Title: Again and Again

Summary: River always went to her, no one else. KayleeRiver

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything in the Firefly ‘verse.

AN: Yes, I got distracted. And as it turns out, this will not be a one-shot like planned.

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Again and Again Chapter One

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The first time it happened, Kaylee didn’t question it because, well, it was River.

Since Serenity had been given better parts after the Miranda incident, which still made her shiver in fear, she only needed to do a few fixes. She was in the middle of one of them when she heard light footsteps heading her way. She had poked her head out just in time to see River flash her a grin and collapse face first onto the hammock.

Kaylee would have thought River was trying to suffocate herself if it hadn’t been for the slow rise and fall of the girl’s back. And the fact that, not a half an hour later, River got up and left, a slight bounce in her step. When she questioned River later, the girl had just shrugged and said she needed a nap.

The second time it happened was three days later.

They had left Santo after a deal had gone bad, again, and Mal had gotten shot…again. Not an hour after they left, River had once again come down to the engine room, gracing Kaylee a grin before collapsing on the hammock. Thirty minutes later, she was up with a bounce in her step.

Thus begun a routine.

It wouldn’t happen often; once or twice every week. At first, Kaylee didn’t work on Serenity at all, afraid to wake the slumbering girl. River, however, later told her she actually preferred it when Kaylee worked, so work Kaylee did.

No one knew, which was surprising how small Serenity was - and the fact that River was the pilot and it was hard not to notice when the pilot was missing for more than a few minutes.

The change, however, took place months after the first time.

While the events of Miranda had shaken everyone up, and the Alliance was slowly loosing power, the crew of Serenity was still being hunted. On top of that, the Academy seemingly wanted River back even more now that the Alliance was failing. But Serenity had to stop and gather supplies at one point or another, which meant they had to go back to Persephone.

Kaylee had gotten what she could, and when she got back to Serenity, all she wanted to do was take a nap. She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping, but she was woken up some time later when someone clambered down the stairs.

“Kaylee?”

“Riv, what-?” Kaylee went to speak, but her eyes landed on the multitude of bandages covering the girl’s body. She nearly fell to the ground as she rushed out of the hammock. “River! What happened?”

River was visibly shaking as Kaylee led her to the hammock. “Two by two. Hand of blue.”

Kaylee nearly growled. “Ta ma da! What happened…no never mind. How bad are ya hurt?”

“Few scrapes. Bullet made bones go smash. Brain hurts. Empty, so empty. Had to fight…had to…”

“Shh.” Kaylee pulled River close, trying very hard not to jar the wounds. “I’ve got you, sweetie.”

River shuddered and buried her face in Kaylee’s neck. “Kaylee stay with River?”

Kaylee pressed a kiss on River's head. “Yeah. Kaylee will stay with River.”

When Simon came by a few hours later, River had finally fallen asleep on top of Kaylee, although every once in a while she would whimper in her sleep.

“How is she?”

Kaylee shook her head, rubbing River’s back when the girl whimpered once more. “She finally fell asleep not to long ago. What happened?”

“I don’t know the whole story, but Mal said they showed up just as they were heading back here. River had been fine one minute then she just stopped in the middle of the street. Mal had tried to get her to move, but she just started whispering ‘two by two’. Mal said they showed up out of nowhere. Since it was just him and Zoë, they couldn’t really do much. But when they tried to grab River, she just…” Simon frowned and shook his head. “Mal said there wasn’t really anything of them left.”

Kaylee looked down at River, frowning, pushing the thought of a violent River aside. “What’s the damage?”

“The worse of it is a fractured ulna from where a bullet hit the bone, but otherwise it’s just superficial.”

“Will she be alright?” Kaylee asked, unable to keep the thought to herself.

Simon shifted nervously and shrugged. “Physically? She’ll heal in a few weeks. Mentally? I really don’t know.”

Kaylee looked back to River and frowned. The girl - no woman, now, as they celebrated her eighteenth only a few weeks back - had been through so much. The Academy, Reavers, hands of blue; she hated to see River go through that.

“You love her, don’t you?”

Kaylee looked up sharply at Simon, then back to River. “Yeah, I do,” she whispered.

“She trusts you, you know.”

“What do ya mean?” Kaylee frowned. “She trusts everyone on here.”

“She told me, the other day. She said your thoughts were cheerful, and quiet. She hasn’t been sleeping, you know.”

It dawned on Kaylee then; the shadows under River’s eyes, the paleness of her skin, the way she seemed to slow down. “But why? Are her nightmares worse?”

Simon shook his head. “No, they’ve actually gotten better since Miranda. But she says she can hear things, peoples thoughts. She says they get too loud sometimes, and that she can’t sleep. It seemed impossible, at first. But then I remembered Early, and how she knew everything about him.”

Kaylee winced, but nodded. She remembered too, how River seemed to have everything planned, down to the minor details.

“She told me if she focuses on your thoughts, she can sleep,” Simon continued.

“She told you all of this?”

Simon grinned. “I may be a ‘boob’, but she can’t hide anything from me. I started noticing how she was completely tired one day, then all of a sudden completely alert the next. I knew she wasn’t sleeping well at night, so I confronted her.”

River sniffed and shuffled, and they both held their breath until she sighed and relaxed into a deeper sleep.

“Why tell me all of this?” Kaylee asked.

Simon sighed and adopted what Kaylee called his serious face. “I can’t do anything more for her, Kaylee. I may be her brother, but there is only so much I can do. But you, you have changed her. When she’s around you, she’s a whole different person. I believe you can help River, not me.”

“Oh,” Kaylee managed to get out, her heart clenching in her chest as she looked at River.