Sister and Brother

Nineteen Years Ago

Simon Tam looked at the little curled up pink ball that was his sister in the hospital basket. He couldn't understand why his parents were so happy to see it. He didn't feel right calling his new sister a girl; the little ball couldn't be a human life. It was so wrinkly and pink and disgusting. Simon couldn't believe that Mom and Dad were nearly fainting with joy when they got to hold the little child for the first time.

“River Annabelle,” his mother said with finality to the doctor asking for the lump's name.

“River Annabelle Tam,” his father echoes. “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” He leans down and gives a kiss to River on his forehead. Mom surrenders the baby to her husband, who bursts with pride as he holds his daughter in his arms for the first time.

Simon rocks back and forth on his feet. He doesn't like the silence in the room. His mother is resting in a hospital bed and his father is sitting in a chair by her side, where he's been for the past fifteen hours. Simon wasn't allowed to stay in the room; he spent the time running around and sleeping in the hospital's daycare center. Simon had gotten bored very quickly while in there, and he begged the attendant to let him out. The attendant was very robotic; he barely even paid attention to Simon's constant pleading. He insisted that he wanted to see his baby sister arrive.

Now that he saw her, he couldn't believe he'd been so anxious to see this awful excuse of a baby sister.

“Simon, do you want to hold her?” Dad asked tentatively. He could see it in Simon's eyes that he was afraid. “No,” Simon said shakily and quickly. He backed away slowly from his parents.

“It's okay, sweetie,” his mom reassured. “River isn't going to hurt you. She's just a baby, after all.”

“Yeah,” Simon nods. “She's just a baby, I guess.” He makes his way slowly over to his parents, only holding his sister so that he could make them happy and see their smiles. His father handed River back to his mother carefully and patted his leg, urging Simon to climb up. Simon clambered onto his father's knee and sat quietly ready to hold her.

His mother cautiously handed over the small, fragile baby. Simon took River into his arms, feeling how weak she felt and scared. Oddly, she wasn't crying. She stopped moving completely when he held her. River looked right into his eyes and he felt a strange wave of emotions wash over him. He was a little weirded out, but he felt that there might be a special connection between them. After all, they were sister and brother.

Sixteen Years Ago

Simon was in the second grade, and it was a big deal. He was proud as he entered school on the first day. He wasn't going into Capital City's most prestigious elementary school as a lowly first grader; he was older and he had more authority. He wasn't the lowest of the low.

River still stayed in the house all day. She didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit. River didn't even want to go to first grade. She wanted to right to the second grade. After all, she already knew everything there was to know about first grade after reading Simon's homework every night... and occasionally helping him with it, which got on his nerves a lot.

When he got home, she would run to him and give him a hug. He didn't really mind most days; he didn't particularly enjoy it, but he would never push her away. The only time he wished she wouldn't do the annoying little sister things she always did was when he had friends over.

The friends that came over the most were Lex and Wesley. They didn't make fun of Simon for all of the things River did much anymore. They used to at the beginning, but now they don't mind the crazy girl. They even play with her when Simon's mother tells them to include River.

River didn't even want to play with them after Mom forced the boys to play with her. She was exceptionally smart for her age and figured out that Simon was only being nice to her because he was forced to.

She managed to not care after a while. She played with her dinosaurs and Simon's discarded Independents and Alliance toy soldiers. She mastered all of the flight simulator games that it took him ages to learn. But more than anything, she would dance. She would dance poorly, but she always put on music in her room and pranced around while the boys ran around downstairs. They ignored her wild screams and shouts and continued on with their games.

River and Simon pulled so many pranks on each other, they had lost count. Their parents had gotten very annoyed with this attitude, since many of the pranks had been destructive to the house. Simon and River both got in big trouble, but they continued to do the things. River never tired of these pranks; her imagination was endless. Simon's brain rapidly ran dry of ideas. He used the same ideas over and over again, but he did have one thing going for him. He twisted his ideas into more and more complicated and convoluted and that was his only advantage.

Simon and River fought like all good siblings do. They were just moving along the road of life.

