A/N: Since I unwittingly made everyone suffer a few days for chap. 18, here is 19, right on its heels. This is the one before the big showdown, but remember, we've got 29 of these puppies to go.

Many thanks to Leiasky for all that she does - you are invaluable to me and my writing!

***

A NEW LIFE, ch. 19: Best Laid Plans

***

Gabriel sat and regarded the dark smoke that still billowed from the small home they had leveled late last night. It seemed so pathetic, how could it still be causing such an eyesore now that it was gone? It was of no consequence to him, the lives of the people who called the place home had been spared, only by their fortunate absence. Now, he simply waited, as patiently as he could for his son to reappear.

And like clockwork, he did. “Sir,” one of the blue-handed agents addressed him, as the other showed his wife into the room, confusion playing on her features. “We’re getting a wave. It’s your son.”

Regan’s lips let a small “oh” escape and quickly moving to Gabriel’s side, she clasped his hand. Smiling a reassurance to her that he did not feel, Gabriel nodded once to the man and waited until he had gone before flipping on the screen.

The sight of his son, a little haggard, but no worse for wear, calmed him. He had feared the worst when they had first learned the awful news from Alicia. Feared that those criminals whom Simon had fallen in with out of sheer desperation to protect his sister from a false enemy would kill him and rob him blind. But there he was, and he could tell from his son’s cold eyes, he was mad.

Some things never changed. “Son,” Gabriel greeted him, getting a curt nod in return.

“Oh, Simon, darling, are you all right?” Regan was unable to control her worry and so she looked to him with tears in her eyes.

He nodded once and answered succinctly, “Yes, I’m fine.” Glancing back to his father, he asked, “What are you doing here?”

Smiling tightly, Gabriel said, “I would have thought that would be obvious. We’re here for you son. We’re here to bring you home.”

Simon’s expression barely changed at the man’s admission. If anything he seemed to resign himself to some fact, some inevitability and Gabriel hoped it was the knowledge that there was nowhere his son could run that he would not follow. Somehow, he doubted it.

“I am home, father,” Simon bit out, his voice harder and colder than just moments before. “You and mother would be better off simply going back to Osiris and never looking for me or River again.”

“Simon, darling, please,” his mother pleaded, her tears falling freely. “Don’t say things like that. You’re just confused is all.”

“Confused,” Simon snapped, his eyes blazing. “No, mother I am not confused. I may have been a few months ago, when, for some reason I still haven’t quite puzzled out, my parents decided to destroy my memories. But I am not confused, not any more.”

When his father returned his hard gaze without a hint of remorse, Simon sighed heavily and tried one last tactic. “I’m happy here, with these people, with this life,” he told them both, his voice losing its edge, softening to reflect the truthfulness of his words. “Why can’t you just let me be?”

“Because Simon, you are a Tam and you are meant for more than the life of a rogue. You were not raised, bred or taught to be a criminal and no son of mine will be.” And with that Gabriel broke the connection, his anger simmering just below the service. At the disappearance of Simon’s face, Regan buried her face in her hands, letting her tears come.

“What are we to do, Gabriel,” she asked her husband with a shaky voice, having difficulty getting breaths between sobs.

“We finish what we came here to do,” he told her. Looking to her, his voice expressionless, he stated, “We get him back.”

Opening a channel to the small ship’s bridge, Gabriel asked, “Did you trace the call?”

A pause and then, “Yes. It’s a farmhouse about two hours from here.”

“Go,” he commanded and then sat back, ready to finish this fight.

***

Simon sat back and sighed heavily. Looking to his sister, River shrugged, the call with their parents turning out exactly as she had assumed, but she knew he’d needed to see for himself. “You tried,” she told him, smiling at him. “You did. They don’t want to listen.”

“I know that,” Simon admitted, looking back to the now blank screen. “I just thought –“

“S-Simon.”

Kaylee’s halting voice whirled him around in an instant and he saw her standing in the doorway, her body rigid with fear as she hugged their son to her chest. Her eyes were impossibly wide, reflecting a terror he did not like to see. Cursing silently to himself, he realized she must have heard – heard his father demand that he return to his pre-destined life; heard as Simon told his sister, he should go back there, to keep them all safe.

