Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

Takes place shortly after the series ended and about a month after the events in Delta Rain.

Thanks to CassieE, bugchicklv and jebbypal for the beta and everyone else for their patience. Also, I think this now counts as an AU, I won't be incorporating the BDM in so it's all series based.

Chinese translations: Wuo de ma: Mother of Jesus shénme?: what? fèi huà: garbage

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Mal studied Monty while he tried to decide how much to tell the older man about his situation. He’d long suspected that Monty still had ties to the small pockets of Independents that had gone underground, refusing to admit they had been defeated.

If he was right then Monty may already know more about the program that River had been in, might even have ties to those that had gotten her out. Ever since Simon had first told them his story on getting River out Mal had suspected that the group that helped him was one of these surviving cells.

If he was wrong though, if he was wrong he might be turning River and Simon over to someone else that might betray them. Not that he didn’t trust Monty not too, but it wasn’t his decision to make. It should be Simon sitting here deciding if he could trust this man with his secret, not Mal.

“Spit it out Reynolds. Much as I love the hospitality, I know ya didn’t invite me over for tea.” Monty gestured at his neglected teacup for emphasis.

Mal pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep sigh before answering. “No Monty, I didn’t. Two of my crew are in danger and I was hoping you might be able to help me get them out.”

“Which two?” Monty asked, his eyes sharpening with interest.

“Jayne, who you’ve met, and my Doctor.”

“You got yourself a doctor?” The way Monty’s eyes widened in shock almost made letting that piece of information drop worth it.

“Picked him up a while back,” Mal continued, “the boy needed to avoid Alliance attention…seemed like a fortuitous situation at the time.”

“But he got himself pinched, along with Jayne?” Monty leaned forward, his big paws wrapping around his cup.

“Not…exactly.” Mal said slowly, he knew good and well that Monty had more smarts than he seemed to at times and the gleam in the old warhorse’s eyes told him he had his suspicions on who his fugitive doctor might be already. “They were initially grabbed by an old enemy of mine on Persephone, he turned them over to..well, we aren’t quite sure who got them. But we think they are connected to Blue Sun.”

“Ain’t that many doctor fugitives that would catch the interest of Blue Sun Corporation.” There was a definite thoughtful look on Monty’s face as he continued, “Not too many that would catch the Fed’s attention for that matter, and only one that’s been popping up on the Core issued warrants regularly for the past year or so. Only one that’d be young enough for you to be calling ‘boy’. Course, always seemed to me they were more interested in retrieving his sister than him, what with the fact that she‘s the one they want alive and all.”

Monty was looking at him questioningly, but Mal just stared him down and asked softly, “Are you gonna be able to help?”

“Not sure I’m the right person to ask that, Mal.” Monty met his eyes. “Blue Sun and the Fed’s ain’t the only ones looking for the Tam’s. The boy was expected to show up on Boros and never did.”

“I want my crew back, and I ain’t turning them over to no one else.” Mal stated firmly. “I no longer answer to the cause, war‘s over and I ain‘t having my people dragged into the middle of a bloodbath to satisfy those that can‘t get that through their thick skulls.”

He felt a certain satisfaction at Monty’s surprised look, that old bear wasn’t the only one good at guessing secrets. The two war buddies locked gazes, neither of them wanting to be the one to look away first.

Mal was so intent on his stare-down with Monty that he didn’t realize anyone had come in until he heard the soft grunt of disgust off to his left. With a slight jump he looked over to see River, his one consolation was that Monty looked even more scared by the intrusion than he was.

Then the realization hit him that he’d just lost any chance he had of bluffing out of it being the Tam’s on his ship the minute Monty saw her. And just what was the gorram girl doing up already? They had just shot her full of smoothers not an hour ago.

The object of his distress just stood there with her hands on her hips and glared at them, “The wolves don't have time to fight over the kill...we have to locate the pups first.”

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There was much yelling coming from the mess-hall. Wash could hear Monty bellowing on about not seeing why it had to be his ship going into the docks on Persephone and being linked to the gorram jailbreak. And Mal’s equally loud retort that they hadn’t put Serenity together with the Tam’s yet, so why should they suspect a ship that had never been in the vicinity of any of the River sightings so far of being involved?

