Five Men, Four Women and a Bundle of Joy

“Zoe, we need food, and supplies…Wash, get together with Kaylee and see what parts we need, I’m going into town, with Jayne, for the meet. We should be back by noon.”

Everybody goes on and does their jobs, and Mal and Jayne head towards the meeting point. They are on Boros, and they’re meeting a new client to transport some weaponry. They were in dire need for money, and this would surely keep them more rich and prosperous for a few months.

Mal didn’t want them to know that they were needy right now. Their money was slowly dwindling down, with jobs as scarce as they were now. The Alliance was seeing to that. But Mal knew he could take care of it.

“So what kind of job is it?” Jayne asked while they were walking to the drop.

“Not rightly sure, I know it’s weaponry of some sort, but not sure which. Must be something needed if they’re willing to pay us that much.”

“Shiny,” a wicked looking grin comes across Jayne’s face.

They come up on a building. It’s run-down, dirty, and ain’t had a fresh coat of paint on it in a hundred years. They share a look at each other, and Mal knocks. A young twenty-ish looking gentleman opens the door.

“Hi there, you must be Captain Malcolm Reynolds…I’m Jonah.” He looks behind them to make sure no one’s looking. “Please…come in.”

Mal nods at him, and they both are ushered into a room that is in a basement of sorts. They are left alone, and an older gentleman, in his forties, comes in.

“Capitan Reynolds, I presume,” he says in a thick Italian accent, then looks at Jayne and raises an eyebrow.

“Yes sir, and this is Jayne. We heard tell you had some…stuff…to get rid of.” He looks into the older mans eyes. “We can help you with that problem, Mr. Fratelli.”

“Yes, yes, I believe you can. Lets sit down and discuss the particulars.”

* * *

Later in the day, they get the cargo stowed on board. Turns out, it’s a bunch of retrofitted Sonic Rifles. About five thousand to be precise. Apparently, one of Fratelli’s men had stolen them from an Alliance base on Persephone, and they’re trying to ship them to a planet in the Outer Rim territories. It’d be two weeks of traveling, but the money would be great.

Mal walks out to check something on the hull, when he hears a commotion. He sees a young lady, in her twenties, running with something in her arms, she sees him, and as she runs by she pushes the bundle into his arms. She’s being followed by a man on horseback, that was firing at her. He didn’t know what to do…and luckily Zoe was standing right there, so he handed the bundle to her, and turned back around. There were a few gunshots, but the girl was out of sight, ducking behind some cargo boxes outside of the ship. She looks up and sees the gun at Mal’s side.

“Throw me your gun.”

He takes it out of his holster and tosses it to her. She cocks it, and looks out to the man on horseback, and fires the gun. The bullet just grazes his left shoulder, but he turns around on the horse, and tries to sweep past her again. She had no cover now, so she stands right out in the middle of the street, and just starts firing bullet after bullet at him.

She’s scared to death, her hand was shaking so bad, she just knew that this was it. But she couldn’t die right now, someone had to get revenge. So she bravely stood out there and fired over and over.

Bullets were flying everywhere, and Mal and Zoe stood to the inside of the ship, not really wanting to get involved, but knowing they had to do something. Zoe looks at the bundle, and sets it down very carefully, and passes a gun to Mal.

The girl is still firing, and manages to hit the man in the ribs, but he’s still firing. One bullet grazes her cheek, but the next one hits her right shoulder. She’s knocked back by the shot, and lands in a heap. She looks back up to the man, he passed her, and was turning around to come back and finish the job. But she then heard more gun shots, and it wasn’t from him. That’s the last thing she heard, before she faded out.

* * *

Muffled voices, and blurred vision was what she remembered next. She faded in and out of consciousness, as Mal and Zoe carried her to the infirmary. Simon was just coming out of his quarters when he heard the commotion, and now was in the infirmary trying to get her on the bed.

“Zoe, what the gorram hell just happened?”

They set the girl on the bed, and walk outside to talk.

“I don’t know, sir, but you’ll want to see this.”

They head back to the cargo bay, Mal had immediately closed and locked the hatch when they brought her on. Zoe headed to the little bundle, and picked it up.

“Sir, I think this might shed some light on the subject.”

She slowly takes the bundling off to reveal a very small, very cranky, baby.

“Huh!” was all he could say.

* * *

Simon finishes up, and sees Mal standing at the doorway, so he takes the gloves off, throws them in the trash and heads towards him.

“How’s she doing, doc?”

“She’s out right now. I have no clue when she’ll wake up, it depends on how fast the wound starts to heal. I did all I can, but she didn’t lose a whole lot of blood, so that’s good.” He sees the look on Mal’s face, and is confused. “What’s wrong?”

