Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. They belong to the networks, writers, creators, etc... of which they are affiliated.

Not Beta'd. Mistakes are mine. Feel free to point them out so I can fix them. :)

Bellerophon was sympathetic to the Alliance, that was its only down side. Bellerophon was a water world, more ocean than land. Beautiful sunsets mirrored off of gently rolling waters that ebbed and flowed in a tranquil and unending rhythm. What land there was had become an arid desert through the course of terra-forming, but in a narrow swath along the border was a costal plain that stretched for endless miles. Hundreds of yards reached north and south along the edge of the water in a blanket of finely ground sand that was occasionally pock marked with jutting crags of sharp rocks. Her feet squished between the champagne sands and the waves raged like a war zone against the beach. Salt and suntan oil soaked the air as River bathed in the natural UV rays. She was able to fully turn her mind off of the others' thoughts and focus on what they were really saying.

"Did you ever think we'd be sitting on a beach again?" Lori was still in disbelief.

"A beach on a whole 'nother planet," Carl fidgeted as his mom put sun block on him.

"No walkers." Carol and Maggie sighed at the same time.

"No Merle, either," Daryl snarled as he trotted by, still carrying that blasted crossbow. "Funny how easy you all can just forget a whole human being."

"He's still alive," River stated evenly. Even her interjections into normal conversations were tainted with all she knew as a reader, "in your time; in 2014. If you choose to go back you may find him." What she had said now horrified her. Why couldn't her mouth ever stop itself? Any hope she'd had that he'd remain here with her flew out the window. She felt it wave off of him as soon as she had finished her sentence.

"There's a way to get back?"

She furrowed her brow and shook her head as she turned away from him.

"Hey, I'm talkin' to you," he crouched in front of her. "Do you know how I can get back to Earth?"

"Daryl," Carol bristled behind River, "don't you like it here?"

"I can't just leave my brother. I got kin. I can't just forget him. You know something 'bout gettin' back?"

There was a break in the fabric of space-time that lingered just inside the cargo bay in Serenity. It was high enough off the ground that one couldn't just stumble into it, but it was there – a portal back to Earth. 500 years away from her. She didn't want to tell anybody. She hadn't even told her brother, her Captain, or her best friend. There was a way he could leave her. How could she willingly give him that information? But how could she keep it from him either? Just like Simon was all she really had; his brother was the only thing Daryl could really call family.

"I will tell you how to go back," River announced, "but you must take me with you to find your brother."

"No," the entire group spat in unison. Mal and Rick weren't there to weigh in, but it was pretty clear that would have been their reaction as well if they weren't off trying to sell 'old' weapons to the very man Mal had tried to rob barely a year ago.

"River," Simon stopped building his sand castle, "you would risk me losing my mei mei so you can go save Merle."

"I will find his brother and bring everyone back."

"What if there is no way back? You told me you saw a portal, are you sure it's back to 2014? What if it goes somewhere even stranger and there's no way back?"

She couldn't explain, yet, that life without Daryl was going to be strange and terrible for her. She may as well be cast in a portal – lost to the cosmos. If Daryl wasn't going to be in her life it would be an inescapable prison. She'd caught the waves from him, even over the 500 year gap and it told of their future. She would have nights pondering the stars, days loving the suns, shared joys, carnal passions. Feelings she had never felt before had been strong enough to erase even the laws of time. Now they wanted her to just hand him over to some family ties born solely of blood. Merle never earned Daryl's devotion; Daryl just gave it freely as baby brothers are supposed to.

"You will take a walk with me, Daryl Dixon. I have things to tell you," River stood and demanded. "Then you can return to Earth."

"This is a fine piece of weaponry," Haymer exhaled.

"Thank you, it's been in my family for quite some time now," Rick flashed a smile laced with practiced southern-boy charm.

"There's blood on it," Haymer furrowed his brow, "has it been in use?"

"No, that's 500 year old blood."

"There's no way that's possible."

"It's true," Rick nodded, "it's been locked up tight and never opened until my son accidentally found my safe."

"He was able to break in? Quite a skilled theft for a young boy. Do you think the company you keep is best for the child?" Haymer raised an eyebrow at Malcolm Reynolds.

"Oh, come now," Mal hooked his thumbs in his suspenders, "Yolanda, Saffron – whoever she is, played the lot of us. I was just dumb enough to get duped twice."

"I do appreciate having the Lassiter back."

"It was only right."

"This blood confounds me, gentlemen," Haymer began to pace. "Nothing was allowed off of Earth-That-Was with blood on it. This can't be from Earth."

"Why?"

"They made everybody send everything they owned through a bio-scanner that tested for any blood before they were allowed to the moon." Haymer was confused by the bewildered look on the men's faces. "Oh don't tell me you believe that 'our numbers were too many' hogwash." Haymer eyes twinkled with delight. He had a fresh audience to share his knowledge with. He'd spent years, decades studying where they came from and what happened on the mother planet; he was excited to regale them with history. Mal and Rick accepted a seat on a sofa that looked out a window over all of his estate. "When we left Earth-That-Was, it wasn't because of over-population, quite contrary in fact. Only a few thousand made it to the ships. Did you know that first they had to stop off and live on the moon for near a century because they didn't have the technology to come all the way out here? Luckily, only the best and the brightest survived so research and development grew in strides. The Chinese had a space program that was still functional, and so did the United States, that why those cultures are the two main influences in the 'Verse today. You can tell that a few other nationalities made it. The British, Scots, Irish, Russian, Middle Eastern – those were all people who had immigrated to America or China though. Any others left on Earth when the ship left – well, I bet it was fairly bleak.

