Chapter Three: Little Sisters

River could tell he didn’t get much sleep last night. He was fumbling around the infirmary. He appeared to have lost all sense of coordination. “I was wrong before.”

Simon turned to look at his sister. “Wrong about what, meimei?”

“It’s not just her.”

He walked over and kneeled in front of her. “Not just who, meimei?”

“Cinderella. She at least has a fairy Godmother to look after her, but Prince Charming doesn’t have one. Who will fix Prince Charming?” Simon sighed. River had been doing so well on her new medication. He hated to think the affects were only temporary.

He got up and kissed River on the forehead. “Ready for your treatment?”

River punched him in the arm. “Big brothers are stupid. They never listen.” She hopped off the table and left the infirmary muttering something else about how big brothers don’t have a clue.

“Well, I guess that is a no then.” Simon sighed. “Yep, this day doesn’t appear to be going any better than yesterday.”

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“Kaylee sweetie, are you going to come to breakfast?” Inara had been outside Kaylee’s door for the past five minutes. She was getting nowhere. “Okay, sweetie, I won’t….” Before she could finished her sentence the door to Mal’s room opened and out popped Kaylee.

“Hey ‘Nara.”

“Kay…” Inara was a bit surprised. Why did she come out of Mal’s room? Why do I even care that she came out of Mal’s room? “I was just going to see if you were coming to breakfast. I thought we could talk. I wanted to see how you were doing after last night.” Inara couldn’t help but look Kaylee up and down trying to get any signs of what she had been doing for the last couple of hours.

“Of course she is alright.” Mal said coming out of his room. “Her and I had a little talk last night.” Mal kissed Kaylee on the top of her head. “See ya at breakfast, meimei.”

Kaylee could tell Inara was a bit confused. “Aww... it was nothing ‘Nara. Cap’n heard me crying and I guess he couldn’t take it no more s