A/N: Thanks to all who have been reading and responding. BEB - your comments crack me up!

Here's hoping that this chapter is also "feedback-worthy!" Please read and respond ...

And thanks once more to Leiasky for - well, you know.

***

A NEW DAY, ch. 9: Common Ground

***

Jayne found Simon making notes in a chart in the clinic, his eyes darting to the monitors around his son and back to the book. Entering and closing the door quietly behind him, he wasn’t sure the younger man had heard him until he finally said, “Go away, Jayne.”

Shaking his head and grimacing at the back of the man’s head, Jayne told him, “Not ‘til we talk about your sister.”

Still not facing him, Simon continued to write and said, “There’s nothing to talk about.”

His patience wearing thin, Jayne approached him and said heatedly, “Gorramit Simon, you can’t blame her for this.”

At that statement, Simon’s entire body tensed. Placing down his pen and standing up to his full height, he turned slowly to regard his brother-in-law and Jayne took a step back involuntarily at the anger that burned in his gaze. Jayne had never, not once, been intimidated by the doc, but that look in his eyes certainly made the mercenary reconsider his position on just how deadly Simon could be.

“I can’t blame her for this?” he asked coldly, incredulously, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the counter. “I don’t think you are in any position to tell me what I can and can’t do.” Holding Jayne’s look for another moment, Simon again turned to his chart and added, “And she most definitely is to blame for this.”

Having no other choice and little patience, Jayne allowed his frustration to boil to the surface. Grabbing Simon by the elbow, he whirled him back around and bit out, “Damn it Simon, how she was ‘sposed to know this was gonna happen?”

“She didn’t,” Simon retorted, his eyes still blazing. “But I did. I knew it would end badly and you know who it always ends badly for – me and my family.” Jayne swallowed hard at that admission, knowing it was true and waited while Simon continued. “I begged her, Jayne, begged her, not to contact him, not to try and reach out. I knew it would just endanger my family and I was right.”

“And that’s all that matters to you, don’t it?” Jayne’s own tone was harsh now. He realized, as the minutes passed that Simon was not going to come around, maybe ever – and the level of despair that filled him with for his wife’s sake caused him to feel undeniable anger. “Bein’ right. Ain’t you tired of always throwin’ that in our faces?”

Taking a step closer to him, Simon said, “Don’t even try and turn this on me. This is her fault, all of it and I will never forgive her.”

Both men stared each other down, their chests heaving with the ferocity of their emotions. As Simon stood and unflinchingly met Jayne’s gaze, the mercenary realized something fairly profound – River didn’t deserve Simon’s forgiveness. She had messed up, badly, causing Simon something to lose something that could never be replaced, something that meant the world to him. Knowing that living without her brother would cause River a level of grief and insanity that Jayne could never hope to counter, he allowed his gaze to drop to the floor and took a step back.

After another minute of silence, he finally said quietly, “Look, I ain’t saying she shouldn’t have heeded ya, but she had no idea your pa would be so evil as to take Ry.” Raising his eyes back to Simon’s still stoic face, Jayne asked, “Do you think for a minute that this is what she wanted to happen?”

“I don’t care what she wanted,” Simon spat back, his body still shaking with his anger. “I only care about what happened, and what happened is, she put my daughter in danger.” Seething, he continued to glare the other man down.

Rolling his eyes at Simon’s continued stubbornness, Jayne asked, “So, what’re you sayin’? You ain’t never gonna talk to her again?” As Simon averted his gaze, Jayne saw a slight window of opportunity and he was determined to take it. Stepping closer to him again, he lowered his voice and confided, “She’s sufferin’, Simon, somethin’ fierce. And I know you’re the only one who can help her.”

“And who can help me? Or Kaylee? Or Daniel? Rylee is gone, Jayne! Kidnapped as a direct result of River’s meddling in matters I told her to stay out of. You think for a second that I give a damn about her grief right now?” His tone was lifeless and hard.

With a heavy sigh and a bit of disgust, Jayne backed up and told him bitterly, “Then you’re as bad as your pa.”

