It has been a long and rather frustrating day to be certain. Mal had gone from one missing teen runaway to finding what amounted to her older sister in the course of about three hours. And frankly, he was not quite sure what to make of Jes. She seemed to careen between a genuine affection for River and sarcasm, bordering on outright arrogance. On the one hand, it was fun to watch her take chunks out of Jayne and the doc, and on the other, he wasn’t quite sure he was still getting the whole story.

“So if you are supposed to be the product of the best Alliance minds, what the hell are you doing out here on the ass end of the Outer Rim?”

“Why, Captain, putting the talent of the best Alliance minds to good use. Because I am a humanitarian, after all.”

Mal paused to size her up. He got the distinct impression she was laughing at him.

“You are about as much a humanitarian as I am. Which ain’t much. I’m not rightly sure yer actually a doc.”

“Got a fancy piece of paper from the University of Londinium Medical School says otherwise. Hell if I know where it is in this mess, though. Not that it matters out here on the ass end of the Outer Rim.”

At that moment, Mal’s reply was interrupted by a very distinct sound he and Zoe knew all too well, and hoped to not hear ever again.

“Was that just battery gunfire I heard,” Zoe wanted to know.

At that moment, one of the orderlies came in with a clipboard. He looked no more than about 20, but had an air of capability about him, despite his extremely young age. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but they’ve started up again.”

Wash looked confused. “That still sounds like a good 100 kliks away.”

Jes got up out of the chair. “There’s a reason this one is nicknamed Radar. He’s our advanced warning system.”

She turned to Radar. “See if you can raise Jonsey to…”

He finished her sentence. “Take the patients, sir. Yes, sir.” And with that, he bustled out of the tent.

Jayne stared after the young man. “He called ya sir!”

Jes gave him a smile which Mal realize