The following morning found the crew sharing breakfast again. Book had eaten earlier and was reading his Bible in the lounge at the back of the kitchen. The rest of the crew, sans River and Simon, were eating breakfast, except for Kaylee who seemed to have a mild look of concern on her face.

Despite her agitation she seemed to want to keep her quandary from Mal. Slipping into a chair next to Jayne, Kaylee turned her face towards him, away from Mal, and whispered. “Did you take my shoes?”

Jayne stared at her uncomprehendingly. “No? What shoes?” he replied, confused.

Kaylee sighed frustrated and tried to catch Wash’s eye without attracting Mal’s notice. Wash was paying attention to a story Mal was telling, however, and she had no luck.

Exasperated she got to her feet to fix herself a plate of food for breakfast and by the time she had done so Simon and River had come up from below decks. “Mornin’, Simon!” Kaylee called cheerfully and gave him a little wave.

“Good morning,” Simon said politely, moving into the kitchen to fix something to eat for himself and his sister. River fiddled about with the coffee maker. Looking up, Simon said, “River, I don't think coffee is such a good idea. You haven't been sleeping.”

“Maybe they changed her so she doesn’t need as much sleep,” River said evasively, but she moved away from the coffeepot and made herself a cup of watery milk with just a dash of milk powder in it.

Simon frowned. “You weren’t in bed when I went to check on you last night. I don’t know if it’s safe for you to be wandering around like that. You could get hurt.” He glanced around at the crew. “She isn’t bothering anyone, is she?”

“When ain’t she?” Jayne asked without bothering to look up from his food.

Turning in his chair Wash addressed the two. “Actually, she was keeping me company on the bridge last night. She can be quite charming when she’s not plotting our deaths.”

Mal arched an eyebrow at this revelation. “Ain’t sure that sits too well with me,” he stated, studying the girl. “Bridge can be a dangerous place.”

Wash forced a laugh. “Not any more dangerous than the kitchen.”

River settled down in a chair at the table, tucking her legs up under her. “Ebb,” she said, looking at Mal. “But the moon can draw the tide in.” Glancing mischievously at Jayne, she added, “No plots. But maybe you’re already dead and I can make you think you’re still alive.”

Speaking over Jayne’s violent inquiries to Simon as to whether or not that was possible, Mal said, “All the same, you get in his way or muck around with my ship, we're gonna have words, dong ma?” He pointed his chopsticks at River for emphasis.

“River, maybe you should stay in your quarters at night,” Simon suggested reluctantly, reacting to the tension. “If you’re having trouble sleeping, I can give you something.”

“Am I ten years old today or what?” Wash blurted out, silencing the rest of the crew. He straightened a moment, surprised at how quickly and easily he got all eyes on him “I mean, I think I can handle one small girl.”

Jayne snorted. “Y’might be thinkin’ different if she’d got you with a butcher knife.”

“She does have her lapses on the occasion,” Kaylee agreed softly, like it wasn’t something she wanted to concede.

“Let’s not forget her almost gettin’ Simon offed,” Jayne added with a nod.

“Okay, guys, she’s sort of sitting right here, you know.” Wash nervously laughed, wondering what exactly he was getting himself into. “Really, though, it’s not a big deal.” His eyes traveled to River and he smiled at her. “I think that it does her good, seeing the stars and all, and I really don’t mind the company.”

River gave Wash a secret, friendly smile as she stirred her thin cup of milk, wrinkling her nose at the protein gruel Simon put in front of her. “Does her good too,” she agreed, lowering a leg and pressing the heel of her foot against the cold metal of Serenity’s floor.

Simon looked at Wash rather gratefully. “I appreciate it. I...she just can’t stay in her room all the time, and sometimes I...” He found himself stammering excuses under Mal’s steady gaze.

“Well, who would want to stay in that little room all day, anyway?” Wash stated quickly and met everyone’s eyes to make his point. “We all get cabin fever and we’ve got free rein on the ship. Just imagine how it must be, getting cooped up in the passenger quarters all the time!”

Kaylee nodded, thoughtfully. “She does seem to like the openness of the cargo bay, when we’re all in there.” Her eyes found River and she smiled at her. “’Course, she’s right here. Suppose we could ask her, huh?”

“ ‘She’ doesn't answer because you don’t ask, and when you do, you listen with ears at best.” River was beginning to grow a little upset, and she lowered her head so her hair covered most of her face.

Mal’s voice was quiet but firm. “You ain’t been confined to your quarters in a long time, River, and long as you don’t get in anyone’s way, what you do is your business, same as the rest of the crew.” He glanced at Jayne. “That clear?”

