<div align="center"> Simon says: </div><br/><strong> <em>"Riverrrrr??  River???  Has anybody seen River?"   </em> </strong>Simon's voice echoed through rear part of the ship -- the infirmary, the passenger cabins, and into the dining area, without response.<strong><em>"River??? Has anybody seen...."  </em> </strong>and his hands plopped down to his sides in exasperation, his voice trailing off as he stepped into a deserted kitchen...<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 8pt;"><em><strong>"... anybody?"</strong></em></span><br/><br/>Once again, he had been left out of the loop as he was busy inventorying supplies in his little domain, the infirmary.  He tried to convince the captain supplies needed to be restocked, handing Mal a rather extensive list of medical supplies.  Equipment that would be nice to have, medications, bandages and other expendables.  How does one convince the ignorant of the need to be able to perform a simple white blood cell count, much less the need to do complete chemistry panels?  Much of the equipment was there, but not the reagents needed to make it work.  Mal had taken the list, looked at it, turned it upside down to study it some more, then handed it back to him saying he needs it in English, and he needs it to total less than 200 credits.  Simon's pleading was met with some incomprehensible comment about wearing shiny hats and the captain was gone in a flash, leaving Simon to go back to the infirmary and prioritize his list.<br/><br/>He had lost all track of time and when he finally emerged, River was no longer in her room.  Or Kaylee's.  He made a mental note to try to talk to Kaylee once more about the seriousness of River's condition and how they can't just go wandering off without him.  Since the Miranda incident, it seems like every conversation he tried to have with Kaylee resulted in ... which of course was nice, but the girl needed to understand that sometimes they needed to have serious conversations about something other than... sex.<br/><br/>Finally, Simon resigned himself to the fact River was not on the ship, and he had no idea which direction she and Kaylee may have headed, which ruled out a search.  So, he did the next best thing.  Going down to the cargo bay he grabbed Kaylee's folding chair to carry it down the ramp to sit and wait.  As an afterthought, he grabbed her colorful parasol, and took a seat. It wasn't often he just sat and watched the people go by.