Mal was the Captain. Zoe was the Second. Wash was the Pilot. Kaylee was the Mechanic. Simon was the Medic. Jayne was the Muscle. Inara was the Ambassador. And Book was the Chaplain. Everyone had a title to them as crew members on Serenity. Everyone except River. For the longest time, she was simply the sister of the medic. She never went on missions. She never did any grunt work on the ship. She never really did anything. All she did was be River.

But now, thanks to her newfound talent and treatment, she finally had a title on the ship.

She was the Greek Choir.

Later that evening, after her breakfast tune cheered everyone up and got them working a little better, Mal approached River in the cargo bay as she strummed along to some chords she was listening to them over her headphones. She looked up and grinned at the Captain. He tapped on his ears indicating to take off the headphones. She stopped playing and took them off. Mal then sat down on one of the crates and looked at her.

“Evenin, River.”

“Evening, Captain. How was I?”

“What do you mean?”

“How was I today? I know I don’t normally wake up everyone on the ship by playing like Hendrix.”

“Well, I was a little ticked that I didn’t get to wake up the crew myself like I normally do. But I was pretty impressed by the way you played. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things in my life. And what you did this morning was pretty high up there.”

River giggled. “Thanks. Didn’t know if I could pull off infusing 16th century music with 20th century iconography.”

“Hey, I noticed you’re speaking normally now. You feeling better up there?” he said as he tapped his head.

“Yes. They’re still there. The voices. There’s just quieter now. Playing just lets them out for a while. They’ll never be gone for good. This just helps me deal with them.”

“That’s kinda why I’m here, actually. I’d like to offer you a job on this ship.”

“You’re asking me now, after two years of tagging along?”

‘Well, I made a deal with