A/N: Still not beta'd. Thanks to everyone who'd favorited or commented. Literally makes my day. Keep giving me input I love it. A note: I realize now that there are 10 characters from Earth, not 8. Oops. I will fix that when I have a better internet connection. :) Otherwise. Hope you enjoy. I'm verbose and this story will probably end up being rather long. If it's not moving fast enough though, let me know. :)

"I have been a patient man long enough," the words oozed like leprous sores from the wrinkled lips of the man known as Niska. "The rebuilding is almost complete. I have adequate facilities for Malcolm Reynolds and his crew."

The rebuilding had taken longer than Niska wanted, but his specifications had been demanding and his attention to detail drew the intricate plans out even further. This new space station had been designed with one thing in mind. Revenge.

Long, twisting, and winding halls were meant to disorient his visitors. Insulated walls were meant to keep the screams from disturbing his crew, but the walls between each holding chamber were paper thin so the crew of the Serenity would be able to hear each other scream just fine. Each room had been fitted with the newest and most sinister tools of electro-torture, hydro-torture, pain torture, and finally fatal torture. The psychological torture was contained all within him; and the man, humiliated and defeated, had practiced his revenge for a long, long time. The crew of the Serenity would have done better just to let their captain die all those months ago.

"You find this ship, Serenity. You bring me all of her crew. Alive."

"You want some help with that?" Lori waddled to the kitchen counter next to Inara. The Companion was so exotic, so beautiful and a heck of a cook too. Their meager supply of canned fruit, beans, tuna, and green beans had been welcomed just as eagerly as her own crew had panted over the promise of a stove. It meant pasta, potatoes, and cooked meat.

"I would love some help, but only if you're up to it," her eyes widened as she glanced at Lori's ballooned belly.

"I've dreamt of a real kitchen for months." Lori dove in and began quartering potatoes.

"So, tell me what it's like to be married."

Where had that question come from? Lori wanted to sear her with a glare that would stop all questions like this, but there was desperation in the beautiful eyes that made Lori sheathe her wrath. What were the woman's eyes pleading? Did the whore wish to give-up her ways and commit to one man? Still, did she have to dive into the question so boldly? Truth was, Lori knew she didn't know of the turmoil hat plagued her marriage of late. How different this question would have been two years ago. It had been an eternity since Rick had come home, bear-hugged his son, then wrapped arms around her like nothing in the world could ever come between them. He'd make small talk aloud about what was for supper or how did Carl do in school, then he'd whisper what was really on his mind into wife's ear. His husky words and promises had been her saving light.

"When it's good, it's great," a whisper from her own lips broke her reverie.

"And when it's bad?" Inara strategically pried.

"Then it will kill you."

Inara let the subject go, but Lori knew they'd revisit it. The Companion, as observant as she was beautiful, had seen the pain and the guilty and shame. She wanted to be annoyed, but it was going to be good to talk to someone who hadn't seen her whole soap-opera play out, one terrible decision after another.

"Hey," Carl strutted into the kitchen, "Mom, are you okay?"

"Yeah, baby," Lori patted away the dampness swelling her eyes, "I'm just so relieved to be here."

"Yeah, it's like back home."

Inara smiled at the growing young man. If Lori would count her blessings, this little boy had to account for at least a couple handfuls. He handled a gun almost as well as Jayne, he watched over his mama, and he was the best little right hand man for his pa. Carl was polite, strong, courageous – everything boys his age should be. They really did raise them right back in the day.

"Honey," Lori swatted him with a towel, "tell everyone to wash up for supper."

"He's such a great kid," Inara smiled.

"I'm losing him to the world," Lori faked a smile back. "After he killed a walker the other day, he stabbed it in the head again, and I saw this look in his eyes. A blood lust that not even Daryl possesses."

"He's lost a lot?"

"Not compared to some of the others."

"The others have the calluses of time. Every emotion he emits is unbridled because of his youth. Lori, you can't see that as a bad thing. It seems like he's losing his humanity, but that's really the very thing he's clinging to. Are you sure there's not a loss he's struggling with?"

They'd lost a lot of people, how could she know?

"You need to ask him."

