Simon carefully withdrew the tiny needle from River’s arm, firmly pressing a swab of alcohol to the spot. River watched the needle with distrust as it disappeared in the Bio Waste bag Simon had brought with him. She tugged restlessly at the bright cover on her bunk.

“strange brew?” she asked.

Simon looked up, his expression tinged by distracted puzzlement. “Hmm.” He tapped a last note into the handheld. “Huh?” Simon blinked as he gave his sister his full attention. It took him a second to put together what his sister had said and then his brows drew together in confusion. “What do you mean mei-mei?” It was something new he was trying. A small thing in the long run. But he thought that if could get River to explain the more abstract concepts she spoke, it would help her concentrate and focus.

River reached out and took the tablet from Simon’s hand. “River be careful with that,” he said and reached to take the delicate instrument back.

She evaded his hands and easily accessed the system. She scanned the contents and said, “You’ve added trifluoperazine to the cocktail. And you’ve removed the haloperidol.” She paused and further consulted the tablet. “Good. It was causing me to have tremors.” She handed the handheld back to Simon who was looking at her in silent befuddlement.

“I… well. Shumma? It was causing you to have tremors?” he said unhappily, seizing the one thing that had made sense out of the whole exchange. He looked at the scrolling screen in his hand and frowned. Tremors was one of the side affects of haloperidol but he had removed it because the trifluoperazine was supposed to work better at repressing dopamine receptors.

“You should have told me sooner mei-mei, I would have stopped it.” He added River’s observations to the growing file he kept on her. About a fourth of it could be attributed to the girl in front of him. When River had those startling moments of clarity, she often contributed to his medical notes.

“Couldn’t. Wings won’t fly if you don’t test them,” she said with a yawn and slowly lay down on the bunk she had been sitting on. River stared at the ceiling above her fixedly. She began to talk quietly under breath. Simon continued to tap on his notes, occasionally looking at his sister. He should really ask about what had happened with the Captain in the galley, but for some reason he was reluctant to even go there. His mind kept avoiding the subject, drawing him back to safer waters. Hell, Jayne playing around with Vera was safer then that gorram subject.

River sat up suddenly, turned towards the door, with her head tilted as if she was listening. “Aaahhh,” River breathed in silent wonder. Her lips turned upward in a triumphant smile. "Scarlet walls on secret white."

Simon looked up from his notes and at the door. Although he knew there was nothing there. He frowned and looked back at his sister who had closed her eyes but still seemed to be listening intently. Simon looked at the door again and then back to his sister. “What,” he started to ask in a hushed tone. Simon cleared his throat and sighed at his own foolishness. “What is it mei-mei,” he asked.

River opened her eyes and smiled. “Preacher and Captain are talking.” Simon’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but he grinned a little in reply.

“Really? About what?”

“Kaylee.”

Simon’s smile disappeared and he quickly looked away from River. His hands tightened on the handheld. God, even the sound of her name felt like someone was stabbing him in the chest.

River watched her brother struggle with his grief. She saw the way his lips tightened in pain. How his whole face took on a stiffness that only those who had lost something dear could get. “You miss her,” she said.

Simon swallowed the lump in his throat and then cleared it. “Yeah,” he said roughly and then fell silent. How could he explain the feeling of something being ripped out of his soul? It was so similar to when he had lost River, but so different. River probably already knew. He tried hard not to think about it around her though. He knew she could feel and share his emotions, and he didn’t want to have her feel that.

The silence lengthened in the small room. River reached out, took Simon’s hand, and squeezed it. She lay down on the bunk; with his hand still firmly clasped in her own, giving what comfort she could though the shared contact. Simon sniffed gruffly and tried to unobtrusively rub his eyes.

River’s gaze strayed towards the ceiling again, the same smile pulling at her lips. “Simon,” she said quietly, trying to pull him from his silent suffering. Simon took a deep breath and tried to return River’s smile.