Moving to her quickly, he tried to embrace her, but she moved out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me,” she whispered fiercely and turning from him, ran into the house and upstairs, the slamming of her door heard just moments later. Simon was already out of the room and after her.

River, Mal, Walt and Jayne stood in silence not envying the amount of apologizing that boy was going to have to do. But they had bigger problems. Looking to River, he said, “Albatross, I need you to get Zoe and Inara bring them right quick, dong ma?” She nodded once, throwing Jayne a small smile and left the room.

Before Mal could ask, Walt volunteered, “I’ll find Millie and Marie,” and he headed off.

That left Jayne and Mal standing in silence. Sighing heavily, Mal rubbed a hand over his face, wishing he didn’t feel so tired. “You think they’ll come here,” Jayne asked him, his gaze drifting out the window to where the children still played, oblivious to what could happen.

“I think there’s a very real chance,” Mal told him, following the man’s gaze. “And if’n they do, we’ve got a whole world of trouble.”

***

“Kaylee, please, open the door,” Simon begged, knowing he sounded slightly pathetic and not caring. Kaylee had locked the door on him, making it impossible for him to get to her, impossible for him to explain.

“No,” she yelled at him through the wood, pacing angrily while she tried to quiet Daniel. He had started crying the minute she’d run from Simon and she wondered if her son weren’t trying to tell her something. Not yet ready for rational thought, she told her fiancé, “You was gonna leave again.”

“No, bao bei, I wasn’t,” he told her, lowering his voice some. “I was trying to convince them to leave us be, but …” He trailed off uncertain of how to explain his very complicated family to her. Giving up, he said, again, “Kaylee, please. Let me in.”

She thought about making him stand out there, making him suffer, but she knew, deep down, they didn’t have that kind of time. And the truth was the eleven months they’d been apart had been more than enough for a hundred lifetimes.

Simon’s face lit up as he heard the click of the lock release. Pushing open the door, he stopped in the entrance, taking in the sight before him; he wondered when he’d get tired of seeing it, and suspected never. Kaylee sat on the edge of her bed, cradling Daniel in her arms and humming to him softly. Simon’s heart swelled with such love, he thought for sure he couldn’t feel any more, but he knew he did and he would every minute of every day that he spent with this perfect woman.

Going to her, he knelt in front of her, making her focus her eyes on him. “I wasn’t going to go back with them,” he said, his voice firm, but soft. “I thought that if I spoke with them, if they saw that I was truly all right, they would let it go. But they can’t, they won’t,” he finished bitterly, not liking the tone his voice affected but unable to stifle it. His parents, their deceptions, their lies, angered him like nothing else. Looking back to her, he placed a gentle hand against her cheek as he said, “They destroyed Walt and Marie’s place, looking for us, for me.”

Kaylee closed her eyes at the information, tears immediately falling down her cheeks. Rocking Daniel back and forth, she murmured things to herself, trying to keep her mind and her heart from shattering. Simon sat next to her and pulled her to him, trying to provide comfort when he knew there was none to be had. “Why didn’t you tell me,” she asked, her voice broken by sobs.

“It all happened so fast, Kaylee, there wasn’t time, truly.” Simon hoped she believed him, hoped she could hear the sincerity in his tone.

Apparently she could. Pulling away from him, she kissed him and he tasted the saltiness of her tears on her lips. “What now,” she murmured, their foreheads lightly touching. Both of their gazes had wandered to the now sleeping son that lay between them.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, placing a light hand on his son’s head. “That’s what we’ve got to figure out. There’s no reason to believe they won’t come here and if they do, we’ve got to keep everyone safe.” Looking back into her green eyes, he sighed heavily and then placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “There isn’t a lot of time.”

She sighed back at him, and then rose slowly, still holding her son protectively. “Then we’d better go,” she said, her voice much more steady. Still marveling at her, Simon followed her out the door, as she added, “They’re probably going to need your criminal mastermind to work a plan.”

***

When Simon and Kaylee reemerged they found themselves in the middle of a very loud, very heated fight between Mal and Inara.

“You know we’re safer on Serenity,” the companion was saying her eyes blazing.

