“I’m guessin drug number two’s no good either,” Mal said, wiping the blood from his split lip, “and this is one of those triflin little side effects you mentioned.”

Doctor Simon Tam was too busy to answer, being fully engaged in strapping down his sister’s wrists. Jayne struggled to hold the kicking, thrashing girl down on the exam table while her brother pinned them one at a time and secured them. Once her wrists were cuffed, Jayne grabbed one flailing leg and held it in the ankle cuff with both hands, unmindful of the kicks to the head he was taking from the other, until Simon drew it snug. Then he lay across the last free limb while the doctor finished with it, and they stepped back, breathing heavily, their faces blank masks as they looked at her.

Mal studied the girl’s wide rolling eyes and bared teeth, spit flying from her mouth as she tossed her head and screamed. He’d rescued more than one horse trapped in a burning barn, and had had to listen to a few he couldn’t; the resemblance wrenched at his heart. He took a quick breath and put his ‘captain’ face on before he spoke. “Put her out.”

The two men turned their battered faces to him. “I’m not sure sedating her’s a good idea,” Simon said, placing his fingers on her wrist. She writhed at his touch and started speaking rapid-fire, nothing understandable. Rather, they were words Mal had never heard before. But cussing sounded the same in any language.

“Well, we’ve gotta move her, and we can’t do it like this.”

“Move her?” Simon drew a breath, no doubt to protest.

Mal cut him off. “You can’t leave her, doc. She doesn’t need to be here, and she’s just in the way.” And besides, the passage leading past sickbay was a busy one, and he had no intention of letting the rest of the crew see her like this every time they passed by. “We need this space freed up for wounded.”

“Startin with you,” Jayne said to Simon, raising his voice to be heard over the girl’s babbling. “While you can still work.”

“It’s just a scratch,” the boy said, touching his