Mal nods at Zoe, who comes into view carrying a baby.

“What the hel-”

As if on cue, the baby wakes up in Zoe’s arms, and starts to cry. The sound just gets louder and louder, and reverberates throughout the ship.

Simon is at a loss. He’s never dealt with babies before in the E.R., and had no clue what to do. But he grabs the baby from Zoe, and lays it on the table, very gently. He does some scans, and nothing’s wrong with it, so he checks the diaper.

“Wu de ma!” He gags at the smell, and looks around for something to use as a makeshift diaper. He grabs a towel from the cabinet, and proceeds to change a diaper. He remembered when River was a baby, boy could she stink up a diaper. He always helped his mom with diaper duty. That’s about all he could remember on baby care.

“Doc, is the baby ok?” Mal comes a little close, then “Dear God in Heaven, what the ruttin hell is that smell? That’s horrible…even the herd of cows didn’t smell that bad!” He immediately backs up further into the hallway.

Simon laughs, “That’s what babies smell like most of the time. They poop constantly. I remember when River was a baby. The first time I tried to change her diaper…mom was watching, and River decided to pee all over me.” He smiles at that, and finishes tying the makeshift diaper. “He’s gonna be fine, quite healthy in fact.”

Zoe comes into the room, and starts to fiddle with the baby’s hands.

“How old is he?” she asks.

“Scans show him to be about three months old, give or take.” He looks confusingly to the girl on the table. “I’ve never really worked with children though, so I could be off a bit.”

“So, I guess the question is, what do we…do…with him? I mean, I can’t watch him, I’ve got captainy things to do…and I don’t know if the rest of the cre-”

“I’ll watch him…until she wakes up,” Zoe chimes in. “I don’t mind.”

“You’ve got experience with babies?” Simon asks.

“Tons,” she replies, while Mal looks at her confusingly.

“Really? Who?” Mal asks giving her an odd look, never knowing this side of her.

Simon hands her the baby, and she answers, “My brother’s kids. I practically raised them for a few months while he was out of a job.”

“Now, how come I never knew this?” he says to her back as she walks out of the infirmary, and heads to her quarters.

* * *

She took the baby to her and Wash’s quarters, and set up a sleeping area for him on the bed. He’d been crying since she left sickbay, so she decided to try and rock him. It worked, and in a matter of minutes, he was asleep. She laid him down in the substitute bed, and laid down next to him. She imagined what her and Wash’s kid would look like. She’d thought about this for a long time…having a kid. She’d already picked out names. For a boy, she didn’t like Jerry, but Jeremiah, or Josiah was pretty. And for a girl, maybe Chloe, after her mother, or Dorme’ after her great grandmother. She stuck her finger next to his hand, and his little fingers curled around it. She whispered, “Why doesn’t Wash wanna have a kid with me?”

Speak of the devil, Wash enters the room, and is taken aback at the sight of a baby in his bed. “Did you have a baby, without me knowing? Cause I‘m pretty sure I wasn‘t involved in this one.”

She raises her finger to her lips, “Shh, he’s asleep.”

He whispers, “Lambie toes, seriously, what’s going on?”

“The girl we took on board, that got shot…this is her kid.” She raises her eyebrows at him, “The girl’s still knocked out in sickbay, so-”

“So, you offered to take care of him. Um…lambie toes, I’d really like it if you’d tell me before you do something like this.”

She’s getting mad now, and angry whispers to him, “What, so you could turn it down. I want to have a kid, I know you don’t, I get your reasoning…it just hurts me. I’m not getting any younger, and we ain’t settling down on planet any time soon.”

“I think you should let Simon, or Kaylee, or Inara try and take care of this kid. I just-”

She glares at him, and he knew he better get outa the room before more of his foot will end up in his mouth. He must have that disease or something, cause it happens to him all the time. He starts to leave the room, “Just don’t get attached to…it. We have to give it back. It’s not a lease with an option to buy.”

She gets upset at his last remark, but doesn’t let him see it. She really wanted to have a child with him, but apparently, he just thinks of children as things. She turns her attention back to the little one. She just smiles and daydreams that one day, she’ll get her baby, and listens as he shuts the hatch.

* * *

A few hours later, a groggy, pissed off lady awakes in the infirmary. She tries to get up, but the pain shoots through her, and she immediately lays back down. Simon was standing out in the hall, talking to Zoe about some information about babies he took off the cortex, when he hears the commotion. He rushes to her side, checks her vitals, and injects some pain meds into her IV.

“Whars da babyyy?” She manages to say.

