When Kaylee woke, she found herself in the infirmary next to Jayne. Jayne was wide awake and yelling at Simon, which had woken her up. Simon was very still, stitching together the rest of a bullet’s graze wound on Jayne’s arm. He was doing a great job of ignoring Jayne, and Kaylee grinned at them. Jayne looked up mid-rant and cut himself off.

“There you go. Now you can live to fight and shoot another day,” Simon said dryly. He snipped the thread with his pair of suture scissors. “Less than sterile conditions, but you’ll live.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” Kaylee teased, trying to prop herself up on the stretcher.

Simon dropped both needle and suture scissors onto the nursing tray next to Jayne and helped. “Kaylee! How are you feeling?”

“A little dizzy and tired. What happened?”

“That qingwa cào de liúmáng you delivered the letter to kidnapped you,” Simon said.

“Didn’t know you had it in you, Doc,” Jayne muttered, impressed despite himself.

“Some situations call for that kind of language,” Simon said, shrugging. “But I’ve done a physical, and I’ve checked whatever labs I was able to analyze here.”

Kaylee looked around the infirmary. “I don’t remember that doohickey thingie being over there before.” She pointed and Simon followed her finger. “It’s all new-looking.”

“Well, I figured they didn’t need it...” Simon said, nearly stammering. “The captain asked me to take a look around and see if there were things there that we might need.”

Kayle stretched and yawned. “I’m feelin’ mostly okay. So how’d you get me back?”

“Well, Jayne here managed to find some information. So they went into the place where you were being held and got you back out. They won’t bother you anymore,” Simon said, stroking Kaylee’s hair. When he saw himself doing it, he straightened up abruptly.

“I dunno, Doc. When the crazy Doc went batshit and started actin’ up worse than that moonbrain sister of yours, you did pretty good yourself,” Jayne said. He had to be honest on that one; the gun the other doctor had been holding had originally been aimed for Jayne’s head. He watched Simon shrug off the praise, amused at the reaction. “It were a good dogfight,” Jayne said, looking over at Kaylee. “Over a bit too soon, but my new gun got off some good shots.”

“You rest up,” Simon said, when it looked as though Kaylee was about to push herself off of the stretcher. “It’s just past lunchtime. I’ll come get you for dinner. Just rest until then.”

“But all I’ve been doin’ is restin’! They had me drugged up and knocked out!”

“It’s not the same as real sleep. And that’ll make you feel much better.” Simon squeezed her hand encouragingly, and it took the fight out of Kaylee. She pouted at him playfully, but let him tuck her in. She was a little tired anyway.

Jayne was shaking his head on the way out of the infirmary. Kaylee ignored him and closed her eyes to sleep. No stars there anymore, and Kaylee found it comforting.

Around the dinner table, the tale of the rescue was told. Jayne told everyone what he had discovered from the dusty little man in the dusty little town. It had been a bit back and forth on how the rescue would go down, but there was never a question of rescue. Between River feeling Kaylee’s mind and the other doctor’s mind, they soon had a good idea of what the layout was in the factory. It was cold and white, very austere and sterile. Mal, Zoe and Jayne and led the way into the factory, guns blazing and shooting anything that moved to shoot them back. Simon had carried the rear, a pistol in his right hand and his doctor’s bag in the other. Kaylee had been held in a room toward the back, an IV line dripping fluids and a steady dose of sedative. The other doctor had been running a series of blood tests, and a rather large man with tiny watery eyes was sitting next to Kaylee, patting her head fondly.

Kaylee playfully shuddered at this point in the story, laughing along with everyone else. “He did not! Like I’m a puppy or somethin’?”

Simon nodded earnestly. “And then that other doctor aimed his gun at Jayne’s head.”

“Oh no!” Kaylee breathed. “How’d you duck it?”

“Our doc here shot him, right full in the chest,” Jayne said, nodding at Simon. “Turned out he’s a steady shot. Then he unhooked you and we got you back here.”

Kaylee whistled in appreciation. “I owe everybody a thank you cake!”

Mal laughed and shook his head. “You keep my boat in the air and I’d say we’re square.”

Everyone laughed as Mal and Kaylee shook on it. As if she would allow anything different. She leaned back in her chair and looked up through the ceiling to the trailing stars above. “You know, I was out of it most of the time, but it’s good to be back on the boat.”

River leaned over as Simon opened his mouth to speak and hugged Kaylee tightly. “He would have been lonely without his heart.”

