A/N: This is my very first piece of fanfiction, actually the first piece of writing I've done in years. I hope you enjoy it.

Her eyes snapped open as River woke from her nightmare gasping for breath. For a moment, she was unsure where exactly she was, but as the final images of her nightmares retreated, awareness crept back in.

Serenity, peace, safe, home.

She concentrated on taking deep, even breaths, trying to slow her madly thumping heartbeat down to an acceptable speed. She almost called out for Simon to come and comfort her, to sit with her until it was safe to sleep again. She wanted him to scare away the monsters he way he had done when they were children. Only now her monsters were larger, scarier with hand of blue and drills, needles, pain and confusion and no matter how much Simon loved his mei-mei, he couldn’t chase these monsters away. Beside, River recalled that Simon was sleeping in Kaylee’s bunk tonight. There was no possible way to call loud enough for him to hear her without waking the entire crew. Kaylee would forgive her, River knew, but the Captain and Jayne tended to be rather grumpy when their sleep cycles were interrupted without good reason and Zoe needed her sleep.

River moved to delicately place her bare feet onto the floor of her cabin. She could feel the vibration of Serenity’s engines radiate up through the soles of her feet and instantly felt calmer. It reinforced the feelings of safety and home for her and this ship was home to her in a way that no other place had ever been.

She felt tired, but she knew that sleep would be impossible at the present. The nightmares had retreated, but were not completely gone. She could almost sense them hovering above her, floating in a lazy circle around her room, waiting for her to close her eyes and drift off before attacking once again. Blindly, she reached for the dress she was worn the day before and quickly pulled the fabric over her head. Once dressed, she glided out of her room.

Making each step slowly and deliberately, she exited the passenger dorm, passed the infirmary, floated up the stairs and glided through the dining area. She paused outside the corridor leading past the crews’ quarters to the bridge. Her ultimate destination was the bridge, but she did not wish to wake anyone up. Everyone had been sleeping rather lightly since the events of Miranda and River did not wish to be sent back to bed like a petulant child. The nightmares still awaited her there.

She closed her eyes and gently pushed out with her mind to see if everybody was in fact asleep, and she felt the colors of their dreams wash over her. She had been trying to learn how to filter out the thoughts, emotions and memories not belonging to her ever since Simon rescued her from the academy. Learning the secrets of Miranda had helped enormously, but the real break through came once she was able perceive that certain colors seemed to associate themselves to different people. She found the color could act almost as a shield, letting her know in general what any person was feeling from the shade and tone of the color without bombarding her mind with specifics. She could still peak through the color into a persons mind, but it was now a matter of choice, not necessity. Dream colors were similar to thought colors, but were a little blurrier around the edges.

She stood there for a moment and let the rainbow wash over her, before unraveling the strands of color, making sure that all were present and accounted for.

Kaylee’s dream stood out as the brightest, it was an almost blinding sunshine yellow. It was most definitely a happy dream then. River knew that Kaylee’s dreams were almost always that bright, as was her personality usually was. She would guess that they were even brighter than before, since her brother and Kaylee had started sharing a bunk nearly every night. River was very happy with that development. In her opinion, no two people in the ‘verse deserved each other more.

Simon’s dreams were also pleasant in nature, glowing a vibrant blue. River found that the color of his dreams and thoughts tended to shift the most dramatically of any of Serenity’s crew. She idly wondered if that was simply because he was her brother and she could just read him better or it was just simply the way he was. When he was at his most logical, or in “doctor mode” as she called it, his thoughts became an icy shade of blue. Whenever he was around Kaylee though, they became a beautiful indigo.

Jayne’s dreams also stood out in her mind’s eye as well. His color was red, like the color of the apples he had bought in apology after trying to turn her and Simon in at that hospital on Arial. Tonight, his dreams were glowing quite brightly, almost outshining Kaylee’s. A sex dream, River surmised, since Simon and Kaylee’s thoughts often had a similar glow after being alone together. She’d been noticing that glow around the mercenary more and more lately. It wasn’t something she liked to dwell on. He had been making her a little bit nervous lately. A rather abrupt alteration in his feeling towards her had taken place and she needed time to adjust. Before Miranda, he was usually resentful and angry, with a little guilt thrown in for good measure, but since Miranda those feelings were now gone and she could only sense respect with a dash of admiration. The former she was used to dealing with and wasn’t sure she was ready to cope with the change. So she did the only thing she could think of, she avoided him as much as possible. Setting the thought aside, she continued her evaluation.

Zoe’s dreams were very subdued, nearly gray in her grief ever since Wash’s death. The tall warrior was almost as difficult for River to be around as the merc, though for different reasons. To all outward appearances, Zoe seemed almost normal if maybe a little quieter than before. But River could feel the sadness boiling under the surface and often found herself on the brink of tears from the raw pain of it. Tonight though, she could also see tiny glimpses of blue coming from Zoe’s bunk, blue as bright and as clear as the cloudless summer sky. River hoped that Zoe’s thoughts and dreams returned to her usual green once she discovered that Wash was not as gone as everyone thought he was.

