“Haven’t you ever known you were going to see an old friend, even though you believed he was off-world? Or didn’t do something because you just knew it was going to go wrong? We all have them – psychic flashes. But by extension there are those individuals who sit between us and the powerful psychics like River and Freya. We saw what happened with Grace, when she had her abilities turned on, the almost overwhelming nature of it. Suppose that was multiplied a thousand times, a million… Less than one tenth of one percent, Mal, that’s what she said on Miranda. That’s about right for the kind of psychic ability I’m talking about.” Simon, OPPORTUNITIES

---

They swung by Persephone on their way to Phoros, burying the remains of their friends under the small stand of trees. Jayne dug the grave with varying degrees of assistance from Hank and Simon, and River collected soft grass and flowers for inside while Kaylee engraved the headstone.

“What do you want on it?” Kaylee asked, knowing Mal was standing at her back, watching carefully as she finished inscribing the date. “Not really enough room for all the names, ‘less I write ‘em small.”

“Road Runner,” he said softly. “That’s all it needs. It’s what they were, Road Runner’s family.”

“ Shr ah .”

Still, as they laid the box to rest, Mal noticed she’d managed to put the crew’s names anyway, even if it wasn't clear from any distance. He had to smile. If anything like that ever happened to them, he hoped there’d be someone around to make sure they were buried right. No. He corrected himself. He hoped something like that never happened to them.

After the small ceremony, where he read a passage from Book’s old Bible, most of the crew moved off, while he stayed at Freya’s side. She’d made a small posy from more wild flowers, and was staring at the smallest stone that marked their daughter.

“I miss her too,” he said quietly. “I can only imagine what she’d’ve been like.”

Freya glanced at him, and he was pleased to note