Chapter 1
Simon Tam is the best trauma surgeon in the 'Verse. They call him in when there doesn't seem to be any hope. He's brave, and confident, and no one knows what they're doing better than he does. And Simon Tam is my older brother.
My name is River. I was taken by the Alliance to the "Academy" where they did things to me; such horrible things. Simon risked everything; our parents' love, our wealth, our status, and his promising future as a doctor, to save me. And he succeeded. But that's a story for another time.
I've always been proud of my older brother. Thinking back on it, I don't think I ever told him that. But he knows anyway. He always knows. When Simon and the crew of Serenity took me to a major hospital on Ariel, I felt incredibly tense. So many sick people and so many injured. So many dying. It sent shivers down my spine. I could feel every single pain they suffered. But while I was antsy and scared, Simon was in his happy place. As soon as we entered the hospital, he was calm. This was more of a home to him than our childhood mansion. He was used to all the horrors of humanity, and he was brilliant at fixing them. When Simon was reassuring me that this was the best hospital on the Core, I responded immediately.
"Where you should be." He should be here, fixing people and making miracles but instead he was stuck as a fugitive taking care of his mental sister. Then I saw a group of doctors performing the wrong operation on a patient, I couldn't stand by. "They're killing him!"
"Code Blue!" The head doctor was sending out waves of fear and guilt.
"Help him!" Simon's split second of indecision came and went with just a bat of his eyelid.
"Don't move." He gestured to me and Jayne as he hurried over to the dying man. Within minutes Simon had not only aroused the attention of other nurses and doctors on the floor, but also gained the complete compliance of the nurse operating on the dying man. And then, Simon did what he always did. He made things better. The patient survived, and Simon hadn't even broken a sweat. And he'd saved a life within 5 minutes and 42 seconds.
And in case that wasn't enough cause to want to start applauding right in the middle of the hospital, what happened next stunned Jayne, and made me want to start laughing with triumph.
"Explain to me how you justify giving a vasoconstrictor to this patient?" Simon's voice was deadly calm as he questioned the head doctor.
"Valcrasaline is a pain killer, not a vasoconstrictor!" The man responded.
"Unless you combine it with Dilaftin! Which any first year should know was the standard prep medicine your patient was taking before his surgery. Your patient should be dead." Thus saying, Simon returned the stethoscope he'd borrowed from the doctor and stalked back over to us. But before he reached us, I felt the huge smile on my face grow larger.
"That's my brother."
