Scars

He was running down a corridor searching for something, something he needed to save them, save them all, before it was too late. His mind was playing tricks, fogging up his memory, making him forget the thing he needed most. At times it seemed like it was just there but he couldn’t quite place it, it was just outside of his memory, and he knew they would all die if he didn’t find it. This thought accelerated his heart rate, pumped adrenaline to his organs, willed his legs to move faster. He heard the screams coming being him, the inhuman screams of the things chasing him. He turned a corner and there they were, his friends and family, his shipmates. They were all wounded, cut, shot, stabbed, paralyzed, bleeding and pleading with their eyes: Help me!

Simon Tam awoke with a start, breath coming in short gasps as the nightmare still remained vivid in his mind. It was not the first time he’d had it. There were slight variations each time but the overall sense of helplessness was present in all of them. He was back underground at Mr. Universe’s complex, they were fighting the Reavers, and everyone was wounded to some degree and he had forgotten the thing he should never have forgotten: his medical bag. The Reaver bullet that pierced his side was not as shocking as the discovery an instant sooner that he was without his supplies to help his friends, his crewmates, and especially Kaylee, the friend he had desperately wanted to be much more, who had been going into a paralytic shock from the poison darts that had struck her neck. It was his sister of all people who had saved them, had fought the Reavers, retrieved his bag, and won the day. Inara had skillfully followed his instructions as she gave first Kaylee an injection and then himself. And then they had waited, for what seemed forever, hearing the screams of the Reavers, his mind not hoping that River had survived. But she had. And so had they.

Simon looked at the wondrous young lady lying next to him, making sure he hadn’t disturbed her peaceful slu