Title: Presumption of Guilt - 3

Author: hisgoodgirl

Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss. I got nada but my imagination.

Characters: Crew, omc, ofc.

Warning: PG for graphic violence, profanity and other grownup things.

Setting: In the town of Silverton, on Santo, immediately prior to “The Train Job”.

Words: 2,556

A/N: As a kid, my two favorite TV genres were westerns and detective shows. I finally decided to tackle both in a mix I’ve thought of as “Firefly CSI”. You can click on my name to find links to previous chapters and lots of my other fics. Remember, feedback is what writers (and muses) live for. It’s all helpful, dear readers.

X - posted from my LiveJournal.

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Presumption of Guilt

Chapter Three

As Simon Tam walked purposefully down Boyd Street, he reflected on just how different life on the Rim was from what he had previously known on his homeworld of Osiris. Santo was what might be best described as “rustic” whereas Osiris was a world of order and refinement. He recalled his work as a trauma surgeon in Capitol City, the affluence and prestige he had enjoyed there, all abandoned to rescue his sister from her horrific abuse at the hands of a government he had once respected and admired.

Now they were fugitives, running from the law with a band of petty criminals on a battered junker of a transport ship. To be honest, Simon felt pretty useless, apart from his efforts to find a way to help River. It was true that he’d saved Kaylee from a potentially fatal gunshot wound and patched up a few minor injuries among the ship’s crew, but for the most part, his considerable skills as a physician were pretty much wasted in his current life.

Before booking passage for himself and River on Serenity, he’d never had occasion to rub shoulders with anyone like Jayne Cobb. The man was a thug, crude and untrustworthy, and Simon found himself constantly on guard, cringing whenever the hulking me