That accusation caused something to snap in the younger man, and he took a step forward, his eyes blazing. “My daughter is gone, because of River! Because she couldn't, wouldn't, stop when I asked her to consider the consequences! I don't know if I will ever get Rylee back. My wife is tired, exhausted, worried, I have two infant babies who I don't know will even live to see next week. My father wants me to leave my family and come back home. My only chance to save my daughter is to give up my life here with Kaylee and our children."

His heart was beating so rapidly, he thought he would pass out from the anger that burned through his blood. "And you know what? I'll do it. I'll give it all up to keep Rylee from enduring the same torture that River did.” He stepped away and turned back to his charts. “River couldn't even give my family the courtesy –“

"Don't finish that, Simon." Jayne's voice was firm, even as he couldn't find a single word to refute anything Simon had just said. "She won't live through losin' you."

Simon clenched his jaw in anger and frustration. "Maybe she should have thought of that before she risked the lives of my family. It doesn't matter how much I give, how much I lose for her, she'll just keep taking until it destroys us." His eyes gleamed with an unnatural fire. "Well it has - finally. I've given everything I have, and my life in exchange for my daughter’s will be the final nail in that coffin." Simon took a deep breath and said firmly, “River and I are done.”

With a fiery look, Simon watched Jayne leave the room, his head hanging as he realized that it would be up to him to pull River back from the brink of madness.

Once he’d gone, Simon felt his entire body convulse with rage and clenching his hands into fists, he again pounded the table top, causing more pain to throb through his hand. Blinking back furious tears, Simon had no idea what to do, he couldn’t think straight and he could barely see straight. His chest heaving as he tried to bring his anger under control, he hardly heard his son’s small voice. “Daddy?”

Turning at the sound, he saw Daniel standing in the hallway of the clinic, his hands nervously intertwined in front of him. Moving to him quickly, Simon knelt before him and asked quietly, “Yes, Danny?”

“I miss Ry.” It was the simplest of statements and the way his tiny voice sounded, so distraught caused Simon to feel more angry grief. Pulling his son to his chest, Simon rose with him, and kissing his forehead, headed back to Kaylee’s side. “So do I, buddy,” he whispered into his hair. “So do I.”

***

With fear and anxiety welling in her chest, Regan waited for her ex-husband’s face to show up on the screen before her. Despite her reassurances to Simon that she could persuade the man to give Rylee back, she had no idea if Gabriel would even speak with her, let alone listen to her. But she had to try – she owed it to her son and her granddaughter to try and reason with the man she had once loved.

In a blink, the screen filled with Gabriel’s image and in spite of all that had passed between them, Regan felt her heart flutter, just a bit. He was still a handsome man, his jaw strong, his eyes clear, and she remembered in an instant a half a dozen moments when she had once spent hours gazing at him adoringly.

But not anymore. “Gabriel,” she greeted him, her tone cold, inclining her head to the screen.

Whether he was surprised or just smug, she would never be able to determine. “Well, well, Regan, I must say, it’s like a family reunion of sorts.” His tone was easy, in that maddeningly casual way he had and it only served to enrage her further, especially since she knew what he’d done.

“What are you doing, Gabriel?” she asked evenly, trying vainly to keep her emotions in check. Her husband had never had any use for feelings; it would do her no good to exhibit them to him now.

“Why, whatever do you mean, my dear?” He grinned and Regan wanted to vomit.

“Why did you take Rylee?” She watched his eyes flash with annoyance and a bit of contempt and braced herself for his answer.

“Why is the sky blue?” he countered, waving a lazy hand. Fixing her with a cold stare, he shrugged and answered, “Because.”

“You can’t honestly believe this is going to work?” Regan looked to him for some hint of regret, for a chink in his armor of conceit, but she couldn’t find one. “You know that Simon will never acquiesce, not while you’re using his daughter as a bargaining chip.”

“It really makes no difference to me, Regan,” Gabriel bit out, his tone finally growing harsh. “If Simon refuses to get on that transport, then I turn Rylee over to the Alliance and get my life back – my full life. If Simon comes along and does as I ask, then it’s icing on the cake.”

“How could I have ever loved you?” she muttered quietly, her voice a mixture of disgust and incredulity. This manipulative man before her now was nothing like the person she had thought she’s married. The man she’d seen four years ago, as he’d tried to kill their children was nothing like him either. And now Regan had to wonder if the man she’d married hadn’t been a figment of her imagination – a svengali meant to lure her into a state of complacency so she would bend to his will. With disgust, she suspected it was the truth.

