Blood. This blood, his blood. It surrounded him. Became him. It was his blanket in the cold.

He knew he should go back. Go back to all he knew. But he was tired. So, so tired...

A single tear fell from the wound in the rent sky. It spiraled down, and slowly, languidly, it landed on his nose. It was cold, colder than the blood sea in which he slept.

Such a small, preety little thing. A diamond of pleasure and pain, sparkling in any light. A link to what he loved. Still loves.

The ice surrounding him began to thaw. He din't know how he knew it was Kaylees tear, but he didn't know a lot of things. Painfully, he got up, and began his search for a way out.

***

Kaylee sobbed brokenly over Simons body. It didn't matter that there was nothing she could do to save him. It didn't matter that her tears wouldn't save him. Nothing mattered anymore.

She continued to cry. They all did. River, Inara, they sped away their tears shamelessly. Jayne, Mal, they shook with grief over this lost soul whom they had respecred and cared for.

Slowly, shaking even as she sat, Zoe raised the gun, and put the muzzle into her mouth. Sighing, she cocked her gun.

***

A desert. A desert of sand and tears. It surrounded him. He was tired, and dogged by a terrible thirst. But he could not, would not turn back.

Kaylee was crying. And he must stop it, must make her smile again. Just one last time, and he could die happy. Just to see her smile, one last time.

A light sprang forth out of the trackless wastes, illuminating the shattered halls of his mind. He headed toward the light, and the walls torn down began to mend.

***

She had failed. She had failed, totally and utterly. She had failed Simon, she had failed Kaylee, she had failed the memories of Wash and Book.

Simon. Book. Wash. The man she had sworn to protect. The man she had promised to honour. The man she had vowed to love. All three were as dust in the wind, now. She could not save any of th