InsaneJournal

WHO: Simon Tam and Kaylee Frye
WHEN: Backdated LIKE WHOA to just after Kaylee's arrival
WHERE: Complex lobby
WHAT: Simon doesn't know Kaylee is back. She doesn't know he's from just a little before she is.
STATUS: Incomplete
WARNINGS: Probably nothing too scary here

Simon sighed and put down the papers he’d been holding up next to the computer screen, then leaned backwards in his chair so that the joints in his lower back popped with the release of compressed air the hunched position he’d taken had built up. He’d spent the past few hours trying to transfer the hand-drawn sketches he’d done of River’s scans from Ariel onto the computer. From memory to paper to screen was leaving too much to chance though, too much lost in each step. He couldn’t help but think that his efforts to help River these days were useless, or worse than useless. She’d been making progress with Jacen and he’d begun to give up his belief that he had to bring back the River he remembered, the girl who had switched back and forth between wanting to be an astrophysicist and a dancer and who had smiled when he just said “be both mei mei.” She was nearly an adult now, would be by the standards of this world very soon, and he was happy she was asserting her right to that adulthood, at least in theory. He still hoped, however, that he could do something for her, could restore her amygdale somehow, and give her a release from the unrelenting emotions she felt as a result of the Alliance experiments. Then, at least, he could give her a choice, a chance to move beyond the life they lived now, even if she didn’t want to. The primitive earth technology he was forced to work with, however, wasn’t making it easy and sometimes he wondered if he should stop getting her hopes up, stop asking her to try the new medications he combined, just let her adjust as best she could…

He pushed his chair back from the computer abruptly and crossed the room to his coffee machine. When he found it empty, (Broken. Right, I’d meant to get that fixed he thought with absent frustration) he rolled his eyes at his own thoughtlessness and then, after grabbing his mug, headed out into the lobby. He’d get some coffee from the kitchen, answer some e-mails, do some paperwork, maybe put together a few first aid kits to distribute to some of the complex residents and then, when he didn’t feel quite so useless, he’d return to River’s scans. He’d find a way. He nodded absently to himself at the thought as he entered the lobby, eyes on his mug as if it were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen, clearly deep in thought and unaware of the lobby around him.