Kaylee turned around in a circle, and near dislocated her neck trying to see herself from all sides in the tall mirror. Yeah, it had been worth it, getting a new outfit. It was a little bit plain for her tastes, with no ruffles or anything anywhere, but the fabric had a rainbow-color pattern. Couldn’t beat that. And Kaylee was fairly sure that it would serve its purpose. She smiled at the thought. Heck, she almost squealed. And that was the ultimate goal here, wasn’t it? To have a certain someone make her squeal. She wrapped a towel around her waist and walked out of the room. That smile on her face remained firmly attached as she noticed how many eyes she turned going through the hotel. Even stepping through the door right onto the beach, where most of the women weren’t wearing any more than she was, Kaylee still got quite some notice. Now, where was he? After searching for a minute or so, shielding her eyes from the hot, bright glare of the sun, she spotted him sitting on his towel on the sand. Her smile grew even wider. Simon was dressed for the beach, too. Kaylee hurried over to the doctor’s side. What was he doing there? Had he brought his palmtop to the *beach?* She shook her head. And he’d been such a good boy so far during their vacation. “Simon?” “Oh, hi, Kaylee,” he said, without even looking up! “Sorry about this, I’ll be done in a second.” Kaylee put her hands on her hips and fumed. The only reason she even let him get away with it was because, well, he was sitting right there in front of her, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Kaylee honestly wasn’t that shallow—but c’mon! How often did she get a chance like this with prim’n’proper Simon Tam? She’d accepted that it would take Simon a long time to arrive anywhere near where she wanted him, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use something to chew on when she was lying alone in bed at night. Strictly metaphorically speaking, of course. So far. Fortunately though, Simon was true to his word. From the looks of it, he only put away some files before shutting off the palmtop and putting it away in his bag. Then he finally looked at her. “I…” He didn’t get any further than that. Kaylee grinned again at Simon’s eyes, as they got noticeably wider taking in her new bikini. “You like?” She dropped the towel to the ground and turned in a circle to show it all off to the good doctor. “It’s… How should I put this…” She looked at him expectantly. “Shiny. It’s very shiny.” He returned her grin. “Eeh! Isn’t it? I’m so glad to get rid of that old bathing suit!” She bent down to straighten out her towel, and then sat down cross-legged close to Simon. And if their legs touched occasionally, well, surely it could be accidentally. Kaylee noted with glee that Simon’s eyes were still on her—although, of course, it was in his gentlemanly, trying-not-to-stare way. “What *were* you doing there, Simon? Do I have to repeat my no business rule for the vacation? I let all the fancy tech they have here pass by without comment, you leave the med tests back on Serenity.” “You know, Kaylee,” he said, “I really don’t mind you talking about surf-gliders or new developments in engine design. You always seem so wonderfully delighted when you discover something new like that.” For some reason, Kaylee blushed, and looked down. Then she quickly looked back up, and put some effort into creating an as serious as possible glare. “Don’t change the subject, Simon.” “Oh, I, eh… A while back, I rented some bandwidth on a supercomputer to run some simulations on the scans I took of River’s brain on Ariel and later data I managed to gather on the ship. I’ve been worried about stresses that seem to be building up in her…” He shook his head, losing his frown. “Anyway, I just got a message that the results are in. I can read them in more detail later—I’ll need the equipment on the ship anyway.” Kaylee leaned in close, and whispered, “Isn’t that kinda risky? I mean, if the Feds are watching, and recognize River’s brain…” “It’s highly unlikely that they could,” Simon replied, leaning in and whispering too in automatic response to Kaylee’s actions, “but just in case, I uploaded the information from a public cortex access point, and I’ll download it from one, too. We’ll be on the other end of the system, the time anyone thinks to trace that.” Simon finished talking, and suddenly their faces were awfully close together. Without making any conscious decision about it, Kaylee started to lean in further. Her already racing heart picked up a notch when Simon did the same, a look of happy