And he was flying, from the land out into the black. The stars twinkled as he passed them by. Nothing could touch him out here. He was safe, surrounded by his wife and his friends (and Jayne). The excitement within him swelled as he pushed Serenity to go faster and faster. He was the king of the ‘verse.

And then he felt the pain of electricity coursing through his body, two electrodes now stuck to his chest. Where was he? Serenity was gone now, replaced by Niska and his cold, beady eyes.

No, this wasn’t happening again. He saw Zoё enter the room, coming to free him again. No. No, he lived through this already. Wasn’t once enough? He watched helplessly as Zoё made the deal with Niska. He was freed and shortly after the screams of Mal were echoing through his mind. No…

“No!!!” Wash yelled as he sat up in his bed. Zoё sat up, her eyes wide with worry as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Wash? What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. Everything’s fine, lamby-toes,” he said, trying to sound like his normal cheery self.

“Wasn’t nothin’, husband. Did you have another nightmare?”

“All right, you got me. I gotta stop playing with my dinosaurs before bed; have dreams about getting eaten by a T-Rex every time,” Wash joked as he climbed out of bed and threw on an undershirt and pajama pants. Before Zoё could say anything, he was already climbing the ladder up and out of their bunk.

Wash walked to the cockpit and sat down in his chair. He stared out at the stars silently. He heard footsteps behind him and automatically started to say, “I’m okay, Zo, really, go back to sleep…” He turned around to see that it wasn’t Zoё but River who had come up behind him. “Oh, River, I’m sorry. I thought you were…”

“Zoё, I know,” River said as she sat down in the seat next to the pilot’s seat. “You can’t sleep?”

“No. Haven’t been able to for the past week.”

“I know. We both have dreams. Dream of people that have taken parts of us away and have replaced those parts with someth