"You see, a virus had broke out. It brought the dead to life, it killed the living – just to bring them back to life too. When they came back, though, they weren't people. They were animals with a hunger for human flesh. They didn't die easily but they killed with a single scratch. That's why, all the bloody weapons and knives and the like were cleansed before being allowed over. They actually had a radioactive oven that 'baked' the virus off of everything, all the people had to go through a detox chemical shower. It was not the best time for humanity."

"Haymer," Rick rubbed a shaky hand over his forehead, "what if the virus was reintroduced?"

"It would be a 'Verse wide devastation."

"Mal," Rick whispered an apology into his hand. "That's why I didn't want to clean the gun off on the ship if you have recycled water. What if it's too late and I've alre…"

"This isn't blood from Earth, it can't be," Haymer stood his ground.

"It is."

"You're mistaken son, I'm sorry."

"All of the people were infected," Rick worried aloud, "even if they died of natural causes, they would rise again. It was in the air, the water, the food." The awful realization hit him that even though they travelled to a better time, they could bring the same destruction on this new society just by being there. The virus lived inside of them, it was polluting the air even as they spoke. "How did they rid the living of the virus?" Rick frantically searched Haymer for answers.

"On the moon they found the cure."

"And they didn't go back to Earth and cure the population?"

"It wasn't simple like just dispersing it in the air, it requires a round of five shots every two weeks and it was painful to rid of."

"Do they still have the formula? For the anti-virus?"

"I'm sure it's on file somewhere."

"I need it," Rick was almost shaking with joy, "Mal, we need that."

Mal looked to the heavens and beseeched the God that had brought him his miracle, to make his miracle shut his mouth and stop rambling like a buffoon.

"Haymer, that blood is from Earth-That-Was, do you have a bio-container to keep it in?"

"I'm telling you it's not possi…"

"Haymer," Mal barked, "I trust you as much as you trust me, which I can imagine leaves us both in a quandary of how to always keep one eye on each other, ,but let me just say that there are secrets in the air right now that I don't plan on betraying until I have some proof from you that I can count on you not to turn my man here and his crew in. You need to get that gun into a bio-container. Then we need to talk."

"I don't like dealings with you, Malcolm Reynolds. I don't like them one bit."

Daryl's eyes travelled where she expected them to as she adjusted her bikini top and slung a wrap around her waist, three inches lower than it needed to be. The harsh thoughts that swarmed in his head toward her subsided for a brief moment, until he caught himself leering at a 'little girl' and shoved his unwarranted malice to the forefront again.

"First," she said in a low voice as they walked away from the group, "stop calling me a little girl – even in your head. I'm of age and have been through more than most people go through in their entire lives. Please. Stop. Calling. Me. Little. Girl."

"Fine," he hissed, the rumble of the word getting caught deep in his throat like a dangerous purr.

"Thank you for allowing me this time," she turned to him. His tanned chest had grains of the sand stuck to it so he shimmered like a golden god. The sunlight glinted off of his hair bathing him in an ethereal light that hinted that he just may be an angel. She began this conversation very cautiously, "I wanted to talk with you about…"

"About what?" the edge to his voice wasn't making things any easier for her.

"Your crew would like you to stay, that doesn't matter to you?"

"No. They ain't my blood kin."

"Merle is," River agreed. "You know I'm a reader, right? Do you know what a reader is?" His silence was enough of an answer for her. "It means that my brain was messed with until they unlocked the other 90% of it that nobody ever uses. That 90% can tap into frequencies that nobody else can feel or sense. It makes me a hell of a fighter, radar, psychic if you will. Your brother is still alive right now. If you go back, you may never find him, but I guarantee you that you will die. Not by a walker either." She would say no more. His brother was going to betray him and lead him to his death, just for higher standing in a false society. Merle was going to make it off Earth, Daryl wouldn't. Those were things Daryl didn't need to know.

"How do I die? When?"

"I can't tell you. I don't know. I caught only glimpses of it. Another human betrays you. Do you know what else I felt?"

"You're askin' these questions like I care, little girl."

An apology was forced to his eyes when River glared through his toughest defenses. "I felt rough, calloused hands pull me," she tugged him behind a boulder and natural rise in the sand. She couldn't see the group any longer. "I felt a breath against my ear," she whispered and ran feather-light fingertips over her neck. "I saw blue eyes answer my pleas, tan skin flush my pale skin. I know you feel it too," she challenged, "that's why you distance me with hateful words."

His eyes betrayed him. They wanted to be fierce, loathing, and cold; but he was caught so off guard by how perfectly she'd pinpointed every detail of things he had been imagining. Only he'd seen brown eyes steal his soul with a single look, pale skin blush at his touch. He wanted to reach out right now, claim the haunt of his latest dreams and make the apparition come to life beneath his very fingers. Too bad he was Daryl Dixon and didn't let things of desire distract him. "I can't just leave my brother," he offered a weak excuse.

"The brother that would leave you after school to walk home alone? Four miles through town and through your trailer park would frighten most adults, you were six. You can't leave a life of painful memories to stay here and create a life anew? Full of better memories?" River teasingly toyed the waist of her wrap that was dancing on the very edge of her hips.

Better memories? That won't be hard. Life anew? It sounded better than he'd expected it to. His eyes held steady against her provocation and, even though her words were enticing, most of his instincts told him to run. The parts of him controlled by corruptible emotions held him steadily to the ground. Merle had been awful, and did it really make him a bad person to want to hold firm to this better life? Did it make him a bad person that he wanted to hold firm to this little g … this woman?

She watched him relax and she saw the gears of thought turning behind his calculating eyes.

Then she saw the red dot between his eyebrows.