before they felt the ship break atmo and switch on all the necessary functions.

"We can stop off on Beaumonde in about 27 hours. You'll find something to do there, I'm sure," the Captain called over from the catwalks and disappeared again.

"I'll talk to him," Inara rolled her eyes and strolled away.

If there was one thing she could count on Malcolm Reynolds being, it was stubborn. Inara wasn't backing down on this, however. Since they'd lost Shepard Book and Wash, there was too much work and not enough hands. Sure, eight people would make their crew a bit on the large side – but with their talents and skills surely they could earn their keep.

"You busy?" she knocked on the door to the bridge.

"Depends on if you're here to negotiate. I don't want them on my ship, Inara."

"For a man so hell bent on maintaining humanity you seemed to have drained it from yourself."

"What would you have me do?" he crossed to the threshold and grabbed her shoulder. "Huh? I can't feed our 6 mouths much less add eight more to that."

"You think they wouldn't help? Have you even asked them? They show up from another time on a different planet, no credits, no knowledge of our world now and you're going to set them loose on Beaumonde? Mal, I don't have to tell you that's a terrible thing to do."

"It's not a morality issue, it's purely economics. I can't afford them."

"I'm not asking you to. Think about it. They have all these 'Earth-That-Was' artifacts. Remember the Lassiter and how much that would bring. Think of any one of their guns or probably half the contents of the packs they are carrying. What if it wasn't a money issue? Would you let them stay?"

"It would be a mark in their favor." He did remember the Lassiter. After causing a ruckus of trouble, it had turned a pretty penny. That was an old artifact but not even from Earth-That-Was. Maybe they could earn their keep.

Mal slumped into the pilot's chair when she left. When he woke that morning he didn't plan on being attacked by reavers, he didn't plan on an entire hoard of people appearing from another time and planet relying on him to bring them up to speed, accept them, and shelter them. But here he was. The pantry was low, the fuel cell was waning, jobs were scarce because their profile was too high for smugglers and thugs to rely on them. This new crew could either be an answer to his lengthy prayers of late, or they could be his complete destruction.

He watched the stars rotate outside his window. He knew some by name, others he had named himself in the months, years he'd spent studying his sky. No matter how crazy the 'Verse was, no matter how crazy his ship became – the stars were still his. That had to count for something.

"Nothing bad will come of this," her haunting voice danced behind him. He didn't know how she'd slipped from Simon's watchful eyes, but River Tam always had her ways. "In fact they will make everything better."

"You know that for a fact, little one?"

"You know I do." She took her spot at the co-pilot's seat and watched the stars with him. "Tango-65, a Red Dwarf, 38.4 light-years away. You call her Nelda after a trusty steed back on your home planet. The steed that helped you run away and join the Independents. Tango-65 is your guiding star. Even if it takes us slightly off course you like to have her in your window at least once a day."

"What's your point, River?"

"That I know you. I know you better than you know you sometimes, and I know you don't just want to drop them somewhere. So don't."

"My first mate disagrees."

"Your first mate is a grieving widow with gestational hormone imbalances."

"You're saying I shouldn't trust her warning?"

"I'm saying you should trust your gut."

"Okay, you stay," Mal dropped, heavy-footed down the stairs to the cargo bay. "It wasn't without some willful convincing by Inara and River, so you make sure to thank them when you get the chance. I don't have enough provisions, you will all have to earn a keep. We do shady business and smuggling. Any problems with that, I can still make a swing by Beaumonde."

"He makes it sound worse than it is. He's more of a delivery man."

"We all have stains on our hand. What is it you would have us do?" Rick bit the tongue of the part of him that was still a cop at heart.

"I can always use gun hands, muscle. Jayne's getting old," he smiled as his current mercenary joined them.

"I am not."

"Whoever doesn't like to fight, you can cook, clean. If any of you have items, especially guns you don't mind parting with those may be enough to set us pretty for a good long time."

"Guns?" Daryl asked. Surely technology had evolved and guns weren't a black market commodity. It'd be a hell of a deal if they landed in a universe where guns weren't allowed. He'd almost want to be back on Earth.

"Yeah. The old styles like yours, especially if they can be dated back to Earth-That-Was are worth a pretty penny."

"Give him the bag," Rick nudged Glenn.

"These are some guns we've pulled off walkers as we've killed them. We don't really use any of them. I can't guarantee if they work, but we've cleaned most of them already. Don't cut yourself then touch any of this blood."

Mal looked into the bag of old Earth-That-Was artifacts. It hit him that these people were his ancestors. People from a time gone by on a planet he would never see. They had seen true trees and oceans not manufactured by man, witnessed weather systems that developed on their own, and they probably had never been in space. Ever.

"Jayne, put these in the armory. We have a few rules we have to go over, but welcome to Serenity."