“He’s fine, a little hungry, but fine. You on the other hand, have been shot. We got the bullet out, and you’re quite drugged now. Best thing is sleep right now.” He goes to inject a sleep agent into her, but she smacks his hand away, and tries to get up again.

“He’ll never stop, must leave…in danger…”

She tried her best to get up, but just couldn’t make it, and laid back down. She’s in tears now. “He’ll kill us…please…” Her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she passes out.

Simon checks her vitals again, and then looks at Zoe. He finishes telling her what to get from the store in town. They needed some infant formula, a few quarts of it. So she is going into town to get them. Kaylee and Inara have the baby up in the lounge. Apparently it took a liking to both of them. Mal didn’t want any repeat of what happened, so he‘s sending Jayne along with her. As soon as they got back, he was lifting off. They just had an extra two passengers for awhile.

“Why do we have to get more food, don’t we have enough?”

“Because it’s a baby, Jayne,” Zoe tells him as they exit the ship.

“So!” Jayne responds, looking dumbfounded at her.

“Baby’s have to eat certain foods, especially one so young.” She shakes her head.

“Ok, let’s do this and get back, I’ve got some chores to do ‘fore we leave. If Book ain’t beat me in the card game last night, I wouldn’t had to worry, but he got me with a flush…I think he cheats.” She laughs as they head to the store, get the baby formula, and head back.

* * *

She awakes with a start, and immediately sits up in the bed. She looks around, not recognizing her surroundings. She sees a shadow at first, and she’s in a dark room, grayish, and very bleak looking. Then the shadow turns into a man coming after her with a gun, and she is powerless to do anything, all she could do was scream.

* * *

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!”

She starts kicking and screaming, and tries to get up out of bed, but she’s been strapped down. Simon was next to her in a second, trying to calm her down.

“It’s ok, it was just a dream. It’s ok….it’s ok.”

She slowly took some deep breaths, and tried to calm herself down. She repeated over and over, ‘He’s coming, he’s coming’. Simon gave her a shot to calm down, and in a few minutes she was breathing easier.

“Captain to the infirmary.” He also called Zoe, and told her to bring the baby. He turns back to her and calmly asks “Who’s coming?”

“Lucas….he’s going to kill me, and then take Hayden away.”

“Hayden?” Mal asks as he walks into the infirmary.

“My baby…where is he? Is he ok?”

Simon interrupts, “Hayden is fine, Zoe’s bringing him here now. What‘s your name?”

“Why was that man chasing you?” Mal asked.

“Name’s Dina, and he’s trying to take Hayden away from me. Lucas killed my family, and is now after me.”

Zoe walks in with Hayden, and hands the baby over to the girl. She hugs him to her as hard as she could without hurting her shoulder.

“Oh, thank God, I was so worried.”

“I couldn’t tell with my equipment, but how old is he?” He looks at Mal and Zoe.

“Well, he’s about fourteen weeks.”

“Well, that’s odd.” They look at each other, and Mal asks. “’Cause doc tells me, that there’s no way you’ve had a kid in the last year. So how’s about the truth this time?”

She looks at him, sighs, and decides to tell him the truth. “Most of what I said is truth. Hayden is my sister’s son. My husband uncovered something about Lucas…some things about him murdering some of his employees and blaming the Alliance. He took the stuff over to show her, but…” she looks down, in obvious pain. “But, Lucas came home earlier than expected, and saw them with the records, and killed them. I happened to be watching Hayden at my house, a few doors down, and heard the gunshots. I’ve been on the run since, for over a month, moving from town to town before he could catch up. But, he caught up to me this time. Please, he will kill me, you must take me with you. I don’t want Hayden to grow up in that kind of environment…he’s all I have left.”

She was in tears now, and it just pulled at Mal’s heartstrings. Why did he have this certain need to do the right thing? He still couldn’t figure it out, and still wondered why he let Simon and River stay after all the trouble they caused.

“We’re already in the black. I’ll let you stay till we get to Daskoni, in the outer rim. After that, you’re on your own.”

“He’ll still come until he kills me, but, thank you for your help.” She turns away, not wanting him to see the fresh tears.

Simon sees this, and grabs Hayden and hands him back to Zoe. “She needs her sleep.” They all leave, and he dims the lights. “If you need anything, just holler. Maybe later we can move you to your own bed.”

“Thanks,” she said around tears that were streaming down her face. She could not, would not let Lucas get his hands on Hayden…even if she had to give him up.

* * *

That night, she got moved into her own room, but she still couldn’t move her arm much, so Zoe and Wash took care of Hayden for another night. She couldn’t sleep, so she went up to the bridge, and just watched the stars fly by. Wash was up there, so she talked to him about Hayden.

