It felt dreadfully selfish, but somewhere she thought this might work out really well. It would be good for him as well, but Kaylee wasn’t too big to cop to an ulterior motive. She wasn’t too big to feel awful and elated at the same time, either.

Simon just looked so worried—so much more worried than usual—and Kaylee felt really bad for him. “And she’s really all right?” he asked for the third time in as many minutes.

On the commscreen, Inara was patience itself. “Yes,” she reassured Simon, also for the third time. “Your sister is fine—she seems to be having the most fun I’ve seen her have for quite some time, even.” She looked away from the screen for a second. For an instant, her expression betrayed her irritation, but she remained patience itself. “Right now, she’s trying on my wardrobe. And blowing her nose in it.”

“Thank god,” Simon breathed, running a hand through his hair. He’d reached the conclusion that River was really nowhere to be found on Serenity a good twenty minutes before Inara’s call, and it was taking obvious effort for him to calm down from his state of panic.

“When can we expect you back, Inara?” Book asked, the voice of reason.

“Yes! We can fly out to meet you. That should more than cut your extra travel time in half.”

Inara frowned. “You don’t seem to understand—I *can’t* come back now. I have to make this rendezvous, or else… Well, I’m sorry, but this is not something I can get out of. I’ll bring River back as soon as I can, or if you can persuade Mal to fly to New Canaan you can come get her yourself. But in the meantime, River will have to be my personal guest at the Chapterhouse. I promise you she will be treated well.”

“But,” said Simon, “this is River we’re talking about. She’s… she has special needs.”

“Guild Chapterhouses have medical facilities on par with what any Core hospital has to offer. If you tell me what medication she’s taking, I’ll make sure that she gets it. And don’t worry about the Alliance—they wouldn’t dare enter a Guild Chapterhouse without permission even if