Twelve Years Ago

Simon was getting ready for his first school dance. He is in sixth grade and once again on the lowest rungs of the ladder, but he's still psyched to go to a dance. He doesn't dance at all, but he wants to learn. He's had his eye on a pretty girl for a while, though he doesn't know what to say. Every time he tries to talk to this girl, he always ends up saying something incredibly stupid or irrelevant. Yesterday, he had gone off on a tangent about some ancient disease called leukemia. He had no idea why he was talking about that to a girl he wanted to be with. They were friends, but nothing like his best friends, who were still Lex and Wesley.

On the Thursday before the Friday night dance, Simon slowly shuffled into River's room with his head down. As usual, she was reading a book that was beyond his comprehension. Last week, it had been an advanced literary work full of hidden symbols and double meanings most adults couldn't pick up on. Yet every night at dinner, his little sister would tell them all about the obscure things she learned from the book. His parents didn't seem to care much, but then again, they never did. He listened attentively, if only to be polite. He always listened to her when she talked because he knew that she would just talk more if she felt like no one was interesting. That's why he started at first, but soon he found himself asking questions and not feeling the least bit embarrassed that she had to explain everything to him. In fact, she now picked out her books based on his interests. She was interested in everything, so why not help out her sweet older brother, too?

That night, River read a book of her choosing. A Beginner's Guide to Quantum Physics. Simon never ceased to be shocked at her choices. He couldn't even understand the dictionary's definition of quantum physics, and yet here she was, reading about in lots of details.

“River?” he asked quietly and cautiously.

“Yes, Simon?” She put the book down and skipped right over to him. “What's wrong?”

“I... I want... need,” Simon bumbled, stumbling over his words.

River smirked. Her big brother was always very articulate, except in one case: girls. Simon Tam never could manage to form a sentence in front of girls- except for River, but she was his sister. No one falls in love with their sisters. “You want to learn how to dance,” River announced proudly.

“How'd you guess?” Simon asked quickly.

“I'm more perceptive than you give me credit for.” Simon still marveled at her vocabulary; no normal seven-year-old went around saying things like that.

“Well, erm, can you?” Simon pressed hopefully.

“Of course, you dummy,” River joked. They always called each other dummies, but they never really meant it. “It's not so hard. You have move a lot.”

“Move what?”

“Hands, arms, legs, hips-”

“Hips? Isn't that what girls do?” Simon interrupted nervously.

River sighed exasperatedly. “That's what everybody does, Simon. Girls are just more dramatic than boys.” She walked over to her stereo and turned on some fast music. “It's just like this.” And she began to dance.

Simon couldn't understand how she got her body to do all that. He could barely do a hula-hoop, but River was swinging herself around wildly and... she was only seven. She was good. He had always known that, but he really realized it now.

“How are you doing that?”

“Come on, Simon,” she urged. “Just stand up and try.” She grabbed his arm, and soon enough he was wobbling to the music. River kept correcting him every few seconds, but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it. He wasn't as good as her, but she had always loved to dance.

After a few more minutes, she shut off the music. They both sat on her bed, breathing heavily. River had the biggest smile on her face that he had ever seen her wear, even bigger than the ones she had when she told him about all of the things she learned from books.

“You really like this, don't you?” Simon asked her when their heart rates had slowed a little bit.

“Like what?”

“Dancing.”

“Of course I do,” River told him. “It's my favorite thing in the universe.” River said a lot of things were her favorite thing in the universe, so Simon interpreted it as something that she loved very much.

“SIMON! RIVER! TIME FOR BED!” their mother hollered from down the hall.

“We're going!” they shouted back together.

As Simon pulled the door handle, he heard River saying something to him. “Hey, Simon, wait a second.”

“Sure.” He turned around to face her, and she gave him a hug.

“Thanks for giving me an excuse to dance,” she said happily. “Mom and Dad think that I've got to be smart, so there's no time for dancing. There never is.” She pulled back, looking hopefully up at him.

“No problem, River,” Simon replied, smiling. “Just call me anytime.” He ruffled her hair and left.

While walking back to his room, he thought about hard it must be to be River. She had all the brains in the universe; smarts he would have killed for. Everyone expected her to become a brilliant scientist or politician. He fully understood at that moment how hard it must be to be prepped for prestigious academics when all she really wanted to do was dance.

Five Years Ago

Simon paced around the empty living room. The fake fire roared in the fireplace and the armchairs looked as comfortable as ever. Simon couldn't sit in them. He couldn't stop moving. His parents were gone at some dinner party, but that didn't worry him. He had been left alone for years now. What worried him was River. She was leaving for the Alliance's Academy in a few months and would be among the most brilliant minds in the universe, but that night she was acting like every teenage girl would.