“Thank you for taking such good care of Hayden.”

“Your welcome, its quite fun though. Zoe’s been talking about having a kid, but I don’t want one until we’re on a stable planet. Maybe she will see how difficult it can be raising a kid on a ship.”

“Kids are difficult, period! It doesn‘t matter if you‘re on a ship or a planet. What matters most is the love you feel for your child. As long as you love each other, then having the child is the best thing you could ever wish for.” A frown creases her face. “Me and my husband were planning on having a child…but…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, but Zoe’d told him what happened, so he understood.

“Well, Hayden is your chance. The Cap will make sure you’ll be ok, probably offer to kill that hwoon dahn for you.”

“Yeah, well, I think I better go to bed, it’s starting to hurt now. Have a goodnight.”

“G’nite,” he told her, but it would not be a good night. He started to think about this baby issue. Was what she said true? Did it really matter where you lived? He just worried so much about Zoe, he didn’t want to have to fear for a baby as well. Maybe it was selfish of him to deny Zoe that right, but with all the trouble this little ship seems to get into, he didn’t want to risk the death of his child.

Lurking in the shadows was Mal, who heard everything that was said. He, sure as hell, couldn’t believe the one thing. He muttered to himself while walking back to the bunk, “Zoe…wants kids?!”

* * *

Two days later, her shoulder was much better, and she had Hayden in her room, when Mal knocked on the door.

“Quing Jin.”

“Hi…I just wanted to stop in, see how you and the baby are doing?”

“He’s doing great, I’ll pay you back for the formula. As for me…well…” she shrugs but that causes her pain, and she starts to laugh. She has an infectious laugh, and he found himself laughing along with her. “I’m doing better. Your doc is good, I thought I’d be outa commission for awhile. Thanks for helping me.” She looks down, not wanting to meet his eyes. “I know I lied to you, and had reasons for it, but I should’ve just told you the truth.” She looks up at him now, “I guess there are a few more nice guys out there, I was thinking my husband was the last.” She starts to tear up.

“You haven’t had much time to grieve. I’m sorry for what’s happened to you and yours, and I wish I could help you more, but, I’m in the middle of this drop, and have to get it there on time. I’ll drop you wherever you would like to go, but it will hav-”

“It doesn’t matter where you drop me, he will come after me. I must kill him, before he kills me.”

Hayden gives her a big smile, and she smiles back at him. “You little flirt, you get your stomach full, and then you’re happy, and wanna go play with the women huh? Maybe I’ll take you to the engine room, there’s a pretty gal down there, who can’t wait to spend some more time with you, and you like the hum of the engines.” She looks back up at Mal, “Duty calls, and I got an adorable little boy here, who likes to flirt with the girls on this here ship. I here he’s taken a liking to your engineer?”

He watches her interaction with Hayden, and thinks that she would be a great mother. Then some other thoughts invaded his mind and he tried to get the heck out of there as fast as he could.

“I’ve got to….uh…go captain this ship. It doesn’t fly by itself…well, it does, but…” He looks at her, then makes a beeline for the hallway. He breathes a sigh when he reaches the bridge, shaking the thoughts out of his mind. * * *

It had been a week on their journey, and after those thoughts he had, he just decided to stay away from the passengers. She was beautiful, and very…womany. A bit like Saffron, only without the trying-to-kill-him part. When he was in the room with her, he just knew that she was gonna think he had a sock in his pants. He didn’t know what was up with him, he thought, ‘Yeah, it’s been awhile, but…’ he couldn’t figure it out. The last was Nandi, she just fit him perfectly. His type of gal. But this one…he couldn’t figure what was up with her. What made her so special? Then it hit him like a bolt of lightning. Trisha Harding. She was the first girl that ever broke his heart. He fell madly in love with her back on Shadow. They finally made love before he was shipped off to the war. He had one last trip to do for his Mama, and that was to go to Tinsel Town, and buy a new herd. Tinsel Town was a weeks journey round trip, but he finished up a day early, and headed back home. He went straight to her house, ran up to her room, and found her in bed with his best friend. He just reeled from the shock, and walked out, and never heard from them again. Later he’d heard that when the war hit Shadow, they’d been killed.

Dina looked almost like Trish. The only thing different was Dina’s blue eyes, and poutier lips. Trish had very thin lips, and he’d always been partial to fuller lips.

“Oh, enough of this.” He tried to shake the thoughts out of his head, and decided to take a walk. He couldn’t sleep, one of them crazy nights…like normal. So he got up, and checked the bridge out, then decided to walk to the cargo bay. He was looking at some of the cargo, when he rounded the corner and saw Dina sitting with her back up against the cargo boxes. The baby was in front of her, sound asleep.