panic in his eyes. “Ahem,” someone went right next to them. They both jumped, and jerked backwards, away from each other. Kaylee instantly regretted it, but it was too late. The moment had been thoroughly flushed out of the airlock. “Hi there, you crazy kids,” Wash said, obviously uncomfortable to have interrupted them, but probably a whole lot less than he would have been if he *hadn’t* had made his presence known. Zoë, standing by her husband’s side, just looked… amused. At least, Kaylee figured, it was good to see the two of them. “Zoë! Wash! I thought you guys would be out in the countryside for a few days longer?” Wash shrugged. “Would’a, should’a, if we could’a. Turns out we’re not all indestructible warrior women, and some of us get blisters on our blisters after hiking for a week. And while I’m on the subject, mind if we join you and sit down?” “Of course!” “Ah,” Wash sighed in relief as he sat. “My feet thank you from the bottom of their soles.” “Do you need me to…?” It was cute how Simon looked to Kaylee for approval while offering his help, but no business rule or not, it wasn’t as if Kaylee was going to object to saving a friend some pain. “Thanks, but nah,” Wash said. “Some local witchdoctor already looked at them.” As nice as it was to be reunited with friends, an uncomfortable silence soon grew between them. Kaylee was still far too excited about what had almost happened to take it lying down. “Wanna go swimming?” she asked Simon. He looked genuinely surprised at the idea. How he could not have connected the beach and the ocean, Kaylee had no idea. But, “Eh, yeah, sounds like fun,” he said. Zoë promised to watch their stuff, and the two of them went off. The water was freezing in spite of the scorching sun. Kaylee jumped straight in, wished she hadn’t, and then soon got used to the cold. A surf-glider swished by her, floating inches above the water. It was far too close to the coastline and the many swimmers there. Idiot surfer. The speeds that thing went, that was dangerous as *suo-yo duh doh shr-dang.* She looked at Simon, who was coming towards her, methodically wading in deeper one step at a time. So he thought that he could avoid to shock of the cold that way, didn’t he? Ooh, not on Kaylee’s watch. She swung a few strokes towards him, and then stood up—all the better to splash water in his face. “Kaylee!” “What?” she laughed. “Is the big doctor afraid of a little—” Taunting Simon wasn’t smart—meant she had her mouth wide open when his retaliatory strike hit her in the face. “Agh! Gross!” she said, spitting out salt water and laughing. “Oh! I’m going to get you for that!” She jumped at Simon. Caught by surprise, Simon’s resistance was feeble as she pushed him under water. Ha! Going swimming was the best idea she’d had all day! “No power in the ’Verse can—Whoooa!” Simon’s hands were on her legs, which would have been fine with her, if he hadn’t used the contact to yank those legs out from under her, plunging her down under the waves right beside him. When they resurfaced, Simon had her firmly trapped. His arms were around her, locking her arms to her sides. They were face to face, and face very close to face at that. “You forget,” Simon smiled, “I do have a sister—I learned how to fight dirty a long time ago.” Kaylee pressed herself against him. They were so close now that the tips of their noses touched. “Trust me,” she said. It came out as a whisper. “No fight with your sister was ever dirty in the way this fight is about to get dirty…” It hung in the air for a few seconds, as Kaylee enjoyed the moment and wondered if Simon was going to make the next move, or if she was going to have to. That was a mistake. She should have grabbed the opportunity while she had it in her grasp. All of a sudden, there was the loud noise of a collision, and a cry of pain. Startled, they looked up, breaking the lingering eye contact. A little distance away, a kid was hurriedly climbing back onto his surf-glider—in just a few seconds, he was shooting away across the water at top speed. There was someone else in the water, though—a woman—and she didn’t seem to be moving. There was red on the water. Blood. It was an aquatic hit-and-run. Simon dove forward, swimming to the rescue with long strokes. Kaylee followed just a second later. She was a faster swimmer than he was, and reaching the semi-conscious woman first, she started pulling her along to the beach. A crowd had already formed when she reached the shore, and eager hands helped pull the woman out of the water. They put her on her back, and someone pressed a towel