Simon started at the clanging sound, before he realized that it was just a shuttle leaving - shuttle one, with Inara and Mal aboard. A few moments later, arms wrapped around him from behind, and he could feel Kaylee's breath against his back. "Nervous much?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I guess so," he admitted. "Never expected to run into Garcia like this - and when Jayne and Zoe leave, it'll be just the three of us with him." There was an awkward silence. "Did - I never told you how I met up with Garcia, did I?"

"No, I hadn't even heard that he existed before last night," Kaylee reminded him. "Not him specifically, just 'people' who helped you save River. And no, you hadn't said how you met any of the people."

Simon turned around, draping his hand over Kaylee's shoulders, and they leaned together against the side of the cargo bay. "He met me, I guess I should say - faked some ID and made an appointment at the hospital on a bogus complaint. I still don't know his real name, just the aliac he used that time - Guillermo 'Bill' Garcia. He dropped a few..."

Just then, the story was cut off by a soft chime that was triggered by the signal button outside the airlock door. Side by side the two of them headed over, and so did River, skipping out from the direction of the infirmary and the passenger dorms. "Don't look so twitchy, Simon," she said when she spotted her brother. "I'll protect you, and I'm better at it than the evil threesome all put together." Simon just shook his head, wondering what Zoe had done to get labelled as 'evil' particularly.

His heart sank further when he realized that Garcia wasn't alone outside the door, having a younger man around River's age with him. Then again, Simon wasn't the only one who was entitled to be nervous he supposed - Garcia didn't really know that much about any of them, and might be worried for his own safety going into a strange ship. And River could deal with Garcia *and* his friend equally well - unless by some extreme chance the boy was nearly as special as R