Disclaimer: Mal & Co. are not mine, just borrowed, all characters not present in Firefly/Serenity were created by me.

Lyrics take from the song Dance With My Father by Luther Vandross.

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His mother had kicked him out of their bunk this morning.

“Go to breakfast, I’ll be right up,” she’d told him, pushing him toward the ladder. But she hadn’t come. After breakfast, he was dragged off to Inara’s shuttle for his lessons before he could go check on her. He fought the lessons until Inara finally gave up and turned him loose, only so he could get kidnapped by Kaylee and forced to help in the engine room. It wasn’t until Simon had come in to talk to Kaylee that he’d been able to escape. He made it to the corridor where the crew bunks were when he ran into Jayne.

“Go on and get!” Jayne had yelled at him, scaring the 8 year-old a bit. He’d taken off only to run into the Captain, who grabbed him by his shirt collar.

“Why aren’t you doin’ your lessons?” the Captain had asked, and took Hoban back to Inara’s shuttle. And so Inara tried again to teach him, even though Hoban pestered her with questions as to why his mother was not teaching him today. When she turned away to answer a wave on the Cortex, Hoban was gone.

He made it to the door of his and his mother’s bunk when River stopped him. She stood in the doorway to the bridge and looked at him calmly.

“She needs you,” River said. “None of them realize it, but she needs you.”

With that, River leaned on the doorway and hummed the song she’d been singing the past week, only when she’d been alone with Hoban. Ignoring her, Hoban kicked the door to the bunk open and froze. The sound of sobbing came from the bunk; primal, gut wrenching sobbing. Hoban had never heard his mother cry, let alone sob so hard. He looked up at River.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, unable to move.

River stopped her humming. “Anniversary,” she said simply, before resuming the song.

Young Hoban realized what day it was. He looked at River again and all that came to mind was the song she’d been humming at him. River started singing, and Hoban joined her on the second verse.

Sometimes I’d listen outside her door And I’d hear how my mother cried for him I pray for her even more than me I pray for her even more than me

I know I’m praying for much too much But could you send back the only man she loved I know you don’t do it usually But dear Lord she’s dying To dance with my father again

He looked at the door again, not wanting River to see the tears on his face.

“What do I do?” he asked. He could hear Inara and Simon calling for him and knew they’d find him soon. “Can’t you make her stop? Make her stop! Make Mama stop crying!”

“You have to,” River answered him. “She wants you.”

“But I don’t know what to do!” Hoban cried.

River came down next to him and pushed him forward so his hands grasped the rungs on the ladder. “Yes, you do. Go on, Little Boy Blue.”

Hoban found himself suddenly able to move and he descended the ladder to find his mother laying on her bed, back towards him.

“Mama?” he asked, shakily.

The sobbing subsided a little and Zoe rolled over. “What are you doing down here?” she asked, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “You’re supposed to be with Inara.”

Hoban climbed up on the bed and crawled over to his mother. He reached up and brushed her hair out of her eyes. Zoe was still for a moment, then reached out and grabbed him, hugging him tightly and pulling down to lie next to her. Mother and son lay together in silence for a while until Hoban spoke.

“What was he like, Mama?” Hoban asked. “What was Daddy like?”