Author’s Note: You guys were rather accepting of the last chapter, and I thank you for that. To clear up something, the first seperation in the chapter (these ~*~*~*~) is a flashback. It was originally in italics, but that was lost during the transfer. This is my favorite chapter so far because it’s got a little bit of everything in it. Thanks for commenting, and stick with me, because the next chapter is going to be awesome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Firefly/Serenity, nor any of the characters or events that compose them. And if I did, I would be fired for never updating and they would be given to someone more worthy anyways. Learning to be Patient Chapter 4 Comfort

His eyes burned as he watched her vitals bleep across the monitor once again. They were steady, but she still lay unconscious before him in the infirmary. Her face was bruised, but the swelling had slowly decreased over the past two days. He’d cleaned the gashes across her chest and stitched together the skin where it needed to be. She hadn’t moved during the entire process.

“She still hasn’t woken up?” a voice called to him.

He turned to find Inara standing inside the doorway. She smiled ruefully at him as she walked inside the darkened room, “Zoë cooked supper. River and I grappled a plate of food away from Jayne for you. If you’d like to go eat, I’ll stay with her,” she offered kindly, as she adjusted the shawl that was draped over her shoulders.

He shook his head silently, “I don’t want to leave,” he told her softly, “If I leave and she wakes up,” he paused and looked to Kaylee’s form. With his face hidden he added, “I don’t want to fail her a second time.”

“Simon,” Inara began softly, as she knelt beside him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, “You didn’t fail her in anyway. Kaylee can be very stubborn at times; she wouldn’t have let you follow her even if you tried.”

“I could’ve just taken her out like we’d planned,” he argued. He placed a hand over his mouth worriedly.

“Then when the Reavers attacked, you would have had to deal with the hysteria of the crowd. You could have become separated, it would have been hard to get out of a restaurant and back to the ship without being injured,” Inara explained.

“But I didn’t get hurt,” Simon reminded as he stared at Kaylee, “I’m not the one who’s unconscious, with tubes to give me oxygen.” He turned to Inara, his eyes bloodshot and glassy, “I don’t even know if she’s in any pain.”

“Simon, you’ve done all you can for her right now,” Inara reminded gently. Giving Simon a weak smile when he looked her way, “She’ll wake up soon, and she’ll heal, and that will be because of you.” She rose gracefully from where she was situated next to Simon and glided towards the door, “Come out to eat if you want to, I’ll leave the food on the counter for you.”

“Thank you,” he replied quietly and turned away before she disappeared from the doorway.

She sighed as she walked up the stairs to the common area where River looked to her expectantly. She shook her head regretfully.

“He’s too stubborn for his own good,” River mumbled pushing around the food on her plate, “He doesn’t know half of it. He’d be over worrying then.” She looked up to see everyone looking at her quizzically, “He has to learn to be patient,” she continued, then bowed her head so her face was hidden by her hair.

“I ain’t ever gonna get used to you spewing words that don’t make sense,” Jayne complained as he slammed down his plate, “I ain’t in the mood to deal with it right now,” he divulged as he left the area and hastily disappeared down the hallway.

Mal sighed, “I don’t know if he’s angry about Kaylee, or the fact that we didn’t get paid,” he informed as he pushed his plate away.

“What’s our next course of action, Sir?” Zoë asked submissively after a silence lingered for a few moments.

“I got no clue,” Mal replied his lips pursed, “I got next to no money, an injured mechanic, and pieces falling off my ship like its got leprosy. I got no jobs lined up, and no idea where to go next,” he informed as he stood up from the table. “So I guess we’re just floating in the black for awhile,” he added before he left the room.

Inara raised an eyebrow Zoë’s way and the first mate shrugged, “He doesn’t like it when people get hurt. He’ll pretend like he’s angry because they hold him back, but really he’s worried sick about them,” Zoë explained calmly. She took a drink of what she wished was something other than water, then added, “You should’ve seen him in the war.”

“If you can’t take the heat you should get out of the pot,” River murmured as she mashed her food into one pile on her plate. She looked up into Inara’s eyes and added, “Next time he’s afraid it will be you.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He groaned and stretched out in the bed, growing confused when his arms didn’t come into contact with the body that usually slept beside him. He sat up and wiped at his eyes groggily and pondered where Kaylee could be at midnight.

He grabbed a shirt and pulled it over his head as he left the room and ventured down the hall. Taking extra caution not to make any loud noises to wake up any other members of the crew.

Kaylee usually left his room near breakfast time, just late enough so she could act like she’d gotten up already to check something on Serenity. At first Mal was suspicious, but eventually he generally believed that Kaylee was looking after the ship.

He was going to check her room, when he passed the engine room and saw her inside, hunched over underneath the engine tinkering away with something. He sighed and leaned against the door, wondering how she could get up in the middle of the night in her pajamas and grab a monkey wrench.

He found himself smiling as he watched her. This was purely Kaylee, on her knees in her striped pajama bottoms. She had been so engrossed in fixing whatever it was that she felt needed to be fixed that she hadn’t even noticed him yet.

“Bao bei,” he murmured softly as he stepped inside the room.

“Ye soo,” she exclaimed and jumped with surprise away from the engine and placed a hand on her chest, “You scared me.”

He couldn’t help but smile at the situation. Her face had gone flushed and her nose had a small smear of grease on it. “What are you doing working on the engine so late?” he questioned as he walked beside her and offered her a hand.

She took it with a smile and he helped her to her feet, “I forgot to check something before we went to bed, now the engine’s getting all mucked up, so I had to clean it out.”

“And that couldn’t wait until morning?” he questioned with a cocked eyebrow.

“Not if we all wanna keep breathing,” she informed with a grin.