Shrugging in answer to her rhetorical question, Gabriel said smugly, “Bygones, my dear.” Peering into the screen, his look again bored through her, the intensity of it causing her to shiver. “You tell Simon that he’d do best to remember I am not to be trifled with. And you’d do best to remember it as well.”

Flipping off the screen, Regan sat stiff as a board for a few minutes, a couple of tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes and down her cheeks. How she could have ever been wrong about that man she did not know, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that as Simon had suspected, she’d been unsuccessful and now Gabriel was threatening to put their granddaughter through the same torture as River. Knowing she could never allow that to happen, Regan collected herself and stormed from the shuttle, her own need for vengeance boiling in her blood.

***

Simon was again at Kaylee’s side when her eyes opened. It was late, night having descended and the dim light in the room managed to hide the few tears Simon had shed. Seeing her green eyes open to him, he smiled slightly at her, and slid his hand into hers.

Holding his gaze for a moment, she finally asked, “What’s happenin’?”

Having spent the better part of the last few hours trying to figure out how much he could tell her, Simon rested a hand against her cheek and said quietly, “We know who has Rylee and we’re going to get her back.”

Her pulse quickening, Kaylee panted and asked, “Who is it? Who took her?”

Swallowing the acid that was burning his throat, he said quietly, “My father.”

Her eyes widening, tears filled them in an instant and she murmured, “What? Why?”

Taking another deep breath, Simon told her, “He wants me back on Osiris. He thinks that it’s my duty to restore the Tam family name.”

Her eyes darted around the room as Kaylee tried to make sense of this information. Clutching the hand that held hers, Kaylee whispered urgently, “You can’t go, Simon. I can’t lose you.”

“Shh, I know, bao bei, I know,” he whispered back, stroking her cheek lightly. “But I am going to get Rylee back.”

“How?” The question was a stifled cry and Simon felt his tears again welling at the pain in his wife’s tone. This wasn’t fair; Kaylee had been through too much, mostly because of him and he hated hurting her again.

“My father is sending a shuttle for me in a week,” he told her slowly, watching as her chest again heaved with fearful sobs. “I’m going to get on it and go back to the Core and get Rylee and bring her home.”

Gripping his hand with a strength he hadn’t expected, Kaylee struggled to sit up. Simon helped her, knowing that it wasn’t the best idea given the surgery, but also knowing that in just a few hours he’d want her up and walking around anyway.

Grimacing slightly at the twinge of pain she felt, Kaylee breathed through it and then brought her fear-filled eyes to his. “Please, Simon, don’t do this. If you go back there, I’ll never see you again.”

Scooting closer to her, Simon cradled her face in his hands and brought their foreheads together. “That’s not true, Kaylee,” he told her, trying to believe his own words even as he struggled to say them. “I will not leave you or the children, but I have to get Rylee back. I have to do it.”

“What about River?” she asked, pulling back from him and searching his eyes for answers that weren’t to be found. “She can help us, can’t she?”

His jaw setting firmly, Simon’s eyes flashed with anger before they were again devoid of any emotion. “River can’t be trusted.”

Her eyes widening again, this time with shock, Kaylee placed a light hand to his cheek and whispered, “What? Simon, why would you say that?”

“Because this is all her fault,” he ground out, not wanting to be so angry, but unable to feel any other emotion when thinking of his sister. Meeting Kaylee’s confused gaze, he elaborated for her benefit. “She started looking for that antidote and father found her. He tracked her here and found us, that’s how he got Rylee.”

Her hand flying to her mouth, Kaylee held it firm against fresh tears. This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t. Kaylee could see the anger and hatred burning in Simon’s eyes and she couldn’t believe that he could feel such disdain for his sister. He had never spoken of River with such vehemence and the tone in his voice, coupled with the knowledge that it was her sister who had led their father to their home, filled her with fright.

“She couldn’t know,” Kaylee murmured, trying to think of excuses so Simon could forgive his sister and they could form a plan to get their daughter back. Grabbing for his hand, she said urgently, “Simon, she couldn’t know. She couldn’t have known this would happen, she never would have done it otherwise.”