He could hear her scrambling around upstairs, getting ready. He knew she was nervous, but not as nervous and anxious as he was. Simon had been scared on his first date, but now he felt an overwhelming sense of fear on her first date. What made it even stranger was that she would be going with Lex's younger brother. He prayed that Lex's little brother was nothing like Lex. He hoped that the date ended quickly; he didn't know just how much stress he could take. “Simon, does this look okay?” River sounded disturbed for the first time in her life. Simon had never thought of his sister of the kind to obsess about hair and make-up and clothes, but the opposite sex changes everything. He, for example, had become a pathetic mess in front of girls, but he got over that.

She was wearing a long, sparkled red dress covered with little butterflies. Her hair was piled on top of her head elegantly and had applied- from what Simon could tell from his limited knowledge of make-up- blush and some lipstick and something else that Simon didn't know what it was called.

“You look great, mei-mei,” he told her sincerely.

“Thanks,” she beamed. She hopped quickly down the steps over to the door where she had left her very appropriate white ballet flats.

“Now, River,” Simon began, but she cut him off.

“I know, Simon,” she sighed. “We've been over the rules a one hundred and thirty-four times since last Friday when Vinny asked me on a date. I counted.”

“Well, I was teenage boy not all that long ago, and just because-”

“-you could restrain yourself doesn't mean that Vinny can,” River finished, a little frustrated, but also amused at the same time by how much he cared for her. “I'm not stupid Simon. I watched all that stuff you downloaded off the Cortex for me about what can happen. I read every bit of paper you threw at me. I know what's okay and what's not okay. And if worst comes to worst, I have an exceptionally developed frontal lobe. So don't worry, alright?”

“It's hard not to worry,” Simon admitted.

“You're kids are going to hate you,” River laughed. “If you're this worried about you little “mei-mei,” then imagine how worried you'll be about your own kids.”

“I don't even want to think about it,” Simon moaned. “I just want to get through tonight.”

River giggled. “You sound like you're trying to infiltrate some Independent base in the heat of the battle. Be careful or you might lose your head.”

Simon laughed a little at the memory many “battles” they'd had and how he always seemed to end up with no head. “I'll try and be good here and not wave you every five minutes.”

“I don't need any waves unless you're in trouble,” River assured him. “Vinny is coming right now, so you'd better collect yourself.” She smirked. “I don't want my date thinking I have a gibbering mess for a brother.”

“I promise I'll be good,” Simon teased. Just as she was about to hit him with a pillow, Vinny buzzed the intercom.

He tentatively opened the door to reveal Vinny, dressed very nicely and looking relatively petrified. Simon liked that. It meant that things would be too awkward for him to try and go anywhere. “Hey, there, Vinny,” Simon said with a smile. “River's right over there, getting her purse or something.”

“Cool,” Vinny replied, his voice cracking a little bit.

“Hey, Vinny,” River said, coming up behind Simon. Vinny's eyes grew so big that Simon, had he not been trained in medicine all his life, would have thought that they just might pop out.

“You look, um, good, River,” Vinny babbled.

“Thanks.” River had so much confidence in both her smile and her mannerisms. It translated to Vinny and Simon. “Bye, Simon. We'll be back soon.”

“Yeah, okay,” Simon mumbled. “Don't stay out after 10!” he called as an afterthought at their departing backs.

***

Three hours later, the door opened to reveal River and Vinny, who were laughing hysterically at something. Simon, of course, hadn't left his spot on the sofa since they had gone. He now put down his data pad and hurried over to greet his sister.

“Glad to see you both back,” he said, a wave of relief washing over him. River was safe, and didn't seem as though Vinny was anything like Lex at all when it came to girls.

“We had a great time, Simon,” River told him eagerly, her eyes shining.

“Tell your parents thanks when they get back,” Vinny said to Simon politely. “For letting me go on a date with River, I mean. We really did have a great time.” He then turned back to River and said, “I'll see you at school on Monday, okay?”

“'Course you will,” River giggled. “Good night, Vinny.”

