Disclaimer- All the characters and such below belong to Joss Whedon, with the exception of my character Noah Star

Note- A comment asked me why I gave my character a boy’s name. To be truthful a character in a book I read was girl/goddess and her name was Noah. As I read the book I realized how well suited it can be for a girl. But that’s just me. On with the show!!

Noah lay in her bed that night, eyes closed, breathing shallow, listening silently to the ‘surface’ thoughts of the crew. She’d met Zoe, Wash, Inara, and Shepherd Book over dinner and was now more thoroughly acquainting herself with the crew. Telepathics were more commonly known as ‘Readers’ which was an inappropriate term, since you couldn’t read someone thoughts as if they were written down on paper. It was like just listening to them talking to themselves. Noah had grown up with the ability, and had honed it through a life in the streets. Listening to thoughts made her confident, in control, she could predict movement before a person had time to move, and she could smudge their memory so they had no clear description of her. Crucial in the assassination business. She listened for a while to Book praying to his god, then drifted over to Inara’s thoughts. The mysterious Companion intrigued her, and from the way they bickered it seemed she and the Captain had secret feelings for one another. Inara was reading before she went to bed, a book of seduction, Noah pulled out of that quickly, she knew everything she needed to know about that particular topic. She decided to investigate River, as she searched for the girl’s mind she was instead encountered by a voice. *Listening* it said, sounding suspiciously like River *Listening to the people. It’s time to sleep. No worries when sleeping.* Noah was sure it was River. It alarmed her, she could usually sense other Readers. *River?* she asked into the darkness. *Here.* Was the reply. *River are you a Reader?* There was a long silence before Noah’s question was answered. *I listen to them. But not you. Walls, all around, unbreakable. Silence* River must mean Noah’s mental blocks against other telepaths. *Did they come for you too?* River asked. In her bed Noah’s brow furrowed. *Who?* She asked. *Let me show you.* Instantly she felt as if her head was on fire, her eyes snapped open, darting frantically back and forth, not seeing her ceiling, only the images and feelings River projected into her brain. Men with masks and gloves, poked and prodded her, cut open her head, cut into her brain. It hurt, it was excruciating, they shoved needles into her arms, projected mind numbing drugs into her system. Tortured her. Noah did the only thing she could. She screamed. It was an piercing, chilling, scream that you heard in your very bones. It resonated through the ship, waking everyone in their beds, alerting them to Noah’s mental torture. The scream went on, unending as Noah writhed in her bed clutching her head. Kaylee and Simon reached her first, Kaylee gasping and holding a hand to her mouth when she saw the tears of blood running down Noah’s cheeks and more blood spurting from her nose. Simon immediately rushed to her side, trying to check her for physical trauma, but having trouble holding her down. Mal tripped over himself a few times trying to see what all the commotion was, he arrived the same time as Zoe, Wash and Jayne. "Help me hold her down!" shouted Simon, seeing them behind him. Mal and Jayne came forward, pinning Noah down on the bed. Simon gave her a quick physical and seemed troubled. Shepherd Book arrived, when he saw Noah, he closed his eyes and started to pray. Alone in her room River smiled.

Noah was in agony, she pleaded with River to stop, but her pleas went unheard. She was barely aware of the others, only knowing River’s pain. After what seemed like hours it stopped as suddenly as it had started. She had been arching her back as they stuck needles into it and now collapsed into her bed and cried. She became aware of the others as someone gathered her into silken arms, and stroked her head, uttering soothing noises. She sobbed in the aftermath of the mental horror, understanding why River was so odd. She sensed the presences of the crew all around her and knew she was in Inara’s arms, who was using her Companion training to calm her. She knew that when she sat up her face was covered in partially dried blood. She turned to Simon and said, "Why did they do it?" Before welcoming the enveloping black of unconsciousness.

