I own none of the characters, but the words and the specific order in which they come are mine. Please share, and let me know what you think.

Spoiler: Set after the events of Serenity: The Movie

Um, I suppose a little Jayne/River and Kaylee/Simon and Inara/Mal shippy, but not much, really.

“River’s Revelations”: River’s perceptions of the crew members of Serenity. A little tidbit I wrote in a few hours. My first ever Firefly/Serenity fanfic. I wanted to get my feet wet with this one, but next time I am totally doing dialogue. I can’t wait to try my hand at Whedon banter, and I’m dying to write for Mal!

Every day that River woke up was a little better than the day before. She used to hate her moments of lucidity because it made the rest of her tangled and ugly thoughts even worse in comparison, but now she relished her growing normalcy. She had never before thought of sanity as a tactile thing, but now she swore that she could feel it enveloping her like a warm blanket. She was growing to trust herself, as well. For the first few days after Miranda she was always apprehensive that she would be thrown back into the turmoil of not being in control of her own mind. However, that time never came, and River found herself getting more and more comfortable with her new coherency. Going to the planet that haunted her and understanding the origin of the dreams that followed her waking hours allowed her to let go of that part of her, and when she was able to let go of that, she was able to gain control of herself again. She was still a reader, but now she could control it. Before Miranda, she could never tell when she would be hit with a barrage of unwelcome thoughts that were not her own. Now she found that she had the ability to read people selectively. She tried to keep this ability to herself as much as possible, and she tried very hard not to read anyone on Serenity. The few times she had answered a question that had yet to be asked resulted in awkward pauses and guarded glances and she didn’t like the feeling it gave the other passengers. She sometimes couldn’t resist reading someone when she thought they were holding something back, but as she grew into her new self she found that she was better at restraining herself. It was easier to keep occupied, especially now that she had a real purpose on the ship. Mal had been teaching her to fly since they left Miranda and now, only a few months later, she had been given the official title of pilot of Serenity. Mal had told her a week ago on her 18th birthday. It had been a wonderful feeling to get such a responsibility and to be trusted so completely. The feeling was bittersweet, though, tinged with the knowledge that it was because of her, that the position of pilot needed to be filled. She was an excellent flyer, of that she was aware. She was able to evade other ships almost at a whim. She didn’t think she was reading the other pilots, per say, but she knew that she could tell where they were going before they had even turned. She had quick reflexes and a soft touch that the well-worn Firefly ship seemed to appreciate, and it responded to her nicely. What her growing skill had shown her, however, was how remarkable a pilot Wash had been. Her abilities gave her great advantages that Wash had not had, yet he had flown Serenity as well as or better than River. He couldn’t read other pilots but he certainly could avoid them. River also found that her new position as pilot gave her a great deal of time to be alone. While this used to terrify her, now she enjoyed the time to think about things. She had a tendency to sit in the pilot’s seat alone in the bridge long after their course had been plotted and set and Serenity had started to fly herself. She often though about how things had changed after Miranda. Wash’s death had been the worst change, and the thoughts of all the crew members were often haunted by the memory of all those people who had been slaughtered simply because the Alliance wanted River. River and Simon had gone through a rather terrible period of guilt, but eventually they realized, as the rest of the crew already had, that what they had accomplished was worth the sacrifice. Shortly after Miranda, River had often read Zoe, worried about how she might be feeling toward her. It was these readings that had made her realize how wrong it was for her to read people without their knowledge and permission. River found sadness and despair and loss in Zoe, but never any hatred toward the Tams. Zoe knew that the loss of Wash was a terrible thing, but she also knew that it had been in the pursuit of something greater than them selves that Wash had lost his life, and that Wash wouldn’t have wanted to die in any other way. River also was surprised to discover that, although she never spoke about it, Zoe lived with the total and utter conviction that she and Wash would be together again. Zoe never questioned it, and it was that knowledge that kept her able to continue living and even enjoying life. She considered it to be merely passing time until they would be reunited again, and there was no call to be miserable and make everyone else miserable with her while she waited. The passion of her feelings for Wash, and the strength of her belief that that would be reunited when the time was right was a very private thing, and River felt wrong for intruding on those thoughts without Zoe’s knowledge. And then there was River’s brother, Simon. She often thought of him with a smile lately. Simon made nearly everyone smile lately, even Mal on occasion. It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. In one fell swoop, the Alliance had stopped chasing him and he had gotten his sister back. Without those constant worries, River saw Simon become more like the boy she remembered growing up with. He was still a touch more serious than most, but he no longer kept everything bottled up inside him. Kaylee seemed to be helping him with that seriousness, too. River couldn’t have been happier for her brother. River knew that he sometimes thought he was neglecting her, but she never felt that way. After uprooting his life, severing ties with their parents, and risking everything that he was and more to rescue her and then keep her safe, River was pleased to step out of his protective embrace and allow someone else to take her place. Seeing him happy with Kaylee was a thousand times better than having him fuss over her. Every time she caught a glimpse of them together she couldn’t help but be blissfully happy! She and Kaylee were also becoming even closer friends. Kaylee, in fact, had unknowingly helped teach River a lesson. River had tried to read Kaylee one day because River had thought that she had made Kaylee angry somehow. It turned out that Kaylee wasn’t in a talkative mood simply because she had been thinking about Simon and something they had recently done…together. Having sex thoughts about her own brother flood her mind was enough to teach River the perils of abusing her ability. River had always found Mal to be a difficult person to read. It was one of the reasons she had liked being around the captain even before Miranda. He was easy to be around because his