River woke up to be face to face with Jayne, but he was drooling on his pillow, and she had to struggle not to laugh at him.

At least he didn’t mind when she laughed at him.

Then she shuddered- she could feel something was wrong, that something was off, but whatever the problem was, River was sure it was human to a reasonable degree, and it probably wasn’t very nice.

She shivered and bent to wake Jayne, and even though he wouldn’t like it, she knew she had to. Otherwise that someone else might wake him up, and that wouldn’t be good.

“Guh? River, whaddya want?” he moaned.

“Someone else is on this ship,” she told him, slipping off the bed and rising to her feet. “We’re going to find out who.”

“What’s this ‘we’ stuff?” growled Jayne, burying himself deeper beneath the pillow.

“Jayne…I won’t beg, I’ll just twist your arm, and then your leg, and then-,” River threatened, until Jayne held up a hand to stop her.

“I get it. You know, ‘twist your arm’ isn’t really meanin’ for you to be twisting my arm,” Jayne told her, heaving himself into a sitting position.

“I know it’s not meant to be taken literally, I know it’s a metaphorical expression,” River rolled her eyes.

“You know what I find hard to believe?” Jayne asked her as he laced his boots. “That I still like you so gorramn much.”

River smiled, but then jerked her head to glare at the ceiling.

“I can’t really feel her…..She’s like me……She is me,” River murmured, and then left, slipping away.

Jayne was creeping down the hallway, cradling Vera protectively. A slender figure swooped down out of nowhere and settled beside him; a quick glance at her face reassured him.

“River….Did you see anything?”

All of the sudden, another River came hurtling out of the darkness and swung at….River? She ducked and caught the other’s wrist, flipping her over, but she landed on her feet. Now one was sending a flying kick, but the other caught her ankle.

Jayne just stood there with a stupid expression on his face.

Now they were circ