Disclaimers : Everything belongs to Joss, except for one character of my creation

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Alex had dreamed many dreams, and they had all seemed very real.

The latest one certainly seemed the most real of all. She was in the infirmary on Serenity , surrounded by the crew, and she was the patient on the table instead of the one tending to the patient on the table.

Well, at least she should have been on the table. She was actually on the floor beside the table. But she was bandaged and wearing a hospital gown, so she knew she had been on the table at some recent point in time.

She had been in Serenity ’s infirmary in a lot of her dreams. Most of the time, she was tending to the wounded during wartime, before the ship had been Serenity at all. Once or twice she had been going through the “hidey-hole” in the wall where she kept her notes, showing Simon her discovery.

And, in one of them, she’d been kissing the captain.

That was the one she liked the best.

The latest one, she decided, she liked the least. Even though the captain was in it, and he certainly seemed happy enough to see her, she was on the wrong side of things. She wasn’t supposed to be the one in the bandages and gown, hooked up to oxygen and fluids and such. She wasn’t supposed to be the injured one.

She wasn’t supposed to be the one in pain.

But in pain she was, and it was because of the pain that Alex came fully awake with a start during the night and realized that her latest dream was no dream at all.

The infirmary lights had been dimmed, and she instinctively tried to raise up to get her bearings. That was a mistake. The pain slammed her back down so fast it took her breath away. She let out a strangled yelp of surprise; and someone immediately materialized beside her.

“Alex?”

She blinked the figure into focus.

“Kaylee?”

The figure standing over her brought the lights up. Alex squinted against the sud