AN: Thanks for the reviews, you guys are great! So here's the next three chapters. Warning - part six is pure fluff, and if you have no sweet-tooth, feel free to skip it, you won't miss grand plot-stuff! I just like it...

Part one, Parts 2 and 3

---

Part 4

‘Captain?’ Simon’s hands were on Mal’s face before he’d finished the question.

Mal flinched away. ‘Damnit, doc, give me some warning when you come in!’

‘I’m sorry,’ Simon answered apologetically. ‘I haven’t left since we were speaking - I thought you knew I was here.’

‘Well next time, don’t. Been a week since I was able to tell whether you were lurking around or not, I thought you would’a learned by now not to sneak up.’

‘Again, Captain, I’m sorry,’ Simon said placatingly. In the past few days, they’d had more than a few of these spats, and he seemed to be trying to head this one off at the pass.

‘So what do you want?’ Mal asked with ill-grace.

‘I want to have a look at your eyes to see if the mender did its job. Then I can work out when is the best time to use it again. I’ll need to put you under, but I want to look at the skin around your eyes first, would you rather I left the injection until after?’

‘Rather you left the injection altogether. I swear, the number of times you stick me with that needle anybody’d get the idea you like me being knocked out.’

‘Well I can’t do that,’ Simon answered, ignoring the accusation. ‘But if you don’t try and open your eyes, I can leave the shot until afterwards. Is that alright?’

‘Shiny,’ he answered sarcastically.

‘Okay, I’m taking off the bandage. Remember to keep your eyes shut, there’s no telling what damage you could do to them trying to focus now. Don’t clench them either, just don’t move,’ Simon said.

‘Think I got it, doc.’

‘Good,’ Simon answered distractedly. He unpinned the bandage and carefully unwound it, nudging Mal’s head upwards to get it off the back.

Mal laid his head back down, and Simon began the examination. He could feel Simon’s gaze raking over the raw skin. He was really getting sick of just laying here, day after day, while doc poked him with needles and looked at him. He hadn’t been joking about Simon enjoying it - boy had to be feeling a mite smug that, for once, Mal was in his infirmary being nice and quiet. Course, even when he wasn’t knocked out, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of conversation. The crew tended to assume he was sleeping, though he had passed that point days ago, and he could hardly just start talking himself. He’d be ten minutes in and realise he was the only one there.

Simon seemed to be taking his time over this. What more could he possibly need to see? The bandages didn’t cover that much skin anyway. Not that he felt like that when they were on. The things kinda gave him flashbacks to Niska, stumbling around blindfolded but just knowing something was about to jump at him. Simon’s examinations weren’t exactly torture by electrocution, although as he had now progressed to the “prodding” part of it, the line was getting thinner. He couldn’t take this any more. Simon had to be doing this to be stubborn, because how much damage could it really do? For a week he had been driven closer and closer to just tearing the rutting bandages off, and now the temptation was too much. He opened his eyes.

The only thing he registered before being forced to screw his eyes shut again was Simon’s expression of horror. Eyes closed, he heard Simon launch into a torrent of words he would’ve have swore the doctor didn’t know, his own screaming, and then the needle in his arm brought blessed silence.

---

When he woke up his eyes were tightly bandaged again, and the ship was quiet. It must be late. Mal moved his head to get more comfortable, groaning as his body registered that it was awake and could now start sending him pain again. His head was killing him.

‘What were you thinking?’ Simon’s question was nearly a yell, and it made him jump, but the doctor continued before Mal could make an issue of it. ‘I told you not to open your eyes. I made it perfectly clear.’

‘It was just for a second,’ Mal said.

‘Was it worth it?’

‘Worth what?’

‘If I wasn’t a doctor,’ Simon spat the words, ‘I would be very tempted to say that you had made the blindness permanent.’

‘But you are a doctor, so what’s the damage?’

Simon muttered another stream of curses. ‘I don’t know. At least another week onto your recovery time.’

‘No.’

‘What do you mean, “no”?’

‘They didn’t teach you that word in Medacad, top-three-percent? Means that I’m not spending an extra week in here.’

