Title: Trapped Chapter: 2 Rating: Pg-13 Pairing: Simon/Kaylee (light) Characters: Kaylee, Simon, Zoe, Jayne, OMC Summary: Help arrives, but a little late Warning: Not betaed Disclaimer: I do not own

Author's note: Here is the next chapter, I hope you all like.

Prologue

Chapter 1

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“Take it,” Simon insisted. Kaylee looked down at him, afraid to take her coat back but knowing she couldn’t venture out into a full scale snow storm without one.

“You just sit tight, I’ll be back with the cap’n in no time,” Kaylee said, shifting closer to him. She took the coat and slipped her shivering body into it. “You gonna be alright?” she asked, swallowing and looking him over. It scared her how deathly he looked.

“I’ll be fine. Just…hurry.” The look that Simon gave her frightened her. His eyes were so hallow with just a hint of fear behind him. It was fear he was trying to hide from her, trying to be brave. Bleeding like he was and he was trying to be the strong one. She leaned forward, pressing her lips to his for a long moment before standing up and hugging her arms to herself.

“I’ll be back,” she promised before turning and venturing out into the snow.

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

“I think you got the wrong fella, sir?” Kaylee said when she saw the alliance gear the man wore. The officer shook his head, his gun raised up and pointing at them. Kaylee looked at Simon who quickly shook his head.

“I can assure you, you have the wrong per—“

“Be quiet!” the officer snapped. He licked his lips and edged forward. “I’ve seen the posters; your face is all over the cortex. Your face and a mighty fine reward. Where’s that sister of yours, Simon?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Simon said, shaking his head even as the officer moved the gun between his head and Kaylee.

“Where is your sister?” the man asked again. Neither Kaylee nor Simon answered and the cop growled in frustration. “Turn around and put your hands on your head. Both of you. I am placing you under arrest.” Kaylee looked at Simon before slowly turning around. Simon did the same, reaching his hands up and placing them on top of his head as he turned. The office approached him, patting Simon down quickly before grabbing his wrist to bring it back behind him. The officer leaned in close, lowering his voice some.

“Where’s River?” Simon made no more to answer. He could hear the officer swear under his breath and step closer. He reached for his belt, grabbing a pair of metal handcuffs. “Don’t like it, but you don’t talk we’ll take it out on that girl of yours. You can be strong all you want, how long you think she’ll last? Especially with the type of men who want that sister of yours. It doesn’t have to go down that way though. You tell me where River is, I’ll let he go. You don’t…well I have a few ways of making her talk.” Simon turned and could see the fear that pass over Kaylee’s face, she had heard what the man said. He couldn’t let that happen, Simon knew he couldn’t be the cause of someone hurting Kaylee. He just didn’t know what else to do.

“I said I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Simon repeated, trying to remain poised and calm while he thought of what to do.

“Fine, you play all you like, I’m gonna take the girl and me and her and gonna have a private talk,” the man whispered sharply. Simon swallowed as his hand was brought from the top of his head and pulled behind his back. He couldn’t let this happen. Not thinking, he just acted, shoving his right elbow square in the face of the officer.

“Run!” he yelled to Kaylee, turning around as the man’s gun flew out of his hands and he reached up to cover his bloody nose.

“You broke my gorramn nose!” the office shouted, voice muffled by his hands. Simon ignored him, rushing past him for the gun. The officer was quicker, his knife was out in a second. Tthe blade pierced Simon’s side deeply before he had even been aware the officer had it out.

“Simon!” Kaylee yelled, running towards them as he fell to his knees in pain.

“The gun,” he managed out as the officer pulled the knife roughly from his stomach. The man moved to get the gun but Kaylee was already lifting it off the ground and pointing it at him. The officer raised his hands up, bloodied knife securely in his palm. He stepped closer to the trembling mechanic.

“Alright little miss, you put the gun down before you get in anymore trouble then you already are,” he growled. Kaylee just shook her head.

“I ain’t puttin’ down the gun,” she said firmly, her eyes moving to Simon as he pushed himself painfully to his feet. The officer took another step forward and Kaylee pulled back the hammer of the gun. Simon could see how hard she was trying not to shake as she held the firearm point blank at the officer. No matter how bad of a shot Kaylee might, there was no way she could miss from that range.

Once he was on his feet, Simon edged closer to her, taking the gun out of her hand and pointing it up at the man himself. His side was bleeding out and hurt more then he thought a knife wound would. His left hand cradled the wound in his side as he started up at the officer.

“I said you had the wrong man,” Simon said sternly. He thought for a moment, trying to think of how they were going to keep this man from following them. Only one thought came to mind. Lowering his gun, he remembered the preached had said. He aimed for his knee caps, if the bible could be fuzzy about kneecaps, so could the Hippocratic Oath. To quick shots and the man was on the ground. The officer cried out, yelling enough to rouse the whole town’s suspicions, if the gun shot blast hadn’t already done that. “Toss me your radio,” Simon ordered. The officer slowly moved his hand to his belt, grabbing the radio and throwing it. It landed at Kaylee’s feet, who promptly picked it up.

People were beginning to gather, they had to leave and they had to leave fast. Simon took Kaylee’s arm and started to back away. They just had to make it to the ship. He turned and moved as fast as he could in the direction of the docks. They didn’t get more than 100 yards before 6 arms alliance officers rounded one of the buildings between them and the docks.

“Stop! Simon Tam you are bound by law!” one of the men shouted. Simon swore, receiving an impressed look from Kaylee before he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the forested area.

