It was the small hours of the sleep-cycle (there was no day or night in space) when Jack caught it. A transmission, out-going and not good for the continued health of those who lived and worked on Serenity. Jack, with a year of hacking practice under her belt and some good training in how to scramble signals from Wash's, ah, 'friend', Mr Universe, had been smart enough to set up a program to catch any and all out-goings, make it look like it got sent, but actually have it firmly re-routed to stay within Serenity.

Mr Universe liked to tote that no one could stop the signal, that the signal went everywhere, and sometimes even that he was the signal – and therefore could go wherever he wanted – but stopping the signal was different to diverting it, and in this case, the signal was well and truly diverted.

"Hey Dad," Jack chirped into the intercom. "Dobson just bie woo lohng, an' I caught 'im."

Mal hurried up to the bridge, where Jack was sitting proudly in the co-pilot's chair with her cortex screen up.

Wash was catching some sack-time, since Jack was on the bridge. She'd be able to give him a yell if something came up, and he and Zoe shared the bunk closest to the bridge.

"What he do?" Mal asked.

"Man's tian di wu yowng," Jack said smugly. "Sent out a coded transmission that was for getting picked up by the nearest Alliance Cruiser."

"Please tell me you scrambled it," Mal requested, eyes wide with fear of being caught by the Alliance with all the illegal stuff he had on his ship.

Jack beamed. "I did better," she answered. "I have us registering as the nearest Alliance Cruiser. It didn't leave the ship, an' the feh feh pi goh thinks he's got reinforcements coming. I can crack it in the time it will take you to rouse Uncle Wash, Papa an' Jayne."

"Think your Papa an' the preacher are havin' a catch-up still in the kitchen," Mal pointed out.

Jack shrugged. "Well, they haven't seen each other since 'fore I was born," she pointed out reasonably. "They got a lot of catchin' up to do."

"What are you cookin' up in that brain-pan of yours?" Mal asked, eyes narrowed at the girl. Since she'd become part of his crew, the girl had proven herself to do 'cunning' and 'sneaky' better than a fox, rat, snake, and weasel all rolled up together – and with the teeth of any of those animals as well to back it up.

Jack wordlessly pulled up a bounty for Simon Tam, an accompanying picture showed that it was the same young man who'd bought passage with them.

"Ai yah tien ah," Mal grumbled when he saw the small bounty, and 'dead or alive'. "What'd he do to get that?"

Jack pulled up another bounty, this one for River Tam. The reward for her was much larger, and only paid out for if she was delivered alive. "My guess is he kidnapped his little sister and put her in a cryo-box," Jack answered seriously. "What we have here is an excellent opportunity to confront both parties, be rid of the law-man, and do a good deed."

"A good deed!?" Mal demanded lowly, not wanting his words to echo back through the ship. "That good deed could put everybody on this ship at potential very-high risk! We ain't gettin' paid enough for that."

"Dad, I set up the program to catch Dobson's out-going pretty much as soon as I accepted his fare," Jack stated calmly. "I didn't only just find these bounties. I dug up what I could on our other passengers, just in case it was them and not us Dobson was lookin' for, as soon as that program was in place. I found Simon Tam, doctor and fugitive, and I found River Tam, who basically disappeared off the face of the 'verse after she entered a government-sponsored academy – and who is now very wanted."

"You dug up more, didn't you?" Mal asked softly.

Jack nodded. "Better go put a stop to the law-man for now though," she said. "An' see what comes of that confrontation. He's pro'lly tryin' ta arrest the Core hwen dan right now."

Mal nodded and make sure his gun was in place as he left the bridge.

"C'mon Doc," Mal called softly as he passed the man in the galley. "Jack says we got a party on our hands."

Riddick smirked. "Time to do for Dobson?" he asked, pushing himself out of his seat.

"I can't condone murder," Book reminded the younger man.

Riddick chuckled. "Not askin' you to," he said. "You get to play peacemaker even, if you like," he offered.

"Oh, that I can do," Book agreed with a nod, and rose to follow the other two men out of the dining area.

