In that moment, something inside her shattered and sent a wave of uncontrollable sobs through her.

She wanted to hate Fain so much. But this was the brother she remembered having. The brother who had meant so much to her.

Just like Dancer, Fain swung her up in his arms and carried her into the skimmer.

“Damn, Fain,” Jayne snapped as she saw them. “What’d you do? Break another human? I swear we can’t leave you alone for five seconds.”

Fain shrugged. “I don’t know. Human women look at me and burst into tears. I’m kind of used to it.”

Another Tavali who looked a lot like Darling snorted at him. “I’d burst into tears too if I had to look at your ugly ass.” He took her from Fain and set her down on a small bench seat. Kneeling in front of her, he handed her a handkerchief. “I’m Darling’s brother, Ryn.”

Sniffing back her tears, she took his handkerchief and wiped at her eyes. “Thank you.”

He patted her knees then looked up at Fain. “How’s the beast?”

“He looked pretty beat up. But I’ve seen him worse. Hell, for that matter, I’m sure I’ve beaten him worse. And that was for just wearing my boots without permission.”

Snorting, Ryn stood and clapped a hand on Fain’s shoulder. “Syn would sooner kill himself than let anything happen to him. You know that.”

“I know. It’s why I’m not freaking out and going on a killing rampage. ”

Still nervous and unsure, Sumi glanced around the small group of men standing in the main cargo area – Darling, Fain, Ryn – and of course Jayne. Syn must have taken Dancer and Bastien into the small infirmary somewhere else on the skimmer.

“Where’s Nykyrian and the kids?” she asked them.

Darling pointed to the link in his ear. “They took the other skimmer and are already on board, waiting for us.”

“The kids were all right?”

Darling pulled the link from his ear and held it toward her. Even without it being in her ear, she could hear Darice’s and Thia’s excited chattering as they told Nykyrian everything that had happened while they’d been with Dancer.

She smiled. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head respectfully as he returned it to his ear.

Syn opened a door to their right. “Sumi? Get in here and let Hauk know that you’re okay. I can’t do anything with this unreasonable, surly bastard.”

“He’s not unreasonable. He’s just fierce.” She went into the small room where Bastien was now unconscious. But Dancer was fighting Syn as he tried to pull monitors off his body and get up from the lift.

It was actually rather comical to watch the two of them swat at each other like children, as they traded insults.

She tsked at him. “What are you doing, sweetie?”