Kaylee closed up the door to the engine room as silently as possible, so as not to disturb the rest of the crew. Wasn’t likely anyone was still awake at this hour. Not after the excitement of the day; old army buddies turning up dead, then alive; a wild run through an icy canyon with feds on their tails; a hostage situation and a gunfight in the cargo hold that left them with the same dead army buddy. Right where they started.

No, everyone in their right mind was dead asleep about now. She rubbed at the back of her neck, trying to loosen the knotted muscles there. After the blasts from the Fed ship, there’d been some minor repairs to make to Serenity, nothing that couldn’t have been done the next day, but she found herself with a over abundance of restless energy and no other way to expend it.

Walking slowly toward the crew quarters she sighed, tired to the bone, but not the least bit sleepy. Even hours since being held at gunpoint, she still felt edgy. Unable to get her mind to rest. Pausing at the stairs, considered checking the infirmary for a sleep aid. Simon was bound to have some stashed somewhere down there. The doc was resourceful like that.

Pushing him from her thoughts, she continued to her room. There was too much going on in her head right then to be worrying over Simon Tam. It wouldn’t be the first sleepless night she’d hand in the last few months.

A faint clang of metal on metal froze her in her tracks, bringing the memory of Early instantly to the forefront of her thoughts.

Notagainnotagainnotagain. She bit her lip, waiting, listening for any hint as to where the sound had come from. They were still planet side on St. Alban‘s, but the captain had locked the ship up tight. No way anyone could have gotten aboard without setting off the newly installed alarms.

A familiar grunt sounded with the second clang of metal and Kaylee felt a flood of relief through her chest. Jayne. It was just Jayne. Abandoning her trek to her room, she doubled back to the catwalk to investigate what he w