River grew a little calmer at that, and Simon took advantage to get her to eat just a little of her breakfast. Still, her face was troubled, just as it had been when she had come in and pleaded with Wash to let her fly the ship the night before.

Jayne grunted and got to his feet, taking his plate and cup with him. “Clear as mud,” he muttered under his breath, putting his dishes into the sink and brushing past Inara who was just entering the kitchen.

While everyone else was distracted by the big mercenary’s stomping out, Kaylee leaned over and whispers to Wash. “Have you seen my shoes?” When Wash shook his head no, she sighed forlornly.

“Don’t suppose we’ll be reaching any suitable civilizations today, Mal?” Inara asked as she made herself a cup of tea.

Mal replied, voice neutral. “Not today.”

“Where are we headed this time, then?”

Wash turned in his chair and smiled at Inara. “Little moon known unofficially as Logos,” he stated and then winced. “But it’s not really the sort of place for you to, you know -- do any of that thing you do. And we aren’t going to be there more than a few hours.”

Inara tossed her hair over her shoulder, her eyes still fixed on Mal. Her expression seemed a little hurt. “I suppose I have you to thank for that?”

“Um, actually, my fault. We’re doing a job for an acquaintance of mine,” Wash stated, sheepishly.

“I see,” she replied softly, noting the mulish set of Mal’s shoulders. With a sigh, she let the matter drop. She and Mal hadn’t argued for over twenty-four hours now. She found she rather liked it.

“Why such a short layover?”

Mal shrugged. “Got a wave from Badger, says he’s got something else for us. He didn’t say where but it ain’t on Logos, so we move out soon as we unload.”

“You’ll let me know when we’ve got our new destination charted?”

“You’ll be th’first t’know.”

“Thank you,” Inara replied as she turned and departed gracefully back up the stairs and out towards her shuttle, tea in hand.

“Now, back to the business at hand” Mal said, “I’m not sure I like the idea of River running free on the bridge.” His gaze slid from the girl in to Wash “If anything goes wrong, I’m blamin’ you, not the girl”

River slammed her cup down, overturning it on the table. “Can’t stand it...weedy shore with dead things on it...you’ll be glad and you’ll flow generous, but when it’s gone, it’s cold...”

Simon helped her stand up. “River, I think maybe you should lie down for a while.”

“Tide pools,” River whispered fiercely. “Where everybody stops to stare.”

Mal shook his head, moving to rinse his plate. “Seems like everybody on this ship’s getting cabin fever or who knows what. Maybe after this job y’all just need to run around for a while.”

Wash’s eyes widened. “Are you implying we should go on shore leave?” he asked, his voice dripping with surprise. He turned to Zoe. “Honey, did you hear that? Captain thinks we ought to take shore leave! It’s a miracle -- means I’ve just lost the bet with Jayne.” His brows furrowed. “Unless you’re insane -- bets are forfeit if you’re insane.” He addressed Zoe critically. “I think he’s gone insane.”

Zoe barely suppressed a smile. “I’m sure he’ll get better soon,” she replied dryly.

“You’re probably right,” Wash sighed dramatically. “Either that or we’ll all die before this mission finishes, thus thwarting our shore leave plans further. Personally, I’m hoping for the former.”

River shook Simon’s hand off her arm and smiled at Wash sadly as she left the room. “You always hope.”

Wash watched her leave and sighed, “Well, someone on this boat’s got to.”

Kaylee found River tucked away in a corner of the cargo bay, knitting away on her hideously colored blob of yarn. Her face was absorbed and intent. “Hey, River.” Kaylee squatted down on her heels. “Whatcha knittin’?”

“Doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “It isn’t right.” River didn’t look up from her needles as she worked.

Kaylee twisted her head to look at the uneven stitching, then shrugged. “Hey, did you see my shoes anywhere?”

“Saw them on your feet yesterday,” River replied sadly. “You think I can’t be trusted and might do crazy things? Sabotage the ship and send us all to our fiery deaths... No use at all.”

“River, no.” Kaylee laid a hand on River’s arm. “It ain’t like that at all, sweetie. Just wondered if you’d seen ‘em or borrowed ‘em.” She ducked her head to whisper. “I was afraid the cap’n might’ve took ‘em. Didn’t know if he found out.”

“When he stops trusting, you’ll know,” River said flatly. She lifted her head to look at Kaylee, and then wiggled her bare toes. “I walk on my feet.” She shrugged. “Have two pair, four shoes, each named and happy, lined like baby ducks in a row in the closet, out of sight,” she chimed. “They wouldn’t like more: it’d be odd.” She looked up at Kaylee.