Simon sighed in defeat, “Alright, let’s just go to sleep,” he told her as he put his arm around her waist and began directing her out of the room.

“I can’t sleep now, I gotta clean up in here, it’s a mess,” she enlightened as she gestured to the engine room which was in disarray.

“Do it in the morning,” he told her as he tugged on her arm.

“I can’t do it in the morning,” she answered with a lighthearted giggle, “If the Captain sees this mess, he ain’t gonna be too happy.”

“Then let him be angry,” Simon suggested, still trying to get her to the door.

“I can’t,” she answered, “Look it’ll only take me a few minutes to tidy up, and then I’ll come right down, okay?” she questioned.

“It looks like I’m going to have to take drastic measures then,” Simon sighed as he moved in closer to Kaylee.

She cocked her head in puzzlement, “What are you talking about?”

She glanced at him and saw a glint of playfulness cross his face and before she knew what had happened, she’d been scooped up in his arms and was halfway down the hallway.

“Simon,” she squealed when one of his hands grabbed her side, “What are you doing?”

“Getting you to bed at a decent time,” he told her as he tightened his grip on her thigh; she refused to stop wriggling around.

He slid open the door to his room, still holding her in his arms, then shut it quietly. He set her down on the bed, and fell on his back next to her. “That took a lot of strength, you put up a good fight,” he told her as he gasped for breath and chuckled.

“I bet it did,” she agreed as she leaned over him, sliding her hands underneath his shirt, “You should be rewarded for it.”

He moved his hand to the back of her neck and leaned up; kissing her with a reserved passion he didn’t even know he had. He could feel her smiling against his mouth and he could smell the engine grease on her nose.

He broke the kiss and began trailing kisses down the side of her neck. His hands slowly lifting the cotton material of her top up as she moved onto his lap, straddling him.

“We’re going to be tired in the morning,” she moaned against his shoulder.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It was dark as she slid the heavy metal door open. It wasn’t cool like the rest of the ship; it held a warm, almost sticky temperature to it. It pleased her fingers as the crack of light from the hallway spread across the floor of the room and up the wall cutting through the darkness like a knife.

She maneuvered through the small opening elegantly, dragging her fingers lightly over the rusted area of the door just enough to tickle her fingertips. The door shut silently behind her, the hinges not even uttering a creek.

“I told ya before,” a groggy voice grumbled from the bed, “I don’t like it when ya come in here at night.”

“We are in space,” she stated leaning against the door, her hair hanging in front of her face like a mask, “It’s always night.”

“Why’re you here?” He grumbled while leaning up in his bed so his back was against the wall.

“It’s okay to be angry,” she whispered, her voice carrying through the silent room. For a moment neither of them answered and she thought he might have gone back to sleep.

“I ain’t angry,” he muttered after a long pause. She could hear the sound of his hand dragging over his beard.

“About Kaylee. You’re angry,” she repeated as she took a few steps inside the room, “And it’s okay to be angry.”

“I told ya, I ain’t angry,” he growled, his temper almost getting the better of him. He heard her stop moving, and part of his mind wanted her to just leave, but the bigger part wanted her to stay. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and patted the area next to him.

She moved through the darkness and took the seat next to him on the bed, “It came as a surprise, and you’re not very good with dealing with surprises.”

“No,” he sighed, “I ain’t.”

“She’ll be okay,” she informed. He could see a smile climb over her face, even in the darkness, “Her body will heal and eventually her mind will as well and things will change, but it will be as it was.”

He snorted, “You ain’t making sense again,” he told her with an irritated look.

“I tend not to,” she replied as she looked to her feet as they hung over the side of his bed. He was so big, everything about him was and she was so small. “I’m sorry if it bothers you.”

Her hands clung to the edge of the bed, gripping the blue material of her dress as her eyes worked over the metal grates on the floor. Unexpectedly he reached over and grasped her frail hand in his. Her eyes quickly moved off the ground and to his eyes, “Ain’t nothing I can’t get past.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

His eyes were becoming heavy with fatigue and the rhythmic beeping of the monitor was sounding more and more like Brahms Lullaby. He moved his body in the chair. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was close to her, in case anything happened in the night. He couldn’t bring his body to leave the room. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like abandonment.

The room seemed eerie in the dark, the white walls and floors seemed to glow with the small amount of light. It caused him to think about River, and how she felt about the room.

A sudden chill crept over him and he reluctantly got out of the chair. He was never good at sleeping with a guilty conscience. He sighed with defeat and turned the lights back on, and began to look for something to keep him busy. All the drugs were in order, the tools were cleaned and put away, and the used bandages were disposed of in a sanitary way. There was nothing for him to do but wait.

Reluctantly, he moved over to Kaylee, and adjusted the blanket that covered her. A lock of her hair had fallen in front of her pale face; he reached out a hand and gently tucked it back behind her ear.

Suddenly the monitors started beeping quicker as her pulse and blood pressure rose. He looked to the screen, and then to Kaylee, her fingers had begun to twitch and her eyelids were fluttering.

“Kaylee?” he questioned as he moved closer to her.

Abruptly, her eyes opened wide and she shot up. Her chest was heaving breaths and her eyes were scaling the room frantically.

“Kaylee, it’s okay,” he coaxed her gently, and placed his hand on her arm, “I’m here.”

She turned to face him, her eyes puffy and shiny with unshed tears, “Simon,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he smiled, his hand was reassuringly running over her hair, “Yeah, it’s me bao bei.”

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Her body was shaking as his arms wrapped around her back, careful not to hurt her. “It’s okay now,” he told her as he kissed her cheek.

“Simon,” she whimpered, tears streaming down her face, “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t,” he promised as his hand slid to the small of her back as relief spread throughout his body, “I never will.”

TBC