This person hadn’t been gone long. A few days, a week at most and these new fangled coffins had a descent way of preserving things. And by things I mean bodies. How Smitty had made them so lucky he really didn’t know. Atticus Smith, the doctor’s assistant, marveled at the new patient. The whole details of the procedure were still unknown to him. Him being only an assistant they didn’t tell him much until they already started doing it. They were going to have to fix that hole though, he knew that. It was a huge hole, mostly in the chest area, but still it was a huge hole.

***********

Zoë was always emotionless now. She never cried in front of the crew, but everyone wanted her to. It would be less painful than watching her try to hide the fact that he was never there. We all loved him, and if she wanted to cry and talk about it, we’d all cry and talk about it. That wasn’t her way though, being all touchy feely and what not. But still, venting never hurt nobody. Kaylee had cried numerous times since Miranda, especially when she remembers asking what happened to Wash when they were at Mr. Universe’s. Zoë’s look nearly crumpled her heart into tiny little pieces. Even Simon couldn’t get her mind off of it sometimes. If it was this hard for her she could only imagine how hard it was for Zoë.

River knew how hard it was for Zoë. She would sit outside her bunk and listen to her cry at night, wishing she could bring her comfort, even of the smallest kind. Simon constantly gave his little sister glances as to warn her not to say what he warned her not to say. River just wanted Zoë to be okay again.

She missed his smile the most. The smile that could automatically make her less serious. She really wanted to kiss him again, to feel his skin. She wanted him to be there to comfort her. But he’d never be back, she would never get to touch him, kiss him or see him smile ever again. She knew the others wanted to talk especially Mal. He was the most subtle one about it but he wanted it the most. There hadn’t ever been anything they couldn’t talk about. She just couldn’t do it. Not now. She had never been weak. Never in her whole life. Mal had seen her when she was strongest. There was only one person in the world who she would have let see her this weak and he was no longer living.

*********

Dr. Brix had really done the impossible. Atticus Smith looked in awe at the patient. He was actually a patient now. They had actually made a cyborg-type thing out of this guy. What the Alliance wanted with a cyborg was irrelevant to him right now, he just was amazed that it actually happened. The procedure was mostly touch and go and he was to make sure the patient stayed stable. It was very possible that they could still lose him. He was ordered to do a brain scan on the patient now that he was actually alive. That was always fun for Atticus. The procedure was mostly done on older patients to make sure that they remember everything. It goes into their deepest memories and plays them on a small screen. They had to make sure that this guy wasn’t a huge part of society or something so he wouldn’t be noticed when he was doing the Alliance’s work. He put the scanner on the patient and turned it on. Stars. There were lost of stars shooting around the screen. This memory was in space. He was a pilot. And a good one at that. There was a woman. Wow, she was gorgeous. What was she doing with this guy? They were really happy. She was an Independent. She was still alive. How’d he die? ………Reavers. Atticus turned off the screen and looked at the patient. It wasn’t fair. He died because of the Alliance’s mistakes and now he had to be their slave…it wasn’t right. And the woman, the beautiful woman. Atticus was about to make a deadly mistake.