She couldn’t sense Inara’s dreams. She was too far away. Inara was once again sleeping in her old shuttle, although she hadn’t seen any clients since her return. River half expected for the captain to be in there with her, but realized that they were probably not quite ready to take that step just yet. She would give them more time and if they hadn’t worked everything out for themselves, maybe she and Kaylee could their heads together and come up with a plan to change that.

There was one color missing though, the captain’s. River delved just a bit deeper and was relieved to find that he was in fact asleep, just not currently dreaming. She thought that was a good thing. The loss of Wash and Book had affected him more than he cared to admit and his dreams lately were closer to a nightmarish black that his normal rich brown. Plus he tended to wake easily from his dreams and River preferred to not be caught up and about.

Satisfied that everyone was asleep, she carefully made her way to the bridge. She sat in the pilot’s chair, Wash’s chair. Even though she now piloted Serenity as often as not, it would always be Wash’s chair just as his toy dinosaurs still lined the console. She quickly scanned the instrumentation, making certain that nothing was amiss. It was part of the routine she followed on those nights she couldn’t sleep. It made her feel better to double-check everything. Her scan complete, she sat back in the chair, lifted her knees into her chest and stared out at the stars.

She loved the Black. She loved the emptiness and absolute quiet of it. Sitting in the cockpit with the stars to the front, either side and above her was the next best thing to actually being out in it. She’d only been out in it twice, once with Simon, hiding from the Feds and once when she’d snuck aboard Jubal Early’s ship. Even so both instances had been emergencies, she had never felt such peace as she did out in the Black. In the emptiness the visions faded, the voices fell silent and her mind would almost completely clear. She longed to go back, but knew the Captain, nor Simon for that matter, would approve. And she was not so crazy as to go out by herself, warped though she knew her mind to be. So instead River contented herself with looking out at them from the safety of the cockpit.

She spent some time trying to imagine pictures within them, like the times she and Simon would sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to sleep out under the stars as children. Try as she might, she never really saw them. Simon always could, but then she knew they perceived the night sky differently. He saw the sky as a flat two dimensional image, where one could connect the dots and make a picture, where she could see it in three dimensions with various depths between each star that just never quite lined up in any logical pattern.

She amused herself in this fashion for about an hour, then rather regretfully concluded that if she was to get anymore rest this night, she should move onto the next phase of her routine. She unfolded herself from the chair and carefully began to retrace her steps. As she passed the crew’s bunks, she glanced once again for the color of their dreams. All were pretty much the same as previously, all but one. Stopping outside Jayne’s bunk, River was dismayed to find his dream, which had earlier been red and glowing had shifted to a very dull black. He was having a nightmare.

River hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. She didn’t want to leave him trapped in his nightmare, but she didn’t really want to wake him either. But to help him escape, she would have to and waking him up was problematic task. She knew that going into his bunk to wake him was a good way to get shot at. She could picture him sleeping with a gun under his pillow. She wasn’t worried about getting hit, but the noise would wake everybody else up. She began to grow anxious. The longer she waited the more his fear pushed at her as if it were her own. She knew that it would eventually pull her down into the dream and she’d be stuck there till he woke up on his own. She had enough trouble with her own nightmares to want to be experiencing his as well. A solution then presented itself to her. She didn’t really need to wake him up entirely to rid him of the dream, just rousing him a little should work. She stretched out her arm and lightly tapped three times on his door. She held her breath, hoping the slight noise was loud enough to rouse him but no loud to wake the others. Instantly, the black of the dream vanished and the fear ebbed. Also a quick look told her that the other’s dreams were unaffected. Smiling to herself, she turned and started to make her way to the cargo bay.

* * *

The girl weren’t moving no more. She’d stopped screaming too. Jayne was huddled in the corner horrified, watching what they was doing to her and knowing that he would be next.

The day had started out shiny. He and his girl was off-ship on some moon in the back of beyond, walking though the prettiest garden he’d ever seen in his life. Now Jayne Cobb weren’t really one for pretty places, but the girl next to him, well she deserved the best by his reckoning. He had made love to her there. A tangle of arm and legs and fevered kisses on sweat soaked skin. Afterwards, they lay together, limbs intertwined, her head resting on his chest with her long dark hair covering them both. “Love ya, girl”, he whispered softly into her ear, before leaning over to capture her lips with his once again.

She suddenly stiffened in his arms and started muttering, her words lost in his mouth. “What’za matter”, he tried to ask, breaking away, but she started screaming and clutching at her head as if she were in some kinda pain. That’s when the reavers came pouring in from all sides, surrounding them both. Jayne snarled and held his girl closer to his side. He reached for his gun and pointed at one of the reavers who was grabbing for her and pulled the trigger. Click, the sound echoed around him. The reaver paused, looked him in the eye and only laughed. Desperation set in and Jayne fired again ad again, but his gun was useless. The Reaver grabbed his girl and pulled her away while still more grabbed at him. The garden faded, and they were now in a room somewhere. There were no windows and no doors, no escape. He was tossed unceremoniously into a corner, and the reavers all focused their attention on his girl. Unarmed and paralyzed with fear, all Jayne could do watch helplessly as she screamed and screamed while the reavers did things to her. Eventually though, her screaming was cut off and her movements stilled. Then the reavers turned their attention towards him.