“And you know, it’s much easier to hit one giant target than two little ones and one giant one,” Mal retorted, his own face contorting with the fierceness of his opinion. Huffing and puffing at each other, the others in the room just stood to the sides and watched, knowing that getting involved now was likely to cause severe bodily harm.

“Mal, we are not leaving you,” Inara told him, her voice dropping to that deadly tone of hers.

“Yes, darlin’,” Mal answered, his tone taking on that annoying cocky tone of his. “You are.”

“Can I say something?”

All eyes turned to Simon, River giving him a look of pure apology as she realized he was truly taking his life in his hands by interjecting. “What,” Mal and Inara both snapped simultaneously.

“We don’t have time for this,” he told them. Looking around the room, he told them bluntly, “We have maybe an hour or a little more before my parents bring those blue-handed pi gus out here. And we need to be gone way before that. So I suggest, we make a plan and stick with it.”

Inara and Mal turned their blazing glares to each other, and Simon watched as the woman relented. He knew that in any other circumstance she would have gone fifty rounds with her boyfriend, but she knew the seriousness of this situation and the very real destruction that could be brought upon all of them, including eight innocent children.

“What’s your plan, doc,” Mal asked, still not taking his eyes from Inara’s face.

Shocked, Simon looked to the others, hoping he had misheard. “Me? Why do I have to have a plan?”

“There your folks,” Mal told him sharply, finally turning to face him. “Your problem, you fix it.”

Kaylee was about to protest the unfairness of it all, when River stepped forward and placed a hand on the girl’s arm. “You’re right,” she told the captain resolutely, getting shocked expression from them all. “This is our problem,” she told Simon, turning to give him a knowing look. The sheer intensity of her gaze told him that whatever she was plotting he would not like, but he nodded just the same. “So we’ll fix it.”

“River, you can’t do that,” Jayne said, moving to her side and forcing her to face him. She could read the concern in his eyes and secretly she loved it, but she didn’t have time for it, not now.

Placing a light hand to his cheek, she whispered, “Yes, I can and I will.”

“All right, Albatross,” Mal said, finally calming just a bit. “Tell us what you got.”

River nodded once and then stepped forward, commanding their attention. “The house is a loss, we can’t save it,” she told Millie, her eyes meeting the woman’s fearful gaze. “I’m sorry. The children, Millie, Walt and Marie will fly with Inara, Zoe, Kaylee and Daniel on Serenity.” Kaylee’s eyes had grown as round as saucers again as she realized that River had not mentioned Simon in that grouping. Looking back to Mal, River told him, “You and Jayne will take shuttle one and fly off, fast and far, try to fool them. I doubt it’ll work, but it’s worth a shot.”

“An’ what about you and the doc,” Mal asked, nodding in Simon’s direction.

Looking to her brother, she held his gaze and answered, “We’ll be in shuttle two and if I know my parents, they’ll be right behind us.”

***

The next few hours were a blur of activity. The children did not understand what was happening or why, but as they had been raised to trust the adults around them, they followed Millie, Marie and Walt’s orders to the letter. They had also grown quite accustomed to Serenity’s crew, and if Mal, Zoe or Jayne told them to jump the first question they would ask was ‘how high.’ They were a good bunch.

It was on the fourth mule trip from the house that Simon really stopped to consider what was happening. He was forcing these children and their family to evacuate from the only home they had ever known because of his screwed up family. It seemed so believably unfair that just as he’d been getting his life back, better than he could have ever imagined, something like this had to happen. He didn’t understand it and he wanted to. He wanted to know why so that it couldn’t happen again.

As they reached Serenity and disembarked, River grabbed his arm and told him, “Can’t know why. There is no why.” And then just as quickly she was gone again, off on some task and Simon was left in turmoil.

Kaylee was fixing up shuttle two, making sure she was fit to fly. Having been off Serenity for close to a year, her homecoming was tempered by the immediate danger they were all facing and she tried not to focus on her fear as she made a few last minute adjustments. It was in this state, with Daniel lying in a bassinet next to her, that Simon found her.

“Kaylee, you've got to get back on the ship,” he told her hurriedly, noting that their self-imposed time limit of ninety minutes was quickly dwindling. “River and I have got to take off.”

