Kaylee looked terrified as the two Tams looked at her, quiet and roiling inwardly. She was, in contrast to what Simon was when he met her parents, completely and truly scared, whereas he had been annoyed with it all, until, that is, her father had broken two of his ribs in a fury of fatherly misunderstanding. The two Tams stared at their son. Mr. Tam had a strange look on his face, as outrage fought with happiness. Mrs. Tam looked simply dumbfounded. After a moment, she went over to her son, and embraced him. "That is...wonderful, dear. Simply marvelous."

There was a loud crash as Mr. Tam dropped the suitcases onto the stone floor. For a few moments, his face was a mask of seething, roiling emotions. Finally, he managed to shout out, "WHAT!!!" It took a few more seconds to articulate anything more beyond that. After he had calmed down sufficently, a vein started to pound judicious quantities of blood to his face, making it a dull red. "What is this I hear? My only son is taking the hand of a maid?!?!"

"Ships mechanic," said Simon coldly. "Me and Kaylee are to be married. We..." He stopped when Kaylee elbowed him in the ribs, which still stung a bit. "I," he corrected, "thought that this was the best way to see you. We aren't exactly friendly with government at the moment. I thought that this would be the best way to tell you the good news." He could already tell that his plans, which had called for his parents to be overjoyed at seeing him and River alive would counter-balance the sudden announcement. Of course, it would have helped if she hadn't run off at the last moment on some crazy scheme.

"Even worse!" His father was going on a rant, and would go on with his tirade in full force. "I will not stand to see my only son marrying some dirty, worthless, back-bred WHORE!!!!!" He stopped, panting for breath. Large, full tears welled in Kaylees eyes, and she gave a sob and ran from the room.

Mrs. Tam followed, only stopping to give her husband a contemptuous look befo