A/N: Well ... I hope that ... ah, never mind, just read it and let me know what you think! Something tells me the comments will be pouring in after this one ...

Thanks again to Leiasky for the beta and everything else.

And leave those comments ... pretty please!

***

Best Intentions, ch. 6 ***

Kaylee awoke to an empty bed. Frowning, she picked her head up from the pillow and looked around the darkened room. Night had fallen, the stars visible through the windows and she didn’t have any clue as to where Simon could be. A little worried, although she didn’t know why, she sat up fully and looked to her night table noticing a piece of paper there. Smiling she raised it to her eyes, flipping on the lamp so she could read his neat handwriting. I was hungry. I’ll be back with food. Love you.

Smiling even wider, Kaylee flopped onto her back and squealed, most of the pain from the day before receding as she remembered the amazing sex and honest conversation she’d had with Simon. He loved her, he’d actually said it, and even though he’d once had his choice of a bunch of rich girls, he still loved her. It was a heady feeling and a new one for Kaylee as well. She’d certainly lusted after enough boys, liked quite a few, but loved … nope, Simon was the first for that.

Sighing for a moment, Kaylee also considered the other part of their discussion, the moving off Serenity part. Simon wasn’t wrong, she would miss the ship and the crew, but would it be so bad if they settled somewhere? If they had a real life? If Simon had a real job, again saving people, reattaching folks’ limbs that lost them? While he may have felt he’d stumbled into a charmed life, Kaylee knew he’d been born to help people, heal them. And she knew that the longer he stayed on Serenity, patching up bullet holes and stab wounds, the more miserable he would become. And just as he wanted her to be ridiculously happy, she wanted the same for him. There had to be a compromise.

Making a decision, Kaylee searched for the journal she’d found earlier and then padded across the room to the desk, looking for something to write with. Finding a pencil, she got back into bed, leaning up against the headboard and wrapping the fluffy blankets around her still naked body.

She was lost deep in thought, chewing heartily on the end of the pencil she’d found when Simon came back carrying a tray of food. When he saw she was awake, he smiled big and said, “I hope you’re hungry.”

Setting aside the book quickly, Kaylee turned to him and nodded, her stomach growling urgently at the thought of food. As Simon slid the tray onto the bed and then again got under the covers with her, Kaylee kissed him and smiled wide as he kissed her back. This was a good moment, right here, right now and she wanted to remember it.

Finally glancing down to the food he’d brought, Kaylee’s eyes lit with an even brighter light as she saw the strawberries there. Noting her expression, Simon smiled and told her, “And I found whipped cream,” gesturing to a bowl full of the white substance.

Squealing and clapping her hands excitedly, Kaylee was fairly certain she was dreaming as Simon took one of the big, red berries and dipped it in the sugary cream and then raised it to her mouth. She took a small bite, and let her eyes flutter closed, delighting in the feel of the juices and the rich cream on her tongue. Swirling them around in her mouth, Kaylee waited to swallow until she had savored every sensation and then opened her eyes to Simon, smiling even wider as she saw the way his jaw was hanging open. People, men especially, always seemed to look like that when she ate a berry.

“Yum,” she murmured, reaching for another bite, but before she could take it, Simon had leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue delving into her mouth and no doubt tasting the remnants of the strawberry there.

“That’s even better,” she murmured as they parted. Plucking the rest of the fruit from his hand, she began to eat it, as Simon scooted a bit closer and picked up one for himself. As Kaylee watched him eat it with no whipped cream, she pouted and stuck one of her fingers into the white fluff, holding it up to him. “You’re missin’ out if you don’t at least try it,” she told him.

His eyes lighting with thinly veiled desire, Simon gently took her hand and pulled her finger into his mouth licking it clean of the whipped cream and causing Kaylee to shiver at the feeling. When he was done, Simon told her huskily, “You’re right. How could I have been so foolish?”

