Firefly Fic: Five Times Simon Tam Left Serenity (And Then Came Back) (Simon, Crew, PG)
[Next entry: "Firefly Fic: Miles From Where You Are (Inara, Mal, Crew, PG-13)"]
08/26/2007: "Firefly Fic: Five Times Simon Tam Left Serenity (And Then Came Back) (Simon, Crew, PG)"
Title: Five Times Simon Tam Left Serenity (And Then Came Back)
For: onmycrew
Rating: PG
Words: About 950
1. After Miranda, after the Operative, and after the warrants are lifted, Simon goes to a hospital.
It's not like a hospital on Osiris, or even St.Mary's on Ariel. But the moon they're on is better than most, and the hospital is clean. Orderly. Busy. It's obvious they're understaffed, but it could be worse.
"Are you sick?" a woman's voice asks him. "You look pale."
It takes him a moment to focus on her. She's wearing a uniform, functional and slightly stained around the edges. He's seen worse. And she's smiling, concerned. "No," he says, swallowing. His throat hurts. "I'm. Looking for a job. I'm a doctor."
Her face – young, tired – lights up. "A doctor? Really? And you want to work here?" She laughs slightly. "That sounds terrible. We could use another doctor. Wait here." She gestures at a bench. "I'll go and get the hospital director."
She goes, walking quickly. Simon watches her, sees the way she turns sometimes and smiles at the people around her. Then he sits, watching the bustle around him. It's familiar. It's almost homey. It's what he misses.
He wants this.
But by the time the nurse gets back – director in tow – Simon has left.
He tells himself he doesn't regret that decision.
2. "I'm bored. Let's go drinkin'," Jayne says. "Outside. In a bar."
Simon shudders. "Why would I want to do that? Also, what if I'm recognized?"
"You wanna sit around here all night? Bored stiff? Suckers with nothin' to do while the rest of 'em are out?" Jayne pulls a cowboy hat from behind his back and presses it down on Simon's head. "Here. Disguise."
They go out drinking. Eventually they get back to Serenity, but Simon has no idea how.
3. He lasts two weeks, four days, and seven hours before he waves Serenity.
"River," he says, smiling.
"Bored farmer comes a calling," she sing-songs.
"I'm not a farmer. I'm a doctor to farmers." And it's incredibly, utterly boring. He's not even sure they need him here. Within a two-hour radius, there are midwives, former Independent field medics, and even a bone-setter.
"We'll be there in two days." She's grinning at him.
In the background, he hears Mal yell, "I ain't changing our plans just 'cause he's feeling lonesome."
"Two days," River says again, rolling her eyes.
4. "Just going out for some fresh air," Simon calls.
A painful blow to the head, two broken ribs, one mouthful of water, a meal-on-the-run of dubious berries, countless shallow and not-so-shallow cuts, and 39 hours later, Simon makes it back to Serenity.
His reception is somewhat predictable.
"What the hell happened?" Mal yells.
Zoe follows Simon to the infirmary and wordlessly begins to irrigate the deeper cuts.
River clings to his hand, whispering, "Simon," and "silly," and "fresh air is bad."
Kaylee just wrings her hands. "You were gone for almost two days! We thought you were dead! Cap was gonna leave port, but didn't only 'cause River said no, pitched a fit and gunked up the engine!"
Jayne frowns. "You was gone?" he asks.
5. Simon pushes himself away from Serenity. The EV suit is awkward, and he's sure he can hear a faint hiss, probably signalling a tiny leak of oxygen into space. The umbilical cord keeps him tethered to the ship, but he's seen the small wears in it. It probably won't last long.
"River?" he asks over the radio. "We know you're out here. And we need to get going."
She doesn't answer, but he slowly rotates his body until he sees her boot. She's clinging to the edge of Serenity. He doesn't know how. "Now, River. Mal's getting annoyed. This umbilical is going to break any moment. And I think there's a slow leak in my suit."
He hears her sigh. "Boring."
They make it back inside. After, Kaylee finds him in the infirmary. "Um. You were right. Leak right down by the foot. Sorry about that."
And...a creepy one?
They put his body in a coffin. A real one, not something that Kaylee rigs up out of scrap, not some old box from cargo. "A real coffin," Kaylee says softly, as she closes it.
"Fancy home for a dead guy," Jayne mutters, but there isn't any fire to his bitching, and everyone just ignores him. The coffin is fancy, and no one regrets the money they spent on it.
"Should we bury him? Or leave him in space?" Mal asks, but he already knows the answer.
"Never liked space," River whispers, and they all nod in agreement.
They bury him on an anonymous plot of land outside Kaylee's home town. Ain't no real reason for picking that particular landing spot. Planet was just nearby.
They say their goodbyes. River stays at the grave longer than most.
Four months later, she disappears. No one is surprised. She hasn't been right since Simon passed, and there was nothing keeping her on Serenity.
When she comes back, they are surprised. Especially because she's not alone.
"Simon?" Kaylee asks.
"What the ruttin' hell?" Jayne pulls his gun out.
"What is this?" Mal and Zoe ask, at the same time.
"Can't live without him," River says. "So I brought him back."
No one knows what she brought back with her, but they're all sure it isn't Simon. Looks like Simon, except a little grey around the edges. It's wearing Simon's clothes, and it has Simon's hair. But it's shuffling, movement unsure, like maybe it's just learning to walk. And its eyes are blank.
"Ain't Simon," Jayne mutters, and fires his gun.
The...thing...gets hit, square in the chest. It doesn't fall.
River smiles, slow and satisfied.
End.
