Author's note - The events of the BDM and after were too much to fit into one chapter so this will be divided into two parts. Part 2 follows as soon as possible and then there will be a final part to tie everything together.

The Dr. Tam Journals – Part 16 – Serenity (BDM) 1

Kaylee awoke earlier than Simon, her fears and worries only relieved a short while by the loving touch of her husband. She sat up and saw it was 6:20 am on the ship’s clock. Dreams had come again to her, and some were wonderful, of children and picnics in green valleys by shimmering lakes, and some were dark and horrifying, of Simon and River being dragged away by the police, of Serenity being destroyed, of all she loved being lost. That was twice now she dreamed of the ship in trouble and she wondered what it all meant. Her mind was racing in circles, her anxieties taking a toll on her mental health.

She had to be stronger, had to be ready to face this man today, this Beauregard. Size him up, was what the Capt’n would say, look him in the eye and find out what he was about. To trust a person or not was one of the greatest problems Kaylee had, because she believed in the inherit honesty of everyone. She wasn’t that naive that she didn’t know there were plenty that couldn’t be trusted, especially since she was on ship full of, well, crooks, to put it politely. Still, she couldn’t help but want to trust a person, ‘til they proved otherwise.

Kaylee recalled the first time she realized what Serenity and her crew were all about. She had been on the ship less than a month and they had done a few real cargo runs. Then one day Zoe and the Capt’n came running back to the ship carrying two large sacks of cash with bullets flying all around them from the pursuing posse. Kaylee had been in the cargo bay, checking the Mule when she heard a shout from the Capt’n just as a bullet hit the Mule no more than an inch from her hand. Paralyzed with fright she couldn’t even move as more bullets zipped by and struck various parts of the ship. Finally,