‘And how do you propose to do that, Captain? Given your vast medical expertise I’m sure you have some way to speed up the recovery.’

‘Fix it faster.’

‘Excuse me...? Fix it faster? I am working as best as I can. I spent hours with the mender undoing the damage you just wrought. This is no more fun for me than it is for you.’

‘Could have fooled me.’

‘What?’ Simon asked sharply.

‘Maybe you should be working on your ears rather than my eyes.’

‘Cào nî zûxiān shí bâ dai! What is wrong with you?’

‘Apparently I can’t see. Who knew?’ Mal shot back.

Simon sighed. ‘I’ve worked on children with better composure about their injuries than you. Serious injuries. I worked on an eight-year old crash victim who lost the use of both legs, scars all the way up her body, lost both parents and one sibling in the crash. An eight year old. And not once did she accuse me of trying to make her worse.’

‘Well I’m sorry I don’t have all the composure of your core kiddies. Maybe it’s knowing that my accident didn’t lead to me getting my inheritance money!’

‘This has nothing to do with money,’ Simon snapped. ‘This is you and… I don’t even know what it is. I don’t know what happened to make you this way. But I know that every member of your crew is doing everything they can to make you well again and for the past few days all you can do is complain about it! All because you can’t lie back and let them look after you. It’s selfishness and … and cowardice…’

‘What did you say, boy?’ Mal asked in a tone he hadn’t used on Simon for months.

‘I…’

Mal reached blindly on the tray beside him and flung the first thing to hand in Simon’s direction.

Simon gave a shocked yelp, and fled the room.

It was only a few minutes later when there was a quiet knock at the door.

‘What?’ Mal growled.

‘It’s me, Captain,’ Kaylee answered cheerfully. ‘Simon thought you might want some company.’

‘Is that right?’

‘Yup. Said he thought he might have been a little rough when he was examining you and you were a bit sore.’

‘That ain’t quite…’ he answered, slightly guiltily.

‘I told him to go and get some sleep. That’s probably why he was a bit shaky. He’s been sleeping on that chair since you got hurt, and it’s not really comfy enough to get any real shut-eye. He was real sorry, Captain, please don’t yell at him anymore.’

Gorram boy couldn’t let him have the high ground even for five minutes, could he?

---

Part 5

‘Gorram yúchûn húndàn!’ River was screaming.

‘River, I don’t know what you…’ Simon protested.

‘Could have broken you!’

‘Who did? River, if you don’t calm down you’re going to have to leave the infirmary.’ It sounded as if they were scuffling at the doorway.

‘Him!’ she called venomously. Then her voice went calm and solemn, always a bad sign. ‘See how he likes it.’

‘River,’ Simon said sternly, just a hint of panic underneath it. ‘Give Jayne back his knife.’

‘He did it to you.’

‘Who, Jayne? Jayne’s never cut me. He prefers fists to knives when dealing with friends.’

‘Not him, him!’ she cried in frustration. ‘Instruments of healing used for hurt.’

‘You mean Mal,’ Simon realized. He finished quietly, ‘He didn’t mean it.’

‘Didn’t mean what?’ Mal asked sullenly. He hadn’t quite forgiven Simon for their screaming match yet.

‘To cut me,’ Simon answered.

‘What? I’ve punched you twice, doc, and those were both a while back. That’s it.’

‘It’s nothing,’ Simon said.

‘Not bruises,’ River corrected. ‘Wounds.’ Her voice was over Mal now.

‘River, give me the scalpel back now!’ Simon instructed.

Scalpel. The scalpels that Simon left on his medical tray beside the bed. That was what he had thrown at the doctor. So he hadn’t stormed off angry or scared after all, he had been bleeding.

‘Wanted to blind you too.’ River’s voice was still anguished, but Simon seemed to have got her to the door. ‘Could have been an eye.’

Suspicion flaring uncomfortably, Mal asked, ‘Where did I hit you?’

‘What?’ Simon asked. ‘Captain, it really doesn’t…’

‘Where?’

‘Just above my cheek. But it really doesn’t…’

Mal turned his head away and feigned sleep.

