Simon had moved to the top of the stairs with Darcy following. River had moved so quickly that Simon hadn’t even had time to recognize she was leaving. The fraction of a second it took Gabriel to follow gave Simon the comprehension that planned events were changing, and so he moved himself closer to the action.

“W-what...” Darcy stammered, her fear obvious in her voice. “What do we do?”

Simon glanced over to see that Mrs. Cobb’s grip on her rifle was loosening as she trembled. He placed a hand comfortingly over hers as it gripped the weapon. “Just stay calm,” he soothed. “That’s what you can focus on. Breath slowly and know that we’re going to live.”

The older woman nodded, closing her eyes and forcing her breathing to slow. Simon gave her hand a small squeeze of comfort and approval before creeping down the stairs with his pistol ready. The thunderous roar of gunfire below, mixed with the terrible screams of Reavers, made conversation immediately impossible, but when Inara turned tail and started sprinting recklessly toward him, Simon knew things had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Simon caught a glimpse of multiple Reavers, scabbed, brutalized, and horrifying, hit the bottom of the stairs and scramble toward him. Simon fired his pistol, taking slow, careful aim with his head shots. *What I lack in skill, I can make up for in patience.* The Reavers fell before his surgical precision, but they were immediately replaced with more of the ghouls.

*What I lack in speed and skill *cannot* be made up for with patience,* Simon decided, turning and scaling the remainder of the steps as quickly as his legs would carry him. “Nowhere else to go!!” he screamed. “Cockpit!!” When he hit the upper deck, he flew around the corner, turning as he entered the crew area and slamming the door shut. He slid the deadbolt into locked position, then did the same with the door to the common room. As he headed down the corridor toward the cockpit, he saw Inara already waiting there with a shuddering Darcy Cobb.

“It won’t hold t