A/N: This is dedicated to anonymous who promised me lot's of love if I continued. So, where's the love, uh?

Chap. 3 -

Something was wrong with Serenity.

Kaylee could feel it. In the same way she knew that the compression coil needed replacing or the buffer panel was loose, she could sense something off in the . . . aura of her beloved ship. It was driving her to distraction, that feeling of wrongness. She checked the engines, again and again, the stabilizers, the landing gear, life support, navigation. She took things apart, put them back together, flushed out systems, changed fluids, re-booted, tinkered, and listened, and tinkered again and could find nothing wrong. At least not seriously wrong mechanically. So what was this feeling she had, like one of the stabilizers was all wonky and they weren’t flying smooth anymore? And why couldn’t she find the problem?

After another long frustrating day of diagnostics and adjustments for which she had absolutely nothing to show, she had dragged her miserable carcass to the galley, too tired to even wash first.

Kaylee sat down at her place and acknowledged Book’s cheerful greeting with a tired nod. Eating absently, with her head propped in weariness on her hand she took a bit of rice and noticed Simon staring at her. That brightened her up. She began to raise her head to smile at him, flattered by the unexpected attention when she sighted something else. Jayne was looking at her too. When she caught his eye the big man looked down at his plate hastily. She frowned and turned back toward Simon but he was staring down at his food as well, studying it in the same way she had seen him stare at gun shot wounds, intent and serious as a preacher hearing confession.

What was going on? Kaylee felt a moment of panic. She hadn’t washed up before coming to supper, maybe she had some fearsome streak of something on her face that was even worse than usual. Taking up her napkin, she scrubbed at her nose in a way she hoped was covert. Glancing at the square