“Yes mei-mei,” he finally replied with forced lightness.

“Tell me about Justice,” she queried with a child-like eagerness.

“Justice…” he said slowly as if trying to find a memory long buried. Simon blinked a moment in confusion and then a look of understanding dawn. He nodded and set aside the pad. “Justitia?”

River nodded.

“River… aren’t you a little old for fairy tales,” Simon asked skeptically. River scowled at him.

“I want to hear it. Tell it. Or you’ll find an icky present in your bed when you wake up,” she said sinisterly.

Simon chuckled and shook his head. “Ok. I don’t want to know what that could be. So…Umm…ok. But I’m not very good at story telling,” he said dryly. “Justitia was once..” he began.

“Noooo. All good stories start with Once Upon A Time,” River said sternly.

Simon chuckled despite himself, pushing thoughts of Kaylee further into the back of his mind. There would be time later to grieve over the loss of the woman he had come to love. “Alright…” he said gamely. “Once upon a time, there was Earth-That-Was.” Simon settled back, warming to the old tale.

“It was a wonderful place. Full of a thousand kinds of beasts and plants." He paused searching for the words. "But things began to change, and cities spread over the planet like a disease,” he said with dramatic menace. “They began to destroy all that made Earth-That-Was.”

River watched her brother as he talked with great intensity. Her hand stole to her mouth, covering it as he spun the tale.

“All of life was doomed…” he whispered and leaned forward. “But there were those that fought. The people of Justitia. They tried to slow the decay of their home. It was no use though. All they could do was stem the flood, not prevent it,” he said with hard bitterness, getting further into the role.

“Those who weren’t Justitia constantly squabbled over the last green things. Until one day it seemed that there would be none left. So the Justitia did what they could to preserve life. Then they used their power to create mighty ships that could hold millions. And in the end it was the men and women of Justitia who held back the fires that consumed Earth-That-Was, letting people run from the rock as it burned.”

River had closed her eyes, but Simon could tell she was still awake, listening to the story their mother and nurse had told them countless times at night.

“Man was scattered. They wandered the stars for a long time. They were trapped in the ships that gave them life. Each planet they came to was barren. They went farther and farther from Earth-That-Was. Some say this is the beginning of the Reavers. Maybe the Alliance.”

Simon’s voice grew hushed, as he got further into the tale. Telling it brought to mind the classes in college he had taken that explored the myth of Earth-That-Was.

“Our ancestors grew bitter. They began to squabble again. And when it looked as if our final ruin was unavoidable. The Justitia came and gave us the gift of life. They showed our ancestors how to make life out of dead rocks.”

Simon slowly pulled his hand from River’s thinking she was asleep. Her eyes opened, heavy with the drugs. “Don’t stop…” she slurred.

“And then the Justitia disappeared again.” Simon paused, a sad smile tugging at his lips. “And they all lived happily ever after.”

River looked pensively at her brother. “Closed doors have knobs…” she sighed and closed her eyes. Simon sat silently watching as River’s breath deepened into true slumber. He stood and dimmed the lights, then returned to sit at her side. He stayed there a moment to make sure she didn’t wake up from any bad dreams, then stood again and quietly left, closing the door behind him, watching to make sure that as it shut, she didn’t stir.

“Unnatural for a brother to love his sister that much,” a voice grunted behind him. Simon jumped and whirled to see Jayne standing in the shadows.

“Tah mah de,” Simon breathed out shakily. “Why are you ALWAYS lurking in the shadows,” he said irritably.

“I ain’t lurkin’.” Jayne scoffed. “You just can’t hear worth a gorram.”

Simon rolled his eyes and went to move past Jayne.

“Eh! Wait a sec. Capt’n’ wants you in the Medbay,” Jayne said.

Simon stopped and turned, with a look of worry on his face. “Is he ok?”

“Guess so. But I think he broke the Preacher’s nose.”