TITLE: "THE FIRST STEP"

STATUS: Short Story

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "FIREFLY"

PAIRING: Mal. River.

RATING: G.

SUMMARY: "River is smarter than the Captain.

Knows he is what she needs. That she can help

him but they are not there yet."

"THE FIRST STEP"

A "Firefly" Story"

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

* * * * *

So quiet on her feet her silence courted him if he did but know. The darkness had no rule over his soul when she was present. Even in shadow her light illumed the dark fractured planes of his benighted soul. She knew and he accepted that it was the way things were between them. Right now he was trapped by her eyes, so wide and full and knowing. Feelings radiating from her to him that bound him in the stillness she adopted to keep him from fleeing her presence. He did not want to hurt her with the grim tide of nightmares that still haunted him. She did not want to frighten him away with the oft times jagged edge of her insight. But true natures seldom altered no matter how well they were hidden or masked. Both knew it and danced around each other with careful wary steps, neither able to stand the thought of hurting the other, no matter how accidental. Understanding each others' pain because in it they saw a reflection of their own, the broken pieces in each slowly and inextricably gravitating towards each other. Wanting to be whole.

"River, I don't think..."

She hushed him with fingers which fluttered gently to settle upon his lips like angel's wings. Her liquid eyes pooling around him drawing him into a world where he was lost without her. "Sssh, too much thinking."

His eyes widened slightly. River saw his trauma, his pain. Virtual scars left over from the war like carelessly discarded shrapnel. No one had thought to remove the pieces. When he moved different edges would cut him, some so deeply it was like looking into an open wound. His pain hurt her just as his calm moments of respite filled her with