A/N, okay, here it is: part three. First thing is, sceenes in this chapter have been juggled around more than I can say. If something jars, continuity wise, it's probably because I originaly wrote the scene in a different order. I think things work this way but feel free to berate me in your comments (which you WILL leave :))Erm, what else... oh yeah, this chapter refers to Jaynestown and Out of Gas. Ho hum. As always, comments are shiny. This chapter started off as the shortest, and now that I've added bits I feel it' a little too long for what actually happens. So, yeah. Enjoy. Tell me what sucks. Thank ye all xxxxxxx

Cup of Tea? - Part Three

“Aren’t you tired, mei mei?” Simon asked bracingly.

From her perch on the infirmary counter, River fixed her eyes on him and shook her head slowly.

Simon glanced at his watch. “Okay. What do you want to do?”

River said nothing, but shrugged. Simon sighed. She’d been doing so well for the past week. Now she was sullen and silent, and insisting on following him around wherever he went.

Trying again, Simon moved over to sit beside her. “Do you want something to read?”

There was no response.

“Do you want to draw?”

Nothing.

“You could visit Inara,” he suggested.

Still nothing.

“…or Wash? Do you want to go sit on the bridge?”

She shook her head.

Simon sighed again. Last resort.

“Should we go visit Kaylee?”

River reached for his wrist and turned it over to look at his watch. She smiled. “Yes. It’s time.”

Simon didn’t smile. He just took her hand and got to his feet. “Come on then?”

Kaylee, who was waiting in the galley, beamed when she saw Simon and River enter. She got to her feet as they approached, moving to pour another cup for River.

“Something wrong?” she asked, noticing their glum faces. Simon shook his head. River just blinked and held her hand out for her tea. She took a sip and smiled. “Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome sweetie,” Kaylee responded.

Simon watched as the girls chatted, a resentful feeling he couldn’t explain growing in the pit of his stomach.

As he drained the last cold dregs of his tea, River got to her feet, planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and left. Kaylee and Simon watched her go in silence.

“What’s wrong, Simon?” Kaylee asked after a moment, sounding concerned.

“Nothing,” he told her shortly.

“Simon?” she pressed. “What’s wrong?”

He turned to look at her, her eyes wide with genuine concern, and wondered how she had solved in five minutes what he had been trying to achieve all morning.

“River had a bad morning,” he said, unhelpfully.

Kaylee frowned. “But she seemed fine just now…”

Yeah, Simon thought moodily, no thanks to me…

*

Four months on Serenity. Simon peered at his battered face in the mirror. Four months and he hadn’t learned anything about taking care of himself. He frowned at his battered reflection in a self deprecating fashion. Silently cursing Stitch, he turned away, jumping as he came face to face with River. She giggled at his reaction.

“Mei mei,” he said tolerantly, “What have I told you about sneaking up on me, on people?”

She blinked solemnly. “I broke it.”

“Broke what?” Simon asked, confused, guiding her to his bed and then sitting beside her.

“Book,” she muttered unhelpfully.

“What book?”

“Book’s”

Simon paused, utterly perplexed.

“Which books?”

River gave him a despairing look. “Book’s book. Bible. Broken,”

Simon nodded, finally understanding. “But you gave him the pages back, didn’t you?”

River nodded. “Broke it, now it can’t be fixed,” she looked at him, her eyes watery. “Like me,” she breathed.

“No, mei mei,” Simon said quickly, pulling her into a hug. “You’re not broken. You’re going to be fine.”

She shook her head, whimpering slightly. He stroked her hair, it was damp from sweat.

“I want to go to sleep,” she whispered.

“Okay,” Simon said. They moved across to her room, and she got into bed.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked, tucking her in.

River nodded. “You have to go,” she mumbled sleepily.

“What?” Simon asked, worried.

River sniffed. “You’ll be late.”

Simon looked at his watch. Eleven fifteen. He looked back at his sister’s tear stained face and leaned over to kiss her forehead.

“I’ll stay until you get to sleep, mei mei,” he told her softly.

“Go,” she murmured, almost inaudibly. And with that she fell into a peaceful slumber. Simon watched her thoughtfully for a moment, waiting to see if she would move.

Then he stood up, walked calmly to the door, shut it quietly, and dashed off to the galley.

Kaylee was perched on her usual chair, her arms wrapped around her knees, gazing blankly in front of her.

Simon noticed there was only one mug on the table.

“You came,” Kaylee said, sounding surprised.

“Of course.”

A small smile broke out on her face.