Kaylee looked down with a grin, missing Simon’s expression as he looked away. Another opportunity missed, another lost chance to say something. He was used to it by now, but it didn’t mean he liked it.

Life seemed to settle back toward center. Kaylee noticed that everyone seemed a little more protective of her, but that actually felt nice. It was almost like the time Papa Frye realized his little Kaylee was starting to turn heads in town, even when covered in engine grease. Of course, Papa Frye was a practical man. Kaylee had always been more than a little headstrong growing up, and didn’t always know when she’d overstepped herself until she’d gone and done it. So Papa Frye had simply taken her aside and explained the whole business about sex and birthing babies, and told her that she was on no account to go around birthing babies until she had a ring on her finger and was absolutely certain she was ready for them. It was hard enough squeezing into tight spaces full of engine, and it would be harder still when she had a full belly in front of her.

Kaylee smiled wistfully as she lay in her hammock. She was writing a letter back home. She hadn’t written in a bit, but that was fine. Her family knew how much she loved it in the black, and knew that a ship didn’t always dock in planetside. She always had tales to tell once they got a letter packet, and their baby girl was always doing well. Some coin tossed their way once in a while helped things along nicely, and was always a good bonus to have.

“Kaylee?”

Kaylee perked up at the sound of Simon’s voice. “I’m over in here.”

He appeared at the door of the engine room, his computer in hand. “I was wondering if you still wanted to work on French lessons,” he said, lifting up the computer. “I could come back some other time if you’re busy.”

“Oh no, Simon. I ain’t busy. Just writin’ home, is all. I can do that later. Maybe pass along some French to them. I’m getting all fancy out in the black.” Kaylee effortlessly dropped out of her hammock and then caught the frame of the engine room. “Ooh. All woozy there for a second.”

He had rushed forward to steady her. “You just got up too quickly, the blood just hasn’t caught up to your brain. It’s called orthostatic hypotension. You feel dizzy when it happens.”

She smiled up at him. “Now look at that! A fancy name for everything!”

“I heard once that when you graduate medical school, you know over ten thousand new words, almost like it’s another language.”

“It sure sounds that way sometimes,” Kaylee said with a grin. She let Simon help her sit down on the floor, and the computer was laid out in front of them. “So what are we working on today? More counting? Or new words?”

“Some new words, some phrases. Maybe verb conjugation.”

“Ooh. That sounds naughty.” Kaylee giggled as Simon grew a little red in the face.

“It’s just how we make verbs agree with what we’re talking about. Take talk, for example. From the verb ‘to talk,’ we get I talk, you talk, he or she talks, we talk, they talk.”

“That’s an awful lot of talkin’, Simon,” Kaylee joked. “And it sounds the same.”

“In French, a lot of it sounds the same, too. The words are spelled differently, though, and there’s two different you’s. There’s a formal you and an informal you. And it’s a terrible insult to use the wrong one too soon.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you use the formal you for anyone you just meet, anyone who is higher ranking and should get great respect. You have to ask if you’re close enough to use the informal you. That’s just between family and friends.”

“Like us.”

Simon swallowed almost painfully. “Yes. Like us.”

“Mmm... I think I get it.” Kaylee looked up and to the side as she was thinking. “So, anytime someone new comes on board, I gotta use the formal you. ‘Cause they’re a stranger. Or if I was talking to someone like Book, who should get more respect and all.”

“Right.”

Kaylee turned to Simon with a lopsided grin. “Very formal, those French were. Couldn’t everybody be friends?”

Simon tried to smile back, but it came out almost like a grimace of pain. “It all depended on how close you were. Not everyone could be friends.”

“But we are.”

“Yeah,” Simon said, his throat painfully tight. Friends. That was all she saw him as.

“So you were saying somethin’ ‘bout conjugating?” Kaylee asked teasingly. Her grin was infectious, and Simon swallowed down his pain to smile at her.

“Sure. There’s three kinds of verbs. -ER, -IR and -RE verbs. And there’s all sorts of irregular verbs that break the rules, but why don’t we start with regular verbs first.”

“There’s rules?”

“Well, sure. You have to have rules. That way you can figure out how to conjugate a new verb you’ve never seen before. You apply the rules to it.” Simon looked down at his computer pad and pulled up the lesson for -ER verbs that he had once taken as a child.

Aimer, to love.

“Aw, that’s a good one to know,” Kaylee said, looking over his shoulder. “I’d like to know that one.” He could hear the smile in her voice.

“Sure,” Simon said, his voice tight and almost cracking. He cleared his throat and pulled up the lesson on his computer.