Kaylee nodded sadly, mulling through her words. “Didn’t figure you knew, but I’d hoped maybe the cap’n’d said something t’you. He do trust you, y’know, leastways more than he trusts most folk.”

“Everyone on this ship,” River said evenly and with no trace of emotion, “tells lies.”

After dinner that night, Mal stood at the head of the table, arms crossed as he gazed at his crew. “Got a wave from Heckle today. Claims we hornswoggled him.” He gazed around at them, waiting for their reactions.

Simon's brow furrowed. “He found out they were knock-offs?"

“That boy tell him?” Jayne chimed in. “He best not’ve, after I wore that gorram shirt for him. I’ll go back there and kick his sissy--”

“Weren’t about that,” Mal interrupted. “Says the shipment was missing four or five pair. Now as I recall, they was counted proper when we loaded ’em on Serenity. Only thing I can think of is someone might’ve took ’em. Anyone got any ideas about that?”

Kaylee was fidgeting, her eyes wide and innocent. “But you told us we couldn’t have any.”

“I surely did. And because someone didn’t listen, I had to sit there while Heckle gave me a hell of an earful and the I had to transfer back some of his credits – credits we need, to keep us all fed and this boat in the air. If’n we didn’t have this here job already lined up and partially paid for, returning that money would have been a hardship.” He let his gaze drift around the table. “Not accusin’ anybody, nor am I some gorram fed who’s gonna go huntin’ through people’s bunks. Just like to find out what happened. Jayne?”

“What?” The mercenary looked up from his dinner for the first time, puzzled, then angry. “What, you think I’m some kinda cross-dressin' guai dan? I go on one date with a guy and now you think I'm gonna be struttin’ around in high heels?”

“Nobody thinks that either,” Mal said, his lips twitching. He looked at Kaylee and River meaningfully. “And since my girls ain’t said anything, I reckon there’s nothing more to be said. Must’ve miscounted in the beginning. Just to be real clear, however, that nothin’ like this is gonna happen again, or I will be forced to take action. Dong le ma?” His voice had grown very stern -- the tone of a captain who didn’t mean to be crossed.

“Yes, sir,” Kaylee whispered, amid echoes of the same sentiment from the others, hoping her guilt didn’t show on her face. She felt awful. It hadn’t seemed so bad taking the shoes at the time, but now it was just like when she’d stolen some coin from her mama’s purse for candy as a little girl. To make matters worse, her shoes were missing — had he found them and taken them to teach her a lesson? “You c'n trust us,” she said, a little too loudly. “Promise.”

“He can,” River said, looking speculatively around the table. “But will he?”

Several hours later, in what amounted to nighttime on the ship, Wash sat in the cockpit and waited for River. He had expected her to show up the minute everyone else had settled for the night and was slightly worried that she hadn’t -- especially considering the session they’d had at the table that morning. He felt bad about some of what had been said and had wanted to hopefully make it up to her. They were less than 10 hours out from Logos and he thought she’d enjoy being in the cabin when he landed.

Checking the coordinates and making sure Serenity was on course, he decided to look for her, creeping quietly through the crew quarters until he reached the stairwell that led to the lower deck.

River wasn’t in her room and she wasn’t with Simon, that much he could tell through the crack left open in Simon’s door, and the cargo bay seemed empty. That didn’t mean it was – there were a lot of places a girl her size could hide, but he could sense almost immediately she wasn’t in there.

“Please don’t tell me you melted into the ship again,” he muttered to himself as he turned around to leave, half suspecting she was sitting in the pilot chair flying the ship without him while he wandered the ship, looking for her.

When he reached the catwalk between the two shuttles something made him pause. The door to shuttle two was open and that intrigued him. Looking around suspiciously he headed towards it and stepped inside the darkened room. “River?” he called quietly.

He found her curled up in the shuttle’s pilot seat. When she heard his voice, she pressed herself further into the chair. “Wasn’t stealing, not a thief. Didn’t touch.” There was a hint of panic in her voice, as if she could already hear the lecture Mal would deliver if she did something to one of his shuttles.

“No, didn’t figure you were, actually,” Wash commented as he stepped further into the shuttle. There was a weak amount of light coming from the cabin where the starlight pooled onto the floor and he made his way to it, letting his hand trail along the wall of the shuttle lovingly as he approached. “I kept waiting, but you never showed.”

“Too complicated,” she whispered, her eyes still nervously fixed on him. “Can feel them watching, wondering, worrying. I know what’s right, but I can’t do it when they watch.” She bit her lip turning to face the field of stars herself. “Just wanted to see, even if I can’t touch.”

