The first surprise is that the textwave reaches him care of Serenity.

The second is its content.

Dr. Tam,

Ni hao. In regard to our earlier offer, you mentioned the possibility of revisiting the question in a year's time ( Read more... )

It's late ship's night, and Simon can't sleep ( Read more... )

He still can't get anywhere near River, but he has a lead now ( Read more... )

The last textwave he got from Jordie said I'm going off-grid for a few weeks.

It's been close to a month, and Simon's looking through his inbound messages and wondering if he should write.

It's another day; another job on a Rim planet. Cargo to pick up, and a mobile clinic stop a few miles away from where Serenity's landed. They're expected to take about the same amount of time.

They don't, quite.

The clinic shuttle finally appears about five minutes before scheduled takeoff.

"Glad you could join us, Doc," comes Wash's voice ( Read more... )

Jordie --

I haven't been as good about keeping in touch as I might have been. DuibuqiWe've settled back into something close to our usual routine by now. It's strange; I expected to miss Osiris, but I didn't expect Kaylee to miss it even more than I do. Living on board ship again is taking some reacclimating ( Read more... )

The night they find out the ship is going to be in dock on Praxed over a few days, including one particular day, they have a long and subdued conversation.

The day before they make planetfall, Kaylee has a few quiet words with Mal.

Serenity lands late morning, local time. They've each packed a small overnight bag, and Simon's found a good hotel ( Read more... )

The weather's good this morning; the air's chilly but the sun's bright and warm, and the sky is a clear translucent blue with no hint of rain ( Read more... )

It's their last night on Osiris. Their ship to Persephone leaves Isis Spaceport early tomorrow morning; they're going to have to leave before it's full daylight.

The apartment is very nearly as bare tonight as it was when they first saw it; the closest thing to furnishing, right now, is two sleeping bags spread out on the bedroom floor.

It's morning. Simon has been awake for a little while yet; Kaylee is still asleep.

Though it's anyone's guess how much longer she will be, with the smells of coffee and cooking starting to pervade the little cabin.