“Well, that’s why I’m here,” she whispered, leaning forward and capturing his lips in a kiss. Simon’s hand gently ghosted up her shoulder to her face, cradling her cheek in his hand as their mouths touched and the kiss deepened. Forgetting all about the food, despite the fact that they were both still hungry, the young couple spent endless minutes kissing and teasing each other, their hands roaming over their bodies, drawing out sighs of pleasure and contentment, although much to Kaylee’s dismay, Simon was clothed, having thrown on his pajamas to get the food. Tugging at his t-shirt, she pulled it over his head, content for now to run her hands along his bare chest.

Once their need to eat again drove them apart, Kaylee settled herself into the crook of Simon’s arm and nestled her back into his chest. Reaching again for another berry and some of the cream, they both ate in silence, sharing bites of the fruit back and forth and eating most of the berries. When Kaylee again felt her stomach filling, she leaned back against him with a sigh, her head on his shoulder. “This is perfect,” she murmured, her breath warm against his chest.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Simon whispered, “Absolutely.” Running a hand through her hair and down her back, he looked over her shoulder at his journal, sitting open again and catching his eye. Smiling slightly as he recognized some of her handwriting, he asked quietly, “Needed to write something down?”

“What?” she asked lazily, feeling warm and safe and her body wanting to go back to sleep, even as her mind wanted to stay awake and hold onto this feeling. Looking up to him and then following his gaze, her cheeks colored slightly as she said, “Oh, I was just makin’ a list is all.”

“Oh really?” Simon asked, intrigued. With a teasing grin on his features, he reached past her for the book, surprised when she stayed his hand. “I can’t see it?”

Shaking her head, Kaylee told him, “It ain’t done yet.” Reaching behind her, Kaylee grabbed the journal, snapping it closed and throwing it down beside the bed and out of sight. Now truly interested, Simon looked back to her with a raised eyebrow and asked, “When are you going to tell me what’s really going on?”

Sitting back from him, Kaylee’s cheeks flushed at his question. She remembered some of the hateful things those girls had said and it was one of the reasons she’d been writing. She’d been making a list of her own pros and cons regarding settling some place fancy like Osiris or Sihnon and not fitting in, not being rich had been at the top of her cons list. She loved Simon, but she couldn’t move somewhere and have no other friends, no people to chat with or share stories with. That would be unbelievably lonely and Kaylee was not a solitary person, never had been, never would be.

Placing a finger beneath her chin, Simon tilted her face to his and saw that her eyes were again pooling with tears. “I can’t fix it unless you tell me,” he told her quietly, hoping that whatever she was going to say would actually be in his power to control.

Shaking her head, Kaylee told him quietly, “There ain’t nothin’ to fix, Simon. I am who I am an’ you are who you are. That ain’t gonna change.”

Swallowing back a sudden lump in his throat, he asked her, “Do you want it to?”

Looking to him with a truly conflicted expression, Kaylee muttered, “I don’t know. I wanna be with you, an’ if that means settling on some fancy world, then … well, I’d have to change.”

“Kaylee, I don’t want you to change,” Simon assured her, placing his hand to her cheek. “I fell in love with you. Not some fancified version of yourself that you think you need to be.” Pausing, he waited a moment before adding, “And I thought we agreed, there’s no rush to make a decision about settling anywhere.”

“But what about yesterday?” she asked remembering the excited tone to his voice when he’d first come back from the hospital. “You had fun, didn’t ya?”

Nodding once, Simon couldn’t readily deny it. “Yes, Kaylee, I did. It was nice to be back in a real hospital, surrounded by other doctors, discussing cases and treatments. I guess I didn’t really know what I was missing until I was exposed to it again.” As he watched Kaylee’s face fall and a few tears run down her cheeks, he added, “But it wasn’t half as fun as being with you.”

Kaylee smiled patiently at him and said, “That’s real nice, honey, but it’s a load o’ crap an’ you know it.” At his startled expression, she said, “I may be fun, but I can’t do for you what doctorin’ does, I know that. It’s like what fixin’ Serenity does for me. It ain’t just a job, it’s a part o’ who you are.”

