Chapter 2: Build a Bridge

Disclaimer: Repeat after me, kids: I will tithe my earnings to Joss Whedon…

Disclaimer 2: This story takes place in some places in flashbacks, but the “present” tense is 6 months post-BDM, and there are SPOILERS for the movie plot. But if you’re reading this, why haven’t you seen the BDM yet? Go watch it! Thanks to the people who were kind enough to R&R, and this is an open call to anybody who might be able to serve as a beta for my work- I would heavily appreciate it! everything in italics constitutes either a personal thought or a flashback, and it’s pretty easy to tell which is which. As always- Keep Flying!

She said “You ain’t ugly, you can kiss me if you like”

Go ahead and kiss her, you don’t know what you’re missing

You said, “Baby, you’re special,

But there’s something not quite right.”

She’s a Venus in flares and you wanna split hairs!

“I am innocent, you are a rocket.

Things were ok till you took out the copper”

Leave me alone, and get used to the chains

You’re a pain, a pain, a pain, a pain”

- Belle and Sebastian, The White Collar Boy

River gazed out the window on the bridge. Out in the black, it was quiet. She turned one of Wash’s dinosaurs over in her hands, looking at the many stars. She could name them if she wanted to.

“I think we will thrive here,” she cooed to the dinosaur. Her mind went past the stars. For once it was even her own thoughts that she was lost in. Without the burden of what was hidden on Miranda flitting about in her head she had become more stable. She still spoke in riddles sometimes and felt the emotions and foremost thoughts of everybody she came into the vicinity of. Before she had to carry what she knew all alone, and it was all muddled and buried. Now it was spread out throughout the system, throughout the ‘verse. And she could sleep. And she could grow. She could look at the stars and lose herself. Like she started to a few months ago, on this very bridge.

River had been sitting in the chair, for the first time