All comments and disclaimers in full in Ch 1 (Simon), it's the usual fare: not mine. Comment or send feedback, wily_one24@yahoo.com.au

***

"That's the way it's always been.

It all comes down to creating time.

We don't always have to make it right.

We'll all drive by in our hybrid lives.

Chances are... chances are...

We'll make it back."

- Sheryl Crow.

***

It was almost midnight and she could feel her eyes droop heavy, there was so much to do before Serenity was running at top form again, the engine hummed and whirred around her, pulsing in the near darkness, she picked up the wrench and weighed the shining metal in her hand, she’d been just about ready to close the lid on her tool box when she’d been called out of her reverie.

Kaylee looked up at the hammock hanging in the corner of her engine room and thought about all the times she’d worked here so late into the night that she’d ended up just falling asleep right here and never even made it to her bunk. No one had really noticed or particularly cared, as far as she’d figured, past the looks she’d get at breakfast when she’d turn up in the same clothes as the day before, looking all rumpled and not quite right. Inara and Zoe would wear that same expression of mild concern and Mal, probably the only one of them that cared about Serenity as much as she did, would nod at her in sympathy, but they hadn’t really said anything about it.

It was nice, in ways she’d always kind of ached for but never really understood, to have someone that would notice, that would come looking to find her if she didn’t eventually drag her sorry carcass to her bunk and get some real rest. Nice, even, to have to ignore her ship in ways previously unforgivable to her so that she could make Simon smile, so that Simon could make her smile. And they both did it so well.

The nicest part, Kaylee knew it, was that she finally understood her role in the crew more than she ever had before, maybe more than anyone on the ship besides River.

It hadn’t been easy