River sat alone on the catwalk, swinging her legs in thin air with her head cocked on one side, listening. Around her, the sounds of Serenity slipping back into her normal routine after Earlys’ intrusion were lulling.

There was, however, one discordant note within the symphony. It moved, hauntingly, from the common room to the engine room and from there to the crew’s quarters. It stood out in melancholy contrast to the soft and beautiful tones of the score. It sang in River’s heart and soul, and brought tears to her eyes.

It was Kaylee. Beautiful, effervescent, happy Kaylee. She walked the halls of Serenity like a ghost. The others couldn’t see it, of course: they just saw the same old Kaylee, and were oblivious to the turmoil behind her eyes.

River’s eyes glazed over as she focused in on the feelings emanating from the mechanic. Emotions, which she usually tried to block out, swirled around her in a blinding cacophony: fear, uncertainty, anger, shame, disgust, loathing, loneliness, indifference. All these emotions rushed through Kaylee, coalescing into one single note of desperate loneliness and despair that threatened to rip River’s fragile mental barriers to pieces.

She withdrew her mind, using a technique of deliberate breathing that she had learned to help her shut others out. Slowly, the overwhelming urge to cry began to recede, and she felt herself returning to being just River, sitting on the catwalk with her legs dangling. Looking down into the cargo-bay, she noticed that Jayne had managed to enter and begin his work-out without her knowledge; she had been so far away.

As she watched Jayne set his weights according to his preferences, she thought back to the night, day, whatever you called it out here in the black when she had first realised that Kaylee had not recovered from Jubal Early’s “visit”.

A strawberry had been the definitive moment. Up til then, River had been just as fooled by Kaylee’s façade as anyone else. Yes, she was a reader. But she tried not to be, and Kaylee had done