“Bwaaa!” he jumped a good two feet off the ground, and she looked up at him, and giggled. She got up, and creeped away from where the baby was sleeping, and motioned him to follow.

“Sorry about that. Sometimes he doesn’t sleep very well, so I take him to where there is some engine sounds, and he falls asleep easier. What are you doing down here? We didn‘t wake you up, did we?”

“Oh, no. It’s ok, sometimes I get the same problem. I couldn’t tell you how many times I come down here to get my mind off things.”

She raises her eyebrows, and asks, “Oh. Anything I can help you with?”

“Um…well…not really…no,” he stutters, and she laughs.

“See, there you go with that laugh again.” He smiles at her, and she smiles back.

She feigns injury to his remark, all the while smiling. “What’s wrong with my laugh?”

He lowers his head, and his voice lowers too, “You just remind me of someone else I use to know.”

She could see the pain in his eyes before he dropped his head, and gently lifts a finger to his chin, and pushes it up. “Well, I ain’t her,” she says matter of factly.

He looks deep into her eyes, almost as if he’s seeing her soul. He’d not had this kind of reaction in awhile, only when he and Inara are having a civil conversation does it come close. But there’s a chance that’s all messed up…and it’s all his fault.

“No, I reckon you ain’t.”

He saw her leaning in to kiss him, and he was powerless to stop her. It was one of the best kisses he’s had in a good gorram while. He was treasuring it…and it led to other things. They tried to be as quiet as possible, they didn’t want to wake the baby or others on the ship. But it was too late. Inara had seen from the upper deck when they were talking. She listened, and kept wondering why Mal would open up to a complete stranger, but not open up to her. She was very hurt by this turn of events, and when the kissing started, she quietly escaped back to her shuttle.

* * *

He woke up early the next morning in the cargo bay, and looked at the naked body laying beside him. His first thought was contentment, but then it became fear. What had he done? Will she get the wrong idea that this is a relationship? “Tzao Gao!”

They were laying on their clothes, and she snuggled even closer to him, and he liked that. He put his hand on her waist and traced his way up to her lips. She woke up, and watched him. But he heard noises out into the hallway, near the infirmary, and they both started to grab their respective clothes and rushed to put them on. As if on cue, the baby awoke and started crying, and Jayne and Kaylee entered the cargo bay. Mal was out of view behind the boxes, and Dina had finished getting dressed, and went to pick up the baby.

“Hey there Dina,” Kaylee said, and then turned to the baby, “Hey you.” The baby immediately smiled and started to play with Kaylee’s hand, while Jayne started his morning work-out routine. “What are you two doing down here?”

“Oh, sometimes when Hayden can’t sleep, I bring him to a sound source, like an engine humming. He falls asleep, and I just slept on the floor by him.”

“Sounds like me. Dad used tell me that when I was a baby, I wouldn’t sleep unless he put a tape of engine sounds next to my crib.”

Mal finally finished putting on his clothes, and tried to make it look like he was just coming into the cargo bay. But he had already been seen.

“Hey Cap’n, whatcha doing?” Kaylee asked with raised eyebrows. She thought she saw something when she came in, and was now looking at them both. All of a sudden a bright smile flittered across her face, and she saw Mal’s pants. “Cap’n!”

“Just checking the car-“ He sees the smile, and started to worry. “Yes little Kaylee?” He sees her eyes drop down to the front of his pants, and he sees the pants were unzipped. He immediately turns around and starts to button and zip them up. “I…uh….just forgot to….uh…” He turns back around with the pants all zipped up now, and tries to smooth things over. “She…uh, I…um…I’ve got captainy things to do!” He says and stalks out of there as fast as he could.

Kaylee, with nothing to say, that wouldn’t get her cleaning latrines for the next two weeks, just decided to start playing with the baby again.

* * *

He was on the way to her room, quietly after this morning’s debacle, and hesitated knocking on the Chinese wood frame. He just wanted to make sure that she understood…it wasn’t a normal routine, it was just a roll in the hay. He knew it was, though he quite liked it, and wouldn’t mind if it continued. He shook the thoughts away, and muttered. “Cut it out, you’re a Captain for chrissake!” So he knocked on the door, and heard her saying “Enter.”

“Hey there…um…just wanted to stop by…and uh…have a chat.” Sweaty palms, and all of a sudden, it got so hot in there, he thought about rushing into the hallway to get some fresh air. “That thing between us…um…”

“It’s ok…I understand.”

“You do? Well…good” Taken aback at her quick reply.

“Good!”

“All right then.” Great, they were in agreement.