“Je t’aime,” Simon murmured, pointing to the first person singular conjugation.

“Silly, that’s not what it says,” Kaylee laughed, pushing on Simon’s arm slightly. “I know how to pronounce this enough to know there’s no T in it.”

Simon turned to Kaylee. “It’s a sentence. Je t’aime. I love you.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Simon?”

“I...” Simon swallowed nervously. He was going to fuck it up, he knew it. But there was no going back now. “I love you, Kaylee.” He reached up and touched her cheek gently, almost reverently, and it made her smile. “I don’t know how I ever lived without you.”

“You’re the most shuai boy I ever knew,” Kaylee murmured.

Simon leaned in to kiss her. Kaylee resisted the urge to giggle, because he looked so worried and it had certainly taken him long enough already.

It felt like static when he kissed her. His lips were a little dry and cracked, but no more than hers were. It was soft and fragile, full of insecurity and wonder. He pulled back after a moment, searching her eyes. Kaylee smiled at him. “It’s about time,” Kaylee teased, and settled in for another kiss. This one was better, less unsure and more tongue and lip and teeth.

Mmm, that boy could kiss, Kaylee thought dreamily when their second kiss ended. She gave him a hazy grin, and he returned hers with a goofy one. “Worth waiting for,” she murmured.

He stroked her cheek gently, tracing her cheekbone beneath his thumb. “I’ve waited so long... I never was sure if it would be okay.”

“More ‘n okay, Simon,” Kaylee grinned. “And there’s more ‘n that. Though kissin’s nice.”

His thumb dropped down to her lips, and he watched them move as she spoke. “I think I was always afraid it wasn’t real. I don’t have much anymore, certainly nothing that’s real for me. I didn’t want this to be something else that got away from me.”

Kaylee cradled his face in her hands. “Simon, I ain’t goin’ nowhere. Serenity’s my baby, mine to fix up an’ fly. And I got you, don’t I?” Simon grinned at her in giddy relief. “And it’s all I need. I got everything I want right here.”

Simon tightened his hand around hers, pulling it away from his face. He kissed her rough knuckles reverently, and looked up into her eyes. “I don’t have much to offer you, Kaylee. But anything I do have, I’ll give.”

“I just need you, Simon. Everything else will take care of itself.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. The ‘verse can be a nice place if you let it.”

He smiled at her gently. “It hasn’t been nice to me for a long time.”

“Let me show you,” Kaylee murmured, squeezing his hand. “It ain’t the same as the Core, but there’s plenty of other nice places.”

“I’m finding that out more and more every day.”

They kissed again, hands tangled together, computer forgotten between them.

Kaylee was getting dizzy a lot, and it was more annoying than anything else. She and Simon would practice some French, but more often than not they would just kiss. It was rather nice, kissing and not worrying about something going wrong. Simon was too proper for anything to go wrong, and he had barely even tried to take advantage of the situation. She had tried pushing Simon onto his back on the engine room floor, but he still didn’t take the hint.

At least he was a good kisser. Boy, he was plenty good at it. And he knew he was driving her wild, he was just delaying the obvious conclusion. It was kinda fun, actually. It was sweet. She hadn’t been courted in a bit, and with nowhere to go on the ship, he was trying to create dates without going anywhere.

After yet another wave of dizziness, Kaylee sighed and sat herself down. She waited for it to pass, a good two minutes she could’ve used to contort herself around a part of the engine casing. She yawned and stretched, feeling her belly roil up in protest. She hadn’t been eating much in the past two days, since the scent of burned protein mash didn’t do anything but turn her stomach. Poor Simon might’ve been a good doctor, but he wasn’t much of a cook. River had laughed at him and said something about houses and horses and falling down. It didn’t make much sense, but the expression on his face had been priceless.

Kaylee slowly pushed herself to a standing position and looked over the engine casing again. It was a mite stressed, but nothing that would bust right away. If it were cracked, that would be a different story. She climbed up on a ledge and peered over the top of the casing, eyes traveling over the dull spots. It wasn’t cracked yet, but it would be soon enough. She’d have to keep an eye out for a new casing piece. Of course, the other side might be close to cracking, too. Kaylee jumped down from the ledge, a good foot from the floor, and her vision swam with gray for a moment before settling back down into color.

“Well, that ain’t right,” she murmured to herself. It was probably time to get Simon to examine something other than her tonsils for a bit.