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Noah came too on Simon’s operating bed/table, she knew right away that her face was clean, and that River was sitting on a counter across the room. Simon flashed a bright light into her eyes, causing her to blink and rub at them. She heard him sigh in relief. "She’ll be fine." He said. Noah heard all the crew let out their breath. Mal walked over in his boxer’s. "What happened?" he asked. River hopped off the counter and walked over to where Noah was lying down. She placed her cold fingers on Noah’s forehead. "I was showing her." She said, watching Noah with a playful smile. Simon’s head snapped up from his instruments to his sister. "Showing her what?" he asked. "What they did to me." Was the simple answer. Noah cringed at the memory. There were gasps all around the room, and Simon furrowed his brow in confusion. "How River?" River smiled, and traced an invisible pattern on Noah’s forehead. "She speaks with this. Like me." If could looks kill River would have dropped dead right then and there, Noah looked over at Mal, who was smirking. "Isn’t that just shiny?" he said. Noah sat up and scowled at him. She glanced over at Simon, who had a look of hope, instead of fear, on his face. "What?" she asked, looking suspiciously at the crew, River was smiling again. "This is perfect!" exclaimed Simon, "Ye Soo!" Noah felt stupid and utterly clueless. She did not like it. "What?! What is so perfect about me being a Reader?!" She shouted in exasperation. Simon couldn’t stop smiling. "As you might have noticed, my sister has……problems." Noah snorted, problems was an understatement. "It’s hard to get her the right medication, since all I have is a scan for her brain, which tells me what the physical problems are, but not the mental. Everyone has a hard time figuring out what River says, but if you two could communicate mind to mind, it would probably help the healing process immensely." Noah blinked, forcefully containing her anger at what these people had just suggested. "You want me to help heal this girl’s mind after she almost tore me apart with it?!" she shouted. "I never thought of that." said Simon. "Obviously." muttered Noah. "Listen," said Mal, interfering, "Noah I understand that you might have a little grudge, and Simon you want ta help your littl’ sister, so why don’t we work out a compromise?" Simon nodded, and Noah shrugged, the Captain smiled. "Shiny, now Noah, in exchange for staying on the ship and healing River’s brain, we’ll give you a cut on our jobs even if you don’t participate and we’ll give you a free bunk on board. How does that sound?" Noah eyed Mal critically, it was a good deal, and it helped to have berth on a ship since it was always moving and that much harder for the authorities to catch. She’d gotten tired of the drifter’s life, it’d be nice to actually have friends. "Allow me to do the occasional personal job and you’ve got a deal." Mal smiled and shook her hand. "What personal job?" asked Jayne, who wasn’t the only one who’d caught the slight waiver in Noah’s alibi, she was impressed, it turns out he had some brain. "I’m a dancer, people hire me to dance for them." Though her tone implied they might hire her for more. A lecherous grin spread on Jayne’s face. "Can you dance for me?" he asked, Noah narrowed sharp green eyes at him. "No." The look on Jayne’s crestfallen incited the crew to laugh, Noah put a smirk on her face and brushed past him, making for her room, trying to think of ways to help River. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she’d have to talk to Simon about that; but from what Noah could discern from her ‘experience’ inside River’s memories, the pure agony of the torture had instilled such psychological damage, she seemed almost Reaver-like. Noah had dealt with Reaver’s before, when they tried to kill her mark before she did, she’d killed them all, quickly and cleanly, very different from the treatment they’d have given her. Noah arrived at her room and sat on her bed, fiddling with her necklace, a silver ankh pendant given to her by her parents. She was absorbed in her thoughts, but immediately snapped out of it when River came into the room and sat cross-legged across from Noah on the bed. "What do you want?" Noah asked, concealing her terror of the seer power of this girl’s mind under a flat mask. River looked down. "Sorry. Gave you nightmares, accident." Noah felt her mouth twitch when River called the visions nightmares and felt sorry for being so mad. "It’s alright River, I’m better now." Noah replied, "Since you’re here why don’t we start your lessons? Put down your shields and let me see what you can do." River closed her eyes and Noah gently ventured into the girl’s mind. She was quick, clean and through, observing only what she needed. She and river both opened their eyes in the same instant, Noah smiled. "Well River, I must say you have a lot of power but little skill. We’ll have to work on things like that, but for now let’s work on organizing the clutter up there." She tapped River’s forehead and the made girl smile. This wouldn’t be so bad after all………….