DISCLAIMER: All characters and whatnot belong to Joss Whedon, any bizarre reference belongs to other owners of other rights. It's just something stupid-i-hope-fun that i wrote...try to just laugh and enjoy.

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Mal remained optimistic that this job - for once - could go smoothly. The rest of the crew, however, saw that a young girls' fever and series of disturbing dreams were enough to distract them from their jobs at hand.

Mal kept reminding himself that the job was an easy one. It should go smoothly. They weren't stealing anything, just moving boxes from one ship - that did the stealing already - to his ship and from there, to the planet. Some money would change hands and they would be off again. It wasn't hard.

But River's dreams woke everyone.

Not because her voice carried into their bunks, but because her sleepwalking carried her into their bunks.

Mal had woken from a sound sleep to see the younger Tam standing over him, eyes closed, mumbling about people gone missing returning suddenly. Not much scared Mal to the point of jumping out of his bed anymore, but that had nearly done it. The fact that she had then turned and shuffled to the ladder brought him to his senses and he had then clambered out of bed and caught her just as she woke and fell over in surprise.

She had been returned to her brother's care and Mal had spent the rest of the night on the bridge, trying to focus on the upcoming goods transfer. Jayne came grumbling in soon after, explaining his appearance by relating a similar experience to Mal's, and insisted he was locking the door to his bunk from that night on. Zoë and Wash seemed to have been spared the adventure of waking to a sleepwalking dreamer.

***

They had securely docked with the small ship Rincewind; Simon remained with River in her bunk while crews of both ships transferred the shipment to Serenity's hold. Everything was going fine...until the Shepherd strolled over to Mal and asked him when Wojo was due in. The captain