“I’ll pour you a cup,” she began to stand, but he stopped her.

“I’ll do it. You want a refill?”

“Sure,” she handed him her empty mug.

She was unusually quiet, Simon noticed as he sat down.

“Something wrong?” he asked, concerned.

She shook her head.

Unconvinced, Simon put his cup down. “Kaylee?” he prompted gently.

She looked at him, and her eyes were wide.

“Are we okay?”

The question was so unexpected that Simon frowned, not comforting her in the slightest.

“What do you mean?”

She looked down at her mug sadly. “I was real mean to you back in Canton.”

Simon blinked. “Well. Not really. Er… I mean, I probably deserved it…”

She looked at him, a little amused. “Probably?”

He smiled, and then continued. “What brought this on?”

She looked away again, shrugging in a non-committed way.

“We were okay last night, weren’t we?” Simon asked, remembering her teasing him in his bunk vividly.

Kaylee nodded. “It’s just I thought… if I hadn’ta made you stay you wouldn’ta got hurt,”

Simon considered this. “If I hadn’t upset you, you wouldn’t have made me stay,”

She looked at him, clearly not accepting his unspoken offer to shift the blame.

Simon said nothing else on the subject, but pushed the plate of biscuits closer to her. “Look on the brightside,” he joked.

“Which is?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me. You seem to be the expert.”

She laughed, and took a biscuit.

“Lemme think,” she said, taking a bite. She munched on it for a moment and then smiled.

“What?” he asked.

“The brightside,” she said, “is that I got to see you drunk.”

Simon rolled his eyes.

“Yeah. Bright.”

*

There was a loud knock on the door, and Inara jumped, smudging the ink on the paper before her.

“Come in,” she called.

Kaylee dashed into the shuttle, looking feverish. “Inara, you gotta help me,” she gasped.

“Of course, sweetie,” Inara said calmly, getting to her feet, wondering what had got the young mechanic so jumpy.

“Can I borrow some tea?”

Inara blinked. That certainly hadn’t been what she expected.

“Er, of course,” she said, moving gracefully towards her store and pulling out a small decorative tin in which to heap the grains. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Kaylee shifting nervously from foot to foot. Amused, Inara watched as the girl craned her neck to look at the clock.

“Are we in a hurry?” Inara asked, trying to keep the amusement in her voice to a minimum.

“Um,” Kaylee started, clearly wanting to say yes but not wishing to be rude.

Smiling, Inara hurriedly tipped some tea into the tiny tin.

“I would remind you that we’re landing in a few hours to stock up, but apparently that isn’t soon enough,” she said, as she handed Kaylee the tin.

Kaylee offered no explanation but leaned over to kiss Inara’s cheek.

“Thank you so much,” she said quickly and rushed from the shuttle.

Inara shook her head, bemused. She turned to look at the clock, as if it could offer her some enlightenment. It didn’t, but simply informed her that it was ten to eleven.

* Simon sat in his chair, watching the captain sleep. He kept glancing out the door and checking his watch, both pointless endeavours, as he couldn’t leave the infirmary. He glanced at one of the screens, which informed him that Mal was still fine.

It was hard to shake the memory of following the trail of blood Mal had left all the way to the bridge, harder still to forget the image of him lying there, covered in blood, almost dead. Simon wondered if any one else on the crew knew just how close they had been to losing their captain. It had been a matter of minutes… if Wash hadn’t been able to give Mal blood, it would have been too late.

That wasn’t something that Simon wanted to think about. As much as he conflicted with Mal on many things, Simon respected the man, and he also appreciated fully the lengths to which the captain had gone to keep Simon and River safe. Simon swallowed hard. There was definitely something to be said for working in a hospital where you didn’t know any of your patients. The constant emotional turmoil on top of everything else was getting to be more than he could bear.

He wished he could be in the galley with Kaylee, drinking tea.

As if she could read his mind, she appeared at the infirmary door, smiling brightly and holding two steaming mugs. She moved towards him, her smile faltering only slightly as her eyes passed over the sleeping captain.

“Figured you wouldn’t wanna leave him,” she said, by way of explanation, eyes still on Mal. “He gonna be okay?” she asked, handing him his mug.

“He’ll be fine,” Simon said, knowing the words were true. He stood up and offered the chair to Kaylee, who giggled as she took it.

“Such a gentleman,” she teased.

Simon blushed. He hated that he blushed so easily. He wanted to think of a snappy comeback but his mind was blank so he took a sip of tea and said nothing.

Kaylee started slowly spinning back and forth in the chair, a look of child-like joy on her face.