“Do you think I care whether she knew or not?” Simon asked her incredulously. Taking her by the shoulders, he struggled to make her understand. “Kaylee, I told her, I begged her not to do this, I told her it would put us all in danger and now Rylee’s gone, in the hands of the-“ Simon stopped abruptly, silently cursing his overly big mouth for getting even that far. He had determined in the past few hours that Kaylee did not need to know that their daughter, the reader, was in the hands of the Alliance’s most deadly agents.

But she’d already picked up on it. “Wh-whose hands?” she asked, her voice faltering as a cold fear covered her heart.

Cradling her face in his hands again, Simon whispered, “It doesn’t matter, because we’re going to get her back and she’s going to be fine.”

Kaylee sobbed again and fell against him, knowing exactly what he wasn’t saying. “They’re going to torture her, ain’t they? Like they did to River. Our baby,” she wailed, her sobs causing her chest to heave as she struggled to breathe between each gut-wrenching sound.

Holding her tight against him, Simon willed his own tears not to fall. “No, Kaylee, they’re not. I’m going to get to her and she’s going to be fine, do you understand me?”

Kaylee could not answer him, she could only cry harder, her heart shattering with the knowledge of her daughter’s captivity. She was so tired, so exhausted, so afraid and she hated it. And now she knew she would have to say goodbye to Simon, watch him leave her, to ensure that their daughter was returned safely to them and she didn’t think she’d be able to do it.

“You can’t go, Simon,” she told him again, her cheek resting against his shoulder. Drawing in a few more shaky breaths, she said, “He won’t let you go once he has you again, you know that.”

Closing his eyes against her words, Simon didn’t want to admit that she was right. He did know, with more certainty than he knew just about anything else that once he stepped on that shuttle his life, this life with Kaylee and their children, was over. But it didn’t matter – he would not sacrifice Rylee for anything. His father would not win.

Fighting the urge to agree with her, Simon again decided to use some of the optimism his wife always seemed to have in abundance. “No, Kaylee, I don’t know that,” he lied, pulling back to look in her eyes. “And you can’t think that way. If this is the only thing we can do to get Rylee back, then I’m going to do it.” Drawing her face to his, he brushed a kiss to her lips and then added, “And I’m going to come back to you.”

Sobbing again, Kaylee wrapped her arms around him and held fast, not able to let him go. “Don’t go, Simon, don’t go,” she kept repeating, each statement piercing Simon’s heart with a pain he had never felt so deeply. Unable to provide her with anymore reassurances, he simply held her through the night, hoping that when this week was up he would not have to say goodbye to his beautiful wife forever.

***

“River? Jayne?”

Regan stepped lightly up the ramp and into Serenity’s cargo by, looking deep into the shadows of the cavernous room. After her disastrous call with Gabriel she had gone looking for her daughter and son-in-law. Determining that they were not at the homesteads, she hoped to find them here, and with another step, she headed further into the ship.

Making it into the common room, she found Jayne sitting on the couch, his arms crossed over his chest and his head falling forward as he dozed. Smiling slightly at the sight, she heard more movement and glanced to the ship’s small infirmary, seeing a flurry of activity through the bright windows. Stepping forward, she watched as River bustled from one side of the room to the other, a variety of syringes, medications and instruments laid out in a specific order before her.

She was murmuring to herself, her words too soft for Regan to hear, but as she watched her work so intently, an inexplicable fear gripped her heart and she decided she needed to put an end to it. Stepping into the room, she called lightly, “River?”

Her daughter froze in mid-step, not turning at the sound of the voice. Instead, she cocked her head to one side and muttered, “Not probable. Statistically, not a possibly,” and the continued her busy work. Even more fearful than before, Regan stepped further into the room and this time made it into her path.

Turning from her latest set of preparations, River stopped short as she came face to face with her mother’s concerned gaze. Meeting her eyes, Regan said again, “River? Sweetheart, it’s me.”

