This one is a might shorter than the others {I can feel writer's block creeping up on me like a reaver mid-hunt.} Any ideas or feedback is welcome as I'm not sure how much farther or where to go from here. I'm thinking it might be time for some thrillin' heroics. Thanks!

***

”Well, boys, looks like it’s time for us to go hunting,” Sterns said proudly, cocking his own gun. “Tonight’s the night.”

A cheer went up from the small assembled band of criminals and Sterns smiled tightly. He was set to profit handsomely from this little arrangement with the gentleman Tam.

Sterns had been looking for these two fugees for quite some time; ever since he had gotten word about some hospital heist on Ariel a few months back. The news had spread on the cortex like wildfire that there was a bead on them and the dollar signs that flashed in Sterns’ eyes had almost blinded him. He’d heard Early, a decent enough bounty hunter, had almost had them and then got spaced, so the door was once again open for Sterns to cash in.

It had been the pure luck of fate that he’d managed to hook up with the siblings’ parents. A chance encounter on a transport cruiser, ferrying between Ariel and Osiris and Sterns had had all the info he needed to dangle a pretty enticing carrot in front of the father’s face: the promise to bring his children home, safe and sound for one-quarter of the asking price.

Of course, the fact that he would bring them home and then spirit them away to be delivered into the blue hands of the Alliance was another matter entirely. And a part of the plan Sterns had neglected to tell Gabe about. Must have just slipped my mind.

***

It was dinner on board Serenity and no one was hungry. Well, no one except Jayne was hungry. The mercenary stood at the kitchen counter – no use sitting to eat by yourself – and shoveled some re-heated protein into his mouth. He could have killed Mal for making him stay behind to protect that {worthless} doctor and his moonbrained sister.

But it had given him more time to clean his guns and more of a chance to eat his way through the ship’s rations. Smiling tightly, he dug back in.

A few doors away, Simon was in his sister’s room, administering a smoother. Ever since the morning, she had become increasingly agitated. Simon had hoped that once he had successfully sent their father away she would calm down, but it hadn’t happened. She had continued to murmur the eerie rhyme about men with hands of blue and while Simon had tried to comfort her she had remained inconsolable and distant. Giving up, he hoped that by inducing sleep, she could shake her anxiety.

Waiting until her eyes closed and her breathing slowed, Simon backed out of the room, and slid the screened door shut. Releasing a big sigh, Simon padded back across to his room, and started at the sight before him. Kaylee was there, sitting on the edge of his bed, looking a bit nervous.

“Kaylee,” he questioned, entering the room and sliding the door shut behind him. Kneeling in front of her, he saw a pained expression in her eyes and the doctor in him immediately took over. Reaching a hand to her forehead, he checked for a fever. “Are you feeling all right?”

“Why does everybody keep asking me that,” she exasperated, rising stiffly and walking away from his touch. Uncertain what to do next, Simon straightened up and put his hands in his pockets. It was his turn to wait.

“Sorry,” she murmured sheepishly, turning back to face him. “I guess I haven’t been very forthcoming with my feelings lately.” Glancing up at him, she edged back towards him and said softly, “I just – well, I know that that talk with your pop this morning must’ve been real hard, and I wanted you to know that you can tell me about it.” She paused again and her eyes sank back to the floor. “If you want,” she finished quietly.

Simon could read the sincerity in her face, the genuine concern for his well-being and it brought a smile to his lips, and a welcome lightness to his heart, despite the events of the past 36 hours. “Honestly, Kaylee, it’s the last thing I want to talk about right now.” It was true, he was drained, exhausted from the mental and emotional strain he’d been through. He just wanted to relax.

“Oh,” came Kaylee’s quiet reply and studying her closely Simon realized he’d offended her, unknowingly, yet again. “Well, I’ll just go then,” she murmured, reaching out a hand to open the door.

Grabbing her other hand in his, Simon gave her a gentle tug. “You don’t have to go,” he told her quietly, stepping closer so they were only inches apart. “You could stay and we could just talk … about anything,” he said, pulling her back into the room and taking a seat on his bunk. She sat next to him, curling her legs up underneath her and resting her side against the room’s wall. She looked so comfortable there, so natural that Simon had to resist the urge to smile again.

“Sure,” she told him, giving him one of her biggest smiles. “What do you want to talk about?”

***

Simon awoke to a cacophony of noises and sensations he was unaccustomed too. For one thing, there was someone else in his bed. Looking down, he saw the top of Kaylee’s head on his chest and he realized, somewhat sheepishly that they had fallen asleep a few hours ago. Kaylee had been too drained to make it back to her bunk, so Simon had scooted over and within minutes they had both been breathing deep. Simon would give just about anything to feel that peaceful again.

Secondly, there were noises and loud ones coming from outside his room. Easing out from underneath Kaylee and doing his best not to wake her, Simon grabbed his shirt and was buttoning it as he pushed open his door. The next thing he saw was pitch black and then there was the loud crack of a sharp object beating his skull until he was unconscious.

***

Gabriel Tam was not a patient man. He never had been and years of living in luxury had not quelled his need for instant gratification. So the fact that Sterns was over thirty minutes late with his children did not sit well with him.

