Here's the next chapter. Credit must be given to not only KaySky for her contributions to the Kaylee/Regan interaction, but also to ScrewTheAlliance, for his invaluable editiorial comments.

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Kaylee woke up late to an empty bed the next morning. Simon must have slipped out earlier in the morning, she decided, because she could not find him, River or Gabriel anywhere in the house. Her initial instinct was to find Mal and tell him that they’ve been snatched. But then she realized how silly that sounded now that they were no longer in danger. They just weren’t around.

After getting dressed, she decided to walk around the mansion, feeling a little silly about carrying her toolbox around for security.

She wanted to really see and explore where her husband and sister in law played and grew up. She found it intriguing to get a sense of how the estate had shaped their lives. Perhaps she could figure out how something that should have been so good ended up so bad.

She started off in the main hall of the mansion. She was amazed at just how big the whole place was. Her childhood home could’ve fit into this room itself, with half of the shed. The floor was a dark marble, everything else seemed to be made of oak, which had really detailed carvings all around it with a shiny look to it. There was an elegant, octagonal shaped skylight directly above her that brought a warm light into the house. But the weather was still overcast, so all that could be seen through it was grey.

She walked through the dining room (the plates from the night before were still there with flies beginning to hover around the food), and into the living room. She sat on the expansive sofa couch, and was surprised to discover that Shooter was right. This really was the most comfortable couch she had ever sat on.

She looked around and noticed that even though the room was smaller, it looked similar to all the other rooms she had seen. All oak and veneer. But the