against the heavily bleeding wound on the side of her head. Panting heavily, Simon stormed onto the sand, and started pushing people aside without a care to get to the woman. To the sound of the worried complaints from the bystanders, Simon flipped the woman over onto her stomach, getting sand into the wound. His actions became a lot clearer when he squeezed the woman’s chest, and she coughed out half a bucket of seawater. Kaylee could have hit herself. They’d all been so preoccupied with the obvious blood loss that they’d forgotten that the poor woman had been unconscious in the water. “I need more towels here,” Simon said. “She’s lost a lot of blood—we need to keep her warm.” He spoke with such determined confidence now that he was obeyed without question. “Has someone called an amb—?” And at that, an ambulance came flying in around the tall building of the hotel, followed by a police cruiser. Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed Kaylee’s arm, and started dragging her along. It took her a moment of confusion to realize that it was Zoë’s, and that she was dragging Simon along as well. “Time to jet,” Zoë said. “Those are Feds, and they’re going to want to speak to the doctor who saw the accident and saved that woman.” Simon gulped, and Kaylee knew how he felt. The warrant out for his and River’s arrests could never be far from his mind. Zoë brought them to a halt outside a row of changing cubicles. Wash came running up carrying their stuff. He tossed Simon’s bag into his hands. “Here, change into your clothes. It’ll make enough of a difference for people who had other things on their minds than to pay attention to your looks.” Simon nodded solemnly. He looked at Kaylee before he went inside. Kaylee wasn’t sure what that look meant, but when Wash handed her her towel, and he and Zoë walked a little distance away to watch the scene more inconspicuously, she quickly snuck in after Simon, into the same cubicle. “Kaylee?” He sounded shocked. Well, he was only drying himself off. Not as if he was naked in here yet. “We were interrupted,” she said, and then had to swallow. Wow. All that build-up ever since they’d met, and now she was finally pushing through with it, finally going to come right out and say it. “I believe you were just about to attempt to put your tongue down my throat.” Simon was flabbergasted, of course. He tried to say something, but couldn’t manage to get it out. That kind of talk would send him into a near panic, Kaylee had known that, but it helped her. And she needed all her confidence for this. “Hush,” she whispered, stepping in closer. This time, swear to God, she would have ignored any other distraction than the one they got. Cubicle on fire? Everyone on the beach popping in to watch? Wouldn’t have mattered. “Do you hear that?” she asked, stunned. “Say what?” He didn’t, of course. He wouldn’t have known the sound if he had been paying attention—even Kaylee should really have been distracted enough not to have heard it, but apparently she honestly *could* recognize the sound of Serenity’s engine anywhere, anytime. Simon was understandably confused by the sudden mixed signals, but he followed her outside. And sure enough, there was Serenity in the sky above them. It looked like she had just finished a low fly-over, in a circle wide enough to cover the entire town. Now she flew up higher, and turned a smaller circle. Halfway through, the port engine suddenly started leaving a trail of red smoke. Kaylee frowned—that was not the result of any kind of malfunction. She could actually think of how it could be done, but… why? “That’s… that’s Independents code,” Zoë said. “There’s trouble. Emergency pick-up at… five miles west of town? I think. I haven’t seen this for years…” “Better get going then,” Wash chimed in. “Faster we get to the ship the better. From the way he’s flying, Mal’s either drunk, or he’s been shot again.” “Right,” Kaylee said quietly. There went her vacation, and everything that came with it… “Right. I’ll go throw my things in a suitcase.” A hand on her arm stopped her. “No.” “No?” “A few minutes won’t make a difference,” Simon said. “And there are more urgent things.” Kaylee was about to ask what those were, but as she parted her lips to speak the words, another pair of lips covered them. And she quite simply stopped caring about returning to the ship. *Pi-gu,* for a while there, she forgot there was a ship at all.

--------------------------------------------------------------- New chapters (almost) weekly--now previewing on www.BattleOfSerenity.tk, Chapter 13: Black and Blue.