Zoe’s warm tones murmured under the din, too low to make out what thoughts she was adding to the mix. It seemed to do the trick though, as Monty’s next comment was said at a lower decibel than before. Wash listened with one ear while the conversation went at a more subdued level.

“Need a Trojan horse to lead the way, it has to be me.” River said softly behind him.

Dinosaur’s went flying everywhere as Wash jumped out of his chair at the intrusion. “Wuo de ma River, don’t sneak up on folks like that.”

“And why are you telling me that anyway, why not Mal?” he asked as she giggled and bent to retrieve one of the dino’s from under the console.

“Still too loud for them to hear,” she said softly, her eyes growing serious as she placed the velociraptor back in place. “The barking is done, but the growling is still there.”

“Well, you know how these alpha males are,” he said with a twinkle, “They should just accept the fact that Zoë’s the boss and be done with it. I know it made my life a lot easier.”

“Hope you aren’t asking me to be the one to drop that little bombshell of a plan on them though.” Wash knew Mal would take it even worse from him than he would River.

“No, asking you to tell Zoë so she can.” River beamed up at him like he was the second coming of Simon. Well, least it wasn’t the second coming of Jayne.

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A quick flash out of the corner of her eye caught Zoë’s attention; she turned to see her husband making his usual frantic gestures in the doorway. Just what she needed now, one more male wanting her attention. With a soft sigh she started to shake her head no and mouth not now to him but River’s head popped up over his shoulder before she could.

After a quick glance at Mal and Monty to make sure they weren’t on the brink of throttling each other again, she rose and went over to the pair in the doorway. Wash and River in cahoots was something that needed to be investigated.

“What is it,” she asked softly as she reached them, trying to place when River had left the discussion in the common room.

“River has a plan, or part of a plan,” Wash pulled her deeper into the hallway as he spoke. “She didn’t feel that they would hear her out so she came to me to get me to come to you with it. See, if you bring it up they might listen.”

Zoë felt her face settle into its best ‘Wash, you’re rambling’ look. As always, it worked; Wash cleared his throat and tried again.

“She thinks you need a Trojan horse,” Wash beamed at her.

“What?” she asked sharply. Oh, this was not going to go over well with Mal if they meant what she thought they did.

“A Trojan horse, Greek mythology? The fall of Troy? Helen, the most beautiful woman that ever lived before my Zoë? You know….” Wash trailed off as River piped in helpfully.

“Or a Trojan bunny, bunny would work too. Just don’t forget to put me in it.”

Zoë was a bit relieved that even Wash looked puzzled at that comment. She shook her head slightly to clear the disturbing vision of a giant bunny being pushed up to a Blue Sun office building by Mal and Monty away.

“Let me get this straight,” she asked River, trying to get them back on track, “you want me to convince Mal that using you to get some of us inside without arousing suspicion is a good plan?”

“Not saying that it isn’t.” She held up a hand to stop the stream of protests about to come from two of her three loonies. “I’m just saying convincing Mal it is might be asking a bit much.”

“Won’t let you in without me.” River said, her voice so soft that Zoë suddenly understood the girl did not bring this plan forth lightly. It eased her mind on it while breaking her heart.

And she was right, River was their best shot at getting past the front door in one piece. They would need all their forces at full strength to find Simon and Jayne and get out. Plus River knew the layout, therefore the most likely place they would be keeping them. It made all kinds of sense for her to be coming along, except for the fact that if things went horribly wrong, Blue Sun would have River right where they wanted her.

Oh, this was not going to be fun.

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Monty couldn’t believe they were still arguing about this; Mal could be a stubborn ass at times. Zoë had brought forth the best plan they’d had yet and the damn fool couldn’t admit it was the only plan they had that stood a chance of succeeding. Hell, he’d even agreed to the part about it being his ship and his people going in!

But no, Mal had to get all hung up on the tiny little detail of River going in with them. He felt his eyes drawn to where the little girl was calmly knitting nearby. She seemed downright normal compared to what he’d heard about the other kids; if you ignored the fact that she was muttering “not now, dear” under her breath while she worked.

He couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t been delayed on the way to Persephone. If River had made it to Boros as planned where they had Doctors waiting to help her brother care for her; not that they’d been much help to the others.

