It was only a month after Simon died that River died too. No one knew exactly how to prepare her meds. In the end, they didn’t even know if she died from something they gave her or from withdraw from something they didn’t. But there was nothing anyone could do to help her and she did nothing to help herself.

After that, Serenity started dying. Not just in spirit, but mechanically as well. Kaylee had fallen into a depression and completely failed to bounce back after so much death. Mal offered to take her back home, in part because he figured she needed a break, but mostly because he couldn’t afford to keep paying for her to do nothing. She didn’t eat much as it was, but the budget was getting too tight for hangers on, especially now that he didn’t have a medic and had to run to ground for help with every serious wound.

Inara offered to take Kaylee to her world for awhile, but Kaylee refused to leave. It was the only thing she ever expressed an opinion on. Otherwise, she rarely left her hammock in the engine room. She just sat there, staring at nothing.

At first, Jotham, the new mechanic Mal hired, had made crass comments about Kaylee, saying all she needed was a good rut. Jayne had thought that too, at first, and he nearly offered once. But when he had the chance to ask, Little Kaylee’s soul was so lost, he realized it’d do more hurt than good. Jotham didn’t seem to care. He didn’t know about Kaylee and Simon. He just saw a cute little girl that never wanted to leave the engine room. Mal reprimanded him early on, and Jayne added a few choice threats of his own. After that, Jotham just ranted all pissy and annoyed at seeing a girl he couldn’t touch. He wouldn’t last long if he kept talking that way. Jayne figured that Mal only hired him to mess things up a bit so Kaylee would have no choice but to fix them. Unfortunately, Kaylee didn’t have much heart left for Serenity.

One night, Jayne came into the engine room to try to talk Kaylee out of the hammock and into a midnight snack. He found that hun dan Joth