Objects In Motion, a firefly fanfic

A/N: Post-Serenity. Spoilers. Wash is still alive in this, but recovering from wounds. Why? Because canon is for wussies. :D Srsly, though. I already have one story that follows canon. I can't bear to have Wash not around for this one. Also, this contains slash. You've been warned. XD And it's a first draft, so take that into account as well.

Summary: River gets to thinking about science, laws of motion; gets to thinking about Simon. Gets to thinking about Mal. Decides to do an experiment.

Objects In Motion

An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Simon is standing still. River looks, and she sees, and she knows. Big brother is all made up of static; seems to change but still the same. Going through the motions, as it were.

She first notices it when Kaylee doesn't smile happy at Simon in the same way. Things had ended between them friendly enough. Hearts hurt, but no hard feelings. He just couldn't feel the same. He wanted to make her happy, but couldn't risk himself; couldn't give up other wants. Want isn't the same as can, she knows. Experience beyond her years, and whatnot.

That's when she decides to start the experiment. She lets them think her moon-brain child for just a little bit longer, while she sneaks and schemes. And maybe she's moon-brain yet for what she's planning. But it's time for River to step up, take care of Simon like he took care of her. She doesn't do it in the same way, but means well.

And when she dances up to Simon in the cargo bay, smiling crazy, he smiles back. "There are secrets," she tells him, throwing a pointed look at Mal who is unloading crates with Zoe. "And more than one to keep them." With that she winks, and skips away like nothing ever happened.

She thinks about her hypothesis. Based upon research into thought, body movement, and heartrate, things should go as expected. Of course, she's always on alert for the potential rogue anomaly. So she keeps an eye on Inara. Experiments should be objective, she knows, but these are people she's dealing with. People are always subjective, as well as unpredictable. To know that, you'd just have to meet River herself.

A quick scan in her brain, and she can tell she's got Simon mulling things over. She smiles and plans for the next phase.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Mal is Captain. He wears Captain Boots and his Captain Coat, and a grumpy frown that makes River want to smile even when he's yelling at her. Because it's just him. It's Malcolm Reynolds.

She knows he'll understand her riddles too easily. Oddly enough, she can fool her own brother, but not the Captain. No, for this part of the experiment she'll have to use something special. The chase game, like she plays with Kaylee. It doesn't take her long to find the right opportunity; the 'verse is just billions of little pieces waiting to be picked up and added to the chain of events. They all sparkle, but this one is golden. The right one.

She grabs the gun out of his hand before he cna bat an eyelash, smiles at him for a split-second. And then she's off, running out of the kitchen and down into the common room. Does a spin right into the infirmary, and waits. Mal comes round the bend, as predicted, and approaches her calmly.

"Now look here, Little Albatross," he says, all reason and a little bit annoyed, "You know you ain't s'posed to take guns when we're not on a job. Especially my guns." He adds an afterthought like it's the point of the sentence, and she just grins and moves around the bed. Not listening as Simon tells her to give the gun back; it's not a gorram toy. Runs out the door and slams it shut, but not before dropping the gun to the infirmary floor.

River smiles ecstatic at the pounding of the Captain's fists on the door, the angry face through the window. Simon looks pale. She locks the door from the outside, and waves pretty for the boys. Silly little lost boys. Zoe's passing by, on her way from the cargo bay to her bedroom where Wash is finishing healing up nice. She looks at River, looks at Mal's hopeful expression, looks back at River.

"It's an experiment," River says, as though that explains everything. Because, by now, it should.

Zoe just starts walking away. "I don't even wanna know. Just make sure you let 'em out when you're done..." There's a certain humor in her voice, River can feel it. Wash will find the whole affair quite amusing. River makes her way up the stairs as if to follow Zoe, but she sits at the very top; out of sight, out of mind. She's waiting for the results. Put objects in motion in the same room together. At some point, they're bound to collide.

It takes all of fifteen minutes. And when she feels the electric sparks shooting up her spine, one mind to another, she just giggles. She doesn't need to look into the infirmary to know they're kissing. Results obtained, experiment has progressed as expected. Hypothesis confirmed. River stops reading them as much as she can. Decides to go visit Wash and Zoe and tell them of her adventures. She'll laugh when they remember they can unlock the infirmary door from the inside.

end.

A/N2: I'm not sure about using Newton's Third Law of Motion in the second section. Thinking maybe I could just leave it as a seperate section, and just use the First Law for the whole darn thing.

Don't know if they can unlock the infirmary door from the inside. But I thought it was funny, so I put it in there. It seems believable to me anyhow; but if it's not, perhaps you could suspend disbelief for just a moment. ;)

Also, I'm not sure if I explained things well in the first section. Particularly pertaining to Kaylee.

Please review, and let me know what you think.