~oOo~

"No, Kaylee -!" Jack exclaimed as her big sister figure moved for the door to the hold. Jack herself had come down to watch, but she'd been a silent spectator.

Kaylee had walked in with a question on her lips.

Jack had grabbed the older girl and done her best to push her to the ground before the twitchy law-man could shoot the mechanic. The result was that she felt something burn its way into her shoulder.

"Kaylee! Jack!" Riddick yelled, and rushed over to his girls, pushing Dobson out of his way harshly. Maybe 'accidentally' breaking his neck in the same motion.

"Hey Papa," Jack greeted with a smile when he came into her view.

"Jack, mei-mei, what did you do that for?" Kaylee asked, tears in her eyes as she scrabbled upright and saw the blood.

"Well, couldn't let you get shot," Jack answered with a weak smile. "Hi Ma," she added as Inara also shifted into her view, a frantic, scared look on her face as well.

"Jack..." Inara whimpered.

Riddick scooped Jack up into his arms. "Kaylee?" he checked.

"I'm fine," she promised softly, and with a hand over her not-noticeable-yet tummy gave a nod to indicate that their little secret was safe as well. No harm done, no reason to mention their surprise to the rest of the crew yet.

Riddick nodded in acceptance, but even with his goggles on, Kaylee could tell he was giving her a look that meant he'd be giving her a thorough check-up later, and moved as smoothly as he could up the stairs to the infirmary.

"Damn," Jack murmured as she was set down on the sterile bench. "I wanted to see what was in his box."

"Shit," Riddick swore softly. "That kind of cryo-box, you get popped out early there's a chance of shock," he said as he hurried to clean Jack's injury.

"Just pack it Papa," Jack advised. "So's I don't bleed out. I promise not to move from this spot 'til you get back with your other patient," she promised weakly. "Gotta learn to deal with the pain a bein' shot anyhow, number of times it happens when folks on this crew go out on jobs."

Riddick, in a rare and private gesture of tenderness that was only ever given to one of his girls, pressed a soft kiss to Jack's forehead before he did just that, and then bolted from the infirmary as soon as he'd packed the wound, cursing as he just skipped the stairs altogether and dropped down right between the sissy Core boy and his box.

Jayne took the opportunity to restrain Simon. The boy had jumped back in shock at Riddick's sudden appearance before him, and was momentarily slack rather than putting up any kind of a fuss.

"Your instinct for the theatric is always somethin' I've admired," Mal complimented with a wry smirk.

Then he kicked the box open.

"Huh," Mal grunted at the sight before him.

Riddick ripped his friend's coat off his arms without even looking. He knew what kind of cryo-box that one was, and even if he hadn't, Mal's reaction to the contents would have been enough.

Girl was naked.

"I need to check her vitals," Simon insisted.

"Oh that's what they're callin' it these days?" Mal snapped at the boy. "Our doc will check the girl's alright," he said, and nodded for Riddick to feel free to take his leave. Knew he couldn't be finished patching up Jack so quickly anyway. "You," Mal continued to Simon, "can explain what in the ruttin' hell you're doin' transporting young girls as cargo. Are you sellin' her to some outer-world baron, or is she for your own use?" He knew the relation between the two, but answers from the source were always better than speculation.

Simon swallowed nervously at the dangerous look he was getting from all around. Even the sweet-natured mechanic was giving him the stink-eye.

"She's my sister," he admitted.

As promised, Jack hadn't moved from where Riddick had set her. She had more company than when Riddick had left though. Inara hadn't moved quite so fast as Riddick had, but she was there now, and fighting back tears as she held tightly to the hand not attached to the injured shoulder.

"Who's this?" Inara asked through the pain when Riddick stepped through the infirmary door.

"The boy's sister, apparently," Riddick answered. "Should wake up and go into shock from the abrupt removal from cryo any second," he added as he lay her on another bench.

"Is that Mal's coat?" Inara queried.

"She was naked in that box," Riddick told the woman. "An' I don't exactly have anything I coulda stripped off to cover her with."

A corner of Inara's mouth quirked up in agreement with that, and she pulled her own silk robe off her shoulders.