Simon swallowed uncomfortably, a little put out that Kaylee knew him so well; not because he didn’t want her to, but because he knew it was going to make any decision they made that much harder – she wouldn’t let him lie to himself.

“What are you saying, Kaylee?” he asked quietly, his eyes searching her face. He didn’t think she’d tell him it was over, at least, he prayed she wouldn’t, but he still had a sinking feeling in his gut. Looking over her shoulder to where she’d dropped the book, he asked again, “What were you writing?”

With a sigh, Kaylee turned away from him and picked it up from the floor, handing it to him. “My own pros an’ cons list,” she said quietly, her eyes again falling to the bedspread.

Simon opened the book and found her page, noting that her lists were similar in length to his own and almost completely reversed. He was the only thing on her pros side; he would have chuckled at the irony if he hadn’t been consumed by the things listed on the opposite side of the page: mean girls; rich folk; fancy parties; my teeth; my nails; my hips, making Simon’s eyes cloud with growing concern. Pointing to them, he asked her quietly, “Kaylee, what is all this?” As she refused to answer him, he asked again, “What’s wrong with your teeth?”

Throwing him a sarcastic look, Kaylee affected her best haughty tone, sounding almost exactly like Amber had and said, “They’re crooked.”

His brow still furrowed in confusion, Simon didn’t get it. Closing the book and placing it aside, Simon edged closer to her even as Kaylee tried to back away. Taking her hands in his, he asked again, “What happened today?”

With a heavy sigh, Kaylee blinked back the tears she felt forming as she remembered the day and said quietly, “It was just a bad day, Simon, all right? Don’t make me go through all the details.”

“Bao bei, I’m thinking you should, especially if it’s bothering you so much.” Cupping her chin in his hand, he again forced her eyes to his face and asked, “Did Lili say something?”

Shaking her head slowly, Kaylee said, “No, not outright. I’m thinkin’ she’s much too refined for that.” With a sigh, Kaylee finally gave in and said quietly, “No, it’s just that when we went dress shoppin’, there were some of ‘Nara’s cousins an’ aunts there.”

“And they said something,” Simon concluded, silently cursing the idiocy of wealthy people. He had seen it plenty of times on Osiris; men and women who pretended to be the bastions of society while turning their noses up at anyone they deemed inferior.

Kaylee nodded and said, “I shouldn’t o’ let it bother me, but I thought Lili was really tryin’, you know? But no, it was just an excuse to ambush me,” Kaylee finished bitterly, shivering slightly at the memory. Simon pulled her close and she wrapped into his arms, her head again falling to his shoulder.

“See, Simon? If’n you wanna come back to a place like this, I …” Kaylee trailed off, unsure she could finish the statement. She felt a few more tears come and she tried to blink them away.

Running his hand down her arm, Simon told her, “Kaylee, not all wealthy people are like that.” As she looked to him with an incredulous expression, Simon chuckled softly and said, “Okay, a majority of wealthy people are like that, but not all. And this is why I didn’t want us to discuss this now. It’s not the right time.”

“When’s the right time gonna be?” Kaylee asked pulling away from him, her eyes full of anger and hurt. “Six months from now when I’m even more in love with you? A year from now when you finally decide you gotta go back an’ leave me behind? The way I see it, it don’t matter when we talk ‘bout it ‘cause ain’t nothin’ gonna change.”

Simon watched her body heave with the intensity of her emotions and any of the reassuring words he felt rise to his lips died there. She had a point; there wasn’t much that could change, no matter how long they waited. “What do you want to do, Kaylee?” Simon asked quietly, praying she wouldn’t tell him to get out. “Do you want it to be over?”

Stifling a sudden sob at the thought, Kaylee murmured, “No, I just wanna love you an’ I want you to love me. That’s all I want, but it seems we can’t have that.”