She turned to face him then and he really wished she hadn’t. The pain in her face, the fear in her eyes and the anger in her stance all added up to a fairly potent combination that chilled Simon to the core. “Kaylee,” he breathed moving towards her, all thoughts of deadlines and danger leaving his mind as he tried to comfort her.

“She’ll be all right,” Kaylee answered him, lovingly petting the shuttle’s controls. “A little sticky on take off maybe, but the captain’s kept in good workin’ order.” Looking back to him, her eyes were full of tears as she finished, “She’ll get you where you need to go.”

Simon nodded once and then moved forward to embrace her. He didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want to leave her, not again. But there was a marked difference this time – it was his choice and it would be his choice to come back to her as well.

As she clung to him tightly, she told him, “I’m comin’ with ya.”

Startled by the certainty in her tone, Simon drew back from her and placed her face in his hands. Concernedly, he said, “Kaylee, you can’t. It’s too dangerous-“

“Then you shouldn’t be going neither,” she told him fiercely, backing out of his touch. “If it’s okay for you, then it’s okay for me,” she finished angrily.

“No, Kaylee, that’s not true and you know it.” Sadly, Simon turned his gaze towards their still sleeping son. “What about Daniel? Who’s going to care for him?” If I die, he almost added, but bit his tongue to keep the words back. It would do no good to set Kaylee more on edge than she already was.

“I’ll leave him with ‘Nara,” Kaylee said weakly, knowing even as she formed the words, she never could. She could never fly off and leave her son behind, uncertain of her fate, not even to be with Simon. He looked back to her then and her heart thudded to a stop. His eyes, those blue pools that she loved, held such care and concern for her, she felt certain her whole life had been leading to this minute – this moment where she would be loved by a good man, have a beautiful child and fight with every inch of her being to keep it all. “Please, Simon,” she begged, reaching forward and fisting her hands in his shirt. “Please don’t go.”

“I have to, Kaylee,” he told her, his voice broken by more tears that he could not stop. “I have to. This is the only way we can stop them. The only way we can be a family.”

She buried her face against his chest, crying heavily now and Simon wished he could give her more than words. “No, no, no,” she kept repeating, each time her voice becoming more strangled with emotion.

Pulling her back from him, Simon tried to be firm as he held her face in his hands and said, “Kaylee, look at me.” She averted his gaze for a moment and Simon repeated, “Bao bei, look at me.” She finally brought those green eyes up to meet his gaze, and a sudden lump appeared in his throat. Swallowing thickly, he told her, “I have to do this, for us and our son. But I am not leaving you,” he assured her, his voice holding no doubt, no tremor of the fear he felt. “Not again.”

She fell back against him at his words and she knew he would do everything in his power to be sure he kept his promise – that was the kind of man she’d fallen in love with. “I love you Simon,” she murmured as she held onto him tightly.

Sighing slightly and knowing that he’d managed to convince her, at least for the time being, he whispered back, “I love you Kaylee, so much.”

She cried some more and Simon just held her fast against her tears, praying to the shepherd, God, Buddha and any other deity that in a few hours time this would all be over and they would be together again, for good.

***

Zoe was finishing up a few tweaks to the navigational console when she heard the sound. It was soft, quiet, barely there, but she heard it just the same. Peering around the pilot’s chair, she could not find the source and so she waited, still and quiet, until the whimper came again.

There it was, coming from the bow of the ship. Setting down her tools, she descended the few stairs and looked around for the owner of the cry. Seeing into a shadow, she saw Ellie’s dark brown eyes looking back at her, her fear etched into her delicate features and making Zoe’s heart stop with a suddenness she hadn’t expected.

“Baby,” Zoe questioned, approaching the girl slowly, as she pulled her knees closer to her chest. “What’re you doing up here? You should be down below with the others.”

Ellie didn’t say anything for a moment, and so Zoe knelt down at her side, placing a light hand on her head. With that one motion, Ellie launched herself at the older woman, wrapping her arms around Zoe’s neck and holding on for dear life. “I’m scared, Miss Zoe,” she finally admitted, her voice barely a whisper.

Zoe was shocked at her actions, but not immune to the feelings that caused them. Wrapping her arms around the girl, Zoe rocked her for a few minutes, knowing they didn’t have the time, but also knowing that no one, especially a five year old, deserved to be so terrified. “I know, baby,” she said, placing a light kiss in the girl’s hair. “I know. But we’re gonna be fine.”

