Disclaimer: Firefly and all related elements, characters and indicia ? Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, 2003. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations -- save those created by the author for use solely on this website -- are copyright Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television.

Notes: Thank you so much to everyone who discussed, poked and encouraged, taraljc for a wonderful preliminary beta, witchnyn for everything along the way, and most especially to the kind and extremely talented shanna_s and hawkmoth for truly excellent edits and polishing. Special thanks to skripka (my sounding board) and sffan (for telling me to just post already). Thank you so much!

Light of Some Kind

by liquideyes

For Simon, sleep was not forthcoming. He had actually passed out after Zoe had finished with his wound, but returning to consciousness left him even more exhausted. While he had long ago learned to take advantage of the power-nap, a power pass-out was not a sufficient substitute — even though he had been out cold for several hours, or so he figured. The absence of strong light filtering through the infirmary window signaled night on the ship. He longed for his own bed, which surprisingly meant the small, hard bunk in the passenger dorm, even though he doubted his ability to sleep in any case. It was odd being in the infirmary by necessity rather than choice, and without an injured patient to tend to — although he supposed he could count himself as said injured patient. Though he had already gone over the best follow-up procedure for his injury more than enough times to satisfy his need for perfection.

Without anything else to occupy him, except perhaps the discomfort of the hole the bullet left in his thigh that the meds didn’t completely alleviate, his thoughts kept spinning in circles. And they spiraled inwards towards retrospection, self-criticism and doubt. He could recall glimpses of Kaylee’s worried face as he was brought into the infirmary. And