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As day turned to night, the silver spires that raked the city’s horizon came to life in a carnival of flashing light. Beyond them, the sunset splashed the skyline pink and gold, melting up into a deep purple sea of stars.

Kaylee knew that those spires were probably home to every treachery known to man, but right now she didn’t much care. She’d sit here just outside of Serenity, feeling the grass between her toes and hoping the captain took his sweet time getting back.

"Beautiful, isn’t it?" Simon had appeared beside her, hands in his pockets, scanning the sky.

"You could say that," Kaylee smiled warmly. "Didn’t figure you for the sunset type. I mean when you’re arms deep in doctorin’ all the time. Too busy to see much else, I s’pose."

"Well, this is its own kind of therapy," he said. They enjoyed a few moments of contented silence. "As... as a student back on Osiris, I used to look forward to this time every day. See, the planet had this atmospheric quirk that created a sort of prism," he gestured toward the horizon, lost in a distant past. "Those were some truly spectacular..."

Kaylee’s eyes fell to the grass.

His mind swam back to the present, and Simon scratched his forehead with an embarrassed grin. "I’m sorry, I’m – that was so long ago. That’s all in the past now that I’m on the run through every God-forsaken place in the verse," he laughed.

Kaylee stood, walked away, then resolutely marched back toward Simon. "Why d’ya always do that?"

"Excuse me?"

"Ya got a perfectly good moment there, great sunset – okay maybe not an Osiris sunset," she gestured sarcastically to the horizon, "and a girl willin’ to watch it with ya. And you gotta just trample all over everything-"

Jayne moved beside them, loudly clearing his throat then spitting the product into the grass in front of them. "Jever get a real nasty taste stuck way back deep, and it just won’t..." He spat again. "Gotta be somethin’ with this God-forsaken planet."

He looked to Kaylee, then Simon, then the