Thanks to Mal4Prez for the beta.

Part I can be found:Here

Part II: Here.

Part III: Here

Part IV

Part V

“Kaylee?”

The raspy voice drew her awake in an instant and she lifted her head. Her eyes went wide as relief flooded through her body. Everything would be ok now that he was awake. She could tell him everything that was on her mind; that she was sorry for yelling at him like she had, that she wanted to hear what he had tried to tell her that morning. “Simon!” Kaylee beamed at him and clutched his hand, unaware that she was squeezing too tight until she saw him wince.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She met River’s own smiling gaze on the other side of the bed and released his fingers.

“It’s all right,” he said, his voice cracking from disuse. He tried to shift in bed but couldn’t move very easily and finally gave up with a pain-laced sigh.

“Do you need anything? Want me to get the doctor?” Kaylee’s eyes swept down his body; noting the brace wrapped around his broken arm, the multitude of bandages seemingly covering more of him than his own clothes.

Simon blinked slowly, as if trying to clear suddenly blurry vision. Kaylee had read all about the after effects of a concussion as bad as Simon had sustained, and was prepared to do whatever she could to make his recovery easier. But his whispered response shook her resolve ever so slightly – he didn’t want her help.

Kaylee watched with a tight smile as River held a small cup with a straw to his lips. He took brief sips, coughed a few times as the cool liquid worked its way down his bruised throat, then waved the cup away.

“I’ll be ok.” His face held a barely convincing expression and he smiled weakly at Kaylee before shifting his gaze around the medical center. After a few more moments, he finally seemed to register that he was a patient. His eyes narrowed and his eyes swept around the room once more before alternating between Kaylee and River. A hand went to his ribs as he tried to inhale too deeply and was rewarded by a stab of pain. “What – happened?”

Kaylee’s heart sank and her eyes dimmed just a bit more. This hadn’t been how she’d imagined things would go once he woke up. “You don’t remember?“ She met River’s own worried gaze before looking back at him.

“I don’t. It’s all a blur.” Simon closed his eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. “Along with my vision,” he muttered. When he opened them again, he asked River to get the chart sitting at the end of his bed.

Kaylee eyed him skeptically, wondering just how he was going to read through the chart with his injuries. But she didn’t have to think on it for too long. River held open the document for him so that he could more easily read the contents. Fleetingly, she felt like a third wheel, intruding on some intensely private time with Simon and his sister; his family. She wasn’t family – she was a friend. When she leaned back and released his fingers, she could see River’s eyes rise over the bed and pin her in place.

Before either of them could speak, Simon’s raspy voice intruded on their thoughts.

“I’ve been unconscious for –“ He shook his head and Kaylee could see him try to desperately work out the dates in his head. He closed his eyes and opened them again, clearly trying to focus his thoughts. “Four days? Five?”

“Two.”

“Two days?” Simon repeated, eyes narrowed in confusion. “No, that’s not right. I don’t –“ He placed a hand to his head, as if his fingers could more quickly help pry out the memory of the days he’d lost. “– remember… We’ve been here longer than –“

“You don’t remember – nothin’?” Kaylee’s voice squeaked and her hands trembled where she now hid them in her lap. So absorbed was he with concentrating on his chart, he didn’t notice that she’d let his hand go. She held her breath and chewed her bottom lip as she waited for him to confirm a fear she hadn’t even considered a possibility. If he didn’t remember their night – She could see Simon think for a moment. “Just – we arrived in the middle of some big battle. And I went to work in the med center.” He shook his head before looking to River and then Kaylee. “Is there more? Something else?”

Kaylee’s heart began to pound so hard she was sure they could see her chest vibrate with the strength of it. She forced her face to remain impassive but her mind whirled with the implications of his memory loss. She couldn’t think quickly enough to answer him.

“Kaylee?”

She blinked, suddenly remembering that he’d asked her a question. She shook her head and leaned away; her proximity to him suddenly stifling. She wanted to run away, needed to get away. Needed some space to breathe, to process, to understand what was happening. And she couldn’t do it sitting right in front of him. Not when he didn’t remember what they’d done. She remembered every detail with startling clarity.

She forced herself to look into his face, still bruised and a brilliant purple from his injuries. “Nothin’ as important as savin’ all them people.”

Kaylee looked away, but she could feel River’s eyes on her. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what the young girl was thinking.

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

Kaylee wandered aimlessly around the perimeter of the medical center, her thoughts all a jumble. The doctor had told her that it was possible Simon’s memory of the events prior to his injury would come back on their own, once the swelling from his concussion went down. But Kaylee was afraid that he would never remember, and they would have to continue their lives as they had been living them – before that night.

