Arrival

River was silent the entire time, constantly keeping the shotgun within arm's length of her. Fear was still written all over her face, the urge to panic in her eyes. During the ride back, she had kept herself pressed into a corner of the car, staring at her feet.

River gazed at Serenity and nodded slowly as she sat down, the shotgun sitting by her feet against the table. "Thanks..." She murmured, a spaced out look on her face as she simply moved the food around on the plate. Her mind was still in shock, the panic still boiling up as the fear bit harder and harder down on her mind. If she knew Noah, and she knew him well, he would not come straight for her. The man was psychologically disturbed, but he was not stupid.

The man had escaped prison, after all.

"Is your brother...okay?" River finally asked Lisa, noticing that Jonah had not been up to the apartment yet since they'd returned. "Did I do something to upset him?"

As for Kent, he was in the apartment with Chris and had fallen asleep in bed, dreaming of a day he would be able to walk next to Tam without a limp.

--

Noah Smith was no fool, but he was mentally incapable of controlling his anger, so dead bodies were left in his wake as he traveled from place to place until he finally arrived in Crystal Waters. "River, baby...I know you're here. Your mom and dad said so..." He chuckled and looked down to the family photo in his hand that was smeared with blood.

--

Mr. Andrews raised an eyebrow, noting how quickly Max had changed the subject. "They're all doing quite well. We encourage 'em to follow their dreams." He explained with a chuckle. "Though, I gotta admit, half of 'em just wanna stay at the farm."

"You boys get goin' now." Mrs. Andrews waved a hand to them. "I'll clean up."

Kevin was already back, petting Bonnie and Jr. as he let them rest on the couch. "Gotta go to work, you two. Stay out of trouble!" He ordered. The little animals simply looked up at the blonde man with innocent expressions on their faces.