“'Night, Simon,” Vinny said to him. “And good night to you, too, River.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as he left, leaving his face completely red and River's very awestruck. As Simon closed the door, he watched her hand drift up to the spot where Vinny kissed her.

A second later, she got back her childish glee and teasing attitude. “See Simon, there wasn't a reason in the universe to be worried.” With that, she skipped off wearing a smile bigger than the one he'd seen when she danced.

Simon grinned a little bit as he went to pick up his data pad from the couch. “No,” he muttered to himself. “I guess there was nothing to worry about after all.”

Three Years Ago

Simon sat on the couch in the living area of Serenity. For so many months, he had been living there with River. For so many months, he had been happier than he'd ever been in life. And for so many months, he'd been slowly falling in love Kaylee.

Kaylee's bare feet were propped up on his lap with his hands on top of them. He loved the feeling and he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been to say all the mean things that he'd said to her. He couldn't even believe that she'd still let him have a place in her heart after the times he'd ignored her or been mean. But he found that he loved her because of this; she would never give up on a person; she always managed to find the good in everybody. Simon guessed that the good she saw in him was that he tried to say nice things to her. They just never seemed to come out right.

After Miranda, Simon had allowed room in his life for Kaylee. And it made him just as happy and giddy as it made her. He felt that this was one of the rare times that he was truly happy. He had never thought that he could love a person this much. He loved everything about her, even her flaws. His father had told him once that that was how he would know that he was in love and he would stay in love forever. He was pretty sure that was happening now.

During this, River had been all but cut out of his life. He hadn't wanted to be with Kaylee before because he had to devote all of his time to her. But now that she was getting better, he didn't feel the need to hover over her every minute of every day. He found more Simon time... which rapidly turned into more Simon and Kaylee time.

That night, after dinner, she asked him to come to her room to talk. Simon didn't turn it down; he just had no clue what she wanted to see him about.

He sat down on her bed and she jumped up next to him. He could see a sadness in her eyes that was more pronounced than he'd seen it since before they got off the Alliance's fugitive list.

“What's wrong, mei-mei?” he asked, concerned.

“Left out in the cold,” River told him. “Like the ugly duckling. There was something prettier.” She looked at him, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

Simon let out a soft “oh” of realization. “River, this is about Kaylee, isn't it?”

River smirked a bit. “Yes. Too much time with the swan, not enough with the ugly duckling.”

“River, you're not an ugly duckling,” Simon told her with an assertiveness to his voice.

“It's just...” He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking. “I've never really had a relationship like I've had with Kaylee before. It's all so new to me, and I guess I just got so filled up with it that I forgot about you. I'm sorry, River,” he finished. “I never meant to hurt you.” He took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

A moment of silence passed before River asked shyly, “Simon?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you love Kaylee more than me?”

Simon was shocked by her question. “No, no. I love you both the same. It's just a different kind of love.”

River tilted her head to one side inquisitively. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there's different kinds of loves,” Simon explained. “There's friendship kind of love, which I have Zoe and Inara and the captain and not really Jayne, but sort of. Then there's love you have for your parents, but we never really had that. And love for family members. And then how you love your siblings, like the kind of love we have. The kind of love I have with Kaylee is romantic love.”

“What's the difference?”

Simon shifted uncomfortably. “Well, with you, it's always just a kiss on the cheek. But I, um, kiss Kaylee on the lips. And there's other, erm, stuff, too.” He couldn't meet her as he said any of this. He was going to have to formulate an excuse pretty fast if he didn't want to tell her what “stuff” meant.

River started giggling.

“What's so funny, River?” Simon asked.

“I'm a Reader, you dummy.” Seven Months Ago

“Do you, Simon Luther Tam, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or health, as long as you both shall live?”

Simon had tears in his eyes as he held Kaylee's hands in small church on her home planet on the rim. He had thought that he would never have fallen in love with a woman from the rim, but here he was, standing and ready to say two words he'd been longing to say to her for years now. “I do.”

His heart melted as she smiled more broadly than he'd ever seen her before. He smiled back at her, and wiped away a tear falling from her eye.

In the audience, her entire family watched the ceremony. His Aunt Morgan and Uncle Beni had been the only ones who came for him. And, of course, River. The crew came as well, though they had come for both people. In memory of Wash, Zoe brought some of his dinosaurs along with her. River, for some odd reason, had taken Book's Bible and hugged it close to her throughout the entire ceremony. Mal had questioned this behavior for River's favorite thing to do to that Bible was to “fix” it, but Inara shushed him.

