River opened her eyes to stare at the man in the doorway. She had known he was there. She wanted to startle him. She did. He recovered.

"So you're River Tam," he said slowly. She didn't answer. She listened to his fear of her grow.

"You know," he went on, his voice hiding his fear well. "If the child isn't found soon, your father may decide to kill your friends and your brother and take you back in its place."

"The child is dead," she responded, pulling words from Kaylee's nightmare. "The blood...covered my hands...my arms...who would have thought...so much blood in him?" She cried out and strained against the straps that held her down so suddenly the man in the doorway backed away from her. Simon woke - he had been sleeping with his arms around his wife next to the cot - and began shushing his sister before he noticed the man in the doorway.

"What did you do?" he demanded. Inara was now awake, as well, and trying to calm River. Kaylee woke from her dream but did not stir. Zoë slept on, the drugs seeing to it she rested.

"Where is he buried?" Vincent asked from his safe distance as River's cry subsided. "He must be dead, I can see it in your eyes and in your wife's eyes...just tell me where he is buried so this can all end."

"End?" Inara turned, her anger reaching its peak. "It doesn't 'end' with a burial. That child was...he was more than a life to us, he was hope and renewal and something pure! We will take his memory with us...forever...he has been carved into our hearts and you speak of his grave as the end?" She shook her head and turned back to River. Until Kaylee's heartbroken face, she had thought it was a solid cover. Now...she did not want it to be true, but...Kaylee wouldn't speak of her son. Vincent was right, Kaylee's hollow eyes gave away the fact that the child had died...and now River...

Vincent turned and left the med bay, sick to his stomach. He had committed crimes - truly heinous crimes - in his life, but seeing them mourn a life that had not even made it to soli