Simon Says

Is Simon a caring brother who gave up everything to rescue his sister from a torture camp or just a crazy kidnapper? An AU seen through a different POV.

Usual disclaimer: This is my first Firefly fanfic, constructive critism always appreciated. Unadulterated praise is even more appreciated. My apolgies for any grammatical mistakes but I'm not a writer by profession and I couldn't spell correctly without a spell checker to save my life.

Oh yeah, and Firefly and all it's characters belong to Joss Whedon.

Chapter I: Whitefalls

River screamed. It was so bright in the room. She groggily crawled out of the box, out of the dark into the light. Her mind was all muddled, where was she and who are all these people? She tried looking around but her head just kept spinning. And then she saw... him. "Simon...?", she whispered recognizing him. He spoke to her in low tones, "They're gone... they're gone. We're safe now. We're safe. we're safe, I'm here," Simon slowly approached her and drew her shaking body close to him. But she only continued to shake in fear. She had to to tell them, she had to warn them. That Simon was completely out of his gorram mind. But before she could take another breath she felt the all too familiar sting of a hypospray piercing her from her back. Simon quickly palmed the small hypo into his sleeve as he held her. River tried to keep her thoughts focused as the drugs once again flooded her system. The last thing she remembered at that point was someone asking, "What the hell is this?" and Simon answering, "This is my sister.." and she saw him flash his small secret smile of his to her before things starting fading to black. The very same smile he had when he locked her in the box.

* * * * * Malcom Reynolds was in a world of trouble. His latest passenger was apparently a wanted fugitive who broke his sister out of a covert goverment program in a cryo box. Then there was the matter of an Alliance officer who was chasing him tussled up, he needed answers. How much data did he transmitted before being taken out? Mal left the job up to Jayne to find out.

Now Jayne was a large man who may not have been the brightest, but got the job done. Ripping off the tape from the bound Dobson, Jayne gave him a real wide smile. He was always happy when he was about to get some fun. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?", Dobson threatened trying to sound as intimidating as possible despite being completely bound and and helpless before the big man. "Gee, I never been in trouble with the law before...", Jayne flippantly replied. "Not like this you haven't. You think this is just a smuggling rap? The girl that boy is carrying...", Dobson said before being cut off. "She's cute, too, but I don't think she's all there, y'know?", Jayne snapped back playfully before breaking into a lecherous grin. "Course, not all of her has to be..." Freaked out by Jayne's comments Dobson spit out, "That girl is precious. They'll come after her. Long after you bury me they'll be coming."

"Oh, I'm not gonna kill you, Dobson," Jayne laughed smacking him on the thigh with the flat of his rather large sharp knife. At that point Dobson lost his entire train of thought. He was unjarred by the menancing knife coming ever so closer to his flesh. He wanted to tell him that the girl was the daughter of a very important and influential man. A man who would stop at nothing to recover his lost little girl. He's already lobbied various law enforcement agencies and people in high government positions to recover his daughter at any cost. He even went as far as to offer a huge ransom to any bounty hunters to recover his wayword daughter. "What's your first name?" Jayne asked Dobson. "Laurence," Dobson nervously answered after a short pause. "Laurence. No, I'm just gonna cut on ya''til you tell me how much they know," Jayne said in a frightingly casual manner."

"They know everything. They know every name, every record -- they know how many nosehairs you've got," he bluffed in his panic. Jayne's demeaner changed to disappointment, "Ah, see -- they don't know a damn thing. It's all over your face, I ain't even... Was gonna get me a ear, too. Aren't you an officer of the law? Well, don't they teach you how to withstand interrogation? Can't even tell a damn lie." Dobson wasn't sure but the big man looked as if he might just explode in a fit of violence at any second.

Dobson decided to go for broke. "Let me speak the language you will understand. Money. This girl is worth a lot of money. I mean a lot. You kill me, there's nothing. But if you help me out, you'll have enough to buy your own ship," Although he kept telling himself he was just doing his duty, Dobson was actually looking forward to getting some of that reward for himself. Gabriel Tam was an extremely wealthy and influential man. Any officer that managed to rescue his daughter was not only looking at a huge monitary windfall but a huge accomodation to his career. After several agonizing seconds, what passed for a thoughtful look surfaced on Jayne's face.

* * * * *

Dobson knew the ship Serenity had landed on the planet Whitefalls. He wasn't sure if the big merc was going to accept his proposal to betray his crew but he did manage to find a sharp piece of discarded metal. He wasn't sure if the big man purposely left it for him in hopes for a small cut of the reward. Suprising Jayne demanded a fairly hefty price in order to outright turn against his captain. Dobson shook those doubts from his head, he still had a mission to accomplish and a girl to save.