Wash nodded a bit, understanding all to well what she meant, for once. “You know, the view’s better from the cockpit”

River sat up straighter, leaning towards him. “Promise not to suspect. I promise to be innocent if you promise to trust,” she whispered. “If it fails, if it falls, you can’t tell him I did it, can’t make me responsible, I can’t be responsible….”

“The captain would much rather kill me for screwing up than you, trust me.” His eyes twinkled in the dim light and he gave her a smile. “C’mon, I trust you.” He reached out, offering his hand and smiled when she took it and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. “It’s cold in here.”

River nodded, trailing one hand along the railing when they reached the catwalk. “I told him she was hurting. Felt the rumbling, crying….He didn’t listen though.”

“I don’t think he meant to hurt your feelings, though,” Wash offered. “He isn’t like that.”

River shrugged, smiling sadly as she stepped into the cockpit and stared out at the stars. “Do you ever wonder if you’ll fall out, into them?” She asked, changing the subject.

Wash was silent for a while, reflecting upon the question. He wondered when River had started to make sense to him. “More often than I’d care to admit, actually.” He tore his eyes from the black beyond them and checked their flight pattern again as he slid into his seat. “Figure there are worse ways to go though and that that’d be a suitable, noble way for a pilot.” He cast her a wry grin.

She ducked her head shyly, beginning to speak more quickly. “If I slid through the glass, then I'd be everywhere all at once, and they couldn't see or ask what I was doing. I could really fly.”

Wash pressed his lips together thoughtfully at that. “Do you know the story of Daedalus and Icarus?”

River nodded. “The father made the son wings of wax to fly away from Crete, but flying was too joyous for Icarus. He flew too close to the sun and his wings melted.”

“That’s right,” Wash agreed. “He fell to his death and drowned in the sea.” His thumbs ran over the yoke softly, petting. “I’ve built you some wings, River, but don’t fly too near the sun.” He glanced over to her. “You’re not Icarus.”

River met his gaze easily. “No. You’re Icarus.”

Wash studied her face in the starlight for several seconds and then shook his head. “Not today, River,” he answered. “Not today.”

A moment of silence passed between them before Wash smiled. “You wanna fly, then?”

River nodded eagerly, pulling away from the story and grasping the yoke firmly in her hands. “Release her?”

Wash did, easily. There was no preamble, no question. He knew the heart of someone who needed and wanted to fly. He flipped the switches that shut off the autopilot and gave Serenity over to her, keeping his eyes on the girl, watching her delight. He almost wished Simon could see her now.

River gave a little, joyous sigh. Holding the controls perfectly steady and guided the ship forward. Her face was pale and intent, her long hair now tucked back behind her ears so that it wouldn’t obscure her vision. Perhaps, though, she wasn't relying as much on vision. A humming cat's cradle of thought and understanding passed between the two of them and River fingered each strand of them, using them to make Serenity's flight a thing of beauty. Her toes curled in pleasure. “How long until he accidentally finds out?” she wondered, after a time.

“Until who finds out what?” came a deep, sonorous voice from behind them.

Wash nearly jumped out of his skin as he leapt to his feet and turned around. To her credit River didn’t let the ship even shimmer. “Book!” he shouted, far, far louder than he had intended, relief thick in his throat. A hand went up into his hair and clutched. “Tiao san kong jian hou zi, we forgot to close the door!” He nervously laughed and gestured to River. “This isn’t what it looks like!” he quickly defended.

Book smiled and straightened his spine as he entered the cabin more fully. “Oh?”

“It’s not!” Wash continued. “I’m not teaching her to fly! Because that’s not what it looks like I’m doing, is it? Because I’m not!”

“Then she hijacked the ship,” River said sadly. “You can rest the blame on someone else’s shoulders and then they’ll lock me in quarters, put up screens to watch, give Simon a magnifying glass so nothing escapes.”

Book moved forward, resting a hand on the back of River's seat. “No one is saying you’re a hijacker, River.”

Wash took his hand out of his hair and let it flop softly at his side. “Okay, I am teaching her to fly.” He couldn’t lie, not to a preacher and not when it would be betraying River’s fragile trust. He moved past the two of them and slid the cabin door shut so they wouldn’t have another unexpected visitor. “Just don’t let Mal know, all right?” he pressed. “He’ll kill me, you know, really kill me and then you’d have to have that on your conscious. Plus, after I’m dead you’d have no one left to fly the ship, so you’d probably all crash and die.”

“Oh, I'm accustomed to keeping secrets,” Book assured him, smiling. “Besides, I don't think we need another conversation like that one at breakfast. Hard to hear the still, small voice when there’s that much upset in a room.”

River glanced up at him over her shoulder. “Like the still before a storm?” she said curiously.

“Like the still before a storm,” Book replied with a nod.

Continue to part three