---

‘Is the Captain awake?’ Mal woke to Kaylee’s voice at the infirmary door.

‘I don’t know,’ Simon said. ‘Captain? Mal?’

Mal stayed quiet. He couldn’t take Kaylee’s warmth or Simon’s concern right now.

‘Captain,’ Simon continued. ‘Kaylee and I are going to take the engine apart, is that okay?’

‘Simon!’ Kaylee protested, giggling.

‘Engineering’s pretty much the same as surgery anyway, yes?’

‘Simon!’

‘Now we know he’s asleep,’ Simon replied, unrepentant.

‘I guess that’s true,’ she conceded. Mal heard her trip over to the side of the room, and then a dull thumping as she climbed onto the bench and kicked her heels against it.

‘Kaylee...’ Simon said.

‘What?’ she asked innocently.

‘Nothing,’ he answered in resignation.

‘So... how are you and the Captain?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Spendin a lot of time together, aren’t ya?’

‘He’s my patient, Kaylee. If I wasn’t spending a lot of time with him I wouldn’t be very good at my job.’

‘You know what I mean...’

‘I really wish I didn’t.’

‘Come on, Simon...’

‘Kaylee.’ There was a deep sigh, as if the two of them had been having this conversation for a while. Mal couldn’t remember ever hearing it, but as it seemed to involve him in some way, that wasn’t unlikely.

‘Come on, doc, you break a gal’s heart, won’t even do her the courtesy of giving her the gossip after?’

Mal would have spoken up. No one, but no one, broke his girl’s heart, but Kaylee was giggling, so he suspected she was joking.

‘Kaylee, I...’

‘Relax, Simon, you know I’m just teasin. Not about the gossip, though, so spill.’

‘Kaylee, why did I tell you about my preferences?’

She sighed and parroted back, ‘So I wouldn’t be hurt that you weren’t chasin me.’

Well that was a new bit of information. Not entirely surprising, but interesting to know. How in the hell did he miss Kaylee finding out that one? Mal would have though the whole ship would have heard her sobbing at the end of that crush.

Simon was still talking, ‘What was not the reason that I told you?’

She dutifully answered, ‘So I could set you up with the captain.’

‘Exactly...’

Wait. What now? This was not... Mal gave up trying to get his head around that and just listened.

‘But that’s not what I’m doing!’ Kaylee protested. ‘I just want a little gossip. You know, girl-talk.’

‘Kaylee!’ Simon’s indignant squeak wasn’t going to help his case much.

Kaylee was giggling again. ‘Still an easy mark. So come on. You gotta give me something. When did you first, you know, realise an all.’

‘Realise what?’

‘Simon!’

‘I’m being serious. When did I realise that he was good-looking, or when did I...’

‘Love. Sex-wanting. That one.’

Simon laughed then, reluctantly. ‘Jiangyin’

‘Jiangyin…’ Kaylee said. ‘That was the planet where you and River got yourselves took, right?’

‘We didn’t get ourselves taken,’ Simon protested mildly. ‘It was just unfortunate.’

‘Sure,’ she replied agreeably. ‘So, why then? Woulda thought you’d be more mad than anything else. Us leaving you there.’

‘I wasn’t surprised.’ Simon’s voice had lost the teasing edge, and it took Kaylee a moment to process the words.

‘What?’

‘I mean, I suppose I was shocked, because the ship wasn’t supposed to be leaving yet, but I wasn’t really… surprised. I didn’t expect to be on the ship very long.’

‘Simon…’ Kaylee’s voice had worlds of hurt and pity in it.

‘It isn’t that I thought badly of him. Or of any of you really. It was just that he didn’t… there was no reason for him not to leave us there.’

‘Captain’s a good man, Simon, he wasn’t ever not gonna come back.’

‘Be that as it may, I didn’t expect him to.’

‘Don’t go all formality on me again. Why didn’t you think we’d come and get you?’

‘It’s hard to…you get on well with your family, don’t you?’

She was bewildered, but replied, ‘I guess so. Me an my folks fight sometimes I guess, but it’s always…’

‘There to come back to.’

