Blood. This blood, his blood. It surrounded him. Became him. It was his blanket in the cold. He knew he should go back. Go back to all he knew. But he was tired. So, so tired... A single tear fell from the wound in the rent sky. It spiraled down, and slowly, languidly, it landed on his nose. It was cold, colder than the blood sea in which he slept. Such a small, preety little thing. A diamond of pleasure and pain, sparkling in any light. A link to what he loved. Still loves. The ice surrounding him began to thaw. He din't know how he knew it was Kaylees tear, but he didn't know a lot of things. Painfully, he got up, and began his search for a way out. *** Kaylee sobbed brokenly over Simons body. It didn't matter that there was nothing she could do to save him. It didn't matter that her tears wouldn't save him. Nothing mattered anymore. She continued to cry. They all did. River, Inara, they sped away their tears shamelessly. Jayne, Mal, they shook with grief over this lost soul whom they had respecred and cared for. Slowly, shaking even as she sat, Zoe raised the gun, and put the muzzle into her mouth. Sighing, she cocked her gun. *** A desert. A desert of sand and tears. It surrounded him. He was tired, and dogged by a terrible thirst. But he could not, would not turn back. Kaylee was crying. And he must stop it, must make her smile again. Just one last time, and he could die happy. Just to see her smile, one last time. A light sprang forth out of the trackless wastes, illuminating the shattered halls of his mind. He headed toward the light, and the walls torn down began to mend. *** She had failed. She had failed, totally and utterly. She had failed Simon, she had failed Kaylee, she had failed the memories of Wash and Book. Simon. Book. Wash. The man she had sworn to protect. The man she had promised to honour. The man she had vowed to love. All three were as dust in the wind, now. She could not save any of them. She was a failure as a protector, a warrior, and a wife. And failure could only lead to more failure. She took her shotgun. She had had it for many years now. Now, it would end her. She put it in her mouth, ready to fire and save them all. With a cry, River, Jayne, and Mal sprang at her, struggling to wrestle away her weapon. A single shot rang out, and she slumped forward, blood streaming from her mouth, making her teeth bloody. *** Light. It leed to a door. It led to salvation. A huge, silver door. Shining like the moon. It was wide open. He stepped through it. *** Light. the first he had seen in a thousand memories. Sun, streaming through the window. He heard sobbing, and looked over his sore shoulder, to find Kaylee, sobbing over him. Tears streamed down her preety face. He reached up, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Shouldn't be crying over those not dead." She stopped, stared at him for a moment. Then, she hugged him, pulling him upward into her embrace. "I thought I lost you." Simon smiled at her from behind a viel of his own tears. "I won't, I never did. You don't leave Serenity, Serenity leaves you. And as long as I'm wanted there, I will never leave her. Leave you." Zoe straightened, and wiped the blood from her mouth. Book and Wash waved at him, then stepped into the sunlight and vanished from his sight. He smiled all the wider. "Lets go. Home."