Can't you shut her up? Shut her up! Shut her up! Shut her up!

They are so loud, they scream, they hate, it's waves of hate, she feels it, it comes in through her skin, it's so porous. Who knows what seeps through pores?

There is something coming, it will seep through pores, it will fall into everywhere. There's something coming, it will kill you all.

Can't you shut her up? Shut her up! Shut her -- pain.

Ow!

Suddenly, everything that was dark is light again.

There is a piece of chalk in River's hand. She's sitting on the floor, and there is a picture of an oyster between her legs.

River blinks up at Simon. "You hurt me."

"Sorry, River." Simon shrugs apologetically. "It was time for the medication."

"I'm tired," she says softly. The world is fading around her.

No, this is just sleep.

She stands up unsteadily.

Jayne is glaring at her. He is so sad, all of the time, sad about everything, and he doesn't even know it.

"You're sad," she says to him. "Do you need a hug?"

"You stay away from me!" He jumps up from his seat at the table and runs away.

She turns back to Simon. "Why does everyone always run away from me? You're all so sad, you can't even see it!"

Simon moves toward her, but his skin is tissue-thin, she can't even look at it. He's so delicate.

"You are too delicate," she says. "You break."

She turns and walks out, walks past the Captain -- bad, bad, bad, from the Latin, he doesn't look Latin, from Earth That Was -- and he smiles at her and he means it, he likes it when Jayne hurts, so she smiles back.

Serenity hums beneath her feet, vibrations travel through her hair, and Simon's bunk is warmer, infinitesimally. She places the chalk carefully on the floor.

When River closes her eyes, she doesn't see her brain, only darkness, and she falls into it.