A/N: All right kids, we're more than halfway there, but the angst and tension just keeps coming. I hope you like how this all (eventually) resolves.

Thanks to Leiasky for the beta and guiding light. She was integral in the plot development of this one.

Also, thanks to everyone for your shiny comments. The good and the con crit help immensely, especially as I continue writing. (If you're interested, I put up an update of my fic writing in my latest http://www.fireflyfans.net/showprofile.asp?un=TamSibling>log entry. Check it out if you want.)

Previous Chapters:

http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=15760>Chapter 1, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=15783>Chapter 2, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=15892>Chapter 3, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=15910>Chapter 4, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=15954>Chapter 5, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16005>Chapter 6, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16062>Chapter 7, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16114>Chapter 8, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16131>Chapter 9, http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=16142>Chapter 10

Link to http://www.geocities.com/maegovannen/Firefly/Joss100Challenge.html>prompt table

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The Right To Love - Chapter 11 (Prompts 66-72)

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066. Empty

He was gone, that was all Kaylee could focus on. She felt better, physically, than she had for quite some time, but her mind and her heart were hurting, pounding with fear and longing … and regret.

Simon had told her he loved her and she had said – nothing. She’d murmured the words once he’d gone, but Kaylee knew he’d already been out the door and down the hall by the time she whispered them. He hadn’t heard her and now, if he did die, the last thing Simon would remember her saying was that she didn’t want