“All right!” She seemed to agree, but in the span of a heartbeat, they were on each other again, kissing and trying to tear each others clothes off. Then they heard the baby laughing, and immediately put a stop to it.

“Ok then, just so’s we know,” he looks at her, looks at the baby, and makes a beeline out the door, making sure to take the shortest route back to his room.

Safe and sound in his room, and in front of the mirror, he let it burst, “What the gorram hell is going on with you Malcolm Reynolds? You ain’t had it this bad since Trish. And look what happened in that relationship! That’s all womenfolk is for, is to cheat on ya.” Even Inara.

* * *

One week later they were settlin’ down on Daskoni, and had just unloaded the cargo. They got paid a little extra for getting there a few days earlier, as was in the agreement. Mal had talked with Dina, and told her he’d drop her on any planet she chose, so she picked a planet near Persephone, she had a friend that moved there not too long ago, but she had to go pick up some more supplies before they left. She left Hayden with Kaylee, but something went wrong with an intake processor in the engine.

“Cap?”

“Yes little Kaylee?” He sees her holding the baby, and starts playing with his little fingers, and Hayden immediately latches on.

“Serenity needs some fixin’, and you and me are the only ones on board at the moment.”

He starts shaking his head, cause he knew what was gonna happen. “No Kaylee…put him in a crib or something, me and babies…we don’t really go together.”

“Cap’n, you want Serenity to take off right?”

“Yes Kaylee….when Wash goes to power the engines…I would like us to take off…that don’t mean I wanna do babysitting.”

She smiles at him, and hands the baby over. “All ya gotta do is keep him happy, ‘s easy peasy.”

He glares at her, but takes the baby, who immediately looks up at him and reaches up to honk his nose. He gives a ‘help me’ look to Kaylee, but then walks off to the bridge. “Great, just great.”

* * *

She was walking in the midst of Town Square, and had no clue that somebody was following her. She had been walking for about thirty minutes, with him trailing her from the docks. He and his men had been on her tail since she left the ship, and were about ready to pounce. They had gotten there just about thirty minutes before she arrived on that piece of go se ship. He had not seen any sign of the baby, but was getting real close to her. He gave the signal to his men…in five seconds they would grab her, and take her into the alley just ten feet ahead. Three…two…one…they snatched her, put a bag over her head, and held up a cloth to her mouth to keep her from screaming, and at the same time, a man with a gun, shot a round into the air, so everybody would focus on him, and not the kidnapping. They got her into the alley, and took the bag off of her head…but left the gag over her mouth.

“Where’s my son?” * * *

Mal was stuck, on the bridge, with a three month old baby, and he was not happy. He hit the comm button, and screamed in it, “Kaylee, get the hell up to the bridge!”

She heard him, but just ignored the calls. It was only a baby for crying out loud. He’s a Captain, surely he could take care of a baby.

“For crying out loud!” That’s the third time…the third time…” he said as he wiped the spit off of his shirt. “How many times does a baby spit up!” The baby starts crying again, and he just couldn’t take it anymore. “What??? What do you want? I’ve run out of the bottle Kaylee gave me…I don’t know what else you want?”

Hayden is crying even more now…and Kaylee could here him down in the engine room. She starts to get up, but doesn’t. “Cap can take care of him…he’ll figger it out.”

Mal starts to walk with him, but that doesn’t work, and then while he’s trying to figure out what to do…he feels a wet spot on the diaper. “Oh NOOOOOOO no you don’t. No, no, no, no, no, no, not that…ANYthing but that.” He feels it start to soak thru, and heads up to the infirmary. He gets up there, and locates another diaper, and starts to take the one off.

“What the ruttin- do you smell like this all the time?” He was trying to hold his nose, and breathe through his mouth…but it wasn’t working. “Oh my, you stink!” He has the diaper off now, but has no clue what to do next. “Ok, now what?” Hayden just looks up at him and smiles. “Don’t smile up at me like that…after what you’ve done.” But Hayden just continues smiling, and reaches for him. Mal grabs a towel and slowly, carefully, washes him off, and puts the new diaper on. He reaches down to pick him up, but the diaper slides off. “Ruttin hell…what’d I do wrong?” He lays Hayden back down, and tightens the diaper some more, and Hayden reaches out for him. Mal picks him up, and Hayden starts laughing, and reaches for his nose again.

“Well…that wasn’t so bad, except the smelly part. Let’s go see if I can find you some toys to play with.”

* * *

“Where’s my son?”

She looks at him, and stares. “How did you find me?”

“It was easy, I paid off the dock attendant, he told me right where ya’ll was headed to. Where’s my son?” He’s getting angrier by the moment, and she was scared for her life.

“He’s not with me, I dropped him off with some people to take care of till I get back.”