Pulling her to him, Simon hugged her tightly, feeling her stiffen slightly in his embrace before falling against his chest heavily. “Yes, we can, Kaylee,” he whispered into her hair. “It took me a long time to get this right and I’m not going to let you go. We’ll figure it out. I promise.”

“How can you be so sure?” she hiccupped, her voice still broken with sobs.

“Because I love you, Kaylee, I thought we’d established that,” he teased slightly, pulling back to look at her. Kissing her again with all the passion and fervor he could muster, when they parted, panting, he whispered, “We can work it out. We just have to stick together.”

Kaylee nodded once and then wound her arms around his neck, burying her face there. She couldn’t say anything, because she knew that despite Simon’s best efforts to make their relationship work, it couldn’t. Not in the grand scheme of real life. Maybe when he’d just been a fugitive sure, but now that there was nothing but her keeping him on Serenity, she knew their differences, which had once been what made them so perfect for each other would drive them apart.

As she continued to cry, Simon held her back tightly, sitting back and easing down under the covers with her. Kissing her temple, he murmured, “Just get some sleep. Everything always looks better in the morning.”

Kaylee nodded, but did not let him go for the rest of the night, even staying wrapped in his arms once sleep overtook her. She knew the morning would come soon enough and she knew that this would be the last night she would ever sleep in his embrace

***

It was early, exceptionally early when Kaylee awoke again. Glancing out the room’s windows, she saw that the sliver of sunlight had just started to trace the distant horizon. With a quiet sigh, she rolled away from Simon’s still sleeping form and got out of bed.

As quietly as she could, she gathered her things, her hands shaking as she wrote down a few sentences on a sheet of paper. Then with no sound, she headed out of the room, not turning to look back at Simon knowing that if she did, she’d never go.

The house was silent, but she made it downstairs and to the kitchen where a few of the servants, including the young girl, Josie, were already awake and working for the day. Motioning to the girl, Josie stepped over to meet Kaylee. Lowering her voice, the young guest told her, “I’m gonna need your help.”

***

On Serenity, River’s eyes snapped open as she felt the distress of her family from so far away. Rolling onto her side, she buried her head in her pillow trying to block it out and having no luck, she allowed a few tears to fall into the fabric. Her family was being destroyed, torn asunder and she didn’t know how to stop it.

***

Inara awoke to find Mal already gone. It appeared that the job her father had lined up for him was starting this morning and so with a quick kiss and a promise to be back he had left her early. Inara vaguely remembered telling him to be careful, but she really wished she’d been able to convince him not to go. Something was wrong, off, and while she wanted to dismiss her unease as nothing more than paranoia, she couldn’t, especially not when her father was involved.

Rising, she made her way to the bathroom, getting ready for the day. She hoped she’d have few hours to head out to House Madrassa and visit with her old teachers and friends. She wanted to bring Kaylee along as well, knowing that the girl would love to see the lavish residence and meet some of her companion friends. Plus, Inara needed to discuss things with Sheydra; she needed to find out how to leave the Guild with her dignity and title intact.

Putting the finishing touches on her makeup, Inara’s hand reached for the door just as a loud rap sounded on it. Startled slightly, she opened the heavy wood and saw a disheveled Simon standing on the other side. “Simon?” Inara questioned as he brushed past her and into the room. Noting his distress, Inara closed the door hurriedly and asked him, “Simon, what is it?”

“It’s …” He couldn’t even finish the sentence, he still couldn’t believe it himself. Having no words, he thrust a piece of paper in Inara’s direction and she took it from his shaking hand. Scanning it quickly her own eyes widened in disbelief.

“This can’t be true,” she breathed, again meeting Simon’s horrified gaze.

“She’s gone, Inara. Along with all of her things. When I woke up this morning that’s all I found.” Simon’s voice was full of anger and pain and Inara wondered which of the emotions would eventually get the better of him. Guessing it would be the latter and readily able to identify with him, Inara stepped forward and placed a hand to his shoulder. “Simon, Kaylee can’t have gotten far. She probably just went back to Serenity.”

