Leave comments, it's my first fanfic so be gentle!

It had been 3 whole weeks since Jubal Early had broken his way onto Serenity. The whole affair had scared the entire crew, but none more so than Kaylee. She had not slept since Early had broken into HER girl. Not only had he threatened to violate her, but by coming onto the ship unasked and uninvited, he had violated Serenity. Kaylee could not get his words out of her head,

“You ever been raped?”

It was spoken so calmly and she couldn’t grasp it. She was also ashamed that she didn’t try to fight him she just let him take control, anyone else would have fought, but she couldn’t. The only person Kaylee told the whole story to was Inara. Inara was like a sister to her, and if anyone could help her through it, it would be her. The only other person who knew what Early had said was River, but River knew everything that happened on the ship.

The day after Early “left,” Kaylee went up to Inara in tears and told her that they had to talk. Of course Inara knew something was wrong and quickly invited Kaylee into her shuttle to talk.

“That bastard, I am normally not happy when Mal kills people, but I think Jayne should have been allowed to torture him first.” Inara replied. “You did the right thing mei mei. I am so sorry you had to go through that. I am so glad he didn’t touch you.” “I know, but I still feel violated just at the fact that he mentioned it. I mean I ain’t a virgin. I ain’t saying that, I mean you know about Bester.” Inara tried not to smile at the thought of how Kaylee came to be on Serenity. “But him just threatening to rape me was taking away my choice.” Kaylee said as she started to cry. “Mei mei, it is alright he is gone now. You’re safe now.”

It didn’t matter. Kaylee no longer felt safe on Serenity. Her only peaceful space where she felt the most comfortable and safe was the engine room, but she was now frightened to be alone in the engine room even though it had been 3 weeks. Her peaceful engine room wasn’t as cheerful mainly due to the fact that besides her tools, she now kept a small 9mm in there. She absolutely hated guns, but maybe if she had one, even if she didn’t plan on using it, she could scare someone off. Every time she tried to take a nap in her hammock she woke up screaming from a reoccurring nightmare about the incident after about 15 minutes of sleep.

That day, Kaylee decided maybe after that long she could finally take a nap and get some sleep because she was absolutely exhausted spending all day and night working on Serenity trying not to focus on how tired she really was. As soon as she fell asleep in her hammock, the dream started.

Early was back on the ship threatening her. Before he had a chance to tie her up she started screaming. * * * Simon had finished reorganizing the infirmary like he did late every night when he couldn’t sleep. It was bugging him that ever since that gorram Jubal Early came on Serenity, Kaylee started avoiding everyone and he didn’t know why. Simon decided to go into the engine room and see if Kaylee was awake and wanted to talk. She was asleep in the hammock, so Simon decided he would talk to her in the morning. Just then she started shaking and screaming. * * * Kaylee was awake sitting in the engine room on her hammock. Simon was standing over her looking positively worried. That look he only got when something was happening to River. “Kaylee? Kaylee, are you alright?” Simon said, his voice full of concern.

“What? Oh, I, um well…It was just a dream” She said tears starting to well up in her eyes. “No,” she thought “Don’t cry! Not in front of him. He can’t know what happened, I just can’t let him know.”

“Are you sure? Please don’t take this the wrong way Kaylee, but you don’t look alright. If you don’t want to tell me, I understand, but if you need to talk I’m here for you.” Simon said.

Kaylee didn’t know what to say to that so she just sat there and started to look at her feet. Simon took that as a cue that he wasn’t wanted. He got up from sitting next to Kaylee on the hammock and started to walk away.

“Wait.” Kaylee said. Simon felt her grab onto his hand. “It wasn’t just a bad dream, it’s a reoccurring nightmare I’ve had for three weeks.”

Simon sat back down having the feeling that he would want to hold her close any minute so that she could cry. He hated seeing that beautiful ray of sunshine sad. It always broke his heart. “If you don’t mind me asking, what is it about?”

“I’ve had the same one ever since…since that piece of go se, Jubal Early, was on the ship. When he came back in the engine room he…” Kaylee paused. She didn’t know how to tell Simon what Early had said, or even if she wanted him to know. “Well he threatened to rape me if I got in the way of his plans.” Kaylee started crying. “Bao bai, that gorram space trash didn’t touch you did he?” Simon said.

“No he just threatened me. Oh Simon, I’ve never been so scared! I’m sorry I told him where you and River were but I didn’t know what else to do!” She started crying more and Simon pulled her close to him so that he had her in a half hug as he held on to her protectively. “It’s alright bao bai, I won’t let anything happen to you. You’re safe here.” Simon than took his hand and lifted Kaylee’s chin up for a light peck on the lips. Kaylee buried her head in his shoulder and continued to cry a little.

After some time Simon situated so that he was lying on the hammock with Kaylee asleep leaning on him. He finally fell asleep while holding her in his arms. *