Ellie pulled back and looked at her, her eyes drying, but still wide and fearful. “Promise,” she asked, her lower lip trembling.

Zoe smiled at her, a genuine smile that reached her eyes, and it seemed to cheer the girl. Placing another kiss to her forehead, Zoe whispered, “Promise.”

As a smile finally made its way onto the girl’s features, Zoe set her down and stood. “Now, you wanna help me?”

Nodding eagerly, Ellie slid her tiny hand into Zoe’s and started chattering away, her momentary fear forgotten. Smiling even wider, she listened to the tiny girl as she resumed her work, praying she could keep the promise she’d just so readily made.

***

“I really don’t like this.”

Mal sighed, not turning to face Inara as she stood, not doubt hands on hips, in the doorway to her shuttle. Still working to stow a few things they didn’t need flying around, he told her, “Well, I’m sorry ‘bout that.”

She didn’t say anything for a minute and Mal hoped that meant she’d given up on trying to change his mind. But no, it meant she was going to try harder. Feeling her light hand on his arm, he turned to look at her and instantly regretted it. Ai ya if those eyes couldn’t set a world of hurt on him in under a second. “No, you’re not. You’re not sorry about it at all, you’re glad.”

Frowning at her assessment, Mal crossed his arms over his chest, and asked, “What?”

Matching his pose, she said, “You’re glad. Glad you get to fly off and play the hero. Glad that you’re going to be the one risking your life, so I’ll have to cry over your dead body.” Her words were cool and controlled, but Mal could see her struggling to contain her anger and her fear.

About to interject and take her in his arms, she poked out a sharp finger and told him sternly, “Well, I won’t Malcolm Reynolds.” Her voice was harsher than before. “I won’t do it. If you fly off and get yourself killed, I won’t be shedding any tears.” Even as she said the words, her voice was breaking and tears she was trying so desperately to disavow began to fall. “I won’t. I won’t …” she repeated and then had to stop as her sobbing overtook her. Dropping her face into her hands, her shoulders shook as she continued to cry.

Hating to see her so distraught and knowing that he was at least partially to blame, Mal wrapped his arms around her, even as she tried to pull away. “Shh, now, darlin’,” Mal whispered, running his hands along her back, trying to comfort her. “I would never expect ya to cry at my funeral,” he told her, hoping she could find some humor in his joke. “I always figured you’d be dancing on my grave.”

She let out an audible sob now and Mal knew it had been the wrong thing to say. Curling her arms up and around his neck, she held on tight as he told her he loved her and promised to come back. She couldn’t return his sentiments, knowing that if he didn’t, if he didn’t make it back to her, she would never be able to go on. Her last line of defense was to keep her true feelings locked away, even though she knew that was unfair, even though she knew he deserved to hear them.

“We gotta go, darlin’,” he finally said, knowing she needed to get off the ship or there was a very really chance he wouldn’t be able to leave.

She nodded once and backed away from him, turning to go. Thinking better of it, she turned back to him and with a fiery passion, kissed him, hard and deep. Mal returned the kiss, pulling her to him. When they finally parted, she placed the lightest of hands against his cheek, and whispered, “Come back to me,” before turning to go, her tears already starting to fall again.

“Oh, if it is the last thing I do,” Mal whispered, looking off after her for another second and then resuming his work. The sooner they left, the sooner they could get back – he hoped.

***

“We gotta go, Jayne.” River’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. He had wandered onto the shuttle looking for her and finding it empty, had simply sat at the controls, waiting for her to return, knowing she would.

Swiveling to face her, Jayne did not like the fear that was welling in his chest at the thought of her departure nor the terror he harbored that he may never see her again. Moving towards him, she placed a light hand on his cheek and said, “I’ll be back.”

“Do you know that,” he asked hurriedly, taking the hand she had laid against his face and holding it fiercely. “I mean, do you know that,” he asked again, wondering if she had seen the outcome of this horrible day and could assure him she would indeed return.

But it didn’t work like that, and deep down, he knew it. “No,” she told him honestly. Leaning down, she brought her face close to his and whispered, “But I feel it.”