She blinked back the tears that started to sting the corner of her eyes and picked up a hand-sized piece of something solid. Some remnant of a building or some such other thing destroyed because of this unexpected battle. She turned it over in her hands for a few moments before hurling it as far as she could with a frustrated grunt.

“Think you’d be a mite happier now that the doc’s awake.”

Kaylee looked back over her shoulder at the captain, his fingers curled around his suspenders, a playful smile on his face. She shrugged and heaved a few breaths before turning to face him.

“Simon’s missin’ a couple days.”

“Yeah, Zoe said as much. Doc’s say he’ll probably get those memories back, given some time.”

“Maybe.” Kaylee shrugged. She knew her melancholy mood would concern Mal and he’d ask why, so she forced herself to smile for him. She wasn’t ready to tell him what had happened between her and Simon before he’d been hurt. “’Sides, what’s the point of rememberin’ anyway? All he did was spend a few sleepless nights patchin’ up a few hundred bleedin’ bodies. Ain’t nothin’ important he’d need to remember. I could do with not rememberin’ some of them bodies I seen my own self.”

Kaylee swallowed hard and turned away. “Yeah.”

“Mal!”

Kaylee heaved a big sigh of relief when she heard Jayne call for the captain. “When we gettin’ off this rock?”

“Soon as Simon’s cleared for release. I want him healed enough to be workin’ if we need ‘em.”

“Man’s just layin’ on his back bein’ waited on hand and –“

Kaylee whirled toward Jayne, her eyes narrowed. “Same as he does for you when you’re hurt, Jayne.” With a whisper to herself, she added, “Same as he does for all of us.”

The mercenary looked as if he wanted to challenge Kaylee’s instant, but not unexpected, defense of their doctor, but the captain folded his arms and stared pointedly. Everyone knew that look. The Captain exhibited it frequently. It was the ‘argue and I’ll space you’ look. Luckily for them, he’d never acted on the unspoken threat. And – well, spacing them wouldn’t work this time since they were grounded until Simon was well again.

Jayne backed down for a moment, but he still shot an annoyed frown in Kaylee’s direction. “Anyway, all’s set an’ we’re ready to go soon as the little priss can walk hisself back to the ship.”

Kaylee watched forlornly as Mal directed Jayne back toward where the ship so she wouldn’t have to hear his constant grumbling. She stared at their departing backs until Zoe appeared next to her.

“He didn’t know.”

Kaylee looked away. She didn’t want to admit she’d been hurt by the captain’s comment. He didn’t know what happened between her and Simon; it wasn’t his fault. “I know.”

“Simon’ll remember. Just have to give him time.”

“It’s been two days.” Kaylee kicked the dirt.

“What’s he always saying about River?”

A moment of silence passed before Kaylee answered.

“Somethin’ about the brain bein’ a complicated – somethin’. Big words. Buncha doctor talk.”

“Right.” Zoe smiled and Kaylee felt a tug at the corner of her mouth.

Suddenly, Kaylee turned to face Zoe, hope brewing in her eyes. “Tell me he’s gonna remember. I can’t – I can’t look at ‘im every day if he don’t.”

“If he doesn’t, I’m sure you can find a way to work it into a conversation. Enlighten him a bit in your own way.”

Kaylee rolled her eyes in frustration. “Oh, yes, I can see it now. ‘Simon, please pass me a dinner roll. Oh, and by the way, we had sex an’ you don’t remember. An’ I wanna do it again.’ That’d go over real well.”

Zoe chuckled and Kaylee huffed in annoyance before a bubble of laughter slipped past her pursed lips. She could just imagine the look that’d come to his face if she told him that way. Not to mention discussing that particular subject at the dinner table. The captain might just well have a heart attack.

“Someplace private might be a bit more –“

“Less likely for the cap’n to over hear ‘an get angry.” Kaylee nodded her agreement and began planning just how and where she was going to tell Simon about that night. She’d wait until he was healed. Or – maybe she’d tell him when he wasn’t mobile enough to get away from her too quickly.

“Wouldn’t want him to threaten to throw the doc out the airlock. Might need him.”

Kaylee shook her head. “That wouldn’t be very nice.”

“Well - haven’t you heard?”

At Kaylee’s questioning look, Zoe continued.

“The captain ain’t a very nice man.”

The two women laughed and Kaylee felt her previous anger melt away. If Simon didn’t remember, she would find a way to tell him – whether he wanted to hear it or not.

TBC ----------

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