The crew looked for Kaylee and Marcus but had no luck. Night came, and Simon was getting worried. Something was definitely wrong. Kaylee always let someone from the crew know she was going to be late. Simon looked in on River before going back out. He found her sitting on her bed. Her fingers were on her head with her eyes closed. Simon knew this look. She was trying to concentrate. She didn’t stop when Simon sat on the bed with her. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Simon look for her, I need to stay focused.” “Well I don’t want you hurting yourself.” “She is out there Simon, I can feel that she is still alive but I can’t locate her. It’s like Marcus has some special power to block her from my mind.” “You might be right kid.” Simon and River turned to see Mal standing in the doorway. He walked over and handed Simon a pad. Simon took it and looked at the screen. There was information about Marcus. “This can’t be? He never showed signs of having any type of special ability. Sure the guy was smart, but any sort of power?” “The Alliance was keeping a secret. They were using him as a mole to find others.” River looked over Simon’s shoulder at the screen. “What does he have?” “He can read thoughts like you, but he can block mind readers from reading other people’s thoughts.” Simon didn’t understand why Marcus would want Kaylee. River took Simon’s hand. “It’s my fault. He’s using Kaylee as bait. The Alliance wants me and they will do anything.” Simon couldn’t say anything. He was always worried about River, but he never thought to worry about Kaylee. “We’ll find her Simon. Kaylee is our Mei-mei on this ship. No one hurts our Kaylee.” Simon still didn’t feel reassured by Mal.

Kaylee’s head was throbbing. Where the heck was she? She appeared to be in a small room with no windows. She had been lying on a cold floor. Kaylee stretched out her legs. There was something on her ankle. She went to grab it, but her hands were tied together. She moved her leg to see her ankle had a chain around it. There was movement coming from outside the hallway. The door to the room opened. In came Marcus. When Kaylee realized what happened before being in this room, Kaylee backed into the corner. Marcus was supposed to be a nice guy, why was he doing this? “I had to Kaylee. I need to get to River and Simon. You were my only choice.” “Why can’t you people leave them alone? They ain’t doing anything wrong.” Marcus walked over to Kaylee. She couldn’t move. He had her cornered, there was no escape. She had her arms as far back as possible. He grabbed her arms and started to untie the rope. “Here I can at least do this.” He leaned into her and kissed her forehead. She went to hit him but he got her arm first. He got up and brought back a glass. He tried to hand it to Kaylee but she refused. “You have to drink Kaylee. I’ll force you if you don’t” Kaylee took the water and swallowed it. It tasted funny to her. This wasn’t water. “It’s water Kaylee; I just added something to it.” Kaylee started to feel dizzy. She fell into Marcus’s arms. Marcus took off the chain and took her to the other room.

Four hours later, the crew was sitting at the table in the dining hall trying to come up with a plan. It wasn’t easy. Without knowing where Kaylee might be, the crew was lost. Simon knew she couldn’t be far. Marcus wanted River and him. Marcus wouldn’t just leave and go far with Kaylee. He had her nearby he could feel it. He might not have special power like River, but he could sense her. He noticed River watching him. She was probably reading his mind. “You can feel her, I know.” “How is that possible?” “You two have a special bond. I bet she can sense you.” Simon hoped she was right. “Will you two focus?” Mal had his arms crossed and Simon glared at Mal. “I’m sorry, but I need to find Kaylee. This is my fault. She wouldn’t be in this mess –” “You got that right!” Jayne got up from his chair knocking it over. A shouting match started with Simon, Jayne, and Mal. The rest of the crew tried to stop them. Nothing was working. Finally Wash was able to get through. After being torn apart by force, the three guys looked at Wash. “Will you three just get along for five freaking minutes? Kaylee is out there and probably scared out of her mind.” The three of them sat down. They wanted to each give a say but didn’t when they were taken back with Wash. Here was their funny comic friend getting all serious. “We need to come up with a plan. If we can just find Marcus, we can go from there. If he can really read people’s mind or block, we have to be a step ahead of him.” “How are we going to do that?” Wash looked at Simon. “I have no clue.” The group separated to think of a plan. Simon was on the bridge with Wash. Both were sitting down and looking out the window. Simon while thinking picked up a piece of leather. He was playing with it with his hands when he noticed Wash watching him. “What?” “That’s it?” Simon was confused. What the heck was Wash talking about? “The watch you are holding.” Simon looked down at the old watch. “What about it?” “Kaylee should still have hers on.” Now Simon was really confused. Wash went into detail about how he and Kaylee were working on these watches to keep track of the crew. Not only would they track a crewmember, it would be a communication device. Simon sat up in his seat. “That’s great!” Simon saw a frown on Wash’s face. “But let me guess, you don’t know if it will work yet.” Simon sat the watch back down where he found it. Wash nodded just as a red light started blinking on the watch. Two miles away, Kaylee herself remembered the watch. She hoped they were getting the signal on the test watch. The watch might be her only hope.