Safe

Shepherd Book is shot during a cattle deal, and Simon and River are abducted by hill folk who believe River is a witch. With flashbacks to Simon and River’s childhood.

Serenity delivers the cattle on a rural world. In the middle of the deal a shootout breaks out and Shepherd Book is badly wounded. Simon and River are in town and get abducted by hill folk who desperately need a doctor.

Mal faces a hard choice: without a doctor, Book will die. He flies the preacher to an Alliance cruiser – where Book gets remarkable priority as soon as the soldiers see his ID card. Who the man really is remains a mystery.

In the mountain village Simon treats the sick, but River draws attention because she knows things about people that she can’t possibly know. The villagers decide she is a witch and want to burn her. Simon joins her at the stake just before the crew arrives at the last moment: “They’re on my crew.”

Flashbacks show Simon and River as children, and the young doctor who was the only one in the family to believe something was wrong with River’s letters from the academy.

Written by Drew Z. Greenberg, also from the Buffy team. The flashbacks show what Simon gave up to rescue River.