Kaylee took a quick look at the other side of the engine casing and didn’t notice any signs of possible cracks. That helped a bit, though she wasn’t about to climb up on top if it would only send her into a tailspin again. It didn’t make much sense, though. She’d already gotten a clean bill of health from Simon three weeks ago. She couldn’t think of anything that would simmer that long before making someone sick, and Simon himself had said that it appeared the nasty doctor man in Harristown was giving her a full physical. Simon had double checked a lot of the tests the doctor had done, and it basically had said that Kaylee was fit as a fiddle.

So why the dizziness?

Kaylee wiped her hands on her coveralls and headed down to the infirmary. River was there, rearranging all of the glass bottles into alphabetical order. It looked as though she had already rearranged every syringe in the containers by size and volume. “Whatcha doin’?” Kaylee asked with a grin.

“Helping Simon clean. He takes such looking after, he makes such a mess. He never thinks of order when he’s in a rush,” River said, looking up. She was grinning at Kaylee as she held one of the bottles. It looked as though she were in one of her better moods.

“I was wondering where he was. I wasn’t feeling so good.”

“You wanted Simon to kiss it and make it better?” River asked, placing the bottles down on the counter. She then turned and lined them up neatly.

“Well, I’ve been real dizzy lately, I figured I might be comin’ down with something. Better not to let anyone else catch it.”

River only smiled as she turned around to face Kaylee again. She was wearing one of those overlarge sweaters over a tiny babydoll dress, and she seemed so much younger than her age. She rushed up to Kaylee in a moment and hugged her tight, unmindful of the grease working its way into her sweater. “And when I’m an auntie, I can share the secrets of the universe.”

Kaylee only laughed, and patted River’s head fondly. “Not for a bit yet, River. Simon’s only just started takin’ me places.”

River looked up with large eyes and a grin to match. “The heavens are wonderful. They glitter with sprinkled stars. They whisper their secrets before they go to sleep. I can hear them when I close my eyes.”

“Do they say nice things?”

River’s face darkened. “Not always.”

Kaylee pushed the hair out of River’s eyes. “Well, don’t dwell on the bad. There’s good out there, isn’t there? There’s got to be.”

“Sometimes,” River said in a small voice. “Those whispers are softer.”

“Well, just try harder for the nice parts.” Kaylee gave River a swift hug. “Know where Simon is?”

“Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair,” River replied, disentangling herself from Kaylee’s embrace. “I’ll show you.”

Kaylee let herself be tugged by the hand toward the kitchen, where Simon was making a cup of green tea. He turned around, startled at the sound of boots clanging up the stairs.

“Hey there, Simon,” Kaylee said, grinning. “River said you were goin’ to the fair.”

Simon looked at River, confused for a moment. He noticed her smile and decided it wasn’t worth it to ask what she had meant. “If tea makes a fair, I guess so.”

“Think I can have some?” Kaylee asked.

“Sure,” Simon said easily. “River?”

“I only brought the princess,” River said. “I can’t dance in the galley.”

Simon blinked as River bounded out of the doorway, back in the direction she came from. “Should I be afraid that I think that almost made sense?”

Kaylee laughed. “Naw... She made me a princess in the bargain.”

“I can live with that.” Simon pulled her in for a kiss, which made her giggle. “So what brings you here, other than tea?”

“I’ve been awful dizzy lately.”

Simon frowned and looked at Kaylee. “Any other symptoms?”

“Nope. I’m feelin’ fine, and you said I was fit when I got back shipside. I don’t know what it could be.”

“When did it start?”

“Later last week, I think.”

Simon frowned. “Dizziness is pretty nonspecific. I might want to run some tests...”

“Oh, you ran plenty enough tests when I got back three weeks ago. I was just wondering if I caught something that might’ve snuck up on me. Doesn’t do me any good to be sniffling all day if I need to fix things. The engine casing looks like it might need replacing.”

Simon felt her forehead. “No fever.” He looked at her carefully. “You sure nothing’s wrong?”

“Other than the fact we haven’t gotten past kissing?” Kaylee teased.

Simon flushed. “I just... I don’t like rushing things before their time.”

Kaylee leaned in and kissed Simon in response. “You think too much,” she murmured. “I think I’ll run over to my bunk and get washed up.” She pulled back and grinned at Simon. “I’d do it here, but I ain’t wearing nothing under this outfit here.”

Eyes wide, Simon watched as Kaylee sauntered out of the kitchen. He couldn’t breathe.

Tea forgotten, Simon raced after her.

He caught up with her just outside her bunk. She was laughing and giggling all the while, then kicked her door open and beckoned for Simon to follow. “Qingjin,” she said with a laugh, beginning to climb down her steps.

