Ddefinitely a lot of questions. I try to answer some of them depending on the kind of story I'm writing. The short ones are FAR easier in that there are only so many questions that need to be asked, but the long ones can be real exhausting! Because to make the story believable, you have to answer them!

As for Book staying on the ship, I think that was covered in one of the episodes, wasn't it? Or - maybe I'm confusing it with some fanfic I read. He has 'heathens a plenty' right on Serenity. I think that, or something similar, was his reason for staying. I think we'd have found out later, that he was there to keep an eye on Simon and River . . .

Well, someone finally but into words all the stuff I've been trying to figure out writing my epic "The Dr. Tam Journals" and other fanfics. I believe you have been reading that Merryk, but for others who haven't here are some answers I came up with.

1. Time. The ship runs on what I call "ship's time" which is based on a 24 hour Earth That Was day. Since there is no day or night in the black, this gives them a sense of what a day is.

2. The crew goes to sleep at night when in the black, with Kaylee and Wash setting the course and power settings for the night, slower than when they are all awake to give more time to respond to trouble.

3. Food. Whatever they have that's available when they reach a planet. "Feast or famine" I said in one fanfic, depending on the money situation. The food is all like ours, since the premise is that the worlds have been populated with the plants and animals brought from Earth. Breakfast is when you awake, lunch when you have time, and supper always at 6pm with different crew taking turns to prepare, except the Captain, with a tradition among spaceships that a ship's captain doesn't cook or wash a dish on their own ship.

4. Bathrooms and cleaning clothes. Each crew quarters has a toilet and sink, with the bathroom off the passenger lounge having a toilet, sink, and shower booth. The shower can only run for two minutes per hour to conserve water, sinced they can only make a little water and must load it on planets in two large tanks forward of the shuttles. The bathroom also has a dry cleaner for clothes, again since they need to conserve water for cooking and drinking.

5. Book staying on board is tricky and of course he eventually leaves. I had him stay in one fanfic because he still believes he has work to do in saving the "heathens" on board. But we know so little of his background their may be another motive.

6. In my fanfics, the crew is divided in their realtionships with te Tams and each other, and I try to follow the series and movie as closely as possible here . On one side we have Jayne, Mal, Zoe, and Wash, mostly because of his wife, against the Tams being on board or at least reluctantly accepting them, as Mal seems to do, understanding the need for Simon's skills but wary of the trouble the two bring.

On the other side Kaylee, for obvious reasons, Shepherd book and Inara are totally supportive of the Tams and sympathize with their situation.

Among the crew Inara and Kaylee are very close, with Kaylee and River also becoming closer and of course Simon and Kaylee becoming closest of all. Jayne and Book are friends, Wash and Zoe are close for obvious reasons, and Kaylee and Wash have a bond tied to being he "experts" on the ship.

Mal and Zoe have the strongest bond because of their war expereince and there is trust and understanding there that even Wash doens't understand (Re: War Stories). Inara and Book seem to have some common ground as consulers of a sort. Kaylee and Mal have a brother/sister bond and Jayne and Mal have a sort of brother thing too, maybe step-brothers, or at least a drinking buddy thing, with Mal being the leader. Mal sees the Shepherd as a problem but comes to rely on his advice.

Jayne and Kaylee is a tough one, becasue he often puts her down and she is very sensitive. I really think he worries over her like the others do but he is just two rough and crude for Kaylee to really like. Simon of course, hates Jayne's guts for all the obvious reasons. Simon and Mal is tough too, because, as said earlier, Mal knows the Tams are trouble, but his need for a doctor and his sense of honor keep the Tams on board. Finally, Mal and Inara have that unspoken love that brings all kinds of tension to a boil.

This is why I don't write fanfiction.

Love the questions.

As for answers, The clothes that River wears are not her own. "Dress me up like a gorram doll" and the unfit seems to suggest hand me downs (atleast initially).

Do jobs ever go smooth? I think so. Think about the wobbly headed geisha doll caper we never got to see. On average each episode seems to be approximately 2 to three days long, with a couple or three weeks of time lapse between them.

As for time and sleeping patterns, they would probably rotate as needed, but they do have one official time they are together. The meal at 6:00 PM seems to be a daily communal event.

Mal always uses the Com? only when in the cockpit. Otherwise he seems to have made a sport of shouting. (The Train Job when he is looking for Kaylee after he sees the engine room, and the BDM, on his way to the engine room.) You have to remember the ship is a big place. upto 100 metres long. At different times there would be diferent amounts of noise. (ion the "night" there is every possibility they shut almost everything off to just glide in near silence...)

I definitely agree with the 'so many questions' thing. The big one you mentioned that has always had me scratching my head is "Why did Book stay on the ship?" The only answer I ever got was "Because he's a good character" but that doesn't really answer anything in the context of the 'verse.