He slaps her, and grabs her hair. “I’m sick of you’re lying, you stole my son, and I want him back. There’s nowhere you could have stopped, now where is my son?”

“You stole my husband and my sister away from me, and you actually think I’m gonna let you have Hayden back!” She lets that soak in, then spits in his face. Two of his men were holding her, and he slowly wiped the spit off his face and backhands her. “I will kill you, and then I’ll go to the ship, and kill each and every one of them, until I find my son.”

Her eyes betray her as they widen at that thought. He sees it, and punches her into unconsciousness.

* * *

The Captain is back on the bridge with a baby in tow. Their sitting at the main console, and Hayden is laughing at Mal’s impression of a cow. Zoe and Wash walk in to see this going on, and Zoe, having this look on her face, says, “Hey Capt’n, didn’t know you were baby watching today. I can take him for you if you’d like?”

“No, me and him, we’ve bonded. We’re just a couple of fellas hanging out.”

She gives Wash a look, and then they both break out into laughter. “Shouldn’t Dina be back by now? She was only supposed to get a few supplies.”

“Your right.” He looks at his displays, and sees she is way past due. “Something must be wrong.” He hands the baby to Wash, “Zoe, you’re with me, Wash, call everybody back to the ship, lock the doors, and let no one on.”

Wash calls everybody back, they had been off getting supplies, or having a little fun, or in Book’s case, an evening at the Abbey. He got everyone safely on board, and once they were, Mal took Zoe and Jayne, and they went into town.

* * *

He shakes her till she wakes up, and then she looks up at him, and counts the guards. Thinking, “Five guards, there’s no way I could get past them.” Saying, “You can beat me up all you want, but Mal will protect Hayden, he’ll never tell you where he is.”

“Mal…sounds like you got a bit intimate with…Mal.” He grabs her throat, and slams her to the wall, hiding her behind a dumpster. “I kill your pathetic husband, and you go running off to another man’s bed. Must be nice.”

He quietly grabs something from his side, keeping her from seeing it. Suddenly her eyes go wide, and looks him in the eye. “Hayden is not yours anymore…you gave up that right as a fath-”

* * *

“Jayne, we need your tracking ability here.” Mal said.

“Workin’ on it.”

“Sir, maybe we should split up…get more done.”

“It’s a small town Zoe, I don’t think she could get far.” He thinks about it, and then sends them in all separate directions. They had the earpieces so if any of ‘em got into trouble, they’d be there in a jiffy.

He continues searching, and something odd catches his eye. There were five men that he could see in an alley behind some clothing store. They were all looking in the same direction, to something that he couldn’t see. He whispered in his earpiece for Jayne to cross in front of the alley and try and get a look.

“There’s six men, that I saw. One was hidden behind the dumpster…don’t know what he was doing. He could be taking a piss for all I know.”

“With five guys watching! No. It’s gotta be him. Zoe, head back over here, as soon as you get here we’re going in.”

* * *

She felt warmth, a warmth that she’d never experienced. She felt the blade go in her right abdomen, and could feel the blood gushing out. When he pulled it out, she jerked with the knife. She started to shake, but didn’t want to give Lucas the upper hand.

“Mal will protect Hayden, he’ll never tell you where he is.”

He takes the knife and wipes the blood on her face. “Well, then he shall die too. I won’t rest until I have my son back. Not you, nor anybody can keep me from him.”

“’Scuse me sir, would you mind telling me where the cleaners is. This is my first time to this planet, and I gotta whole lotta clothes needin’ to be washed.”

As the man that interrupted came into view she saw it was Mal, and immediately was scared to death. In a soft voice she tried to warn him, “Mal…no…don’t.”

Lucas picked up on that and looked at his guards, who immediately pulled their guns. At the same time Mal pulled out his gun, and Zoe and Jayne jumped out from behind him with guns blazing. They took down two of his guards ‘fore they had the chance to draw their guns. Lucas hid behind the dumpster and grabbed Dina, and put the knife around her throat. Mal took down two of the guards, before he was grazed by a bullet on his thigh.

“Gorrammitt, I just bought these pants!” Getting mad he shoots the last guard.

“Ruttin’ guards…you okay Cap?” Jayne asked, actually sounding concerned.”

Zoe takes a look at Mal’s leg, “He’ll be fine.”

“Zoe, I think I can answer the question.” He leans towards Jayne, “I’ll be fine.” Zoe still hears him, and shakes her head.