‘Sure,’ Kaylee said, as if this was as certain as the sunrise.

‘One of the last things my father said to me… he had just bailed me out. I got caught somewhere I shouldn’t have been, looking for information about River. And he had to come and pay for them to release me. It’s not that I don’t understand it… it was a big thing, it goes on your record, and he was at a dinner-party, so he had to explain his way out of that… I mean, maybe he did think I was just going mad, and River was fine. But she couldn’t have been, and he knew that, because I gave him the letters. And I’ll never know now whether he just didn’t believe me, or he thought I was right but he knew better, or maybe he just didn’t care. But he stood there and…’ Simon’s speech had got strung together, so he stopped.

‘What happened?’ Kaylee asked

‘He told me if I did it again he wouldn’t come and get me.’

Kaylee was silent, and Mal could feel her horror that a father could abandon both his children that way. Truth be told, he felt more than a little like strangling Simon’s folks himself.

‘So you see,’ Simon went on, ‘I had reconciled myself with the idea that the two of us were on our own now. I didn’t expect to be anywhere very long. And it wasn’t such a surprise to be left. But then they tried to… there were so many of them, and I fought, but I was never going to be able to stop them. So I got up there with her, and I was preparing myself to… I wasn’t going to let her be burnt to death, or let her die choking. I couldn’t do that… but when I looked at her, she was smiling. Just smiling. And she looked down at me and said, “Daddy’s coming”. Just like that. And I didn’t know how to tell that there was no one to come for us.’

‘And then the Captain came,’ Kaylee finished.

‘Yes,’ Mal could hear the warmth in Simon’s voice even without seeing the smile. ‘Walking out of the smoke. I think that was the moment I was doomed.’

‘Bet you went all weak at the knees and everything,’ Kaylee giggled.

‘Weak in the brain,’ Simon corrected. ‘I couldn’t get my head around the idea that he was actually there. And then he got them to cut River down. He said that she was his, do you remember that? Well, ours, but that’s not… I asked him, afterwards, why he had come back, and he didn’t even know why I was asking. He just said that we were crew.’ Simon’s voice was wondering, as if he still wasn’t sure why it had happened.

‘Of course you’re crew!’ Kaylee exclaimed, her soft heart eager to make amends for all the wrongs done to Simon by those who should have looked out for him.

‘I know that now,’ Simon said gently. ‘But back then it was in question. I don’t think I believed that if… family is supposed to be the place that has to take you in, no matter what you’ve done. I suppose I thought that if family wouldn’t, then no one else would either.’

‘We’re family now, Simon.’ Kaylee responded warmly. She had moved across the room, and Mal imagined she had an arm around Simon.

‘I know.’ There was a crack in Simon’s voice. ‘I don’t think I’d know how to behave on Osiris now. I’ve got to the point where…home is this place where I wake up and the walls are vibrating because of the engines, and I can hear my sister breathing next door. Where I go for a walk in the middle of the night and either I meet someone already awake, or within three minutes Mal’s got his head out of his bunk telling me someone better be dead or dying if I’m going to make such a racket in the middle of the night.’

‘He gets grouchy.’

‘I know. One of these days though, I’m going to give him River’s spiel about there being no night on a ship anyway.’

‘Sweetie, sometimes I think you want the Captain to hit you.’

Simon laughed. ‘Well that would be an interesting new level of dysfunction, especially given the fact that I seem to have tied Mal into my father issues.’

‘You’re not really…’ Kaylee sounded unsure.

‘No.’ Simon’s voice was muffled, and now Mal knew that Kaylee was hugging him tight to her shoulder. ‘I’m just having a bad day.’

‘Did I make it worse?’

‘No, as usual you made it better.’

‘Is it the Captain throwing scalpels at you yesterday?’

‘How did you… did River…?’

‘She told me it was a scalpel. I figured out that he was throwing things when you came out of there bleeding. You gotta stop letting him push you around.’

‘He’s the Captain. And he’s sick, and I feel like I’m not doing enough to make him better.’

