HUGE HONKIN' SPOILERS FOR THE BDM...

Pairing: Mal/River/Serenity (background Simon and Kaylee)

Summary: Events leading up to the end of the, ‘Big Damned Movie’ and where I think two certain people might find what they lost.

Disclaimer: We all know I am not working for the networks because, like the rest of you I’m not stupid enough to cancel something as fan supported as Firefly. I’m not Joss Whedon either so I am using his creation respectfully and with much praise for the creator.

Rating: T

Author’s Note: This is going to be a slow build but will be rated adult only. It is going to build the friendship between the two in flashes…the scenes breaks may change the situation.

My beta is takin’ a much needed rest for the weekend, but I kept getting e-mails to post more so here it is. Enjoy! Sid

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It should have unnerved him that upon arriving back at the landing dock he found the children clinging to each other next to the shuttle. No, their beating him to the shuttle didn’t unnerve him.

But River did, she was pacing agitatedly, he could see the fluttery way she moved. Her hands trembled as she alternately rubbed her thighs and her upper arms and then started on her next circuit across the front of the shuttle. Her eyes were wild and she was searching for someone or something in the crowds around the dock. Fear in her eyes like he’d only seen twice before. That unnerved him and he covered the space between them in double time.

“River,” Mal called when he stepped up onto the platform. “Boa bei?”

“Need to leave…38% probability that I have already been detected and 23% that we’ll be taken if we don’t leave in the next ten minutes…odds of capture double with the addition of …” Her head popped up and her eyes glazed as she stared in the direction Kaylee and Jayne had gone earlier. “Jayne…Kaylee they need to hurry. We have to leave.” River clutched at his arms, terrified, and her body trembled unbearably under his hands, her muscles jumping bene