A/N: This is the second to last chapter in this middle story of my trilogy.

The third and final installment, A NEW DAY, I intend to begin posting by mid-week. It will take place about four months after the end of this series and will closely follow River and Jayne's struggle to have a baby as well as Kaylee's most recent pregnancy.

Thanks again to Leiasky for the great beta-ing and encouragement.

Please continue to read and respond and let me know what you think! I really appreciate and crave your input!

***

A NEW BEGINNING, ch. 27: Reunion

***

The ride back to Harvest was fairly uneventful. River and Jayne had agreed to watch Rylee and Daniel and both children, after a bit of coaxing and the promise of presents, had told their parents they would be fine without them for a couple of weeks.

So, they had left Simon and Kaylee on Greenleaf to catch a transport to Newhall, while Regan had agreed to fly River, Jayne and the children back in her ship. The children were much warmer to their newfound grandmother now, and River watched with a barely contained smile as her mother struggled to keep up with the demands of two little ones.

Standing in the doorway of one of the shuttle’s guest rooms, she watched with delight as Rylee and Daniel had roped her mother into reading them a bedtime story, and demanded that, like their mother and father, she do all the voices. Smiling, River’s mind flitted back to a memory of Simon reading to her when she was little, probably Rylee’s age and doing all the voices. Her parents had never been bothered to tuck her in, and while River felt a bit of jealously at seeing her mother dote over her grandchildren now, she was grateful to see it.

Thinking of those moments with Simon brought another familiar emotion to River’s heart – loneliness. It wasn’t fair, she knew that. She had no right to demand so much from him, but she still missed the closeness they’d always shared. It was still there, just different and while River adjusted she