“Sit still.”

“It’s fine. Just a scratch. There’s no need to – Ow!” Freya jerked her head back and glared at him.

Simon gave her his professional look, the one that said, very clearly, that she trying to tell him his job again, and who was the doctor here anyway? “If you don’t let me deal with it now, it will scar.”

She glanced down at her body, the tracery of pale lines hidden by her clothes. “So what else is new?”

“Don’t be a sha gua chun zi .”

Freya stared at him in mock horror. “Simon. I didn’t know you knew words like that. You must‘ve been hanging around Jayne too much.”

He didn’t answer her, just raised one eyebrow a millimetre.

“Better let him get to it,” Mal said, leaning in the doorway. “He’s gonna make my life hell ‘til you do.”

“ Your life?” Freya smiled slightly. “Then in which case …” She moved back in range so the young man could continue to examine the two inch cut in her hairline.

He palpated the area carefully. “What did you hit it with this time?”

“The console.” She winced, and noticed Mal do the same in sympathy. “It leaped up and attacked me.”

“Apart from the obvious, are you in any other discomfort?”

“Well, my arms ache, and I think we’ve all got bruises, but –“

“I mean specifically.”

“Then no.”

“Any double vision?”

“No.”

“Yes.” River stepped quietly around Mal’s form.

Simon looked up. “What was that, mei-mei ?”

“Double vision,” the psychic explained. “Since it happened.”

Mal straightened, his concern more palpable. “It is?” His gaze switched to his wife. “You are?”

“It’s fine,” Freya insisted. Then at his look she conceded, “Okay. But it’s not that bad.”

“You mean to say you managed to land the shuttle and you ain’t even seeing properly?” Mal shook his head in disbelief.

“I compensated,” River put in.

“Oh, thanks,” Freya said witheringly. “I thought I managed it pretty well, actually.”

River smiled.

“Frey, you need to tell me these things,” Simon said, wiping the area with