On Serenity

[simon_doctor]

[Some time after this.]

When he enters his bunk, River's sitting in a tight huddle on his bed.

Her hair falls in a curtain around her face, and her bare feet are curled down onto the bed as though trying to cling to it.

Comments

[river_meimei]

It's a minute before she looks up.

She doesn't move her head, only looks sidelong through her hair.

[simon_doctor]

He sits down on the bunk next to her.

"Wei."

[river_meimei]

A breath in, and out, and then she leans a little against him, shoulder to shoulder.

[simon_doctor]

He puts an arm around her.

"You all right, meimei?"

[river_meimei]

She rests her head against his, and doesn't answer.

[simon_doctor]

He strokes her hair, gently.

"It should work."

[river_meimei]

"The reasoning is sound."

Soft.

A little too toneless, but that's hard to judge, sometimes, with River.

She leans against him, and doesn't move.

[simon_doctor]

A pause.

"He'll be safer this way. Not just us."

[river_meimei]

She nods.

Silence, then "Best course of action. Discard the unacceptable alternatives."

[simon_doctor]

Another long silence. Simon's hand moves down her hair in long almost-absent strokes.



"I wish I'd asked him about Mother."

[river_meimei]

Silence.

Very, very slowly, River's face crumples.

She turns, putting her arms around Simon's neck, half-curled in his lap, and tears slide from the corners of her closed eyes to dampen his shirt collar.

[simon_doctor]

He holds her, and rocks back and forth ever so slightly.

And if tears are welling from his own eyes and falling into her hair, that's not something anybody else has to know.