"This will be more effective," she offered, "and more comfortable if she doesn't have anything underneath."

Riddick nodded and moved away from the still unconscious girl to let Inara change the coat for the robe. He still had Jack's bullet hole to deal with.

"Hey Papa," Jack greeted with a smile as he started to unpack the wound he'd just packed. "Can I turn the bullet into a necklace, if it's still mostly intact?" she asked.

"You actually want to wear jewellery now?" Riddick countered with a slight smirk. "You've been rather vocal in your objections to bein' 'girlified'," he pointed out.

"That's make-up an' dresses," Jack pointed out. "But this is about as much 'jewellery' as the shoelaces Aunt Zoe wears 'round her neck."

Riddick nodded in understanding as he picked up a pair of tweezers. Time to start pulling out the bullet. Or the pieces of bullet, depending.

"If it's whole, you'll have a pendant for a shoestring of your own. It busted, well, you'll be makin' a charm bracelet with it," Riddick told her.

Jack smiled through the pain – she still hadn't been medicated at all, and until she asked for something to stop the pain, she wouldn't be given any medication beyond something to prevent infection once the hole was stitched up. "Thanks Papa."

The girl chose that moment to wake up – with a scream – and roll off the bench Riddick had set her on.

Inara was right there, being maternal.

"Shh," she cooed, and wrapped her arms gently and loosely around the girl's shoulders. "Shh, sweetie, it's alright. You're safe now. You're safe."

"Simon..." the girl whimpered.

"Explaining himself to the captain right now, most likely," Inara told the girl, keeping her voice soft. "We take a dim view of smuggling people in boxes."

"Who... where..." the girl asked, staring around herself and flinching back in on herself when she realised she was in a room that had needles and medication.

"I'm Inara, that's Jack on the table, and our doctor, fixing her shoulder," Inara said.

"Call me 'Papa', little girl," Riddick offered. "This one here does," he added as he finally pulled out the bullet, whole, from Jack's shoulder.

"Papa Wolf," Jack corrected with a smile. "Loyal, caring, and deadly."

"No needles," the girl begged.

Riddick barked out a sharp laugh. "Course not," he said as he picked up a needle and thread to stitch the hole in Jack's shoulder closed. "Girly, shootin' you up with drugs when I've got no idea what sort of cocktail is already in your system is just plain yu buh dun. No one who's ever accused me of bein' stupid has lived long. I kinda take offence."

"Drugs are always a last resort on this ship," Jack added. "Meds are expensive, so we use them sparingly for the most part, necessary inoculations aside."

"Preventative medicine, rather than curative," Riddick continued. "Though we got that stuff too, if it's needed."

"No needles?" the girl checked.

Inara smiled. "No needles," she confirmed.

"Well," Riddick corrected. "Might be a thing to take a little blood and actually see what you've been hyped up with, so we can help you get through any negative side-effects that might be looming."

The girl nodded slowly. "Logical, and acceptable," she agreed softly. "Not much blood?"

Jack picked up the needle that held her inevitable antibiotic, and held it up for the girl to see.

"Only about this much," she said, holding her finger at a point on the tube. "Papa puts it in that machine -" she said, pointing to a box-thing on the bench behind the girl, "- and I hack through to a hospital computer to run the sample."

"Traceable?" the girl asked.

Jack shook her head. "Only if someone's looking real hard, and those big hospitals are always running blood samples, so they won't notice," Jack explained. "I'll relay off a dozen or so satellites too, so it's not gonna be traced back to us even if someone is looking."

The girl nodded in acceptance.

"Sweetie, you haven't told us your name," Inara pointed out gently.

"River," the girl said. "The girl is called River."

Inara smiled kindly.

"Well then, welcome to Serenity, River," Riddick offered.

"Thank you, Papa Wolf," River said softly.

Riddick smiled to himself. It seemed he had two daughters now. He wondered if the little life growing inside Kaylee would be another daughter for him, or if he'd have a son growing in there. It didn't make much difference really. Either way, it would be his kid. Another one in his strange – but wonderful – family.

~The End~