Shaking his head, Simon let out a heavy sigh. “I just waved them, they’re already in space, heading for the job and Mal said Kaylee’s not on board.”

As he took a moment to catch his breath, trying to quell his rising fear, Inara tried to collect herself as well. This wasn’t good. Kaylee was on a foreign planet, with no friends and no money. What’s more, now Mal was flying halfway across the ‘verse to do a job for her father and couldn’t help them find his mei mei. Inara knew why Simon had called them, but she silently cursed him for it as well, knowing that Mal would be beside himself with worry now.

“Did River say anything?” Inara asked, grasping for any clue.

Shaking his head, Simon told her quietly, “She wouldn’t even talk to me. Zoe said she’d been mumbling about families breaking, but nothing too coherent. Nothing that would tell us where Kaylee is.”

Inara pursed her lips, wishing she had been more attentive to the young girl. Looking to the distraught doctor, she asked him, “Simon, what happened last night?”

With another shake of his head, Simon sat heavily on the edge of the bed and allowed his head to fall into his hands. Speaking in a low voice, he said quietly, “I don’t know. Kaylee was really upset. It appears her day with your mother did not go well.”

Her eyes blazing with a newfound anger, Inara knew her suspicions had been right. “What happened?” she bit out, listening with more and more fury as Simon recounted all Kaylee had told him.

“I thought I’d convinced her by the time we fell asleep. I told her that I loved her and we would work it out, but then, she just left.” Turning his wide and pained eyes to his friend, he whispered, “Inara, we have to find her. I need her.”

Commiserating with him, Inara stepped forward and sat beside him. “We will, Simon. I grew up here. If anyone can find Kaylee on Sihnon, it’ll be me.” Rising, she shook her hair back from her shoulders and headed for the door. “But first, I think my mother and I need to have a little talk.”

Simon’s eyes burning with his own anger at his hosts, he rose to follow. “I’m going with you.”

***

“Lil’ albatross?” Mal called for River as he entered the now full cargo bay. The men that Edward had set him up with had been loading the ship by the time he’d arrived and already given him the first half of the coin. Of course, Mal didn’t care one whit about any of it at the moment; not since Simon had waved to tell them Kaylee was missing.

Entering the room, Mal scanned the catwalks above for River’s form, knowing it was the one place she always seemed to retreat to, no matter what else was happening. Since Miranda she’d been doing so much better, piloting the ship, going on jobs, even talking in full and understandable sentences. But it seemed that the past forty-eight hours had sent her into a tailspin and Mal was thinking it might have something do with Kaylee.

“River, come on, darlin’. I wanna talk t’ya.”

“Don’t know anything.” Her ethereal voice floated down to him and Mal squinted against the harsh lights overhead to make out her form. Finally spotting her, he ascended the stairs lightly, swallowing back his very real urge to yell at the girl until she told him what he wanted to know. But he knew that would get them no where.

Once he reached her, Mal knelt at her side, resting a hand against her shoulder. Her face was turned towards him as she lied on her belly, but her eyes were closed. “River, you know lots o’ stuff,” he chided her gently.

“Not about this,” she answered him, her voice still soft. “Kaylee’s gone.”

Nodding, Mal said, “Yeah, that’s right. Do you know where she went?”

“Needed time, wanted space, didn’t know she wouldn’t like it.”

His throat constricting as his mind processed her cryptic words, Mal ground out, “River, what’da ya mean? Is Kaylee in danger?”

Shaking her head, River muttered, “Not yet.”

***

Simon and Inara found her parents on the lanai overlooking their garden. It was a pleasant morning, not too hot or cold, not too damp and so the Serras were enjoying the use of their terrace. At the sight of their daughter and the disheveled young doctor though, the agreeable looks slid off their faces. Setting down his coffee, Edward questioned, “Inara, sweetheart, is everything all right?”