“Purple mountains rose from the sea, you had no choice but to go round the long way,” her soft words suddenly made sense, if only to him, as her large brown eyes looked up at him.

“Shénme?” Mal asked, his tone giving away his annoyance at not understanding the left turn this conversation had just taken.

Monty supposed he couldn’t blame him, the comment seemed so random. Least, it did if you didn’t know about the gorram Fed’s and their gorram checkpoint. Or that the plan to get River out had included transport to Boros. He wondered just how much Dr. Tam had told Mal about how he’d gotten his sister out of that ‘school’. And just how did River know what it was that had delayed him anyway?

“Zipped his lips and tossed the key,” River said in an almost sing-song fashion before continuing in what seemed to be her normal voice. “The missing puzzle piece has been found.”

“You know what she’s talking about?” Mal asked him.

“Yeah, although not quite sure how she’s knowing it,” Monty replied, suddenly tired of the cat and mouse game him and Mal had been playing since he got on board. Hell, if he couldn’t trust Mal and Zoë, who could he trust? Those two had saved his hide more than once. “Never actually met any of them before, they were still in stasis when I was near them.”

“Them?” Zoë prompted softly.

“She ain’t the first one they got out, she was the last though,” Monty took a deep breath to steady his nerves. “They seemed to take her escape a bit more personal then the others, think they weren’t quite done with her. The others, well, they’re pretty much vegetables from what I hear.”

“I only ran transport for ‘em,” he added quickly before Mal could shoot off the questions burning in his eyes. “Rest I know is just what I’ve picked up second hand. We were delayed that trip by a Federation blockade outside of Mirabilis. We missed the pick-up time and Dr. Tam and his sister were gone when we got there. Been keeping an eye out for some trace of them ever since.”

“Contact we had inside hasn’t been heard from since,” he added softly. “And several other employee’s have had missing persons reports filed on them.“

“That place has been nailed up tighter then a two-bit whore talking to a john with only one-bit since that little girl got out,” he added with a nod to Inara, “pardoning my language, Ma’am”

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“Not now, dear“? What the hell kind of fèi huà comment was that? Who did she think he was, Wash? To be brushed off like that without so much as a “Good job Jayne, I knew you could do it. I knew you could reach me”?

Gorram girl, didn’t she know how hard concentrating like that was for him? He wasn’t the gorram mind reader. She better not be getting herself into any kinda trouble while he gone. Girl was more then a mite headstrong and likely to set off on some fool plan to save him and the Doc. Mal best be keeping her safe or he’d have to..what? Haunt him to death?

Weren’t like he’d be getting out of this mess to do nothing to Mal if any harm did come to River.

No, he couldn’t be thinking like that, it would drive him crazy. Besides, he’d seen a flash of something in her hands before she shoved him off. It had looked like her damn knitting needles, weaving in and out of that silly pink yarn Simon had got her. Had to have been what she was doing, he was sure of it.

So she must be safe and sound on Serenity. If he just kept the image of her sitting there calmly knitting baby clothes then it would be true. Even if she wouldn’t be knitting any for him now least he could be sure she was knitting some for Wash and Zoe and maybe, someday, she‘d meet another man and knit for him.

Not that he wanted to be thinking that way either, was almost worse then thinking of her coming after him and getting herself killed. No, best if he just kept himself focused on that last bit of contact he’d had from her. He’d just have to squeeze every ounce out of it and hope it lasted longer than he did.

He already missed the tiny little clinking of her needles as they flashed in and out of the yarns she worked with. He’d loved sitting there watching her; her sweet face tilted down, her soft lips moving slightly as she counted off her stitches, her pale fingers delicately holding the needles.

But most of all, he loved the way her tiny, pink tongue peeked out between her lips on those rare occasions her rows didn’t line up and she had to unravel what she’d done and fix it. It always had to be just perfect.

No one but his Ma had ever taken such care when making him anything. Hell, no one else but Ma had ever bothered to make him anything at all. Made him feel safe and loved, special.

With a soft sigh he settled more comfortably against the wall behind him and closed his eyes, letting the planes of River’s sweet face form in his mind. He’d long ago memorized every curve.

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