A/N: My muse is attempting a comeback. This is a very lame comeback. It deserves a handicapped sign and perhaps a wheelchair. Dialoge from 'Out of Gas.' This day was turning out to be not so good as he'd originally planned. It had started off rather well besides the small and insignificant fact that he couldn’t fix the ship, and they were downed on a desolate backwater moon. He'd shrugged that off. It wasn’t an unpleasant desolate backwater moon. There were at least a few fit girls. This knowledge was what kept Bester going. He could pretend he knew how to fix the ship all day, but it wouldn’t give him the slightest headache because he had all sorts of plans. So he'd gone right out that morning under the pretense of getting parts, and found himself a particularly fit girl. After very unimaginative talk, he'd brought her back to the ship. The boring conversation took an interesting turn when she expressed interest in the engine room. He told her straight out of his interests and she didn’t seem to mind much so long as she could keep looking at the engine. Sometime in the middle of that bit, Mal came 'round to the engine room in a particularly foul mood, and had uncomfortably chewed Bester out. Bester was very used to this sort of thing, and was quite prepared to ignore him. But he found that on this day he was only able to ignore the captain for so long. So he'd hiked his pants back up and endured the scolding. But when the fit girl, whose name Bester had never thought to ask, started fixing things, that, that was when Bester's day started its downward spiral. Actually it wasn’t a spiral at all. It was a plunge. He didn’t even understand at first. Thought his fit girl was getting paid for a job well done. And it had been well done indeed. Bit it didn’t seem the case. She was going to ship out with Serenity. Then these words slipped from Bester's lips.

"Why do you need two mechanics?"

And Mal said, "I really don't."

Bester was left with a puzzled expression. He knew what it meant. He really did, but the knowledge had not yet reached his face. So he stood. Watched the captain walk off. Watched the previously lifeless engine turn casually. It was teasing him. Everything was a tease. And he walked slowly to his bunk to collect his things. The day was go se. And it was over.