Simon nurses the glass of scotch, as yet untouched. This bar is dirtier than any he's seen yet, nestled on some trash heap of a planet. He watches River as she dances carefree and swallows convulsively. She hadn't asked, about their parents. She hadn't asked where they were, why they hadn't come too. But he knew.

'If you go looking for your sister again I will not come.'

That sentence had been the last his father had ever spoken to him. Who knows what the last to River had been.

'You look fit to shoot yourself there Doc,' Kaylee said as she sat down opposite him flipping her hair around her finger as she does. There was concern in her eyes and he closed his heart off from feeling anything about that. Caring for people was too big a risk, he already had his hands full keeping River alive. River looked up suddenly and shook her head, the picture of his sister in her right mind. It shocked him when she did that, just reverted back as though nothing had happened. How was she reading his mind? He didn't really care he received the message loud and clear, don't push Kaylee away.

Kaylee was chewing her lip when he looked up. 'Oh you see me now?'

'I'm sorry, I was thinking of our parents.' He confides knowing she won't tell anyone.

Kaylee perks up, 'I didn't know you all had parents, I mean of course you had parents,' she turned a beautiful pink, so he leans over and catches her mouth with his.

'They're not much to talk about,' he says breaking only a breath away and gazing into her eyes. He's wanted to see her eyes up close, to really see the hues. Gosh she's beautiful he thinks. She seems to understand the pain underneath it all and reaches for his hand lacing their fingers.

'You don't have to pretend with me you know,' she reaches for his hair and then pulls back awkwardly unsure of herself, she looks at the floor. Why can't she just be relaxed and confident like Inara, she always seems to know what to do. He kisses her and runs his hands into her hair undoing the curls that twined for one another. She rethinks and wraps her arm around his neck as he wraps his around her waist. The doc can kiss!

AN - Does this need more?