The Wish Part Six Author:JJ Subject: Rayne, Saylee, Mara Rating: NC-17 Disclaimer: Ain't hers, to make coin off of. These here characters (like yours truly) belong solely to Joss and the hwoon dahn's at 20 century fox, dong ma? (Thank you, Jayne!) Summary: Post BDM. Rayne and Saylee. Takes place one year after The Need. As Simon and Kaylee are having troubles. River and Jayne deepen their relationship. Author's Note: Points to who ever tells me what song the title of chapter six is from. No internet searches cheaters! LOL! Author's note 2: This was revised for grammatical corrections and flow. Thanks for reading! Chapter 6-- Oh, I been flying... Mama, there ain't no denyin'

Zoe was in the cargo bay with Walker playing with building blocks and Wash's dinosaurs. No matter how many toys Walk received he only wanted to play with his father's. Zoe remembered all the names Wash gave the dinosaurs and she past those names down to her son. It was a small thing to do for now, until he was old enough to understand exactly who his father was. She closed her eyes against the pain of his loss that sometimes crept up on her like now. She picked up the pterodactyl and made swooping noises over her son's head immersing herself in this game so she could stop thinking of Wash. It was still hard to put him in the past tense and it still hurt her to know that her son would never laugh at one of his jokes, or play dinosaurs with him. She looked into his green eyes and touched his face. He had Wash's face, his smile and his laugh. It was as if Wash knew this child was the last great thing he'd contribute to the world and he wanted him to be a perfect replica of himself. The only thing he inherited from his mother was his stubbornness and her curly brown hair. "Wash would not believe his eyes," Mal said from the catwalk. He walked down the stairs and Walk jumped up. "Mac," he toddled towards Mal his arms up. Mal immediately picked him up. He saw the sadness in Zoe's eyes and realized she was having a bad day. She had less of them now that Walk was born, he understood she missed him, hell the whole crew missed Wash. Every now and then the supper table gets quiet, because everyone's thinking about some joke Wash told. Zoe hunched her shoulders forcing a smile," I have to be both for him now. After awhile it came easy to let go and be a kid, feels good. I now understand why my husband does it," she closed her eyes. "--did it." Mal put his hand on her shoulder, "It's okay." Zoe nodded blinking back tears, "She's still holding up, sir. Battered and bruised, but still functioning." She smiled and looked up at the ship. It was their game, created ever since they were browncoats, to double talk their emotions. "She's strong and she's still loyal even after everything. I've abused her, taken her through things, taken things from her, she should fell apart on me years ago," he looked directly at her. "Sir," she paused and Walk wiggled from Mal's arms to go back to playing with his dinosaurs. "Mal," she began again. "You didn't take anything from me." Mal smiled and he sighed, "Don't stop the guilt. That child's without his father because you were being loyal." "That child's without a father because of the Alliance and the Reavers, and what happened at Miranda," She touched his arm. "I've never blamed you, I've never hated you," she wiped at a tear. "You are the Godfather of my son, Mal!" "Still," he sighed. "Still don't stop the guilt." "Having that guilt is feng le, and you know it." Mal leaned against the railing of the stairs, looking down at his hands. He stood like that silently for few moments. Zoe began picking up her son's toys leaving him to his brooding. "I asked Inara to marry me last night," he finally said and then smiled. Zoe looked at him with a huge smile. "She said yes?" she said shocked. "Of course she did! Hey," he stopped. "Why are you so shocked?" "Well, I don't know. I was expecting she says no, you pout. Then she asks you and you say no, and she pouts. Then finally, you ask her again and she say yes," Zoe hunched her shoulders. "Are we that bad?" "Pretty much, Sir." she grinned. Mal smiled. "No dancing this time, dong ma? I asked and she said yes." "Well, Congrats, it's about time, Sir." "Damn right!" Mal smiled. "You're the only one I'm telling. We didn't want to let the news out until Simon and Kaylee get back in working order. Inara didn't want them to feel as if everyone on this boat was happy while they are going through what they're going through." "Of course, how are the Tams doing anyway?" "Simon's doing something stupid and Kaylee's sick with worry. He's going to see his parents on Osiris." "Yeah like that went well the first time," Zoe shook her head. "Exactly. I'll give him another day or two and then we're gonna go get him we can't having him getting dead on us or lil Kaylee." ~ Simon arrived in Osiris under the cover of darkness. It was very early in the morning and the sun hadn't rose. He stepped from the shuttle and took a deep breath. He missed Osiris. He missed the good memories here. He missed the smell of spring rain. He walked down the streets carefully keeping his face hidden as he rounded the corner of where his house was. He picked the lock and opened the door. There was no alarms, no one would dare rob or violate the sanctuary of the home of the powerfully pompous Gabriel Tam. No one, but his own son. He manuevered through the house quietly. He had much practice at sneeking in and out of the house late at night from his years as a teenager. He went into his father's office knowing exactly what he was looking for. There were vital pages missing from his medical file the first two years of his life to be exact. He found what he was looking for, behind the portrait picture of his grandfather Abraham. He began punching in numbers on key pad, but the safe just beeping and said access denied. He tried again and again. "The code is 34-17-38-64-2," he father said behind him. "But what you are looking for is not in that safe." Simon turned around looking at him shocked. "You honestly think I wouldn't hear that my son was supposedly dead? I'm not surprised to see you alive and well though. I knew exactly what you were after when they requested your medical records from your university." "Where is it? I need them, now!" he yelled and his father sighed. "Why? Why would you need those records? What's so important that you are asking for them now?" "That's none of your concern!" "None of my concern! I'm your father!" "Barely," Simon muttered. "If you tell me why you want them, I will give them to you," Gabriel negotiated. Simon rolled his eyes. "I'm sterile and I want to know why." "Why so you can impregnate that gutter snipe girl mechanic," Gabriel sneered. Simon charged him and slammed him against the wall. "That Mechanic is my wife you old hwoon dahn," he yelled. "Gabriel what's going on?" Simon let go of his father as soon as his mother walked in the room. She looked from husband to son and back again. "Simon!" she ran into his arms and hugged him. "Go back to bed, Regina, your son was just leaving," he said and she shook her head. "I will not, this is my child." "Mother, I need my medical files," he said and she looked up at him. She nodded and went to the desk. "Regina!" Gabriel warned, but she ignored him. "I knew this day would come, I knew it before you were even born," she handed him the thick manilla envelope. Simon hurriedly opened it and read the contents. Gabriel hung his head dramatically knowing that there were no more secrets left to hide. Simon's eyes grew wide when he read his mother's pregnancy history. She had miscarried four times, before becoming pregnant again with him. "When I had became pregnant with you and didn't miscarry I thought, finally we would have a son. We were so happy, until the doctor noticed something in your development." "I had down syndrome," Simon said and Regina shook her head. "No, it was much worst that that, without immediate attention you'd be born deformed both mentally and physically," she said. "Our doctor knew a scientist who had an experimental procedure. One that would synthesize enough chromosomes for you in the developmental stage. It was a risky procedure, but it worked, and you were born happy and healthy. But--," "But the procedure had side effects, microdeletions of my DNA, didn't it?" he said, using his vast medical knowledge to put and to together. "Causing asymptomatic panhypopituitarianism, rendering me sterile," he finished with a bitter laugh. "If you would have stayed on Osiris, we would have matched you with the perfect girl. We would have made sure she would have gotten pregnant, and you would have never known," his father said and Simon laughed. "Then that make's me glad I didn't stay on Osiris," he yelled angrily. "Please, please don't be angry with your father," Regina grabbed her son, she cried. "It's my fault, I couldn't bare to lose another child, I couldn't," she cried her big brown eyes pleading to him, River's eyes. "I'm pretty sure he had no argument, God forbid Gabriel Tam has a mentally retarded son. That's about as unacceptable as an autistic daughter isn't, Father!" "No, no what happened to River was my fault," his mother pulled at his coat. "The hwoon dahns who fixed you, they didn't do it for money, they did it so they could use me as a test subject. They fixed you so they could create River." "Create her?" Simon looked at his mother. "To make her more intelligent, to exploit her genes which already had the genetic predisposition of a psychic, they wanted a highly trained assassin," Simon's father said. "They made her in the lab, implanted her in me, I had to carry