Title: He Was Gone

Author: Instant Karma Girl

Date: Started/Ended Feb 13th.

Words: 1,147

Disclaimer: Joss is Boss and I would do nothing to detract from him. He and others own the ‘Verse…I just wish they played in it again.

Author’s Note: This came to me as I was trying for a late afternoon nap. It’s a quick fic, not beta’ed.

He was gone. She tried to fix him; tried to save him. She peered into his mind to search for any medical knowledge that would help her fix him, but his mind was moving too fast for her. She saw Kaylee’s shoulders, her lovely, soft shoulders and then her parents. The sadness written on their faces was nearly too much to bare. She felt his emotions. She saw the hospital, the surgical instruments placed neatly in a steel tray. She felt the thrill of the first time he’d had sex. She saw herself sleeping, curled in a big steel box.

But she found no indication of what she should do. She searched her own mind for the answers. She needed to remove the bullet and sew him up. But there was so much blood and too many organs that were damaged. Even if she had the skill of a gifted surgeon, she was unable to silence the noise inside her own head. His mind was quieting, a fact that brought tears to her eyes, but the others… The others’ minds were shouting, screaming, yelling out in pain, in concern, in horror.

In just short moments, there was nothing left for her to do but weep. Weep for the loss, weep for the pain of the others, weep for her failure to save her brother, and weep for all that will never be for him. She felt sick. While the tears flowed down her cheeks in tiny streams, her body shook. She should have known. How had she missed this? What had she been doing that would have caused her not to be able to anticipate this?

River screamed, her face pointed up towards the ceiling, her hands clutching at the ripped and bloody clothes hanging off Simon’s body. The scream echoed through the infirmary and through the belly of the ship. When the sound stopped, a