Waking up, I felt cold. I remember that distinctly. I always could remember the cold; it made my skin crawl and my head tingle. But what I remember more than the cold was the strange men hovering above me. They were strange in so many ways, particularly because they were foreign to me, but also their clothing.

"Captain, I think you should see this." One of them spoke first, breaking the eerie silence. He had slick brown hair and wore slacks and a white shirt.

"Where…" I tried to voice my curiosity, but my courage failed and I fell silent.

"Don't talk," the second man suggested. "It'd be better for you to keep your mouth shut." This man's hair was cropped close to his skull. He was large with muscles, and I could see the marks of a tattoo around one of his bulging biceps, but it was partially hidden by a tight-fitting shirt.

I didn't know what he meant by that. Either my silence would help me physically, or perhaps he was thinking more about my situation there—wherever there was.

"Captain!" The first man called out again.

"Would you hold on just one gorram second?" A new man entered my view. His light-brown hair flopped in the wind as he hurried to join them; he was wearing suspender straps over a button-up shirt. "What the hell is this?" He towered above me and looked down with a frown. I assumed he was the captain that had been summoned.

"Our question exactly," the first man said.

"Where'd she come from?" The captain asked.

"Beats me," the muscle man shrugged.

"I mean, what's a girl like her doin' in a place like this?" the captain persisted. "And what's she wearing?"

"She a whore?"

"Jayne, you can't just assume that because she's basically naked that she's a whore."

"I'm not a whore!" I protested with a cough.

"Course you ain't," the captain looked around. "Where'd you come from?"

"I…I don't know." I tried to sit up, but my head felt heavy. I did realize why they thought I might be a whore though; I was wearing nothing but white lacy lingerie covered by a sheer slip. The strangest part of this was that I didn't own lingerie like this. "Where are my clothes?" I questioned them as though they might actually have an answer for me.

"Aren't you wearing them?" The captain asked.

"No!" I gasped. "Are you serious?"

"Sorry," he shrugged. "Didn't mean to offend you, but well…"

I forced myself to sit up so that I could try and gather my surroundings. When I saw where I was though, I wished I could be knocked out again. "Where am I?"

"Uh, well, you're on a moon."

"A moon?" I almost laughed, but I was too sore for humor. "No seriously, are we in the desert? How did I get in the desert? Is this Nevada? How did I get to Nevada?"

"What's Nevada?" the Captain looked puzzled.

"Look, I hate to rush the meet 'n greet, but we've got a job to do, and I'm thinking it would be a pretty fine idea to get it done in a timely fashion." The man with the muscles spoke up.

"Jayne's right," the captain nodded. "Ma'am, I'm sorry to run, but we've got to get going. You going to be okay to get yourself home?"

I couldn't believe they were seriously going to leave me.

"Are you serious? You dump me in the middle of the desert, take my clothes, and think you can just walk away from me?"

The guys collectively took a step backward.

"We didn't bring you here, ma'am," the captain told me. "We didn't do anything with your clothes!"

"Then where the hell are they?" I knew that I was being a little irrational, but under the circumstances I couldn't help myself.

"Look ma'am, I get that you're confused, but we haven't touched you. We just found you here and stopped to see if we could help."

I shook my head and couldn't stop myself from starting to cry a little. My whole body ached. I felt sore in places I didn't realize could be sore. Worst of all though was that I had no idea what had happened or where I was.

"I'm sorry," I told them quickly, though I wasn't sure I necessarily meant it. "I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. I…I'm confused like you said and I'm scared…" I forced myself to stop crying so I didn't seem completely insane. "Also, I realize I don't know you at all, and to be honest I still think you might be the reason I'm here, but please, you have to help me. I don't know where the hell I am, or how I got here." I tried to stand, but I felt too dizzy and decided to stay down. "Please." I looked up at them with what I hoped was a sincere expression.

"We're sorry you're confused, Ma'am, but you're not our problem."

"Can you at least tell me where I am?"

"I told you, you're on a moon. Doc, what's the name of this moon?" The captain turned to the man with slick hair; he shrugged.

"I didn't pick it, I just follow," the 'Doc' looked at me. Out of the three, he seemed the most genuinely concerned about my condition. "Where are you from?"

I shook my head. "You're all crazy."

"Hey now, that ain't a nice thing to say," the captain frowned. "We have our moments I grant you, but most of the time we're pretty damn sane." He looked at Jayne. "Most of us at least."

"Why won't you just tell me where I am?"

"How many times do we have to tell you? You—are—on—a—moon."