her without knowing what she'd become, what they had turned her into," Regina held herself as tears of anguish ran down her face. " And from the moment she was born she was distant, like she wasn't mine, like they took our mother daughter bond right out of her." "We expected the doctor's take her right away, before there could be any emotional bond formed between the two of you. But the Alliance scientists, never came, a year after she was born they sent us a wave and told us we will be in charge of 'The Project' until she was of age," Gabriel sighed and poured himself a drink. "She was not a project," Simon yelled. "Or a test subject! She was your daughter!" "She was our payment for a perfect son!" he yelled back."Now do you see why we didn't want to you to throw your life away for her? She was born, created, to be exactly what she is." "I can't believe you two," he shook his head and Regina went to him. She tried to touch his arms , but Simon pulled away. "I am so sorry," she said genuinely. Simon sighed defeatedly, he could never hate his mother, no matter how much he tried. He hugged her. "I'm sorry too." Simon broke away doing the worse thing he could think to do to his parents. "This will be the last time you ever see me," he said, coldly to them both and walked away. Gabriel watched as his son walked away, as soon as he was gone from view, he turned to his wife. "You did well," he grinned and took another swig of his liquor. "I hate you," she shook with anger, but her husband just ignored her outburst. "It is what it is, my dear. You do your part, you stay alive," he grinned as she stormed off. He touched an area on his wall that revealed a flat panel screen under a false wood door."Was that to your satisfaction?" "It was perfect, he will run home to his wife to lick his wounds and lead us directly to the project." "And my payment?" The Senior Tam asked. The Operative smiled, amazed at Gabriel's willingness to do anything for money, "It's already been deposited." "Excellent," Gabriel ended the transmission and then went to deal with his wife. ~ Jayne was sitting stone quiet in the common area of the ship. He had an open bottle of booze and it wasn't even noon yet. By the time Mal walked in about half of the bottle was gone. He looked at his Merc and the booze and then back to his Merc questioningly. "She dump you?" Mal asked hands folded across his chest and Jayne nodded. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen, 'specially now," he sighed. Mal's smirk faded and he pulled at seat next to Jayne, "What's going on?" "She's pregnant," Jayne said and then grabbed Mal's shoulder. "Now don't start that twitchy stuttery go se, we wanted it to happen." "Then what's the problem?" Mal asked confused. "She had a premonition bout me last night," he poured himself another drink."It weren't good, she said she saw me in red. I tried to push it aside like it were nothing, maybe she's wrong, but when I woke up this morning..." he broke off. "You felt like the devil was chasing you?" Mal said, knowingly and Jayne nodded. Being in danger on a regular basis was commonplace for men like them, so when something extraordinary was about to happen, it felt like a cold wind at your back...the devil they called it during the War. "Ai ya, if that ain't a cruel end, to go before I see what I left to this world," Jayne bemoaned good and drunk. "You ain't going nowhere, I ain't losing anymore of this crew," he grabbed the bottle and took a swig. "You two are going to live happily ever after with so many kids, I'm going to go nearly feng le from it," he smiled and Jayne's eyebrow rose, he smiled at the thought of Mal being tortured by a group of his unruly offspring. But then the cold wind hit and he shuddered, smile gone he looked at Mal eyes wide and earnest. "If it was just her feelings, I'd agree with you, but--" "But go se. Jayne, I can't have you out there doing jobs, if you believe you ain't coming back from them, dong ma?" "You gotta marry us as soon as Simon brings his pi-gu back here, Mal!"Jayne grabbed the booze and took a bunch of gulps, until his chest burned so bad he slammed it back down on the table. "I'll marry you two when Simon comes back becuase you two love each other and are expecting a lil one. I'm not however marrying you because you are going to die, dong ma? You aren't dying Jayne!" mal rose and Jayne caught his arm in a fierce grip. "If something happens, don't allow her to fall apart. Make her move on quick," Jayne said. "Tell her I says so." Mal looked at the large man, he nodded, "We'll take care of her, Jayne. No matter what." Jayne let go and Mal walked to the door. "Nothing bad's happening to my gorram crew if it kills me," he said, and just as he walk into the corridor he felt the cold familiar chill of bad things to come. "Hi, old friend," he whispered.