Supper was marvelous. The crewmembers of Serenity were the only people in this time that had eaten real food from Earth-that-Was. Food grown on the Mata-terra herself, nourished by pure Earth soil. Rick's crew finally got hot food with side dishes and wine. Carl's appreciation of the drink had not improved since their stint at the C.D.C. in Atlanta.

The crew was large enough that some had to sit the lounge area and eat from the coffee table. Jokes were exchanged, lessons, stories from their lives. Everyone looked at Carl when they learned of the time Rick hunted around the whole house for his car keys and it wasn't until they changed Carl's diaper that they found the keys. The crew joined in a healthy laugh as Rick reenacted finding his keys, covered in 'more of Carl than I ever wanted to take with me.'

"Didn't that ruin the powerboard?" Kaylee laughed.

Seven pair of eyes sought the answer while the other eyes looked as confused as Ricks. "The power… what's that?"

"Well on your keys, the part that reads the computer of the vehicle."

"Kaylee," Carol smiled at the mechanic, they'd had a good talk earlier and she was now a friend deserving of smiles, "we're from 500 years ago, we stuck a piece of metal in a hole and twisted. That's how we start cars."

"Remind me not to let them near the hovercraft," Mal pointed and the crew took up their raucous laughter.

"You guys have a hovercraft?!" Carl jumped up from the coffee table. Lori looked back from the table to her son, the boyish eyes that had lit up for so many Christmases, birthdays, and first days of school now shined again. It was like an old fluorescent bulb trying to come on. The flickers of hope were there, amidst the pools of black – but the hope was flickering back to life. She turned back to the table to catch Inara's knowing glimpse and felt a kindred spark she hadn't known in quite some time.

"Carl," Lori ruffled his hair, "you help Kaylee and Carol with clean-up."

"Yeah," Kaylee added, "and if we get it done real quick, I can show you the engine. I even need to re-prime the lubrication system. Wanna help me with that too?"

River frowned at Lori's hopeful conquest to bring her son back from a very dark place he had gone. It was going to be a part of him forever. He'd loved the young girl, Carol's daughter. At first she was his best friend. She was righteous where he was mischief, she was understanding where he was rash, she was accepting where he was bitter. She'd been his first crush, and he'd placed the weight of his entire world on his shoulders when she went missing. He was happy he got shot looking for her, it would be a reminder of the girl forever. When she came from the barn, wearing the rainbow shirt he'd helped her pick out the day she went missing, his heart – his faith had broken that day.

River turned to retreat to her room, it was too difficult being around him. Daryl, she'd have to get used to his name. She couldn't just ingnore him being so cold and distant. It wasn't anything like the readings she'd pulled from him. Maybe it'd take time for him to warm to her but for now she couldn't bear being around him.

She descended the stairs, pulling strings of thoughts from every member of the new crew. Rick held disbelief and hope, T-dog was pretty sure he was still dreaming, Glenn and Maggie didn't care where they were as long as they had somewhere they could sneak off to, Beth – River clutched the railing to steady herself and gasped for air. Beth wished for death, waited for it, and loathed every time someone saved her from it. She showed remorse the first time she'd tried it and she'd been half truthful. She wasn't ready to die just then, but sleepless nights and constant running had been able to tear her down. She was tired. It was too hard to live, death was easier.

"But don't you see?" River didn't remember walking to the cargo bay to Beth, "The tests of life are what make our triumphs so sweet?"

"And all this time I thought it was trim," Jayne strutted down to move some cargo that Mal wanted in another hold.

Daryl, having agreed to help the muscle rolled his eyes at the over-sexed man-beast. The man named Jayne reminded him a lot of some of the fellows back home. Flesh and booze and guns and money – that's all any of this type ever had on their mind. Daryl didn't much have time for it. When he thought of flesh he pictured a soft body warming the bed next to him, sheets draped over curves meant for his hands and his alone. Booze lowered his guard too much for him to partake of it too often, guns were just extensions of his body. He didn't need the newest or the fanciest. All bullets killed the same if you aimed at the right places. He prized his aim more than his guns. And as for money, well that hadn't mattered in some time back on Earth. It was going to be hard to get used to paying for things again. Jayne had nothing in common with him so he was here to help the large oaf move some crates, then it was back to doing what he did best, minding his own business.

