As always everything belongs to Joss. All of these are written in chronological order, but can be read as stand alones (only vague references to other installments). Ratings are shiny, comments are shinier!

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Intro -

It was strange. Surreal even, though she would never use that word. But it's true - nothing seemed real since Miranda, not yet anyway. There was just too much shock to deal with. Wash and Book gone. Just thinking that made the ache inside her swell to where she couldn't, or didn't want to breathe anymore. But even with that, she felt like she was betraying their memory by hurting more over the realization of what Reavers are. That made her sting in a way nothing else has. To do that to men, to really do that... it's simply outside the realm of her imagination. Oh, she knew there were bad men about in this 'verse. She just never knew they could be that bad.

But with all this hurting inside, playing tug-o-war with who got the most pain, what made it a dream is that she was still there to think on it. She didn't think she would make it, deep down she never really believed it until it was actually all over. Even then she doubted she had survived. When she thought on it, it filled her with awe at her own self. For just a moment she would swell with gratitude that she was alive. And that left a bitter taste of guilt in her mouth. It was funny, or not so funny, the way guilt tasted like bile.

The scene -

Three mornings after the Miranda singal went out, she caught herself doing something strange creating odd thoughts. She was walking around Serenity. Her eyes had filled up and emptied with slow regularity as she made an orbit around Serenity's battered body. Just taking this sight in was a challenge to her mind - it just never seemed possible for her girl to look so utterly crippled.

And then it happened: she stopped trying to catalog all the damage down, stopped trying to think of what repairs should be made first. Kaylee just walked aimlessly around her beautiful, battered