Tap Tap Tap

Jayne was awake in an instant. A moment later, he was crouched beside his bunk with the loaded gun he always kept in easy reach, steadily pointed at the ladder leading to the rest of the ship. He strained his ears to listen, scarcely daring to breathe. He was sure he had heard something. A minute passed, than another, and another. When the noise didn’t repeat itself after about ten minutes he allowed himself to relax a bit.

“Musta been the nightmare”, he concluded.

Sitting down on the edge of his bunk, he pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to come back to himself. What a dream. He wasn’t entirely sure what was the worse part, the reavers or the girl. If the Doc ever learned that Jayne had been dreaming of his little sis in that manner, he wouldn’t live long enough for Mal to toss him out the airlock. He hoped she didn’t know about them either. As it was she wouldn’t stay long in the same room as him anymore and he didn’t really want to give her any excuse to beat the stuffing out of him again. But the dreams of her were coming more and more frequently, no matter how he tried to shut them out.

He decided since we was awake, a drink was in order. He wondered if Kaylee’s latest batch of engine brew was strong enough to make him forget how right River’s small form had felt beneath him and how helpless he’d felt watching the reavers tear it to pieces. He got up, yanked on a pair of pants, pulled on his boots, tucked the gun in his waistband and headed for the kitchen. He was rifling through the cupboards, searching for the liquor when he heard it. Sounded like a muffled thump coming from the direction of the cargo bay. Suddenly alert, he drew his gun and crept silently down to investigate.

* * *

River reached the cargo bay without incident. The hold was mostly empty. Their current job consisted of transporting certain items of questionable legality, so they were safely tucked away in one of Serenity’s many hidden compartments. She stood in the center of the large room and searched through her memory for song. Selecting a piece of music she liked, she began to play it within the confines of her mind and started to dance. If there was anything she loved as much as the Black, it was to dance. Twirling around the cargo bay, she could almost imagine herself not broken or even cracked, but whole. She had closed her eyes, so as to imagine herself dancing in an enchanted forest, when she suddenly tripped on a loose piece of grating and fell with a small thump to the floor.

She listened for a minute, but didn’t hear anything. It wasn’t likely that soft noise would carry all the way to the crew’s quarters and the door to Inara’s shuttle was soundproof so it was unlikely that she disturbed anyone. She checked herself over. No injuries though she’d probably have a new bruise come morning. She picked herself up off the floor and made a quick mental note of the location of the loose grate so she would not trip over it again. Then she closed her eyes once more and continued to dance.

* * *

The mercenary made his way to the cargo bay without either hearing the sound again or making a single noise himself, not a mean feat in a ship with metal floors while wearing combat boots. But then Jayne was not an accomplished tracker for nothing. Holding his pistol at the ready, he carefully looked around the doorframe. Vigilance turned to vague irritation as he realized whom it was. What in the ruttin’ hell was that crazy girl doing up this late and wha’ for was she flitting around the cargo bay like a gorram butterfly. He was about to make his presence known and give her hell for disturbing his sleep when she suddenly spun around in a circle and he caught a glimpse of her face in the dim nighttime lighting. Her eyes were closed, her head was tilted back and she was wearing the most beautiful smile he had ever seen cross her features. All bemused, he was capable only of simply standing there, watching her dance joyfully to the sound of music that only she could hear.

So caught up in her dancing was she, that River didn’t sense Jayne’s presence at first. However, after a few minutes the feeling of having eyes upon her and the presence of another began to permeate her senses. She stopped dancing and looked around with her mind in confusion. It was rare for someone to sneak up on her as she normally would feel someone coming long before she could see them. She caught a flash of red and realized it was Jayne who was watching her. Rutting hell, so she had woken him all the way up after all. She studied the red, noting its calmness with just a little bit of a glow. She was relieved that his thoughts were calm and that he did not seem to be angry with her. Even if she was a bit confused by the glow that surrounded his thoughts. She opened her eyes and turned to face him, her face a little red from her confusion and from the embarrassment at being caught.

They looked at each other for a long moment. Jayne still looking a might wonderstruck and River appearing a bit flushed from her embarrassment and confusion, not willing to meet his eye. Neither said a word.

River realized that this step of her routine was now complete for the night and rather regretfully concluded that it was time to try and get some more sleep. She felt too uncomfortable to dance with him there and she knew he was just going to send her back to bed in a moment anyway. She started moving towards the door.

Jayne moved back from the opening as she approached him, to let her pass. He felt a little bad for interrupting what he guessed was a private moment, especially seeing her embarrassment written all over her face. He didn’t wish to leave it at that though so he lightly grasped her arm as she walked by and gently turned her to face him. “That was real pretty”, he mumbled, his voice low as he released her.

She hadn’t been expecting to hear that. She shyly looked up into his eyes and smiled warmly at him. Then she turned and with an added bounce in her step, she continued onto her bed. She knew the nightmares would be gone and she would only have pleasant dreams. Maybe she could grow to like this new version of Jayne after all.

Jayne watched her vanish into her room before heading back to his own bunk, and his own dreams. Yep, he was royally humped.