Mal looked around the small room that passed for a dining room. ‘Course, space was at a premium on any ship, so this room passed as the largest room on Serenity (give or take a few feet). Still, it was home , and he was grateful to River for making it stay that way. But, Gorramit! One shouldn’t be able to talk to Reavers! Or, at least, not in a way what makes them understand you none. And what River had done just now wasn’t natural . He looked around the room, resisting the urge to pace.

Wash was nursing a bottle of booze. He couldn’t tell what, but it sure seemed enough to kill a man if he happened to ingest enough of it. Kaylee was another matter entirely. Girl could out drink Jayne, if she had a mind. Look at what happened on Canton. Said mechanic was helping Simon out with River. They two were “examining” her, if it could be called that. To Mal, it was just hitting someone on the knee with a small hammer. He didn’t pretend to understand. Let the doctors do the doctorin’. He’d put the bullets into folks for them to take out (or just have Jayne do it. Man had a problem or some-such, cuz he had a habit of enjoying his work far too much for sanity)

Screw it, Sanity is overrated anyway. Said man was sitting as far from River as he could, nursing Vera the way a Mother Hen would nurse her chicks. Okay… bad analogy there. Jayne and the word “motherly” in the same sentence was hazardous to ones health. Every so often, Jayne would eye River warily. Probably a good idea, seein’ as she had kicked him in the head hard enough to knock him out.

Inara and Zoë were conversing lowly in a corner, speakin’ of things that Mal didn’t bother even trying to understand. A woman’s talk was not the territory for a man to cross into. Even a man who had once dressed up in a pretty floral bonnet. And then there was River.

She seemed almost… well, normal , sitting there on the tyable, legs dangling a few inches off the ground. She seemed happy enough, letting her brother hit her with that