Puzzled, River again cocked her head to one side, her brown eyes sweeping down her mother’s form and then, shrugging lightly, she stepped around her and continued to work, this time muttering, “Still seems improbable. More than likely a hallucination brought on by psychosis, a schism between reality and fantasy …” She continued to mumble and Regan felt tears form in the bottom of her eyes.

So wrapped up in her daughter’s musings, she didn’t hear Jayne approach and she jumped as the man put a hand to her shoulder. Whirling, she met his sheepish look, and wiped her tears quickly. “Oh, Jayne, hello,” she sputtered, trying to pretend she had not been crying.

“Hiya there, Mrs. Tam,” he greeted her, his voice rough. His eyes made their way past her shoulder and she watched as they locked onto her daughter’s agitated form. Following the gaze, Regan asked him, “How long has she been like this?”

With a heavy sigh, Jayne took the older woman’s elbow and guided her out of the room, leading her to a chair. Once she was seated, he resumed his own seat on the couch and continued to watch River move about. “Since we got back and Rylee was gone. Little over a day now.”

Regan swallowed hard and watched him as he watched her daughter. She had known when she’d met the mercenary a few months ago that he loved River with a ferocity that Regan would never likely see again. And as she saw his blue eyes cloud with fear and love for her baby girl, she knew her initial impression of him had been correct.

“Has Simon been to see her?” she asked him quietly, pulling his gaze back to her.

Rolling his eyes, and snorting derisively, Jayne mumbled, “You obviously ain’t heard the whole story.”

Returning his grimace with a puzzled expression, Regan signaled for the man to continue. “Simon blames River for what happened to Rylee,” he told her simply, his eyes still drifting back to River. “Says it was her need to go looking for …” Jayne trailed off, knowing that Regan wasn’t to know anything about what River had found in those files she’d given her months ago. But, he supposed, he’d already said too much.

And as Regan pressed the issue, he knew he had. “Looking for what, Jayne?” she asked him, sitting forward in her seat and fixing him with a determined look. “What did she go looking for that could have caused Rylee’s abduction?”

Glancing again to his wife, Jayne told his mother-in-law, “Look, I can’t give ya all the details, so you’re just gonna have to trust me on this. But River went lookin’ for information that the ‘Liance had and it led your hubby right to us. Somehow he figured out Ry was a reader and now …” Jayne again trailed off and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. When he looked to her again, she saw sadness there and her heart instantly went out to the man. “Now, River’s goin’ a little crazy and Simon won’t speak to her.”

Swallowing hard, Regan allowed her own gaze to drift back to River. The girl was still moving about, murmuring to herself and Regan felt her heart beat heavily against her rib cage at the sight. She had never seen River in this state before, the state that the Blue-Handed Agents had caused and as she watched her, her heart broke even more to consider that Rylee, her beautiful and innocent granddaughter could suffer the same.

With a growing determination, Regan stood and looked to Jayne. “Well, then, we’re going to have to fix it.”

Giving her a skeptical look, Jayne told her, “I already tried. Simon ain’t gonna budge.”

“Oh, he will for me,” she told the other man and with a regal gait and her head held high, Regan strode off the ship in search of her son, her mind swirling with ways to fix her broken family.

***

Rylee was awake again, but she kind of wished she wasn’t. Her head hurt, a lot, which didn’t really make any sense because she hadn’t fallen or anything. Well, unless falling out of the tree yesterday was causing the pain, but she kind of thought not. Her daddy hadn’t said that she’d hit her head very hard.

Her daddy – with fresh tears welling in her big, brown eyes, Rylee thought of her dad, and remembered how he had rushed to her side as she’d fallen to the ground, picking her up and holding her tight. And then she thought of her mama and how she always rocked her to sleep when she had bad dreams.

Well, she’d been having a lot of bad dreams and no matter how long or loud she yelled for them her mama and her daddy didn’t come and Rylee had never felt more alone or scared in her whole life. Plus, those blue handed creeps were always around, staring at her, making her sleepy and she was fairly certain causing her nightmares. She really didn’t like them.

Sitting up on her bed, she picked at the tray of food they had brought her, not at all hungry. Dropping her fork to her plate, she drew her knees into her chest and rocked a bit, her cheek lying against her knees, as she cried some more, wishing she could go home.