Unable to resist her, Jayne pressed a fierce kiss to her lips, being more forceful with her than he ever had before. He wanted her to know what he felt for her, and if this was the last chance he’d get to express it than he was going to take it. He pulled her onto his lap and she fell against him, never breaking their contact. The passion and love that whirled through her mind was only slightly overshadowed by the fear Jayne was trying to hide.

River returned his kiss with just as much passion, reveling in how alive she felt just at his touch. She didn’t want to leave him, truly, but she knew there was no other way for this to be finished. If she ever wanted to come back to him, to be with him, than she had to do this one last thing, to close this childhood chapter of her troubled life.

A throat clear interrupted them, and they turned in unison to see Simon standing in the cockpit’s entryway, a stern expression on his face. With crossed arms, he looked to his sister and said, “We have to go.”

Smiling sheepishly at him, she pulled Jayne up and pushed him towards the shuttle’s door. Giving him a light peck, she whispered, “We’ll finish this later.”

Grinning at her, she returned his look as he practically skipped toward shuttle one and a very perturbed looking Mal. River was about to turn to leave, when Kaylee’s anxious face appeared before her. Gripping her friend’s hand, she whispered intensely, “Bring him back to me, please.”

River smiled at her, knowing that her reassurances to Kaylee would be just as empty as the ones she had refused to give Jayne. But she also knew that Kaylee needed them more, empty or not. “I will,” she told her friend, and gave her a quick hug, before locking up the shuttle and taking a seat at the controls.

Simon was already there, fuming. She did her best to ignore his foul mood at having caught her and Jayne, but it was a little difficult seeing as how his mind was practically screaming with annoyance. As she cleared the shuttle for lift-off with Zoe, she looked to him and said, “We don’t have time.”

Simon knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any better. “We will be discussing it though,” he warned, before turning to look out the cockpit’s window. “When this is all over.”

She nodded once, comforted to know that despite everything going on, Simon was still her overprotective boob of a brother.

***

With all three ships in the air, they parted ways, each heading in a different direction. The Alliance ship had not been hard to track, once they’d known to be looking for it, and so Mal and Jayne waited in high orbit for the enemy ship to come calling. Twenty minutes after Serenity had lit out of there, it did.

Both men watched in anticipation as it circled the homestead. Apparently noting that no one was home, it released two concussion missiles that leveled the home, barn and surrounding trees with a crisp precision. Mal swore silently under his breath. He’d known there was little to no chance that the place would be spared, but he’d still hoped, if only for those kids.

Turning to Mal and blocking the destruction from his view, Jayne asked, “Now what?”

Mal turned back to him a decidedly wicked grin on his face. “Now, we play.”

***

Gabriel stood on the ship’s small bridge, looking with disinterest at the wreckage before him. He had assumed they would find this home as empty as the last, especially after Simon’s call. Looking over to one of the blue-handed agents, he asked, “Anything?”

Turning to face him, he said, “I’ve tracked the burn signature of a fairly large transport. It left heading northwest.”

Gabriel knew that would be the big ship and he knew his son would not be on it. “Any others?”

“No, sir,” the man told him, his tone betraying nothing, no frustration, no anger, no anxiousness. Gabriel was finding their lack of emotions just a little grating, especially after having traveled with them for over a month.

“Then we’ll wait,” Gabriel said quietly. He knew Simon, knew that he would do his best to avoid a mess and that meant he would show himself soon enough.

***

River sat quietly as she and Simon watched the Alliance ship destroy the Thompson home. Simon’s anger and sadness at the sight made her head spin, but with a practiced control, she brought the emotions to a slow simmer and looked to him. “Ready?”

Nodding once, he said, “Let’s go.”

She nodded back and with a precision that could only come from a reader, felt Mal ready his own shuttle. At exactly the same moment, both shuttles pulled up from their hiding spaces, get ready to zip in alternate directions. River held the shuttle at a good height, knowing they would be perfectly visible to the enemy ship and knowing that they were looking for them.

“Here we go,” she whispered, and flashing the bottom of the ship towards the Alliance vessel, she sped off in their agreed direction. As they whipped over the landscape, Simon turned to her and asked tightly, “Do you think they’ll know to follow us?”

River did not take her eyes off the controls. “They’ll know.”

***

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