“Enjoying yourself?” he asked, watching her.

“Yup,” she replied, giggling.

“You’ll spill your tea.”

She pulled a face. “Simon.”

“Kaylee.”

“You’re such a spoilsport.”

He stuck out his tongue and she laughed in surprise, spilling a little tea in her lap. He started chuckling at that, and opened his mouth to speak.

“Don’t” she protested. “Don’t say it!”

“Say what?” he asked playfully.

“You know what.”

“What?”

“Simon!”

He gave her the most innocent look he could muster.

“Kaylee,” he said, seriously.

“What?”

He looked her in the eye, his face impassive. “I told you so.”

*

Kaylee was making Simon very nervous, not least because she was swinging her chair back on two legs, talking animatedly. He wordlessly edged closer, just in case.

“… an’ he just shoots the guy in the leg, and asks the captain how big a room!” she was saying, giggling. “Can you believe that?”

The chair wobbled a little, and Simon flinched. “Knowing Jayne? Yes, actually.”

Kaylee shot him a look. “He ain’t so bad.” Then she smirked. “He’s jus’ jealous of you, is all.”

This statement momentarily grabbed Simon’s full attention. “Jayne? Jealous? Of me?”

Kaylee nodded. “S’what I said.”

Simon shook his head dismissively. “That’s crazy,” he said, distracted once more by the chair’s insistent swaying. “Kaylee, maybe you should…”

“How’s it crazy? You gots lots o’ things to be jealous of.”

Simon remained unconvinced. “Are you referring to my status as a fugitive or my mentally unstable sister?”

Kaylee swung her chair back onto four legs with a resounding bang. Simon breathed a sigh of relief. They heard an annoyed Jayne-like yell from below, and ignored it.

“You gots lots of things,” Kaylee repeated quietly, but it appeared she didn’t want to elaborate.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Simon searched for something to say.

“So… Mal let Jayne on board, just like that?”

With a nod, Kaylee swung back up onto two legs. “Yep. Brought him on an’ never looked back.”

There came more cursing from the cargo bay, and shared an appreciative smirk. “Well, rarely looked back,” Kaylee amended.

She hesitantly rested her feet on the table, and Simon gulped.

“Are you sure that’s safe?”

She only gave him an amused look in reply.

Though less than reassured, Simon spoke again. “So, how did you end up on the crew?”

Then, Kaylee did the last thing he expected. She blushed.

“Oh, there ain’t much of a story. Just captain was looking for a mechanic an’ he found me. Used to work for my daddy, wanted to see the ‘verse…” she shrugged. “An’ here I am.”

Simon smiled. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” she confirmed, not meeting his eye.

“Then why are you going red?” he teased.

“I ain’t!”

Simon laughed. “Kaylee. You’re blushing. Come on, tell me the story.”

She was beginning to smile reluctantly, he noticed. He reached forward and poked her in the side playfully, making her giggle and squirm.

“Okay, okay,” she gasped in surrender. “I’ll tell you…”

She turned to face him, but her sudden movement tipped the balance of her chair, and she was falling. Moving faster than he’d known he could, Simon reached out and grabbed her waist, pulling her towards him as the chair hit the floor with a crash.

They both looked at each other in silence as the sounds of a violent Jayne approaching reached their ears. Simon felt aware of only one thing; how close she was, practically sitting in his lap. Her face was near to his, too, pink and flushed. He felt inexplicably breathless, and suddenly realized how hot it had got.

“Er, I…” he stuttered, looking anywhere but at her lips, her eyes.

“Thank you,” she breathed, and involuntarily, he met her eyes.

“You’re welcome,” he whispered, unconsciously inching closer.

“What the ruttin’ hell is going on up here?” yelled Jayne, storming into the galley and not noticing the two spring apart. “Every time you two feel the need to hurl furniture around, I bang my head on the ruttin’ grate.” He paused to take in the sight, Kaylee now standing next to Simon, both flushed and out of breath. His eyes narrowed, his expression suddenly unusually shrew. “What the…”

“We’re sorry, Jayne,” Kaylee interrupted hurriedly. “Jus’ fell of my chair is all.” She forced a smile. “S’what you get when you swing back, ain’t it?”

Simon said nothing, and the pair watched as Jayne lurched from the room, muttering angrily to himself as he went.

“Simon, I…” Kaylee started, as soon as Jayne was out hearing distance.

Simon thought about the way his heart was pounding, about why it was pounding, and cut her off. “I have to go.”

Not trusting himself to look at her, he smiled in her general direction and hurried from the room.