All belong to Joss. All hail the Joss

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One shot written for the Ryane Shippers 2009 Valentines fic exchange.

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Un-Beta'd all spelling and punctuation errors are my own

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Setting: Post BDM, Pre-Rayne Could be stand alone or even pre- Allan, 'Allanverse' story.

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One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (with apologies to George Thorogood)

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It was River's nineteenth birthday and she was going out to celebrate.

Ever since Miranda, River had been able to clear her mind a little more each day. That terrible time had been a catharsis of sorts. She still had nightmares from time to time, but slowly River Tam was becoming the beautiful young woman she should have been, had the Alliance left her mind alone.

Simon had been hard pressed to explain the extent of River's recovery. The only workable theory he could come up with was, that with his sisters prodigious intellect, she was able to 'out think' her unstable emotional state with pure logic.

River had agreed with this. The result was a slightly strange behaving, girl genius who was doing her best to make up for lost time.

River stood by Serenity's ramp impatiently, “Kaylee, hurry up!”

“We're coming, Mei-mei,” Kaylee replied as she and Inara descended the stairs from Inara's shuttle.

Kaylee was dressed in a pale yellow sun dress and Inara wore one of her more understated outfits. It was actually the dress she wore to do her limited chores around Serenity. Kaylee called it her 'doin the dishes' dress.

River bounced up and down on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

“River!”

She sighed, “Yes, Simon?”

The elder Tam sibling looked disapprovingly at River's choice of clothing. Noting the skintight black jeans, tank top and leather boots. River had been dressing like Zoë the last few months. Forgoing her usual dresses for more practical and more revealing clothing. She was even wearing a little makeup tonight.

“Mei-mei, are you sure you will be alright?”

River shot her brother her usual 'boob' expression in r