River watched his deltoids glide, his biceps engorge, and his chest flex as they lifted crates from the floor storage to the side walls. The Captain was going to make the larger floor hold into another room as there weren't quite enough to fill to hold the 10 extra people. T-dog and Daryl would share this hold. River wanted to reach out, brush the sweat from his neck, from his brow like she'd pictured a thousand times. Instead she watched him move his pack and drop it into his new lodgings. He reached to his bow but she grabbed it first.

"Hey," his jaw set against words that he couldn't lash a young woman like her. "Put that down."

"Everyone gets scared when she hold weapons," she looked confused, "I mean when I hold weapons," she turned and fired and arrow at Jayne catching the paper he was running up to Mal and pinning it to a wooden crate behind him, four inches away from the six inches Jayne treasured most in the entire 'Verse.

Jayne turned to roar and break the small assassin. She'd hand his ass back to him before he had a chance to lay a single blow, but he was going to give it a hell of try. Until he saw her brows crinkle, her eyes widen and fill with tears, and that grimace that he'd learn to read not-so-long ago. There wasn't a wail or a cry that came along with this vision, she just crumpled to the floor.

"Get her to the infirmary," he shouted at Daryl as he caught her. Jayne ran up the stairs, three at a time to retrieve Simon. He hated this feeling, something bad was about to happen – that girl was nothing if not a damned accurate barometer.

Jayne paced while Simon tended to River. Back and forth, up stairs, down stairs, in circles, in lines, along the windows to the infirmary, around his own bunk, alone, with the others – Jayne paced.

When River woke she walked past everybody looking after her. She left Simon gawking, Jayne pacing, Inara praying – and she marched to the bridge to the Captain.

"Niska is searching for us. I don't know if he'll find us."

"You don't know?"

"They haven't made any decisions that will lead them to us yet, so as of right now they will not find us. If they change their mind on any number of topics, and sets a plan into motion – I will be able to detect it. They just haven't done that yet."

"Well, you keep me informed," he demanded, as obvious as it was.

"When will we be on land again?"

"Tomorrow," Mal said, "Haymer, despite me taking his precious Lassiter, couldn't resist the thought of two Earth-the-Was artifacts. Plus it helped when I threw Saffron, Yolanda – whoever, under the bus and told him we still have the Lassiter."

"We do?" how had she not seen that?

"We do. I had it safe guarded with Book. When you were making Serenity into a reaver ship I found his locker and got it back."

"My Captain, My Captain," River beamed, "No power in the 'Verse…" She skipped back to her room, smiling at Daryl and Simon on the way. She'd sleep until they were on land. She always loved being on land.

The sun rose as River lounged on the top of Serenity. She woke moments before they landed and climbed out the top airlock as Mal touched down. The moons were casting silver and purple shadows that a soft pink sun was beginning to erase. This was a warm planet. Coastal and temperate she had stretched into the wind and danced with it before taking a seat to take spectacle of a sunrise. She knew her Captain had pushed Serenity in a harder burn than he normally would have just to give her a sunrise. She basked in it as the sun painted the bottom of the wispy clouds while the night still owned the tops of them. A few of the brightest stars begged for attention as the sun erased the weaker ones from the sky.

"Talked to your brother last night," a rasp that was already familiar to every cell in her body came from the airlock door, "you have a history with getting in trouble touching weapons."

"I am a weapon," her mood soured. She was 18, more capable of wielding weapons than any other crew member, but they still thought she was too unstable. She was nearly episode-free and had been weaning off her medication for a few weeks now.

"Be that as it may," he climbed the ladder and knelt beside her looking at her and expecting her to do the same. He was blocking the sun. "If I'm taken back to my time without my bow, I'll be dead in a week."

"You can't go back to your time without conscious knowledge of it. And no you wouldn't, with your skills you would survive almost a year."

"What do you mean we can't go back…"

"You get sunrises all the time," she snapped. "I get them once, maybe twice a month, can you please let me enjoy this?" The sunrise was only part of it, this was the man that should be lying next to her, pushing her hair from her face and keeping her warm with his body. Instead, he was out here yelling at her. He could just go inside until he took his big head out of his pi gu.

"Your brother also said you could be difficult at times. Your brother underestimates you," he snarled.

"Make sure you don't do the same," she glared and sent him down the airlock with a flick of her eyes.

Great, she pouted, the sun's erased all the stars already. What a fei fei duh piyen.