Kaylee loves the rain. It's that or let the weight of the world's atmosphere get all crazy-making, like it's done for the Captain. He mutters more than ever now, and paces, and the only thing that keeps him out of her engine room is her warning that she'll take a wrench to his pretty head if he opens his mouth just once more as to when Serenity will be taking to the sky again.

Back on her parents' homestead, rain drove in sideways during the winter, more ice than water, sluicing the good soil away. It came not at all in the parched summers when the crops were needing it most. Her parents prayed for rain, then, but they could only work grimly when it came. They never had time for loving it.

Now Kaylee stands with the cargo bay door sprung open, and the rain filling the whole sky, dripping off the hull, and running in rivulets along the cracked cement. There's a break in the clouds to the east, where blue sky shows. Kaylee almost wishes she could see right through that blue, to the black and the stars. She'd feel more at home if she could. But the rain is wonderful, too, gentle and warm, and River's out dancing in it.

Kaylee smiles to see her. River's hair is plastered across her face, and her dress is soaked right through, and she's barefoot like always. She twirls and runs and throws her head back to catch raindrops on her tongue. She laughs, and it's a sound so young, like she's only a girl. Not a monster, like Kaylee once believed, and not just the machine that the Alliance made out of her, like Simon worries she still is. Carefree, Kaylee thinks. Yes, that's what River's become. She hasn't had nightmares in a week, and her talk hasn't been near so crazy as it once was. She's healing. Maybe it's the rain that does it.

Kaylee wants to run out and join her, as if she could get washed just as clean of memories by dancing her fool head off. But there's graves out there, hidden by the gray, and Kaylee's not sure she's ready to go that far, yet. There's a sound of arguing from the cargo bay, and she turns back inside.

Simon's following the Captain through the ship. He's gotten so graceful in Serenity, like he's a part of her now. Kaylee loves to watch him move. He's angry, though, and she catches the tail-end of his words, "...so you're not going to do anything?"

"I don't know what you think I can do, Doc," Mal says. He's spitting mad, himself, his eyes snapping. He starts checking cargo like it's needed right now, but that's just his way of trying to shake off Simon. "That's whore's business," he says. "It ain't none of mine who Inara takes up with, as she takes great pains to inform me on a regular basis."

Kaylee turns her back on the rain. The clouds are breaking up, out there. The storm's nearly over, for a day or two. She makes her way over to Simon and stands with him against the Captain. "Who's Inara's new client?" she asks. She can't imagine anyone on Serenity. Maybe it's one of those Alliance troops what're staying around to help with the repairs. But that wouldn't make Simon shake so, or get so angry.

"River," he spits. "She's ta ma de my sister, that's who."

Kaylee feels her heart stop, all sudden-like. She's not sure at first she heard right, but Simon's words echo in her ears. It hurts, in a way that's not quite a pain, and she doesn't know why.

"Inara wouldn't do that," Kaylee says--hears herself saying. "She wouldn't."

But it seems she judged Inara wrong. She will do that, if the money's right. River's still out in the rain, dancing, and maybe the storm is here to stay.

Sequel: Oracle

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December 17, 2005