Mal pressed his forehead against the cold glass of the infirmary door, relishing in the coolness for an instant, until Jayne’s snoring disturbed his thoughts. One hundred and twenty-five hours ago, he had been sat in the back of the mule cradling Mist’s lifeless forming his arms. Now every time he closed his eyes he saw her soot smeared face and sleep evaded him, he sat back down next to the corpse like girl laying in the hospital bed as he listened to the hiss of the machine breathing for her and Jayne’s snores as he slept soundly in the opposite bed and he prayed to Book’s god, a god he wasn’t even sure he believed in. Critical condition, that’s what the doc had said and even Mal, and he weren’t no doctor knew critical weren’t a good thing to be.

The girls long dark eyelashes began to flutter as Mist finally started to regain consciousness, the sudden beep of one of the many monitors Simon had attached to her, quickly brought an exhausted Mal to his senses. The panic in her eyes as she struggled to talk, to move her head was like a knife to Mal’s heart.

“You inhaled a lot of smoke”. Mal explained his tone low and soothing. “Simon put on a….” Mal struggled to remember the medical term for the machine, “a ventilator to help you breathe”.

He leant over the bed so he could hear her as she struggled to speak, her voice was barely audible. “Your shoulder?”

“This? This is just a little scratch”. Mal told her, fingering the edge of the bandage, suddenly self conscious that he hadn’t bothered to put his shirt back on after Simon had changed the dressing on his gun shot wound a couple of hours before.

“Jayne?” she whispered hoarsely noticing the sleeping merc in the opposite bed.

“Jayne, he got shot. Don’t worry gongzhu, Jayne’s as tough as old boots, he’s gonna be just fine”.

“Mal” she cried out as the darkness threatened to overwhelm her once more, Mal reached out, his rough hand stroking the cool smoothness of her check.

“I knew you’d come”. She told him faintly as she slipped back into oblivion.

************************************************* Gongzhu = princess