He found River in the infirmiry. Intel seemed to be correct, the girl was being heavily medicated and suffering from delusions. She was barely making any sense at all. Gritting his teeth Dobson knew he just had to take her by force. He didn't have time to play nice. The important thing was to get the girl out of harms way. He felt bad enough about knocking out the Shepherd who was only trying to warn him that his life was might danger time was simply not a luxuary he could afford right now. He couldn't waste the time to convince the old Shepherd that he was one of the good guys and to just let him do his job. As he grabbed River he saw the girl he accidently shot before lying on a cot very much alive. He exhaled a sigh of relief, she wasn't dead. He would have hated himself if she died because he panicked before. But he was a seasoned field agent and he knew unfortunately a lot off innocents died in the crossfire. But River Tam was not going to be one of them today. Dobson tried to sound as menancing as possible, "Oh, I'm sorry about what happened before. But make so much as a sound, the next one goes through your throat." Dobson loathed himself for threatening an innocent girl but he had to fullfill his objective. He was too close to have this mission fall apart now.

As Dobson neared the exit with River he kept on trying to reassure her. He told her that he was just taking her back to her family. He wasn't sure if he was getting through to her. Damn that Doctor, who knows what type of brainwashing he's subjected this poor girl to. Speaking of the devil, just then Simon jumped down on top of him from the catwalk. Dobson tried to recover his dropped pistols but Simon was a hair faster than him and already had one of his guns aimed straight at him. The look on his face was that of a completely insane man. Dobson had no choice but to try and reason him. He hoped that Intel was wrong and that there was still a conscience in that young man.

"You gonna do that? You gonna kill a lawman in cold blood. I know what you did for your sister. I understand. It doesn't make you a killer." Dobson tried to remember his basic training in dealing with mentally unstable opponents, he had to try to befriend then and to appeal to their own sense of morality, to be on their side, to sympathize with their plight. "I don't wanna hurt anybody. I have a job to do. To uphold the law -- that's what we're talking about here." Was he getting through to him? Simon seemed to waver a bit. "There's nowhere you can take her the law won't find. Nobody is going to hurt her unless you hurt me." Moments passed but Simon just hardened his eyes and started muttering more to himself, "You'll never take her away from me", and started to squeeze the trigger on the gun. Dobson's life started flashing beforehis eyes. But then at that moment the airlock starts to open momentarily distracting Simon. Sensing his chance Dobson grabbed the gun lying by his feet and grabbed River. He hated putting the girl in the line of fire but he knew Simon would psychologically be unable to risk getting her hurt, or so he hoped. He might still make it, he might salavge this mission after all. He started giving orders feeling a bit more confident in the situation, "Anybody makes so much as a --", he started to say before Mal opened fire and shot him in the eye. I was so close, Dobson told himself before oblivion over took him.

* * * * *

Mal was feeling mighty pleased with himself. He outwitted the Reavers, beat Patience at her own game, got rid of one of those no good gorram Alliance secret police and even got paid today too. Yep, it was a good day. He was at the helm piloting the ship across a course while Wash and Zoe were taking a much deserved break. He looked over at Simon and was feeling a bit sentimental at the poor boy lost in the woods. "It may have become apparent to you that the ship could use a medic. You ain't weak. I don't know how bright you are, top three percent, but you ain't weak and that's not nothing. You live by my rule, you keep your sister from doing anything crazy, you could maybe find a place here. 'Til you find a better." Of course the young doctor accepted Mal's gracious offer. He then excused himself, he said he needed to check up on his sister.

As Simon left Mal didn't even notice the updated bullitens spewing out of the Cortex feed. He mostly ignored the various Alliance controlled media propoganda. If he took a closer look he would see the usual reports of thefts, particularly one about some Alliance supplies stolen by by smugglers in a Firefly class vessel. Another warning about illegal planetary exports of livestock. But there was also a special bulletin concerning a kidnapped teenage girl with a huge reward for her safe return. And of couse there was a followup report concerning her suspected kidnapper, an upstanding citizen of the core that was once a highly respected member of the medical community. It warned that the young man was likely mentally unbalanced and extremely dangerous. If sighted, the proper authorities were to be called for.

River was tossing and turning in her bed. Simon quickly gave her several shots of medication, "The shot I gave you will help you sleep." River tried stiffling the tears that were forming, "I slept for so long..." she then tried to talk more but as the drugs worked their way into her system coherent thought proved to be just as difficult as before. Even to her ears nothing but gibberish was coming out. Simon smiled as he watched her fall asleep. No one was going to take River away from him again, no one. And he was even willing to kill to make it so. Actually that part wouldn't be so hard, he's already done it before. Finally satisfied that she fell asleep he kissed her lightly on the forehead and closed the lights leaving her in darkness as a tear started forming in her closed eyelid. There was a light thud as Simon closed the door to the room and bolted it from the outside.

TO BE CONTINUED...

...or not depending on reception