Mal couldn’t recognize the naked, bearded form on the floor. Months of dirt and grime, skin stretched across bones, eyes glazed with madness and he kept repeating over and over “One Flesh.”

River cradled his head in her lap. “Simon, found you,” she smiled at her incoherent brother. “Sleep now.”

Stuffing Simon into the coveralls that they had brought for him, was no easy matter, carrying his was. Simon may have weighed less than his 90 pound sister.

“Let’s get out of here.”

With River in the lead they made their way to their egress. Where Mac and Dani were restraining Jayne.

“What’s going on?” Mal hissed.

“Jayne wants to go after the guards on the upper floors.”

“Didn’t come here for no babysitting job.” Jayne barked.

“Shut it Jayne. This job has gone smoothly, don’t hunt up trouble now. In fact we should be out of here now.”

-----

Wash saw them first and fired up the mule, he missed the mule they had used to rescue Mal from Niska, but it had never worked the same after being fire bombed.

With everybody aboard Wash stated toward Serenity, unfortunately this was the moment that the Alliance generator chose to explode, shoving the mule across the top of a lorry and onto a wagon. Sparks flew everywhere and the mule quit.

“Everyone off.” Mal barked. “Wash, check it out.”

With Cole’s help, the mule was ready in a few minutes.

“Captain, it’ll move but it can’t take everyone.”

“OK, Mac and Dani, meet Inara at her shuttle. Jayne, take to the shadows, you’re on your own. River…” Mal was shocked to be looking at Inara taking his arm.

“Lovely night for a stroll, wouldn’t you think Captain.” Inara said in River’s voice.

“Well, everyone we’ll leave this rock as soon as we get back to Serenity. Mac, tell Inara to meet us in orbit.”

-----

“Nice night ‘Inara’. What do you read?”

“Round and Round the spaceship yard, The Shadoe chased the Reaver, Oops he slipped, Down you came, Down went the Reaver.”

“What does that mean?”

“More Reavers left.”

“So Walken is dead.”

“No, he’ll live. Find another white whale.”

“I think I read that one…”

-----

Kaylee was in pain, the pains had started before Simon had been brought aboard yesterday. She was a little ticked at never being left alone, and not having given birth yet. Simon would be of little use. That GORRAM Alliance would never get a moment’s peace if he never made his way back to sanity, this she swore. A pang struck. “Momma!”

-----

The delivery had been smoother than anyone had expected. The little girl was the star in everybody’s eye. Simon was doing better than expected; it seemed that River was good at helping lead him through the quagmire into sanity. A week had gone by giving Simon a chance to gain enough strength to stand over his daughter’s crib for increasingly longer periods of time.

“Well Poppa,” Mal asked one day,”how you doin’?”

“Better than I ever believed I would. There were times I thought I would die in that place.

“You might have if not for your daughter, I didn’t want her to grow up without a father. Come up with a name yet?”

“We’re still arguing about a first name. Her middle name will be Lee and her last name will be Frye.”

“Frye?”

“Don’t want her to share the Tam curse.”

“Not no curse to be a Tam, you’ve done nothing to be cursed about. Now the Alliance…”

“In general I agree with you, but being a Tam will mark her by the Alliance as property.”

“I understand, it’s a kindness to protect your girl.”

“I understand that River thinks of you as a father?”

“I feel like a father to her…”

“No misunderstanding Captain, I approve. Our birth parents were never around when we were growing up, and she needs s strong male role model. She maybe nineteen physically, but emotionally she’s underdeveloped.”

“You are such a boob,” came from the shadows.

“For instant Captain, you might talk to her about skulking and eavesdropping.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.”

“What about sex?” came from the shadows.

“Uhh…”

“Uhh…”

“I think I’ll go see Inara…” Mal said taking a quick exit.

“Meimei, I thought I’d never see you again.”

“You’re a dummy.”

-----

In orbit around a barren rock the crew of Serenity gather’s for a going away dinner for Cole and Katie. Good food and conversation all around. Even Jayne is behaving himself, it doesn’t hurt that Katie has taken to wacking him with a wooden spoon just like his Ma does.

“May I have everyone’s attention!” Simon starts, “Kaylee and I would like to present our daughter...”

“We already met her” Jayne scoffs.

Wack

“That hurt Mrs. Frye.

“They are going to announce her name.” Zoë whispered loudly to Jayne.

We would like to introduce you to," Simon said proudly, "Miss Rill Lee Frye.”

END

A/N: With this chapter The Unexpected is ended, the story though continues…

AA/N: My probable title for the next set of stories is: The Recovery.