The Return Home – Part 13

Serenity settled down again in the prison courtyard and Drummond left immediately to check on his people and his daughter and to inform them of their recent losses. He knew his people would silently suffer this latest disaster but how much more they could take even he didn’t know.

Simon took Kaylee to the infirmary and checked her out and made sure the blood on her wasn’t hers and then she just lost it and broke down crying over and over again, gasping the story to him. After a long while he took her to the bathroom and helped her undressed and then Kaylee took a long shower, cleansing herself of the Reaver’s blood and the filth of her ordeal.

Simon checked on Jerry and all was well and then he checked Jayne’s arm wound and bruises and aches, and Mal’s leg wound which was still not totally healed, and his new head wound, and Zoe’s arm wound, all the scars of their recent battles, of which there had been plenty. He handed out pain relievers and muscle relaxants to all Serenity’s warriors. And then his sister came into the infirmary and he cleaned and bandaged some nicks and cuts she got from the Reaver fight and asked on her knee problem from the fight with Forbes which seemed so long ago but had been just a few days.

“Much better,” she said and then Simon just looked at her and hugged her.

“Thank God you were there,” he said and River looked him in the eyes, and spoke in her calm way she had when talking about life and death.

“God had nothing to with it, brother. The Alliance made me into a weapon. Tonight was a time to use it for some good.”

Kaylee came in at that point only dressed in Simon’s blue robe, her hair still damp, and she hugged the siblings and told them she loved them and they all had a moment of strong bonding that people who had never had their life on the line could never really understand. Then Kaylee got dressed and they went upstairs to see the others in the dining room where Inara and Wash were preparing a meal of soup and pasta and salad that