“We’ll go around the town,” he informed her. The snow was getting heavier by the moment. The shouts and calls behind him spurred his adrenaline on, forcing him into a sprint to get as far away from the town as they could. While they left tacks, the snow was coming down so heavily they quickly filled. The visibility was poor at best. If they could just keep moving for long enough maybe they could lose them.

“Simon?”

“Yes, Kaylee,” Simon said tiredly.

“You’re bleedin’ a lot,” she said as they hurried. “We should get you bandaged up ‘fore they follow your blood.”

“That’s…not a bad idea,” he acquiesced, slowing down and moving near some trees. He looked around to make sure no one was close by before leaning up against the trunk of a tree. Kaylee had her coat off in a second. She reached for them hem of her brand new dress, taking a deep breath before ripping the edge, tearing a long strip and then another. She turned back around and lifted his shirt to looked at his wound.

“It’s real big, we’ll need to sew it up,” she said.

“I carry a shirt mending kit; it has a needle and some thread. That should do it. First we need to find cover,” he informed her. Kaylee nodded and handed him the shirt. Simon made quick work of wrapping it around his side, Kaylee using the arms to tie it around him tightly.

“That will have to hold for now,” she told him before reaching to put her coat back on. He nodded and pushed off the tree trunk. The first step brought a shooting pain down his side. With the small break in movement he had lost some of his adrenaline. Simon dropped to his knee for a moment, unconsciously letting go of the gun and clutching his side. Shouting in the distance made Kaylee help pull him to his feet.

“We gotta keep going,” she said, her eyes watching him worriedly. He nodded and didn’t protest when she wrapped one of his arms over his shoulder. “Just lean on me,” she said. Simon didn’t have it in him to fight her.

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

Jayne crept along the snowy path, his eyes darting every which was. The blood trail had long since vanished leaving him with no way to find those dumb asses who had nearly got pinched by the law. Jayne was a mite ornery at having to be out here in the middle of a freak snow storm, trying to find those two because of the mess of trouble they had gotten themselves in. River had known in the second it happened. She’d screamed out her brother’s name, throwing their buyers off. It was only a second of confusion but River had hit the floor, bullet wound in her chest. Gorramn fools thought she was yelling for feds or some such thing. Mal had put bullets to them both.

Zoe said it missed the heart as far as she could tell, but the girl needed help. That was why he was out here in the freezing cold. They needed the doc or River wasn’t gonna make it. Way the girl had screamed and all the blood Jayne had found, he wasn’t so sure the doc would be in much of a position to help though. Still, a man had to try.

Walking stealthily through the snow, his foot stepped on something hard. It wasn’t a rock, he could tell by the feel, and it wasn’t deep enough in the snow to be anything from the forest floor. His hands reached down, brushing the snow aside until the shiny black barrel of a gun stared up at him from the blanket of white. He reached for the pistol, it was military issue, and had blood on the hand grip.

“Well look what I found,” Jayne mumbled to himself. They couldn’t be far from this spot, must have taken cover somewhere near. His eyes searched the white expanse until they caught onto the top of the entrance to a cave. Jayne grinned like a wolf, he’d found his prey. Moving forward he crept closer to the entrance. Peering in, his eyes fell on a lone figure lying silently on the hard, frozen floor.

“That you, Doc?” Jayne called, pushing the snow away to clear himself a bigger entrance. Simon sat up, relief flooding his face.

“Kaylee was able to get a signal?” he asked quickly. Jayne paused, looking around the cave. Kaylee wasn’t there and that made Jayne even more ticked off. Girl could be downright annoying when she wanted to be, but she was still probably the one person in the ‘verse he didn’t wanna see nothing bad happen to, besides maybe his ma.

“She’s out there in this mess?” Jayne growled. Simon just nodded.

“Fuck,” Jayne said, rubbing his goatee as he moved closer to Simon. “We gotta leave her, hope she gets through to Mal.”

“What?! We can’t leave her,” Simon protested.

“River’s been shot, need you back in the infirmary,” Jayne said, leaning down and picking the doctor up. Simon looked torn but Jayne didn’t give him much of a chance to argue about it. “We’re goin’. She’ll make it through to Mal and if not…well I found you, sure I can find her too.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaylee felt the chill right down into her bones. She didn’t ever remember being this cold in her life. Just think fire, warm, heat, summer, she told herself silently. It was slow moving through the thick snow and as of yet she hadn’t been able to get a signal. Think Kaylee…there’s gotta be a way to amplify the signal. Only one way she could think of though, and that was dangerous. She’d tried it back at the caves but nothing had happened. Staying out here in this cold was maybe more dangerous though, she needed to get Simon help. Turning on the comm, Kaylee switched the dial over, broadcasting on a high frequency network.

“Serenity, do you copy?” Static interspersed with cut off dialoged answered. It was better than before. She switched the dial again and spoke. “Serenity, do you copy? This is Kaylee.”

“Kaylee?” Zoe’s broken voice came over the comm.

“Oh Zoe I could kiss you right now!” Kaylee exclaimed. “Simon’s hurt, I need help getting him back to the ship. Is there anyway you can lock onto my signal.”

“Sure can,” Zoe said. There was a long, static filled pause before the first mates voice returned.

“It’s weak, but we got you near enough. Stay where you are,” Zoe ordered.

“I’ll be here,” Kaylee nodded, moving to a nearby tree to lean up against. She started down at the hill she had just climbed to get the signal. Deep within those woods Simon was bleeding. She sure hoped Zoe would hurry up.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“You get a trace on that?” Officer Michael Chung asked, looking up from his console.

“I did. The fugitive is hurt, if we move quickly we can get him and the girl before their crew can get to them,” the private replied.

“Send the coordinates; I want them brought in alive.”