He had already radioed his wife, letting her know to prepare the kids’ rooms and have the cook get their favorite foods ready. Despite his annoyance at the mercenary’s lack of punctuality, Gabriel was quite giddy at the prospect of having his family back together again. Once River was under his roof, this nonsense about torture and Alliance Operatives would be a thing of the past. And Simon, his brilliant son, would resume his place at the hospital and all things being equal become part of the medical-elect within five years. Yes, this would be a very good day indeed for the Tam family and that made Gabriel happy.

A noise in the shadows snapped his attention back to the here and now, and he squinted into the darkness to see if he could make out the source. When he saw Sterns round the corner with a sawed off shotgun slung under his arm, he smiled tightly. When he saw his goons round the corner with two body bags over their shoulders, he quickly grimaced.

Rushing forward, he said, “What did you do to them?” Reaching up, he helped one of the men lower the smaller of the two bags to the ground and he unzipped it to find River’s angelic face. “I told you they were not to be injured.”

“Yeah, well, I told you there’d be no guarantees,” Sterns retorted, unfazed by the other men’s ire. “The boy was ready to put up a fight, we had to do something’.” Sterns had spent many years concealing the truth; he didn’t even flinch as the bold-faced lie flew from his mouth.

Gently laying River down on the ground, Gabriel quickly approached the other bag and finding Simon there breathed a sigh of relief. “What did you give them,” he questioned, noticing that neither of his children was anywhere near waking.

“Nuthin’,” Sterns told him. Addressing his benefactor’s puzzled look, he said, “The girl was out cold when we got there. And the boy … well, he woke up before we could slip him a drug. Chances are he’ll have a ruttin’ bloody headache when he wakes up.” Sterns laughed and his goons joined him and Gabriel had to do everything in his power not to launch himself at the man in a rage. It wouldn’t do his children any good if their father got knocked out by these lowlifes and left them all exposed to the elements on the edge of a landing platform.

Rising, Gabriel approached Sterns and brought his face only inches from the other. “Leave, now.”

Sterns looked for a moment like he might try to pick a fight, but something in Gabriel’s face must have alerted him this was not the time. “See ya ‘round, Gabe.”

With that he waved his two guards after him and the three of them were again swallowed by shadows. Breathing a sigh of relief, Gabriel turned back to his children and got them on board. The sooner they got off this gorram planet, the better.

***

Kaylee awoke in a bunk that was not her own. Blinking quickly to clear the sleep from her eyes, she rolled over onto her back and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. Where in the …? With a blush, she remembered and sitting up quickly, she threw off the sheet and sprinted into the common area. Rounding the corner to the infirmary, she expected to find Simon there.

The sight of the empty room brought her smile crashing down. Glancing into the hold, she called tentatively, “Simon?” Getting no response, she headed up to the kitchen and asked again, “Simon?”

“Well, hey there lil’ Kaylee. What’s the word?”

The captain’s voice startled her; she hadn’t been expecting it. Turning to face him as he poured his morning caf, Kaylee smiled at him, even though her heart was sinking through the deck plates. Had Simon been so ashamed to sleep with her – just sleep – that he’d had to ferret himself away until she was gone? “Hey, cap’n. Mornin.’” She said it absently and with no mirth and that tipped Mal off right away.

Pausing his arm mid sip, Mal slowly lowered the cup back to the table and turned a stare on her. “Kaylee, tell me what’s going on?”

Kaylee smiled tightly and said, “Nothin’, cap’n, I was just looking for Simon. Have you seen him?”

“I haven’t,” Mal told her, not convinced. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen River yet this morning either and while the girl did like to slip about, it was odd for her not to make her presence felt in the early hours. “Haven’t seen River either. When’s the last time you saw him?”

The red fire that consumed Kaylee’s cheeks gave Mal the answer he didn’t want. “Never mind,” he told her, holding up a hand to stop her explanation. “I’ll fill in the blanks.”

Crossing the room, he stuck his head down the hallway to the bridge and yelled, “Wash? Zoe? Get down here.”

“What’s goin’ on,” Jayne asked gruffly entering the room. He looked a little hung over, but otherwise not too worse for wear. Surprising considering the fact he was just now getting back to the boat.

“You seen the doc,” Mal asked him, trying to keep any alarm out of his tone.

“No,” Jayne told him gladly. “I ain’t seen that dandy since we put down on this moon. Why? Gone and got hisself in trouble ‘gain?”

The statement brought a fresh look of fright to Kaylee’s face, and Mal admonished the bigger man with a silent scowl. Shrugging it off, Jayne went to find some food as Zoe and Wash entered, hand in hand.

“You wanted to see us, sir,” Zoe asked him.

“You seen Simon or River?”

The husband and wife exchanged a look before Zoe answered, “No, sir, not since yesterday before we left for the job. Is there a problem?”

Mal paced the room and tried to think how best to proceed. It was not like Simon to go for a walkabout in the middle of the night, especially on an Alliance-friendly world like Ariel. It was also not like River to have strayed this far. Not unless she had gone to find the doc and gotten nabbed in the process.

Swearing violently, Mal turned to Wash and said, “Get on the cortex and look for any bulletins or police reports talking about fugitives.” Wash turned without question and sprinted back toward the bridge.

“Zoe, you and me are gonna go do a little recon,” Mal ordered, walking toward the hold. Passing Kaylee on the way, Mal hated seeing the fear in her eyes. “Don’t you worry, Kaylee, everything’s going to be fine.”

Kaylee nodded at him, but her eyes were still wide with fear as he turned and left the room.