Kaylee looked terrified as the two Tams looked at her, quiet and roiling inwardly. She was, in contrast to what Simon was when he met her parents, completely and truly scared, whereas he had been annoyed with it all, until, that is, her father had broken two of his ribs in a fury of fatherly misunderstanding. The two Tams stared at their son. Mr. Tam had a strange look on his face, as outrage fought with happiness. Mrs. Tam looked simply dumbfounded. After a moment, she went over to her son, and embraced him. "That is...wonderful, dear. Simply marvelous." There was a loud crash as Mr. Tam dropped the suitcases onto the stone floor. For a few moments, his face was a mask of seething, roiling emotions. Finally, he managed to shout out, "WHAT!!!" It took a few more seconds to articulate anything more beyond that. After he had calmed down sufficently, a vein started to pound judicious quantities of blood to his face, making it a dull red. "What is this I hear? My only son is taking the hand of a maid?!?!" "Ships mechanic," said Simon coldly. "Me and Kaylee are to be married. We..." He stopped when Kaylee elbowed him in the ribs, which still stung a bit. "I," he corrected, "thought that this was the best way to see you. We aren't exactly friendly with government at the moment. I thought that this would be the best way to tell you the good news." He could already tell that his plans, which had called for his parents to be overjoyed at seeing him and River alive would counter-balance the sudden announcement. Of course, it would have helped if she hadn't run off at the last moment on some crazy scheme. "Even worse!" His father was going on a rant, and would go on with his tirade in full force. "I will not stand to see my only son marrying some dirty, worthless, back-bred WHORE!!!!!" He stopped, panting for breath. Large, full tears welled in Kaylees eyes, and she gave a sob and ran from the room. Mrs. Tam followed, only stopping to give her husband a contemptuous look before slapping him on the cheek. He flinched from the blow, and she stalked off, after Kaylee. He turned back towards Simon, and found him very angry and very, very close. Then, he got a good look at his sons fist, as it became wedged to his eye for a moment. Mr. Tam staggered back, then fell to the ground. Shaking his hand ruefully, he set off after kaylee and his Mother. *** Kaylee sat on a bench in the bar proper, racked by convulsive sobs. Between them and gasps of breath, she told her woes to a concerned Mrs. Tam, who was patting her on the back. "Oh, I knew th-th-that this wouldn't work! I t-t-told Simon tha' this wouldn't work. Oh, I knew it was g-g-gonna end like this! I j-j-jus' knew that you two would hate me!" "There, there, dearie," soothed Mrs. Tam. "I don't hate you. In fact, I like the idea of you marrying my Simon." "Y-ya do?" asked Kaylee, who was calming down a bit now. Mrs. Tam smiled. "Yes, I do. And don't mind Paul, dear. He gets angry when hes helpless." "Helpless?" Kaylees sobs were almost gone now. "Yes. He knows that you two will marry. He can see it in your eyes. You love him, and he you. No matter what he does, he can't stop it. So, he does the only thing he can: he yells." This seemed to cheer Kaylee up to no end. Mrs. Tam chuckeled a bit. "Y'know, you remind me of myself when I was you'r age." "Really?" "Yep. You see, when you'r father was younger, he went 'round the 'verse a bit. Eventually, it led him to my village on Canton." "Canton? So, you were a mudder?" "Yes, I was. Truth be told, he was a novelty there, what with his pale skin. I pined on him a bit, and he on me. But he was so shy, done up as a lobster in his shell. So," and here, her voice took on a conspiratorial tone. "I went and got him drunk in our local bar. He stopped bein' so shy, and owned up that he liked me a lot. So, he took me with him, an' a better thing I couldn't've done. 'Course, his father went an' raged on about it. But it smoothed out in the end." She turned. "Ah, Simon." Kaylee laughed when she saw him, all worried like he was. "Kaylee, baobei, are you okay?" "Shes fine, dear," answered Mrs. Tam. "Oh, dear, it seems that you've gone and hit him. Can't blame you, though. He was being such an ass. Oh, and Kaylee, I have a wonderful set of earrings that will go great with your hair." She sighed wearily. "Well, I'd best go tend to Paul. Sometimes, hes such a hardass." She set off for the back room. They watched her go, before going to the bar and buying a drink. "Say, Simon, why didn't you ever say that your Ma was a mudder?" "A what?" *** Several minutes, and half a dozen drinks later, the Tams came out. Mr. Tam grumpily put the two Suitcases in front of Simon. He sported a large black eye, evidence of his earlier hard headedness. Mrs. Tam slipped Kaylee a case, and winked at her. Kaylee winked back. The two started back towards the ship. River chose that moment to come back in, sporting a large bouquet of wild flowers, which she kept in a large basket. Hundreds of the things overflowed it, leaving a trail of flowers to the bar. She set it down and ordered a round, which Simon let slide. "Baobei, what was in the case?" "Dunno." She opened it, and started laughing. Inside lay a pair of diamond earrings.