om_main | Simon and River

River tracks down her brother to talk weather control. Or family bullshit. Or both.

The talk with Inara had certainly helped. With her pheromones to calm him down, he hadn't been able to properly freak out about his father, nor what she had done when she'd found out. And while he probably should have started freaking out once out of the influence of her presence, Simon found that he was just too tired to bother. He'd worn himself out on the running trails the day before, and his night had been spent staring at the ceiling, attempting to figure out what he was going to tell his father when he finally calmed down enough to call him.

Now, he found himself sitting in the sunroom, the cell phone in his hands, but he could only stare at the screen, still unsure of his ability to stay cool-headed when faced with an argument with his father. Sure, he would love to get angry at him and just let loose with all the things he'd ever wanted to say to Gabriel Tam, but the problem was that if he didn't approach the conversation in the right way, he could very well make it worse.

River tracked the thoughtfeelings all the way to the sunroom, one foot in front of the other, to stop in front of her brother. Knees folding, and her hands found the phone and took it out of his, set it down beside him on the couch. Just them, then, for now, and she looked up into Simon's eyes, laying her hands on his knees. Touch through fabric. "Hide and seek."

Simon sighed down at her, somehow unsurprised to see his sister. "You cheat."

"You hide," River retorted, which really had been her point all along. But it bore repeating.

He frowned at her, slightly hurt at that. "I wasn't hiding."

"You can't, really," she agreed, and didn't. She shifted onto her side, and wrapped a loose arm around Simon's legs, resting her head on his knee. "I'm sorry." It was something she knew wasn't the stream. It was her. It felt good to say it.

Automatically, Simon's hand slipped into her hair, his head bowing over her protectively. Inara was right. It wasn't right to try to protect her from everything. She would find out anyway. "I need to tell you something."

Need wasn't right, was it? Things got muddled again, and River frowned, took a few breaths, centered herself. Just the two of them. She curled her fingers so her blunt nails would scratch Simon's leg lightly through the fabric of his pants, encouragement to tell her.

"Dad...sent a letter to Jean-Paul. He tried to pay him off to break up with me." Simon didn't mention that their father had wanted it all done publicly. It was just another detail, and not something River needed to know.

"You can't hide," River repeated, softly. "There's a storm inside you."

"I'm trying to get it under control," Simon huffed softly.

"Weather control isn't your mutation," River stated, pointedly. Had to let it blow through, until it calmed down.

Simon wondered if he was starting to go a little crazy, or if he was simply starting to understand her language a bit more. He hoped it was the latter. "Do you think I should wait to talk to him?"

"I don't think really well any more," River answered quietly.

"Yes you do," Simon countered softly. "You're just as sharp as you've always been. It's just a little jumbled."

Jumbled. Tangled. Intertwined, she thought (maybe), and it echoed in her mind. "You swore at Jack. When he wanted to see me."

"He had no right to demand to see you," Simon frowned, confused by the change of topic, but no less annoyed by the thought of Jack Harkness demanding anything of his sister.

"I can't feel him." River traced an infinity symbol on Simon's calf. "I don't know."

Simon's expression hitched a bit. "You can't feel him?"

"He's so quiet," she confirmed, sounding a bit dreamy.

Right then and there, Simon decided that he needed to have another talk with Harkness. Whether or not he intended to do anything with his sister, Simon needed to make it perfectly clear that if Jack ever took advantage of whatever...comfort...River found with him, Simon wouldn't hesitate to break his oath of nonviolence.

"That's...nice," he answered her, trying to keep the rising paranoia out of his voice.

River was frowning now, and tensing, her fingers tighter on Simon's calf. "Thunder rumbling."

"Weather control isn't my mutation," Simon countered, but at least tried to physically relax a bit for her sake. A few slow, deep breaths let him get his emotions under better control too.

Tears had welled up in River's eyes, but did not spill. She felt exhausted, and useless, but she forced herself to relax physically when Simon did. "I'm sorry," she repeated, in a small voice.

Simon sighed softly and stroked her scalp with a light caress of his fingers. "I'm the one that should be apologizing. I'm just...you caught me at a bad time. I was already mad at dad, and trying to figure out how to talk to him about it."

River closed her eyes, and focused on his hand in her hair, as much as she could. Not that much. There was too much going on inside him, and everywhere else. She wanted to help, desperately, but could not think of a single way for her to. So instead, she simply answered, "Slowly," as if that had been what he meant.

Nevertheless, the answer had the effect of forcing Simon to crack a smile, his mood lightening remarkably for the moment. "And with many small words, I suppose."

"Don't let him floccinaucinihilipilify you," River agreed distantly.

"He'll do that whether or not I let him," Simon smiled faintly. "But I promise that I won't agree with him on the matter."

"You're always significant," River said, looking up at him with grave eyes.

Simon leaned down to kiss her head. "Thank you, little sister."