Lucas shows himself, and they see the knife around Dina’s throat. She’s looking directly at Mal, fear showing in her eyes. He sees she’s white as a ghost, and he looks down and sees the blood. He takes a sigh…that’s a bad wound, and if he don’t get the doc to look at it quickly, she could…no, that wasn’t going to happen. He has this thing where everybody he loves dies. That can’t happen again. First it was his fiancé, then…Nandi. He couldn’t go through that again.

“Let’s think about this Lucas. You can either let her go…” he motions to Jayne, who knows exactly what to do, “…or you can die. Don’t really want to see much bloodshed right now, but…” and on that last word, Jayne grabs Binky and throws it and hits Lucas right between the eyes. He drops the knife which bangs on the ground, and falls back. Dina, who was being supported against him, started to fall at the same time. She had no more power in her legs to hold her up. Mal got over to her quick enough to catch her, and slowly bring her down.

“Dina…Dina, please don’t do this.”

She reached up with her right hand which was trying to hold in all the blood, and touched Mal on his cheek. “Mal, please…promisssseee me…you’ll take care of Hayden.”

“I’m sure you got family, or that friend that you wanted me to visit that could take care of him bette-”

“No…please…you arrre a good man. I know you will do a good job wit-”

Her hand fell away, and she closed her eyes. “Zoe, is…is she…?”

Zoe bent down to check for a pulse. “No, not yet…but we need to get her to the ship fast.”

“Jayne, you help me get her there, Zoe, run ahead and tell the Doctor to get ready.” He reached up where her hand was on his cheek, and gently wiped the blood off, and looked at it. This can’t happen again, he thought.

“Aye sir.”

Jayne looked confusingly, “Which end you want me to grab?”

* * *

“Wash, get us off this rock!” The Alliance had been warned that there were gunshots heard, and they got out of the alley just in time. They beat it back to the ship, under the radar, and Wash had the ship all ready. They took off, before the Alliance knew what had happened. Now they were trying to beat it out of the system before they were found out.

Once they were on the ship, the doctor got to work on her. They didn’t tell Kaylee, but just told her to watch the baby for a bit. She didn’t mind that, but wondered what was going on. She was just told that Dina got hurt, and it wasn’t serious. Inara had seen what had happened, but went down to join Kaylee in the engine room.

It was just Mal, and Simon in the sickbay. Book, Jayne, and River were standing outside.

“She’s hurting, inside all broken.” River tried to tell Simon, but, he didn’t quite understand her.

“There’s no broken bones River, what do you mean?”

She came in and pointed to a particular spot, and at the same time, blood started spouting from a vein. Simon just looked at her for a second, then got to work.

“How did you know?”

“They got workings and they just speak to me,” she replied, and Mal looked at her weird. Knowing that Kaylee had said that about engines.

Simon looked up at the monitors, and breathed a sigh of relief. “She’s in the clear. That was what was causing all the problems.”

“She’s gonna be ok? Are you sure?” Mal asked.

River put a hand on his shoulder and said, “She’s gonna be shiny.”

Jayne just kept looking back and forth from Mal to River. “River’s a doctor now!” he asked incredulously. “Now that’s sci fi!”

* * *

“Thank you so much Mal. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

“It’s no problem Dina…I’m just glad we got you back in time. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if I let someone else I’d lov-…cared about, die.”

She smiled at his blurb, and touched his cheek. “You are a good man, Malcolm Reynolds. I’m glad my journey led me to you.” She had already thanked the rest of the crew, especially Jayne who killed Lucas. She gave him a hug, and of course he never resisted a hug. But now it was just her and Mal, on the ramp of the cargo bay. Her fingers traced his jaw line, and she looked deep into his eyes. Those eyes were as vast as the sky, and as dark. She knew he had a deep past, and she really didn’t want to know about it, cause it would make her care even more for this man she’s only known two weeks. It was already gonna be hard enough to get over him.

Her friend, who was holding Hayden, cleared her throat, as if to tell her to hurry it up, she ain’t got all day.

“I guess I’d better go, but first…”

She reached her hand up behind his neck, and pulled him down for a kiss. Not a hard kiss, but a soft, sensuous kiss, and let him go.

“Goodbye Captain Reynolds. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, I’m here too.”

She walked off the ramp, took Hayden from her friend, and looked back at Mal. She grabbed Hayden’s hand and waved bye-bye.

Mal closed the ramp, never taking his eyes off her and the baby. He walked towards the cargo, with a spring in his step, until he saw something.

“What the hell is this? Jayne…Jayne…I told you to clean up this mess in the cargo bay!”

Jayne was nowhere to be found, and Mal had a mission once again.

* * *

Wash enters the bedroom, and sees Zoe getting ready for bed.

“I’ve thought about it, and…what do you say about us trying to have this baby?” She smiles, he climbs into bed, and they both start to giggle.

* * *