I felt an urge to cry, or to hit him. Both seemed reasonable solutions to my current feelings of disorientation and frustration. "Just go away. You clearly aren't going to help me, and if the best you can do is give me a hard time, then I think I'm better off without you." With great effort, I forced myself to stand, but when I had successfully gotten to my feet, I again felt dizzy and almost fell, but the captain reached out and steadied me in time.

"Don't touch me," I pulled away. Perhaps it was a bit unfounded, but they were only making me feel more confused and I didn't want to rely on them for anything.

"Umm, Captain," the Doc tapped the captain's shoulder and pointed towards me.

I looked down to where he was pointing and noticed a splotch of blood staining the slip I was wearing, just below my ribcage.

"That doesn't look good," I felt dizzy again, but this time I wasn't sure if it was the pain or the sight of blood.

"Look, Captain, we can't just leave her here!" the Doc protested. "She's hurt and she's obviously confused…"

"It could be a trap," Jayne commented.

"A trap?" the Doc laughed. "She hardly looks capable of setting a trap for us."

"Do you even remember Saffron?" Captain Mal said.

"She's wounded," the Doc continued. "Look, she's bleeding and she can barely stand on her own! I should tend to her."

I was barely even hearing what they were saying anymore. The pain and the confusion of the situation was making me lightheaded again. I just wanted to lie down and sleep until everything was better, but I needed to figure out what had happened. I tried to remember all that I could, but my brain was foggy. When I concentrated hard enough I could slightly recall something about a party. I remembered the dress I had been wearing—it was green and had cost more than I should have spent.

"What's she doin'?" The man called Jayne pulled everyone's attention back to me. "She looks like she's going to be sick."

"Ma'am?" Captain Mal reached out to me tentatively, but pulled back before touching me. "I don't know what to do for you, but we can't stay here wasting time. We're on a schedule, you see?"

"Stop calling me ma'am, please," I spoke up. I don't know why that was the one thing I wanted to say to them, but something about the way he said it made me uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," the captain smiled a little. "I was trying to be respectful."

"It makes me sound old," I told him. "I'm only twenty."

"What the hell are you doing out here all alone then?"

"Oh my god, if you ask me that one more time…" I shook my head. "I don't know what I'm doing here! That's the problem! The last thing I remember, I was going to a party—it was a stupid college party, and now I'm here with you three idiots who keep talking about a damn moon."

"College?" Jayne repeated.

"Yea, college," I frowned. "Why do you sound so shocked?"

The guys looked at each other and then back at me.

"You mean like an academy?" The Doc asked.

"Academy?" I shrugged. "Sure, college is like academy I guess, but nobody calls it that."

"You must be from a pretty high-to-do sort of family to be able to go to academy."

"Not really," I responded more harshly than I meant to, but my family wasn't a topic I was eager to discuss with strangers.

"Mal…"

"Right," Captain Mal glanced around and then looked back at me. "We really do have to go. We've wasted too much time already."

"Fine," I took a couple steps on my own to test my strength. "If you could just point me in the direction of the nearest freeway, I can head that way and hope a car picks me up."

"Freeway?" Jayne echoed.

"A car?" The captain looked just as confused.

The college confusion was strange, but being confused about a freeway and cars…I was becoming sincerely afraid that something had happened beyond my comprehension.

"Umm, yea, okay…" I wobbled again and this time I reached out to the captain, hoping he would offer to steady me, which he did.

"Can we take you somewhere?" Captain Mal offered suddenly.

"Mal," Jayne frowned.

"I know, we've got a job to do, but she's hurt, and there's nothing out here. I don't know how she got here, but we're in the middle of nowhere. There isn't even a civilization on this damn moon—no people, no nothing. She'll die out here alone."

"I think it's a fine idea, Captain," the Doc agreed. He came around to my side and put his arm around my waist; I flinched away from him slightly. "Come on, we'll take you back to the ship."

"Ship?" I didn't follow him. "What kind of ship?"

"It's a firefly, but don't let the make fool you none. She's a real good flyer," the captain explained as the Doc gently encouraged me to walk forward.

Nothing he was saying made any sense. I didn't know what a 'firefly' was and I didn't know what kind of ship flew. The only ship I knew of belonged on the water. The captain and the other man followed behind us. I could feel the captain hovering near to my elbow. He seemed to consider helping me walk as well, but never reached out.

"So there's an ocean around here?"

"An ocean?" the Doc repeated.

"Yea, you said ship, but I don't see any water."

The captain laughed. "My ship doesn't go in the water."

"It's a spaceship Miss," the Doc explained. "Haven't you ever been up in s ship before?"

I didn't even realize I was passing out. I don't think I've ever fainted before that I know of. This one was definitely unexpected.