Oh hell. How could he say no?

Simon followed her down, eyes shut. His stomach was aflutter with nerves. Oh, this wasn’t new, but it was at the same time. This was Kaylee, this was different. This was something that was important, something special. He couldn’t afford to screw it up.

She locked the door and pressed herself against him. Her zipper and his buttons pressed into his skin, and he could feel the curves of her body against his. Simon cradled her close, feeling the play of her muscles through the jumpsuit. No lines or seams met his fingers, so Kaylee really didn’t have a shirt on under it. The thought went straight to his gut, twisting in with his nerves. He kissed her jaw, then nipped on her earlobe with his teeth. “N? ài w? ma?” he murmured.

“W? ài n?,” Kaylee whispered into his ear. “Always.”

Simon pulled down the zipper and pushed the coveralls off of her shoulders. Kaylee hit the lock on the door to her bunk, and the sound reverberated through the room. No going back, though Simon couldn’t ever think of why he would want to. She was lush and warm, smelling of engines and soap and Kaylee. He showered the tops of her full breasts with kissed, his fingers skimming the skin of her back. He was reverent, respectful, laving her breasts with his tongue before beginning to suck on them. She let out a small cry, and ran her fingers through his hair.

Yes, he thought. This is what I was supposed to do with my life.

Simon pulled the coveralls the rest of the way down, over her hips, down to the floor. As she stepped out of them, Simon moved to kiss his way down her belly. She wore cute blue panties with blue lace trim. He could smell her, sharp and feminine. Wanting him. Him, awkward and backward as he could be, stuffy and proper and rigid as he could be. He was special, he was someone important here. He was someone that could be loved, someone that could be worthy of it without having to save a life.

“Si-mon,” Kaylee whispered, her voice fracturing across his name. Her hands were tangled up in his hair, brushing over the tops of his ears. The touch burned, shot straight down.

He was much too clothed for this.

He let her unbutton his buttons. He didn’t flinch when one of them popped off and flew in an unknown direction. He let her touch his chest, trace the muscle he had developed after being on board with nothing to do but work away his worries late at night. They kissed, tongues dueling as her hands dipped down to his waist, working off his belt. Fine grain leather, a remnant of another life that wasn’t real, wasn’t important, didn’t mean anything anymore. And down went the pants, a quiet zipper parting without protest.

Zippers were wonderful, beautiful things.

He could feel her fingers through the cloth of his boxers. It was a barrier of simple gray cotton, worn almost thin by now. Her fingers were hot, touching him just where he ached most. She tasted like sweet wine, berry-flavored lipgloss swirling over their tongues. Simon was drowning in the taste, the feel of her pressed against him, skin to skin. This was too perfect to be real, but somehow it was, somehow he was good enough to deserve something this good.

Kaylee broke the kiss to return the favor, to trail her tongue down his chest as she hooked her fingers into the waistband of his boxers. Simon groaned as they were dragged down to the floor, as her breath ghosted across the tip of his anxious penis. He could feel his entire body tighten in anticipation, could feel his heart stop when her lips brushed up against the head.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Kaylee murmured, looking up at him. He looked down, saw his erection just a breath away from her parted lips.

Simon couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do much more than numbly shake his head. “‘M not,” he murmured, unable to think. Oh no. Doctors weren’t beautiful. They didn’t have time to take care of themselves. It was the patient over the doctor, it was their needs first. A doctor didn’t have time to eat or sleep properly, not when there were others needing him. He still carried the ghosts of too many sleepless nights on call in the trauma room.

“My shuai boy,” Kaylee whispered, smiling at Simon. She didn’t miss the fine tremor in his body, the jerk of the erection just in front of her. “Of course you are.”

His mind shut down when her lips closed over him, and he could do no more than groan, holding on to the wall for support. She moved her tongue over the head before taking him in deep, rubbing the roof of her mouth across his length. Speech was impossible. There were no such things as syllables. He had no bones.

And then she pulled away, purring, smiling at him. Simon groaned, let her pull him away from their piles of shed clothes. It was shedding a skin, he decided. They shed their roles and all that was left was the very core of them, the center of everything. Simon pushed Kaylee down to her bed, the colored lights above them splattering her skin. His mouth descended over hers, his hand at a breast and the other propping himself up. She was the most beautiful girl in the entire ‘verse, and somehow she thought he was worthy of her. He had to have done something good in a past life to have deserved her; it boggled his mind to think that she felt the same way about him, that he was somehow her reward in life.