‘What else could you be doing?’ Unless you want to give him one of your own eyes to borrow, he’ll just have to be patient, and start being nicer to you. No more scalpels,’ she said firmly.

‘I’ll be sure and tell him that.’

‘I’ll tell him that. You go and sleep in your own bed for a while.’

‘Kaylee, I’m not a child. Or a hormonal teenager, if that’s what’s bothering you. I can cope with being in the same room with him, even if I want him to…’

‘Make with the sex with you, right now this minute?’

‘Kaylee!’

‘You look tired, Simon, that’s what’s bothering me. Go to bed. Else I’ll drag you there myself, and who knows what might happen?’

He laughed. ‘Okay. Wake me up in a few hours, okay?’

‘I promise. Me and the Captain are just going to have a little talk.’

‘Be nice.’

‘Okey-dokey. Now bed!’

‘Night.’ Simon said, leaving the infirmary.

‘Night-night,’ Kaylee called back. She placed a hand on Mal’s ankle. ‘Now, being asleep is no excuse not to listen to this. You need to start being nicer to the doctor, okay? No more making him cry. Cause you’re a good man, and good men don’t make nice doctors who love them cry. Got that?’

Mal had to hold himself very still not to give into the reflex to nod assent.

---

Part 6

He wasn’t exactly sure when it had started. Simon was standing beside the console, singing softly to himself, and Mal was convinced that this wasn’t the first time. Now that he thought about it, in the past few days he had heard this song a couple of times. He hadn’t called Simon on it, not wanting to disturb their peace after the scalpel throwing. But he knew that the doctor hadn’t always done it, because God knew Mal had spent enough time lying in the infirmary that he would have noticed.

‘Doctor?’ Mal jumped as Zoë spoke from beside Simon. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she apologised.

‘No problem,’ Mal replied, ‘Just didn’t hear you come in.’

‘Still sorry, sir,’ she said. Then, continuing, ‘Doctor? We’re going into town, you need anything?’

‘River wanted...’ Simon began.

‘River’s coming.’

‘So there isn’t...?’

‘No Alliance presence on Rhea,’ Mal assured him. Zoë had already run over the plans with him. It was an obvious, but still appreciated, attempt to make him feel in charge of where his boat went.

‘Okay then.’ Simon sounded unconvinced, but assented. ‘In that case, just some supplies for the infirmary.’ Again, that under-the-breath humming, this time moving across the room to behind Mal. ‘Here.’

‘We need all these?’ Zoë asked.

‘I would like all of these things,’ Simon amended. ‘If we’re short on coin, use my cut. And if that doesn’t do it, the ones with the stars are the vital supplies.’

‘You sure you don’t want anything for you? Kaylee’s made a request for fresh fruit, and River’s getting coloured pencils...’

‘We didn’t make a lot on our last run, and we’re a little short on drugs. I can get myself something when we’re doing better.’

‘If you’re sure, doctor.’

‘I am. But thank you, Zoë.’

‘See you in a bit. Try to keep out of trouble, sir.’

‘Hey!’ Mal protested. ‘Trouble finds me.’

‘Of course, sir,’ she answered. ‘You just don’t seem to make much attempt to hide from it.’

‘Hey!’

---

This time he was sure of it. River had wandered into the room to show Simon her pencils, but had stopped in the doorway.

‘I know this one.’

‘Know what, mei-mei?’

‘You’re singing,’ she pointed out. Mal wondered why her clarity seemed to surface most when she was using her “Simon’s being a boob” voice.

‘I know that.’

‘Haven’t sung in months. Too many memories. Leaves tossing in the wind, all blown away.’ There it went again.

‘River...’

She didn’t give him a chance to finish. Picking up where he had left off, she began humming the melody of whatever Simon had been singing.

Mal could almost here the mental shrug as Simon returned to what he had been doing, moving around the sides of the infirmary, now humming the baseline of the song. Then, a shocked turning-round. ‘River! You can’t... don’t pirouette in here!’

---

He started to look out for it. If he pretended to be asleep, most of the time Simon worked quietly. When he moved, or spoke, however, Simon would speak, or hum, or even just walk louder.

