Zoe stayed in the cargo hold while Simon helped Jayne in the infirmary. She heard shouting from the little mechanic and Simon shouting right back. She paid it no mind. She thought on how she’d been carrying on with Simon, just because he was there. She didn’t really have any feelings for him but she’d just felt like she shouldn’t be alone, like she should always have somebody. The way it had been before Wash died. When they’d always been together, like two halves of a whole.

She sealed the loading door, but she didn’t throw the Reaver out. Something about it just bothered her. One Reaver, all by it’s lonesome? Only one? Reavers hunted in packs, not like a family, but like wild dogs. Never by themselves. Like her. Only one…why the hell did it bother her so damn much?

*****

It seemed like hours. Kaylee sat on her bunk, head in her hand. Simon hadn’t pulled the bullet out of her arm or looked at her ankle. But Kaylee wasn’t complaining. Between a dead merc and a go se ankle, she’d rather have to walk around with a gimp the rest of her life.

Simon had thrown her out of the infirmary. She didn’t blame him. Crisis situations weren’t easy for her, she tended to panic.

There had been blood everywhere, all over her and Jayne and Simon…even the smell, like raw meat. She could smell it in her clothes and in her hair. Suddenly Kaylee couldn’t stand the smell…God it was horrible. She limped over to the wall and pulled out the sink. She rubbed the water over her face and her hands and her hair, but the smell…God that smell! It wouldn’t come out. Kaylee wanted to scream and tear off her skin. The blood, the blood, the smell.

Kaylee sat down on her bunk, put her head between her knees and threw up on the floor.

*****

Inara sat with Mal in the kitchen. He’d been incredibly quiet. River say next to him, wearing his brown coat. She began to fidget.

“Mal, is there something-”

Mal cut her off. “River tried to kill herself while we were gone. The only reason she’s alive is because I found her.