River had a method of figuring out what songs correlated with each crew member. Before she would play something for them to give them that little boost they sometimes needed, she would study them. To whoever she was with, River was just plucking idly away at the strings set in acoustic mode. But River was really observing. She noticed their body language, the rhythm of their movements, their speaking pattern and the right level of intonation each word they spoke had. Knowing their emotions was easy. She still was a psychic radio that could see right into their souls. The trick was to channel those emotions the right way.

Of the different crew members, finding a song for Inara was a difficult task. She had though of many songs that would correlate to Inara’s educated, elegant, ethereal, but sad and mournful soul, but for various reasons wouldn’t work. Queen’s “Killer Queen” was too bombastic and immature. Tom Petty’s “Last Dance with Mary Jane” was good, but not only did she lack a harmonica on board, but the main origin of Mary Jane didn’t match with Inara background. Companions weren’t from Indiana towns who had good looking mamas who never were around. Chris Issac’s “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” was more of a Mal song than an Inara song. And “St. Louis Blues” could be misinterpreted as a criticism of Inara’s lifestyle, and unlike the Captain, she did not care about what she did or where she was from and her beliefs.

No, a rock tune or ballad with a screeching lead guitar and heavy base would not suit the Companion at all. What she needed was something heartfelt. Something deep. Something that would make everyone weep when they heard it. And after scouring through Wash’s library of music and downloading random songs off the Cortex, she found it.

It was late that evening. This suited River the most since singing was more of an evening activity. After serenading Kaylee and Simon to sleep and boiling Jayne’s blood at the same time (she’d play him a little George Thoroughgood tomorrow to