Title: Absentee Author: bookishtype Prompt: Several Ways to get her attention Rating: PG Characters: Inara, River, Shepherd, Jayne Word Count: 560

Inara fixed the cushions around River, moving them slightly so the girl could sit more comfortably. While she had never seen anyone in a state of stupor before, she understood the concept of shutting off the brain to perform only certain things. It was taught at the Companion House. She sat on the side of the bed and held onto Rivers’ hand. She didn’t speak or do anything and that’s how Shepherd Book found them.

“Am I interrupting something?” Shepherd asked quietly. From the glow of the room it seemed that the two girls who sat facing each other were conversing without words. “No, Shepherd, please come in”, Inara stood up and greeted him.

She noticed the bible clutched in his hands and smiled, “I’ll leave you to your lamb, Shepherd”, and left the shuttle.

Shepherd pulled up the seat next to the bed closer to River. When they were told that River was catatonic, Shepherd knew immediately that this was something that he could help with. Attending to this misshapen flock on this ship was a hard task most of the time but he knew that they always found his presence somewhat a comfort.

He opened the bible in front of him and started reading from the Psalms.

**************************** Jayne knew his plan was pretty farfetched when he thought it up it wasn’t until he gotten to Inara’s shuttle door that he realised what he was doing.

The girl to him was always crazy, especially with the cutting and the babbling in riddles constantly. It really drove him crazy.

He also didn’t expect to see anyone in the shuttle with River.

Shepherd Book was kneeling along side of the bed with this head bowed. Both his hands were clasped around one of River’s hands. Jayne could hear a faint murmuring of the Shepherd’s words. Praying words, like his Ma used to say to him when he was little.

Not sure how to interrupt, he cleared his throat. The murmuring stopped and Book looked up to see Jayne standing patiently. He eased himself up from his knees and walked over to Jayne. He placed a hand on Jayne’s shoulder.

“She hasn’t changed since I got here.” Shepherd looked down to Jayne’s hands, raised his eyebrows.

“The mind works in mysterious ways” he said and walked out of the shuttle.

Jayne let out the breath he had been holding since he saw Shepherd’s look. He knew that this was not a hair-brained of an idea as he thought!

If this didn’t get the girls’ attention then the girl and the doc were as useless to them as they had been when they first boarded the ship.

He was placing his life in her hands with this idea. He sat down on the seat next to River, he positioned her hands on her lap and into them he placed Vera. *************************** The cold steel sensation moved up River’s hands and her arms. She could feel the pressure of the needle in her wrist and the dripping of fluid into her veins, she could feel it all. She felt the cold penetrate the void her mind had built and felt it ice up and then shatter into pieces.

****************************** Jayne waited, watching for something. Anything. He stood up impatiently and started pacing the room.

“Hello, Jayne”

He stopped and turned.

She was there.