Turning her blazing eyes to him for a moment, Inara saved her vitriol for her mother, rasping, “How could you?”

Swallowing hard, Lili could almost feel the daggers both young people were sending in her direction. Doing her best to play dumb, Lili asked, “How could I what, dear?”

Stepping forward, Inara leaned onto the small table, bringing her face to within inches of her mother’s. “How could you feed Kaylee to the wolves like that? That sweet, innocent girl and you just left her there, knowing what Basil and Amber and those other women would do to her, say about her.”

Smiling tightly, Lili sat back, trying to get some distance from Inara’s rage. “Inara, I don’t know what you’re talking about. The girls loved Kaylee.”

“That’s not true, Lili and you know it,” Simon finally said, stepping up beside her daughter. “She had a terrible time yesterday and something tells me it wasn’t unintentional.”

Her eyes now blazing with a bit of her own anger, Lili sat forward and looked to Simon with a hard gaze. “I’ll remind you Simon that you are a guest in my home, and I’ll ask that you speak to me with a civil tongue.”

“He can say whatever he damn well pleases, Mother,” Inara retorted, again drawing Lili’s gaze to her. “It’s my home too. And trust me, you deserve worse.”

“What is all this about?” Edward questioned, rising to stand behind Lili’s chair, his hand on her shoulder. They had suspected that the truth behind their machinations would come out, but both of them had hoped it would wait until the party the next night.

“Kaylee is gone. She left this morning and took all of her things,” Inara informed them, straightening back to her full height and crossing her arms over her chest. “All she left was this note,” Inara added, glancing to Simon, who stepped forward and gave Lili the piece of paper.

Lili read it, doing her best not to smile at the words: Simon, I’m sorry, ‘bout all of this, but I gotta go. I can’t be here with you. It ain’t right for me to be holding you back. Just know that I love you and I’m doing this so you can have the life you were meant to have. K.

“Well, it seems the girl is smarter than I gave her credit for,” Lili murmured, handing the paper over her shoulder so Edward could take it to read.

Both of their jaws falling open at the remark, Inara and Simon shared a look before the woman turned to her mother and breathed, “What?”

Rising Lili wondered why she was bothering with the pretense. Giving her daughter a patient look, she said, “Inara, dear, Kaylee is right. She finally saw the writing on the wall. She doesn’t belong with a man like Simon.” Placing a hand to her daughter’s cheek, she added, “Just as you don’t belong with a man like Captain Reynolds. It appears Kaylee just took the hint quicker than I would have thought.”

Inara felt such rage in that moment she thought she might pass out. With barely any forethought, she pulled her hand back and slapped her mother soundly. The sound reverberated in the morning air and everyone’s faces displayed some kind of shock, except for Inara’s which just continued to burn with hatred. “How I could ever have trusted you, I will never understand,” Inara ground out. “Where is Kaylee?”

Holding her hand to her red cheek, Lili’s eyes watered as she looked back to her daughter. “How would I know?”

“You obviously sent her away mother, to get her out of the picture. So where is she?” Inara asked, not giving any ground.

With slightly fearful eyes, Lili realized her daughter was serious; she and Simon both really thought she’d sent Kaylee away. “I don’t know and that’s the truth.”

“The truth?” It was Simon’s turn now and Inara let him have it, stepping to the side so he could advance on Lili’s willowing form. “The truth? Coming from you that’s almost laughable. How could you do this? To her, to me, to us? There is an etiquette one follows when one has guests. Just as when one is a guest. If you think I’ve been rude this morning, maybe you should take a look in the mirror and examine your own behavior since we’ve been here.” Allowing his eyes to shoot between the two parents he realized how very much like his own they were and his belly churned with disgust. “Unbelievable,” he finally breathed, dropping his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. When he again brought his blue eyes to Lili’s face, she saw a light there that spoke of a fierce protectiveness she had never seen before. “Where. Is. Kaylee?”

