Freya slid the portable Cortex link back into the cupboard and closed the door firmly.

“That bad?” Simon asked, settling himself at the old kitchen table, spreading his equipment out in front of him. Pens, paper, envelopes ... all laid out neatly in their proper places. For all the trouble he was taking, they could be scalpels, forceps and retractors ready to remove the inevitable bullet.

Freya sighed and dropped back into her just vacated chair. “Some days it’s hard work.”

“Well, you are still recovering from that food poisoning.”

She pointed her finger at him. “Don’t you dare say I told you so.”

“Not if my life depended on it.”

She grinned. “Anyway, it isn't that. It’s the fact that all the kids are at different stages, it’s so hard to come up with a lesson plan that doesn’t either bore some or scare others. I may have to call on someone to help.”

River, standing at the stove stirring a pot, looked up expectantly. “Help?” she asked, her spoon stilled.

“ Mei-mei , I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Simon said.

“But I enjoy it,” the young psychic said.

“I know, but …” Memories of the complaints that had filled Serenity the last time River had taken over teaching duties flowed across his mind. And that was just from the adults.

She wrinkled her nose at him, obviously having read him with ease. “I’d follow Frey’s lesson plans. It would be fun.” She turned her gaze on the other woman. “Please?”

“Well, I didn’t know whether to ask,” Freya said slowly. “But if you’d like to …”

River grinned widely. “Done.”

“It’s not that I don’t enjoy it. I mean, it’s reminded me of so much I thought I’d forgotten when they …” Simon could see her physically skirting away from what had happened to her when she was young, then she gathered herself. “But if you could take the younger children and I’ll teach Bethie, Ethan and Ben.”

“Oh.”

There was so much disappointment in that one sound.

“Or we could alternate,” Freya added quickly. “One day each. Just so long