Mostly though, he sang. Too quiet to hear the words, but Mal could hear the tunes. They were normally classical, some dancing music that he recognised, others operas or the occasional popular song.

And the others had started to join in. Not Book or Zoë, neither being of a particularly musical turn, but the others. River was a matter of course, but the rest were a surprise. Wash, he had found out, had a startlingly strong tenor, and knew all the words of the operas. That was a definitely a mystery for some rainy afternoon. Inara, of course, was trained well enough to accompany Simon in everything, although, like Wash, seemed to favour the operas.

Kaylee, naturally, joined in enthusiastically to whatever it was. If she didn’t know the music, she would make up her own, and Simon would laugh quietly and join in with the variations.

Jayne had ignored him in the beginning, but after a few days, he had started to do it just to be ornery. He wouldn’t hum anything like what Simon was singing, but instead old folk songs that he knew Simon would never have heard on Osiris. And, of course, the ones with a certain theme were the ones he would take to singing out loud, his gruff bass picking out the words with relish. He nearly jumped out of his skin the day Simon’s sweet tenor joined in on a particularly choice verse.

But even on his own, Simon refused to be silent. Mal wouldn’t have objected (much), if he didn’t think he knew what Simon was up to.

‘You don’t have to do that, doc.’

‘What?’ Simon asked in confusion.

‘Your very fine impression of a songbird.’

‘I’m just singing. If it’s bothering you I’ll stop.’

‘It’s not...’ He jolted as Simon’s fingers came down unexpectedly on his arm. He hadn’t heard him come across the room. ‘I know why you’re doing it, doc.’

‘And why would that be?’ Simon asked distractedly, checking the needle.

‘You think you ought to let me know whereabouts you’re standing.’

‘Captain, I...’ He was paying attention now.

‘And don’t get me wrong doc, appreciate the gesture, but it ain’t necessary.’

‘You jump when Jayne comes in.’

‘Anybody with more’n half a brain would jump when that man enters a room.’

‘And Zoë?’

‘Woman walks like a cat, doc. Men with 20/20 vision in both eyes jump six feet into the air when she comes up behind them.’

‘Fine. I’ll stop.’

‘Thank you.’

---

It took four hours. Four hours when he couldn’t tell, as he drifted in and out of sleep, whether Simon was there and being quiet, or had left to find something. He was startled into awareness on no less than six occasions when soft fingers reached for his arm, or felt under his bandages. Wasn’t even as if doc walked soft normally, so Mal suspected he was being taken for a ride.

Did for the first three hours anyway. The next one he spent planning how to get out of this gracefully. Because what he had failed to consider was that while Zoë was always going to make him jump out of her skin doing that appearing-from-behind thing, the others tended to adopt Simon’s manners. So now he couldn’t hear any of them. This in addition to how little he had considered the amount of time Simon spent wandering round the infirmary before coming at him from any number of directions, unnoticed until he touched Mal or spoke.

When the thought came, it was an obvious one. Mal hummed quietly for a few minutes before he heard Simon join in.

A few minutes later, the doctor paused. ‘Sorry, I didn’t realise. I’ll be quiet.’

‘Don’t stop,’ Mal muttered.

Simon was still quiet. Then, just as Mal thought he was going to have to swallow his pride and be more explicit, Simon started again.

Mal listened. This time it wasn’t an orchestral piece, or any of those arias River and Simon loved so much. If he was the type of man who blushed, he might have blushed. ‘What have I told you about listening to Jayne?’

‘I don’t know, Captain, some of those songs can be quite... educational.’ There was a teasing lilt to Simon’s voice as he spoke.

‘I don’t reckon some of those... activities... are even physically possible.’

‘I’m a doctor, Captain, I know exactly how far the body bends.’

And with that choice phrase, Simon returned to the computer. Mal fell asleep to the sound of Simon’s voice singing about how wonderful it was to meet a woman of such skill in a town like this. Or something like that anyway. The words didn’t seem to matter so much.

---

Translations:
cào nî zûxiān shí bâ dai - fuck 18 generations of your ancestors
yúchûn - stupid/ignorant
húndàn - asshole/bastard