I'm late to the party, but I'll make up for it with the adoration. This is fantastic. Let me count the ways:

1. The Tams-go home premise just begged to be written, and you executed it wonderfully, from the strained interactions between children and parents to sketching in the details of Simon & River's life before it fell apart. The descriptions of the house and Simon's room spoke volumes.

2. The Mal/Simon/River character dynamics are wonderful. I like the shift in knowledge/power between Mal and Simon once they're on his home territory and seeing Mal discombobulated.

3. Each character is wonderfully drawn. River is a hoot. Simon is ... so quintessentially Simon-y, in all his stuck-up and self-sacrificing glory. And Mal -- there's something so fundamentally lost about Mal, even post-movie, that you capture so well.

4. The ending twist. Unexpected and yet exactly in character. I love stories that reverse the power dynamic between Mal and Simon, and I am especially love stories that let Simon earn some kind of victory after the nuclear test site fate/the Alliance made of his life.

Thanks so much for this story.

P.S. Mind if I friend?