She was sitting like this when the door opened again and assuming it was the agents, she did not turn at their entrance, which is why she was totally surprised when another, completely new voice called to her. “Rylee?”

It was a man’s voice and for a split second she thought it might be her dad. Turning with hopeful eyes, she blinked quickly to clear her tears and then felt more come as she realized it wasn’t her daddy, just some tall man with graying hair and a mean face. Sighing heavily and trying to keep from sobbing aloud, she rested her head back down and turned her face away from him.

Gabriel regarded the small child with a bit of disdain and a bit of disgust. He did not like children in general, he’d barely been able to stomach his own, but he had to admit that while Rylee had cried and wailed a good bit since he’d brought her on board, she had been particularly well behaved, given her circumstance. And he figured that it was time to introduce himself.

Rounding the bed, he sat on the edge, in her field of vision and said, “Hello, Rylee. Do you know who I am?”

Reaching out to see if she could get a read on him, Rylee’s face scrunched up in disgust as her mind recoiled from his. “A bad man,” she muttered, not at all liking what she’d felt coming from his mind or heart.

Smiling tightly, he didn’t deny her statement, but instead said, “Actually, I’m your grandfather.”

More confused then before, Rylee shook her head and told him, “No, you ain’t. My grampy’s on Harvest.”

“Aren’t,” he corrected her, using the same tone her father always did and in that moment, Rylee knew he was telling her the truth. Gasping at him, her eyes widened and she felt a small twinge of hope that maybe her grandfather, although she had never met him until today, would help her.

Crawling towards him, she asked urgently, “Will you take me home? Please? I miss my mama and daddy.” Her eyes had welled again with tears and they fell steadily down her cheeks as she pleaded with him to take her back to her parents.

Rising quickly, Gabriel told her coldly, “No, my dear, I don’t think so. You’re going to come with me and my friends. Back to Osiris.”

Rylee gasped again, even as she cried harder. She had heard about Osiris; her mom and dad talked about it a lot when they thought she couldn’t hear them. She didn’t want to go there.

Rising up on her knees, she reached for him and wailed, “No, please, don’t take me there. I jus’ wanna go home. Please! Take me home.”

Unable to stand another minute of her crying, Gabriel lashed out and the back of his hand connected with her cheek causing a loud crack to reverberate through the room. Falling back at the ferocity of the hit, Rylee could only cradle her now throbbing cheek and roll onto her side, crying harder as her newfound grandfather left the room.

“You’ll see, dear,” he called to her from the doorway. “Osiris is really lovely this time of year,” and then he left her to her wailing, passing the agents on their way back in to perform some of their neural testing, the only relief he got from the whining when the door slid shut behind him.

***

It was just a few minutes after Regan had gone that Jayne decided to try to reach out to his wife again. Entering the infirmary, he stepped into her path and held her firmly by the shoulders. She did not look at him or struggle against him, she just stood, limp, and it made his heart ache.

“River?” he called to her, his voice as gentle as he could manage. “River, I wan’ ya to talk to me. Can you do that, baby girl?”

Still not meeting his gaze, she did not make a move to say a word, and Jayne sighed heavily. “River, please. We gotta figure out what to do. We gotta figure out how to get Ry back and I need your help for that.” Placing a finger under her chin, he lifted her face to meet his gaze and smiled at her sadly. “You’re the brains of this lil’ operation, darlin’.”

She made no reaction to his joke and with a resigned sadness, Jayne let her go, and watched as she quickly resumed her frantic movements. Leaning back against the exam chair in the middle of the room, he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to quell his rising frustration.

He was about to ask her something else, when River stopped, abruptly, her hand flying to her cheek as she gasped audibly. Reaching out to her, she cringed at his light touch and Jayne asked quietly, “Darlin’, you all right?”

Looking to him, Jayne could finally read something in her eyes besides detachment and it was fear. With tears welling in the bottom of her eyes, she murmured, “She’s scared, Jayne.”

Guessing she was talking about their niece, Jayne reached out to her again and this time she did not back away. “I know, baby, I’m guessin’ she is.”

“No,” she told him fiercely, taking the hand he’d placed on her arm in her own. “She is,” she reinforced, and then pulling him behind her, River dragged him from the ship and back towards her brother.

***