Title: Leave of Absence Author: bookishtype Prompt: Several Ways to get her attention Rating: PG Characters: Entire crew Word Count: 430

“She’s in a state of catatonia” Simon announced as everyone sat down near him.

Mal sighed, he ran his hands through his hair, “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s the absence of general motor activity. Basically her brain has decided to shut off the functions for everyday living and live solely within itself” Simon paced in front of them, “I have never seen anything like it myself before anywhere in the Core.”

“How did it happen?” Kaylee asked quietly, the concerned look on her face spoke volumes about how much she cared about River and it tugged at Simon’s heart.

“It’s a self induced catatonia. This appears to be a form of catatonic schizophrenia. She can remain in a fixed stuporous state for long periods.”

Jayne leant back on his chair with crossed arms and a satisfied look on his face, “told ya’ll she was crazy but ya didn’t believe me.”

“Yeah, but that don’t tell us how it happened? Did you give her one too many needles, doc and send her over the edge?” the captain’s voice held a suspicious tone to it that wondered if Simon had deliberately bought this onto the crew. Simon shook his head and looked directly at Mal, “the combination of whatever they did to her in that lab and the state of moving away from everything she considers real or her home is more than likely to have jolted her into this state. Nothing I have done could have caused this. She is perfectly healthy in every other way, her heart rate is fine, and there is nothing on her skin to say this has been caused by an outside factor like a drug or poison. Her pupils are dilating properly to light.”

He sighed, “It’s just that she isn’t here. And unless we do something to snap her out it, I don’t know how long she’ll be like this.”

Jayne started again, “I told ya she ain’t all there – not that she has to be but…” his voice trailed off as Kaylee hit him in the chest which sent his chair and him toppling backwards on to the floor.

Ignoring Jayne, Kaylee asked “what can we do? I mean we can’t leave her just sitting here like this. She’ll get cold.” Kaylee got up and wrapped an arm around River.

“Basically the task is to get her attention, focus her mind back to this reality and she will jolt back from wherever she is now.”

River sat on the chair her face was blank, her eyes registered nothing. She wasn’t there.