A.N. - Corollary to the “Namesake” series, occurring right after Part 29 in “Lost Family.” (If you want to know where all these kids came from, read the Namesake series.)

*~*

The first time Simon gave his daughter a shot, she was already four years old. He couldn’t believe he’d let his kids go that long without being immunized, but such was their lot in the black. Her twin brother, Jamie, had taken ill with the mumps, and that gave Simon the leverage he needed to twist Mal’s arm and force the issue.

Genny had climbed onto the table, jutted out her chin, and told him she wasn’t scared at all, no matter what Aunt River said about needles. Above all, Genny hated being called weak, and she had the scrapes and bruises to prove it. Simon had smiled at her and they joked the way they always did. Then he gave her the shot.

Within seconds, the brave look on her face melted into fear and she looked at him like he’d betrayed her. It took less than ten seconds to administer the shot. The needle was barely out of her arm before she jumped off the table and ran away, clutching her arm, and crying. She’d hid from him for the rest of the day and Kaylee had found her the next morning, curled up next to her brother in bed. It was never so easy to give her a shot again.

The second time he gave her a shot, she fought violently. She kicked, screamed, and clawed. Jamie tried to calm her, reminding her that it wasn’t so bad, but she called him a liar and continued to fight. Both Simon and Jayne had black eyes from the experience, but they held her down and gave her the shot. Simon had told Kaylee to wait outside, purposefully separating the girl’s mother from the experience, but when it was over, Genny ran straight past her mother into her room, then into the crawl space in the wall. It was six long hours of searching before Cole, Mal’s son and Genny’s best friend, said he knew where she was. It was another day before she came out of hiding.

The third time, Genny didn’t fight at all. Perhaps it was because sh