Joss's toy's I just like to break them

~

“and they all lived happily ever after!”

“Do they's always gots too end so gorram happy?” Asked the small dark haired boy Kaylee was tucking into bed.

“Watch your mouth, Capt'n's liable to skin you alive he hears ya talkin' like that.”

“Capt'n don't care, he says it all the time!”

“Don't mean little boys should be sayin' it,” Kaylee said with an air of finality the little boy knew all too well. He let out an exaggerated sigh

“Is Capt'n coming down tonight?” And as if on cue heavy footstep sounded on the steps above. When Mal reached the metal floor he folded his arms across his chest.

“You givin' Mrs. Kaylee here a hard time? Because that's an offense punishable by severe lack of bedtime stories.”

“No Sir!” The little boy sat up in bed and saluted the Mal, ruining all the tucking in Kaylee had just done.

“That's my little crew member.” He looked over at Kaylee, and with a twinkle in his eye asked, “How is it no one else shows me the respect I, as Captain of this boat, deserve.”

“I'd love to see the day you convince Jayne to click his heals at attention and salute you.” Kaylee laughed at the thought as she crossed the small room and started up the stairs leaving Mal and the small boy alone. Mal sat down on the edge of the bed.

“So tell me Jeremy, did she tell you any good storyies tonight?” Mal winked as he asked, knowing the routine answer Jeremy was about to give. It was how he answered every night.

“No, just the happy ones.” Mal smiled as a familiar smile crept his face. When the boy smiled, it was like she was there again. A twinge of guilt sank into Mal's chest as he remembered yet again, the woman missing from this boy's life. “Will you tell me a bedtime story tonight, Sir?”

“What kind of story do you want? How about the time we saved the world?”

“No, you always tell that one. I'm not even sure it happened.”

Mal's face feigned innocence at the truthful accusation. “I would never lead you to believe I saved the world just to satisfy my own desire to be your hero, I'm insulted by the very idea.”

“Tell me of my Momma again.” Mal smiled, he knew this little boy deserved more then the life he could give him. He deserved the life his mother should had the chance to give him.

“Which one would you like to hear tonight.” The boy's mocha tinted face lit up as Mal agreed to his request.

“Goodbye, tell me how she said Goodbye.” ~

“You need me to watch Jeremy while you run into town?” Kaylee asked.

“Not today, everything legal and scheduled to go smooth, so I think it'll be a nice trip planetside for me and my boy.” Zoe looked over at the small boy strapped into the seat next to her in the mule.

Kaylee smiled up at Zoe. “He sure does love to ride in the mule. Prolly take after his daddy and love to fly it one day.”

Zoe knuckles went white as her grip suddenly tightened on the steering wheel. “Let's not rush him into a pilot's chair anytime soon.” Her voice had lost all of it's lightheartedness and Kaylee suddenly realized Zoe might not want her son to meet the same fate his father had. Neither of them exchanged another word as Zoe made her way down the ramp with her son in tow and Kaylee was left to kick herself, cursing at her own insensitivity in Chinese.

~

“Sir, I have a bit of a situation” Zoe called over to Mal with her comm unit as soon as she noticed someone was following her. She glanced over at her son, barely 14 month old in the seat next to her and back at the tall thin man following her through the thick crowd. Jeremy was playing with a small plastic dinosaur, chewing on part of the tail. He was oblivious to the mounting danger around him and continued his dinosaur mutilation.

“What's going on?” Mal's voice answered back over the comm.

“Looks like we're being followed, just picked up the cargo and headed back to the ship. It looks like they've got an eye on it.”

“Remain in the city, I'll be right there. Likely not to try anything until your” but Zoe didn't hear the end of Mal's sentence. He was interrupted by a large explosion. The mule suddenly jerked beneath Zoe and the steering column jerked sharply out of Zoe's hands. Jeremy let out a sudden cry and his grip tightened on his beloved plastic dinosaur.

“Hold on, little one. I'll get us out of this.” She glanced back at the tall man who'd been following her as she tried to regain control of the mule. He'd been joined by another man, he was heavily armed and rather large in stature. The mule swayed back and forth as Zoe continued to struggle for control. Her concentration split between keeping control and her screaming son.

“Zoe? What's going on?” Mal worried voice yelled through the comm. Zoe reached for it to let Mal know she'd needed backup. She let go of the controls with only one hand, but it was the wrong moment, just as she reached for the comm another explosion went off and the mule began to barrel roll. Zoe, knowing any attempt at regaining control would be fruitless, threw her body onto her son.

Mal rounded the corner running as fast as he could, he arrived just in time to see the mule crash into a store window and landing upside down. Three men came up and began pulling the cargo off the trailer hitched to the mule, none of them bothering with Zoe or her screaming boy, who was held into his seat by the straps, but was dangling only inches above the debris covered ground. The three men loaded up the cargo and were off before Mal had even reached the mule.

“Zoe, you okay?” Mal yelled, as soon as he got close enough he thought she might hear him.

“Get Jeremy!” Zoe yelled, her voice maintaining an eerie calm compared to Mal's repeated panicked shouts.

“Zoe can you move?” Mal reached the side of the mule and threw himself to his knees desperate to find out if his oldest friend was still alive. What he saw didn't comfort him any, Zoe's neck was bent oddly, blood coming from several spots on her face, and all of this was punctuated by the sharp shrieking of the small boy Zoe was blocking with her body. Zoe looked over at him, her eyes were on fire while her face was calm.

“Get Jeremy!” Zoe repeated. Mal got back up and ran to the other side of the mule. He reached his hand in groping for the belt release. He got one side, and he felt the small boy's body shift but didn't fall. He moved his hands to support the boy and yelled to Zoe.

“Can you get the other latch?”

~

Zoe watched as her best friend pulled her son out of the overturned mule. Her mind became fuzzy once she was no longer focusing on her sons safety, Mal had him, he was safe.

“Zoe, we're going to get you out of there!” Mal voice seemed distant and although she looked right at him he seemed so far away. The pain in her neck was almost numb and it too seemed far away. She knew she was dying. She'd felt worse and knew she'd live, this was different, she knew it. She always thought that when she'd die her whole life would pass before her eyes, but it didn't. She didn't remember anything about growing up, or almost dying in Serenity Valley, she didn't think about marrying Wash. No, the life that passed before her eyes wasn't her past, it was the future. The future she was going to miss out on. She saw his childhood, learning to ride a horse and shoot a gun. Him married and having children right before her eyes. She looked once again at the small boy cradled in Mal's arms as he shouted things to her she was no longer able to understand into a comm unit.

“Make sure he knows Mal.” She breathed deeply, knowing she didn't have many left. “Tell him we loved him. Wash and Me, make sure he knows he was loved.” And then she was gone. Mal crouching by her side, shouting about needing a doctor. Disbelieving what his eyes were seeing.

~

“She loved me huh?” Jeremy asked, eyes closed and drifting lazily between sleep and awake.

“Yeah, she loved you.” Mal's heart warmed as he ran his fingers through the brown curls matting the boy's head. Being raised by a crew couldn't be easy, and he knew why this was Jeremy's favorite bed time story. He got up and started across the room. He reached the stairs before looking back at the small sleeping figure. He clutched in his hand a tattered plastic dinosaur.

~

Author's note: I couldn't get this out of my head. I head a story about a women who lost her 14 month old son and instantly looked down at my own 14 month old son and cried. A few days later I was driving this popped into my head and wouldn't go away. I really am trying to work on the ending of "six more weeks of winter" but I keep having other stuff pop into my head.

don't hate me okay