“We don’t know, son and that’s the truth,” Edward interjected, stepping between his wife and the young man. “But we’ll help you find her,” he added.

“Edward,” Lili hissed, getting a cold look from her husband.

“It’s not right for the young girl to be out there by herself. Sihnon is a safe enough place, but, well, anything could happen to her and as long as she’s our guest, we’re responsible for her.” Edward had turned to face his wife as he spoke and she watched his eyes, paying attention to all they were saying as well as the words that were coming out of his mouth.

Nodding once, Lili swallowed hard and said, “Of course, we will. You’re right, dear.”

“Thanks, but we won’t be needing your help,” Inara told them. “We’ll be leaving now and if you ever try to contact me again …” She let the statement fade away, knowing she didn’t need to finish the threat. With that both Inara and Simon stalked away and only after they’d gone did Edward and Lili both breathe a sigh of relief.

“We had better find that girl,” Edward told his wife, already heading inside to his office to place a few calls. “And fast.”

***

Kaylee was grateful that Josie had been so friendly. She had immediately felt a connection to the young girl, kind of a kindred spirit and she’d been right. With a hushed voice and a promise not to tell the young maid had called up a transport for Kaylee and given her a bit of advice on where to go on this big planet.

Once Kaylee had disembarked near the city’s center, paying the driver from her decent, but not bottomless take of their last job, she had wandered a bit, her bag over her shoulder. Her stomach protesting the lack of food, she had stopped for a quick breakfast in a café, trying not to cry every five minutes as she was getting strange looks from the wait staff and the other diners. But it was hard.

She had cried pretty much the entire ride from the Serras, her head buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking. She already missed him, wasn’t that ridiculous? She’d only left Simon a few hours before and already she felt more alone in the ‘verse than she rightly knew how to handle. Kaylee didn’t like to be alone; some would call it a flaw in her character while others would label it part of her charm, but regardless, it was a fact. And Kaylee was alone now.

Even if Serenity had still been on planet, she couldn’t go back there; it was the first place Simon would look. And she knew he would look. Kaylee had no skill with the written word and while she had meant her letter to be as straightforward as possible, she knew it would only encourage him to find her. But Kaylee had been unable to write anything truly hurtful; she almost hadn’t written that she still loved him, but it was the truth, and besides hating to be alone, Kaylee hated to lie.

So she would just disappear; get lost on this big, fancy planet, find a job doing something so she could get enough coin to buy passage home. The easiest thing to do would be to ask the captain to take her, but Kaylee knew she couldn’t do that either; she knew that if she saw Simon again, she wouldn’t be able to leave him twice. And this was what was best – for everyone, but mostly for him. Their situation was never going to change and Kaylee refused to be the reason he lived less than the life he so greatly deserved.

With a sigh, she paid her bill and wandered a bit more before finding her destination. Sihnon was known for its Buddhist temples, the religion having quite a following on the planet. Her insides churning with nervousness and anxiety, Kaylee pulled open the heavy wooden door and entered the dimly lit room. It was full of a heady, woody scent and the smell of some of Inara’s incense. There were candles lining the walls and as Kaylee approached the altar where a large Buddha statue resided, she could just make out a few folks, kneeling and praying. Feeling ridiculously out of place, Kaylee jumped slightly as a light hand rested on her shoulder.

The man who greeted her was older, but he had a kind face. He was wrapped in some kind of orange robe and when he smiled Kaylee could feel the benevolence that surrounded him. “Can I help you, child?” he asked softly, so as not to disturb anyone.

Nodding once, Kaylee had to swallow hard several times to find her voice. Dropping it to a whisper, she confided, “I’m in a peck o’ trouble an’ I was told I might be able to find help here.”

“Of course, child, if it’s guidance you seek, we can help.”

Kaylee smiled softly at him, trying to hold back more tears. She didn’t know if it was so much guidance as forgetfulness she was seeking, but at this point, she’d take what she could get.

***

TBC