A/N: I don't own them, but I like trying to figure out their minds.

I want to pop a note in here about Simon's "interrogation". At first, I wanted a lot of sarcastic Simon (I just *adore* sarcastic Simon), as in "Out Of Gas" when he's around Early. But as I thought about it, I realized that the situations aren't really similar and had to think of something different.

One of the best books I've read about "getting into your enemy's mind" is "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. While the later books got a bit too metaphysical for my taste, one of the lessons from that book that stuck with was that to truly destroy your enemy, you had to love them. But in learning to love them, it gave them the power to hurt you.

I honestly believe Regan and Gabriel loved their children in their own odd way. Not necessarily the way parents should: instead of loving their kids for who they are, they loved them for what they represented: power and prestige. But in return, Simon and River completely loved their parents - just watch how young Simon *beams* at his dad in the beginning of "Safe."

When Early appeared aboard Serenity, Simon had no attachment to this random stranger who didn't know the whole scope of what was going on. This would give him a feeling of "just business", allowing his to keep his cool. Early also forced Simon to think fast, as at that point Simon didn't know River's fate and had to worry about protecting Kaylee as well.

Conversely, Simon's current situation is with someone who not only knew the whole story, but actually caused it (or allowed it to happen, at any rate). Further, Regan has nothing on him: both Kaylee and River are as safe as they can be under Mal's protection. Simon has nothing to lose, and Regan - by loving him and he loving her, in some way - can truly destroy him (this concept will return, as I hope you'll agree in a few chapters). To me, this make Regan light years more dangerous, and thus I allowed Simon to start out brash like he did with Early, but become rather d