Since We Found Serenity (A Firefly Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Coming Home

The marketplace of Echelon was always busy. People had no advertising shingles or posted signs, so the sellers called out their wares, hoping that a customer would feel compelled to acquire the merchandise upon hearing.

The Mrs. Doctor, as she was known, weaved easily through the crowd, her flouncing, well-bustled skirt just barely sweeping the dusty ground, while the Hundo-Huihuang parasol she twirled against her shoulder kept the sun out of her eyes. It wouldn't do for her to start sprouting freckles like she used to.

In spite of this, she couldn't resist tilting her head back, looking at the sky overhead, and wishing the thing she had wished for every day since she and her husband the doctor settled down—a wish they could never have.

"Lady Kylie! Lady Kylie!"

It took her a few moments to realize the merchant was calling to her. She lowered her gaze and swept over.

"Yes, Jango, what do you have for me?" asked Kylie T— (Oh, what was it this time? Thorne! That was it!)

Jango the salvage expert proudly hefted a block of machinery onto the surface of his booth. "Found this, just outside of Maladon, just like you asked. Ain't she a beauty?"

Mrs. Kylie Thorne studied the hulking engine. At one time, she would have wholeheartedly agreed with the scrounger. The engine was beautiful in its simplicity; one glance told her what it would look like when it ran properly, what sound it made... Sweet music, smooth lines—

Kaylie Thorne stepped away from the booth. Too many memories! Too much!

"I—er, not today, Jango." She scurried to the edible produce section.

There among the hanging baskets, the brilliant flowers, the pungent spices, she was safe. Not too many memories here.

"Strawberries! Ripe strawberries!"

Immediately, Kylie craned her neck to see where the cry came from. Her eye caught a splash of red, and she eagerly dashed over.

"Are those strawberries, Brinna?" She gushed.

The old woman gave a six-toothed grin. "Bless yer! I's wond'rin' if yer w's gonna come disyer way! Here, luv, 'ave a burry!" She offered a plump morsel to the giddy young woman.

Kylie moaned happily as she bit into it and let the juices flood her mouth. "Mmph, Sim—Silas would love these! I'll take a whole pound of them, Brinna!" She opened her purse and pulled out a few credits.

As the woman weighed her purchase, Kylie felt a pricking sensation unfold across her neck; someone was watching her. She glanced up, but no one seemed to be looking with any particular interest.

No one but the boy.

She caught his dark eyes peeking over some crates stacked nearby. When she paused her gaze to get a better look at him, he ducked. Kylie got only a glimpse of thick, copper hair like a mass of tangled wiring, before the boy vanished.

Curious, Kylie accepted her strawberries and meandered down the alley. She arrived at the crates, but the boy was no longer there. In the place he stood, Kylie stopped down to retrieve a small plastic dinosaur.

Her heart lurched; the last place she had seen a toy like this—

She immediately searched again for the boy. There he was, watching her from the end of the alley while digging in his jacket for something. By the time she gathered her composure to pursue him, he was off and running. Sure enough, at the corner she found yet another dinosaur, and glimpsed the shock of red hair disappearing down another corner.

Like a little bird following a trail of breadcrumbs, the woman dashed after the boy, picking up the plastic dinosaurs as she went. He took so many turns that by the time she thought to check her surroundings, all she could tell was that they were a ways outside the city. No more people milled about. It was so still she could hear the boy's footsteps in the distance... And something else... Something she didn't expect to hear ever again... A sound she knew as well as her own heartbeat.

Bright red strawberries colored the dingy sand as Mrs. Dr. Silas Thorne stared at the mismatched hull of a starship that had certainly seen better days. Immediately, she grabbed her commlink.

"Hello, this is Doctor Thorne."

"Simon."

"Pardon? Is that you, Kylie? We're the Thornes, remember? My name isn't—"

"Simon!"

"I thought we agreed not to use our real names unless we're—"

"SIMON."

A sigh. "Where are you?"

Kaylee Tam couldn't get the words to come. The boy waved to her from the cockpit window...

And his mother...

And the captain.

"Simon, I've come home!"

Silence on his end. Then—

"Don't let them take off without me. I've packed us some clothes. I'm coming with you!"

"Hurry, Simon!" said Kaylee, as she climbed up the cargo ramp of the Serenity.