“And do you, Kaywinnit Lee Frye, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or health, as long as you both shall live?” the preacher finished.

“I do,” she said as though she had been preparing for this moment all of her life.

“I pronounce you husband and wife,” he said boredly. “You may now kiss the bride.”

Simon leaned down and gently pressed a kiss to her lips. The crowd erupted into cheers and clapping. Nearly everyone had tears in their eyes. Even Jayne looked a little sentimental.

“I love you, Kaylee,” he whispered into her ear as they broke apart and fell into a hug.

“I love you more, Simon,” she replied and leaned in to kiss him again.

River began muttering things to herself while staring up at the ceiling. “Did you see that, Shepherd? Did you see that?”

***

When night had fallen, the reception started. Simon and Kaylee had wanted to be very low-key; no one was dressed up and just a band that Kaylee's friends and brothers had was playing. To anyone going by, it would just look like a family cook-out. Well, like a Frye family cook-out. Simon only had three relatives with him.

In the middle of the reception, he and Kaylee had zoomed over to his aunt, uncle, and River. They all wore huge smiles on their faces. He hadn't seen his aunt and uncle for the longest time, mainly because they had done exactly what Simon and River had now done with their lives- they had abandoned the fancy parties and hub-bub to go out and help the citizens on the border planets.

“Aunt Morgan and Uncle Beni, I'd like you to officially meet my wife, Kaylee,” Simon introduced proudly, wondering such a simple word good bring him so much joy.

“Hello, honey,” Aunt Morgan said to Kaylee. Uncle Beni tipped his hat and bowed, making Kaylee giggle.

“I've never seen Simon this happy in his life,” Uncle Beni told her sincerely.

“Well, it ain't all me,” Kaylee replied modestly. “I mean, River's gettin' better and he's with a great crew bein' a great doctor. I'm just the icing on the cake.”

“You're the cake, bao-bei,” Simon corrected. “Everything else is the icing.” She blushed at his comment.

Aunt Morgan laughed at this. “You two are so very perfect for each other, I can tell.”

“Thanks, Aunt Morgan,” Simon said.

“You two will be good together,” River said, looking slightly sadly at both her brother and Kaylee. She roped Simon into a sweet hug.

“Just because I'm married doesn't mean I'll forget about you, mei-mei,” Simon muttered to her so that only she could hear.

“I'm not worried,” River assured him. “I haven't been worried for nearly three years now.”

Today

Simon holds River's hand as they watch Zoe and Inara deliver his and Kaylee's baby. They've been holed up in the infirmary for ten hours, and she is nearly done.

He covers his eyes, for he just can't watch. He doesn't know why, but he feels the need to cover them.

“It's over,” River says quietly. “She's done.” Sure enough, when Simon opens his eyes, he sees Kaylee's eyes growing wide as Inara places a screaming child in her arms.

Simon is vividly reminded of the first time he saw River, but it's different now. This baby is partially his. He loves this child so much, even though he doesn't know it's name and he's seen it for just a split second.

“It's a boy, Simon,” Kaylee tells him as she holds the little bundle, now wrapped up in blankets. “Do you still wanna call him Tristan Kane?”

“He looks like a Tristan Kane to me,” Simon agrees, slowly walking over, as if mesmerized. He sinks into the chair beside her bed as he gazes into his son's eyes for the first time. Just like River, Tristan is remarkably quiet. He sniffles a little bit, but that's it.

“You wanna hold him?” Kaylee asks.

Once again, Simon remembers River's birth and how much he really didn't want to touch her. Now, he just can't wait. “Sure.” Kaylee gently hands Tristan over to Simon, who is captivated by this new life.

“Well, everybody outta here,” Mal commands. “We've all seen the kid, so let's give Simon and Kaylee some privacy with him.” The rest of the crew shuffles out at Mal's order.

“Wait, River, you go ahead and stay,” Kaylee says. “He's your nephew, after all.”

River is incredibly grateful for this. She stands over the bed looking at Simon holding Tristan. She sees the immense look of happiness on both of their faces and feels it coming from their hearts as the three of them share a moment, witnessing the greatest miracle in the 'verse.