OMG MONOLOGUE THING

[caitaro]

SIMON (O.S.)
I'm very smart.

INT. DINING ROOM - CONTINUING

SIMON
Went to the best Medacad on Osiris,
top three percent of my class,
finished my internship in eight
months. Gifted. Is the term. So
when I tell you that my little sister
makes me look like an idiot child, I
want you to understand my full
meaning.

INT. INFIRMARY - EARLIER

Simon has calmed her down, she's sitting on the table now, looking at him with fresh tears. He prepares a hypo with a sedative. Her look of distrust at the hypo is comically grumpy -- a little child's. Her eyes wander as he injects her, she mutters something to no one -- this girl is gone.

INT. DINING ROOM - CONTINUING

SIMON
River was more than gifted. She
was.... a gift. Everything she did,
music, Maths, theoretical physics --
even dance -- there was nothing that
didn't come as naturally to her as
breathing does to us.
(smiles, remembering)
She could be a real brat about it,
too. She used to tell me --
(losing the train)
I mean, she's a kid. You know? Like
everyone else, except she
understands. So much.

INT. INFIRMARY - EARLIER

River drifts off to sleep. We pan across to see Simon holding her hand.

INT. DINING ROOM - CONTINUING

Simon pauses a moment.

SIMON
There was a school... a, uh,
government-sponsored academy, we'd
never even heard of it but it had the
most exciting program, the most
challenging... we could have sent her
anywhere, we had the money... but she
wanted to go. She wanted to learn.
She was fourteen.

A moment of bitter emotion, then he pulls it together.

SIMON (cont'd)
I got a few letters at first, then I
didn't hear from her for months. Finally I
got a letter that made no sense. She
talked about things that never
happened, jokes we never... it was
code. I couldn't even figure... I
talked to professors, spent a week
trying to work it. It just said...
"They're hurting us. Get me out."

He can't go on for a moment.

INT. INFIRMARY - EARLIER

She sleeps.

INT. DINING ROOM - CONTINUING

ZOE
How did you do it?

SIMON
Money. And luck -- for two years I
couldn't get near her, but I was
contacted by some men, some
underground movement. They said she
was in danger, that the government
was playing with her brain. If I
funded them they could sneak her out
in cryo. Get her to Boros and from
there, I could take her... wherever.

MAL
How did you know it wasn't a scam?

SIMON
I didn't. Until you opened that box.

INARA
Will she be all right?

SIMON
She was supposed to reacclimate
before I brought her out, she's in
physical shock, but not serious. I
don't know if she'll be all right.
I don't know what they did to her, or
why. I just have to keep her safe.
(to Mal)
You asked me what a man like me would
kill for. And she's it.