Simon skimmed his fingers down, reaching the frilly band of her panties. He reached beneath them, feeling the springy curls there, then moved even lower. Kaylee’s breath caught, and she arched up against his hand. “Nî hâo mêi,” Simon murmured against the skin of her throat. He could feel her pulse against his lips, erratic as his own.

He could feel her wetness against his fingers, and pushed a finger inside. Kaylee nearly leapt off of the bed with a keening cry. Simon dragged his damp finger across her clit, and she mewled softly against his neck. Slow circles, too slow. Hand inside her panties and mouth over her breast and oh, Kaylee was about to explode from it, legs moving restlessly beneath him. More, more, Kaylee wanted to say, too good, oh, almost too much... But words failed her, she couldn’t speak, she could hardly even string a coherent thought together.

And then she could feel her body begin to clench. “Simon,” she moaned. “Ah... just like that... Oh, I like that...”

He switched from one breast to the other, gasping himself. “Kaylee,” he whispered against her skin, his breath hot and making her shiver.

And then her control broke, she was clenching down around his fingers, she was shivering with a hoarse cry. Simon’s fingers slowed, then stilled. His breath was hot against her, ragged, yearning, not quite done with her yet. “Simon...” she whispered.

“I love you, bao bei,” he whispered, fingers beginning to move again. “I love you.”

The world was going to explode. Serenity would be blasted to bits. That was it. Kaylee couldn’t care if everything went up in flames; she was on fire already.

“Wo detain, a.”

“Kaylee...” Simon whispered, kissing the valley between her breasts. Then he kissed his way down to her belly, licking a trail down. He stopped his ministrations long enough to pull off her panties, dropping little kisses along the inside of her thigh. So thoughtful and methodical even in his seduction, and Kaylee wanted to giggle.

But then his mouth was on her, and she could do no more than gasp. His tongue sought out her aching clit, teasing it, circling it, stroking it. He had a finger inside her, stroking her. The other hand was at her hip, keeping her steady. Kaylee kept her hands at the side of her head, her pillow fisted in them. She couldn’t breathe, ah, that attention was too good to think against.

And when she cried out again, legs shaking, Kaylee could have sworn she would pass out from the pleasure. Simon pushed himself inside of her, stretching out over her. She opened her eyes as she sighed with contentment. She traced his lips with her finger as he began to move, slowly but surely. “Simon,” she murmured. He looked almost as though he was concentrating on her a little too hard, a little too long. He closed his eyes when she shifted her hips to move against him, and her heart did a silly flip-flop when he bit his lip. Kaylee closed her own eyes and arched up to meet each thrust, her hands running down his back. He felt as good as she had hoped he would, as wonderful as she dreamed he would be.

“I can’t... I’m gonna...” Simon gasped.

“I’ll catch you,” Kaylee gasped. Her eyes snapped open as she felt him jerk against her. Their eyes locked and his breath hitched. She could feel him inside of her, the warm spill of him. She touched his cheek gently, tenderly. She didn’t quite come this time, but there was plenty of time for that later. “I’ll catch you.”

He turned and kissed the inside of her palm, unable to say what he felt. That was all right; she knew already anyway.

When Kaylee started vomiting in earnest later that week, Simon sat her down in his infirmary immediately. She rolled her eyes at him when he had her lie down as he ran blood tests and took her vital signs. “I’ve been sick before, Simon. I just don’t feel so good.”

“You were fine before. And we haven’t hit the drop point yet, so you shouldn’t have caught anything new.” Simon frowned. He knew he was being overprotective and overworried, but he couldn’t help it.

“You know, just ‘cause you’re in my bunk most nights don’t mean you should worry so much,” Kaylee teased. “Maybe you need a break? It’s just about time to hold back a bit anyhow....” Her voice trailed off as she thought. “No, that can’t be right.” Kaylee pushed herself into a sitting position. “I should’ve had my courses last week sometime, before we started.”

Simon frowned. “What? Are you usually on time?”

“Of course. Didn’t think about it, though. I was kinda distracted.”

Simon smiled at her blush, then turned back to the analyzer. He punched in another test, and waited for the computer to process it. He stroked her hair gently. “I’ll take care of you, bao bei,” he murmured.

Simon checked the analyzer after a few minutes. Chemistries were fine, complete blood count was fine. Liver panel was fine, endocrine panel was fine. With one obvious and important exception, everything was within normal limits.

“Kaylee, you’re pregnant.”