Out here in the dark we wait in shadows….

Broken souls dance like leaves on the wind,

Waiting for sun to break out again,

Out here in the dark we wait in shadows,

Broken dreams, wrapped in our hands,

Like streamers for the things that leave,

And all we do is hold on tighter and tighter,

Until the hopes we long for fly away,

We search for answers we know we won’t find,

And we dream the dreams that we know are too big,

Because if we scale ourselves down to size,

We lose ourselves in the chaos,

We are the broken souls,

Dancing to our funeral march….

Mal walked into the kitchen in the morning to find his mercenary with a teenage girl curled up in the chair next to him, her head nestled against his shoulder.

“To paraphrase him, that’s just downright unsettlin’,” muttered Mal.

“Inevitable,” muttered River in her sleep, and Mal blinked.

“Sir? Did I wake up in a parallel universe?” asked Zoe as she came in behind him.

“I sure as hell hope so, Zoe, cuz otherwise I’m gonna be tossin’ somebody outta the airlock,” growled Mal.

“It might be best to wait until after our meet with Badger to kill Jayne, sir,” Zoe said.

“Fine. But he might still be takin’ a trip outta the airlock.”

“I don’t see a problem with that,” agreed Zoe. “May I do the honors?” Mal nodded, and the ghost of a smile flickered across Zoe’s face. “JAYNE, SPACE MONKEYS HAVE STOLEN VERA!!!” she bellowed, and Jayne catapulted out of his sleep, River rousing blearily.

“Wha-who-Aw, Mal, this ain’t what it looks like!”

“Then what is it, Jayne? Cuz it looks pretty damn bad, seeing as it looks like you and River spent the night all cuddled up,” Mal snarled. River unwound her body gracefully to a standing position and gazed at him.

“Calm down, please. Nothing happened….Nothing is what it looks like…..All yelling at me inside….Stoppit!” she cried, and Jayne took her arm and gently pushed her into a chair.

“Breakfast, huh? Want some breakfast?” he asked her quietly, and she turned her sad, sear