thoughts were quiet. He felt as deeply and as strongly as everyone else, but even to himself his thoughts were held back behind layers of duty and responsibility. He would do nothing for himself without determining how it would affect the others. River could remember one of the few times she had really read Mal, and it hadn’t been her choice. At Haven, after finding Book and all the others slaughtered, all of Mals carefully controlled feelings surfaced, at least to River. To the others, he must have seemed heartless and unfeeling if not downright cruel. His ultimatum, though the crew knew it was necessary, was barked out in the most unfeeling way possible. Only River knew what had been inside Mal’s head at the time. How he had almost wished that they would want to stay on Haven so that they would be safe, but that even though he wished it, he knew that they would never be safe until this was settled. How he struggled with putting his crew in such grave danger, but how he truly believed down to his soul that the best chance of avoiding the many dangers posed by the Reavers, the Alliance, and the Operative was with them all together on Serenity. River knew how he struggled; how easy it had seemed to give up one girl to save the lives of his crew, his friends, and his friend’s friends. How easy it had seemed, yet how impossible it had been. Mal made those choices and took responsibility for them so others wouldn’t be forced to. Everyone thought that Mal fancied Inara, and River’s ability didn’t tell her very much more than the rest of the crew already suspected. River did think, however, that even Mal didn’t realize his feelings. He was so busy protecting Inara, whether she wanted him to or not, that he couldn’t see that she wanted him to love her, not guard her. Inara was back on Serenity, but she was no longer seeing clients. She had secured a position as a teacher at the academy and she had gone on sabbatical. Apparently this was supposed to giver her time to write a textbook for the companion academy, but River never saw her writing anything. River, along with the rest of the crew, merely sat back and watched as Mal and Inara danced around each other. Everyone watched and waited, and bets were being constantly made as to the specific date when one of them would come to his or her senses and kiss the other. No one would let River bet, but she secretly thought that it would be sooner rather than later. She couldn’t read Mal very well, but Inara’s mind was open and clear. So clear, in fact, that River had to actively try not to read her. She had a tendency to think about only one thing at a time and for the last week, that one thing had been how to get Mal alone in the common area of the ship after the rest of the cew had gone to their bunks for the night. River thought that would happen soon enough and she hoped that Simon would win the bet. He had chosen next Monday. Oddly, Jayne was the person who most consumed River’s thoughts. Jayne was a dichotomy of sorts; willing to fight to the death, but only on behalf of certain people. He placed people into three categories: friend, foe, and neither, and above all, Jayne could have no friends whom he couldn’t respect. River knew that for all his big talk, Jayne would gladly lay down his life to protect a friend. He was fiercely loyal and devoted to his friends and would fight tooth and nail with them and for them. He had no loyalty to foes or to other people. If you weren’t Jayne’s friend, than you were expendable and could be used in any way that was to Jayne’s greatest advantage. River knew that Jayne had sold her and Simon out on Ariel. At that point, she and Simon had been fairly solidly in the “foe” category to Jayne. Simon’s doctoring skills aside, the Tams did nothing but endanger those people whom Jayne did consider friends. River also knew, however, that the paradigm had shifted, and that after Miranda, Jayne considered both the Tams as friends—as part of his crew. Although he might still verbally dig at Simon as much as possible, River knew that he would fight for Simon as hard as he fights for Mal. River also knew that Jayne had started feeling differently about her. On Miranda she had tried to repay everyone for their sacrifices for her by retrieving Simon’s med kit and by getting the blast doors shut. She had fully expected to be eaten alive, or worse, but she had also been determined to inflict as much damage as possible on her way out. That she had survived had surprised no one as much as it had surprised her. Throughout the Miranda affair Jayne had gradually come to understand more fully why the Tams were the way they were, but it was at the moment that the blast doors opened and River stood there in her shining, bloody glory that Jayne had respected her. Not just her skill as a warrior, but her sacrifice for the rest of the crew. No one could have expected to come out of that alive, yet she had managed it. Over the next few days and weeks River had noticed Jayne looking at her somewhat oddly. Eventually, Jayne had begrudgingly asked River to train with him. He had said that he needed a spotter and mentioned in passing that perhaps she could show him a few of the moves she had used with such success against the Reavers. River had been happy to oblige. With her brother and Kaylee occupied, Zoe still preferring to stay quietly by herself, and with Mal and Inara thinking about nothing but their own silly dance, there was no one for River to spend her newly sane time with. River and Jayne lifted weights together, and River was much stronger than either she or Jayne had expected, and they sparred. River taught Jayne to be a better hand-to-hand fighter and to not just rely on his size and brute strength to get him through a fight. Jayne taught River about his arsenal. Although she was highly skilled at shooting, River didn’t know that much about the different types of guns and their benefits and drawbacks. Perhaps she did know slightly more than she let Jayne believe, but she liked listening to him explain things in that gruff voice of his, so she found that she never ran out of questions for him. Now that River was capable of holding up her end of a conversation, she found that Jayne was actually quite amusing and could be downright hilarious sometimes. As they spent more time together, River could see Jayne’s confusion as he got to know her. After spending so much time considering her a dangerous lunatic, Jayne had real trouble grasping the thought of her as a real, lucid, human girl—or actually, a woman. River had never thought of herself as anything but a girl before, but lately she had been thinking differently. She had no idea what if anything might come of her growing friendship with Jayne, but she was enjoying it more than anything else she could remember in her life. She refused to even attempt to read Jayne. Somehow she knew that whatever was going on wouldn’t be helped by too much knowledge. Whatever would happen would happen in its due time, and for the time being, River was more than happy to enjoy her life as the pilot of Serenity, the sister of a happy brother, and the friend of a burly man-ape who was really much more than he appeared.