Chapter 7 Zoë was a more then a little on edge when they landed on the Owens farm. She really wished Bourne had not told Mal about Owens war record. Complicated matters more then need be. “Sir?” “Zoë?” “Everyone know their job here?” “I think I made it clear enough. Jayne and Kaylee are finishing up converting the cargo bay to a holding pen, you and Simon are going to herd the animals in and I’m going to go deal with Farmer Owens and hope he was never a guard at a POW camp on Hera.” “River and Inara?” “Their jobs are as usual, to stay out of the way. Inara’s been keeping to herself lately, so I’m not worried about her and River said she wanted to wander around a bit. Something about a book she was reading. Doc won’t let her get too far.” “I wont stray.” promised River coming up behind Mal. “Are we carrying any pigs?” she asked. “No. Goats and sheep” “Good. Less prone to resistance.” she said as she wandered off. “Can we put a bell on her?” Mal looked hopefully at Zoë. Zoë smiled. “Good luck with that.” she nodded upwards. “Sir.” Owens was behind him. “Mr. Owens,” Mal said, sizing him up. He didn’t know the face and there was not a face that he fought with or against that he had forgotten. “Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds. Hero of Serenity Valley,” said Owens. Mal bristled. “Ain’t been called either of those things recently. Never the latter, actually.” Zoë had one hand on her gun and nodded to Simon to go get Jayne for backup. “We met?” asked Mal. “No. I changed sides long before you took command.” He stared Mal down hard. Mal didn’t blink. Owens spoke first. “I’m not fit to stand on the same ground as you. I got scared. Gave up all I believed in to get outta that war.” Mal wondered what Owens had done for the Alliance during the war. Which part of his life did this guy help to steal from him. Suddenly clocking this guy with his gun took precedence to doing the job. “Sir?” hollered Zoë. “Really, Captain Reynolds. I was wrong. And many too many died on account of the side I ran to. It was just too hard to be on the losing side. As soon as the war ended, I gave up my position and moved out here. Been trying to make amends with my own cowardice ever since.” “Can’t run away from yourself, now can you?” "No. No I cant. But I help the outer planets as I can. Sell my goods for cheap, so’s people can afford them.” Mal was unimpressed. Owens was still looking at him. “What? Are you expecting me to tell you it’s okay, to absolve you? That’s not really how I work, so how about you give me what I want so I can go away? You have animals for me?” “Yes, 15 of each,” replied Owens, wisely letting it go. “Well, this here’s Zoë. She and Simon will be herdin’ them in for me. I’ll load their feed on myself. Like to get moving, sheriff wants his goods.” They were off that rock not twenty minutes later. It would have been sooner, but they all but had to pry River off of a horse she kept calling Boxer.

Later that evening, the ship was quiet. The crew had gone to sleep, or had at least retired to their bunks for the night. Mal, restless as always, was on the catwalk over the cargo bay. “Everything okay, sir?” asked Zoë, with some concern. “Yeah, fine. Just taking some inventory. Rest of the ship down for the night?” “Seems to be. Kaylee and Simon are in the common area, but other then that...” “They behaving themselves?” “I didn’t see anything inappropriate, sir.” Mal nodded. “What they do when they ain’t working is their business, I just don’t want them doing it all over my furniture.” Zoë smiled slightly. If Mal knew all the places on Serenity she and Wash had made love he would have thrown them both out the airlock. The common room couch, the dining room table. Countless times on the bridge. And one, really odd occasion, in the infirmary. If he had any idea, he hadn’t let on. Not that it mattered now, anyway. Her thoughts turned back to Mal, before they plunged into darkness. “So”, she said, distracting herself, “you didn’t recognize Owens, huh?” “Nope, face didn’t ring any bells. You?” He asked, looking back at the cargo. “No. Never laid eyes on him before. I can’t help but notice you didn’t shoot him.” “It crossed my mind, but one more bullet would not have fixed this, not for me. Would have done him a world of good. Man like that has to stew in his own juices. Live with what he’s done. Bullet would have been merciful. I can’t say really wanted that for him.” “I understand sir, I truly do. So that’s not what’s keeping you awake?” “No, I just wasn’t sleeping, so I was taking inventory, making sure all was here that should be.” “Sir, we’re in space. Was one of them going to wander somewhere?” “No.” Mal said defensively ”But you can’t always trust a seller. Better to know now if you’re short so you can forewarn the buyer. Less trouble.” “You couldn’t sleep, so you came down here to count sheep?” “Yes, I reckon that’s the case,” Mal said smirking. And the goats… don’t go forgetting the goats now. You’ll hurt their feelings. ” Zoë shook her head, holding back a giggle. “Good night, sir” As it turned out, Owens was honest enough. Fifteen head of each. Suddenly tired after his talk with Zoë, Mal finally went to bed. But the livestock was not to be without company for long. Jayne, still a little spooked by his post the other day, wasn’t sleeping so well himself. He had wandered into the kitchen area and grabbed himself a protein bar to snack on and then headed the cargo bay to visit the critters. The goats and sheep were put in a smallish metal corral that ran from the bottom of the stairs of the cargo bay to about halfway through it. All of the bays usual contents were shoved towards the back, towards the doors that lead out. He looked at them a bit, trying do decide if it was worth trying to get to his weight bench, do a set or two. Help calm him down. As he unwrapped his snack, one small gray goat walked up to him and nuzzled at his leg. “Hey there. I wonder if you all like...What is this... a fruit flavored protein bar. Ain’t tasted like no fruit I ever had.” With that, the top unwrapped part of the bar fell off and landed at Jaynes feet. “Gorramit.” As he bent down to get it,the smallish gray goat butted, square in the forehead, knocking him back onto his butt. Smelling food, all of the other animals pooled around the gate, placing their front legs on the top of the corral. It wiggled plenty. With a cacophony of bleating noises. They discussed their plans. With a bruised head and a bigger bruise on his ego, Jayne was able to make his way to his feet just in time for the animals to overtake the corral. The metal hit him on both shins and left him hopping up and down. He lost his balance and was on the floor, with a head wound, hopeless as the livestock headed up the cargo bay stairs and scattered throughout Serenity.

Chapter 8 While Jayne was having sheep troubles, Sheriff Bourne thought he was in for some trouble of his own. The wave was from the same polite brunette who showed up at the trade station looking for Serenity. “Sheriff, you doing some work with a Malcolm Reynolds?” “Depends. Why?” “The why is not the important part, what’s important is the extremely large amount of money that information is worth to me.” “Yes, he was here, and he’ll be back in a day.” He felt guilty, selling them out. He never did ask why she was so interested. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With almost a see-saw effect, River sat up in bed just as Jayne hit the ground the second time. “It’s started. The rebellions started,” she whispered to herself. She was the first to encounter the rogue animals, as she had the room closest to the cargo bay. She ran out of her room just as most of the herd had reached the infirmary. She bent down at the hip, as she is prone to do, to look a goat in the eye. “Two legs bad, four legs good. We can be friends, I can help you. Tell the others.” The sheep replied by bleating at her. She nodded and ran towards the cargo bay. Kaylee and Simon had fallen asleep on the common room couch. They had been talking and when Kaylee had gone up to check on Serenity for the night Simon had fallen asleep. She very delicately took off his shoes and covered him with a blanket the best she could and snuggled up next to him. She fell asleep smiling. “Mmmm, Kaylee” When Kaylee woke to hear Simon calling her name in a manner that was all sorts of interesting, she thought she had been dreaming. “Kaylee, it tickles,” he giggled But as clarity entered her brain she could still hear him and she wasn’t touching him. She sat up to see what she wasn’t doing that he liked so much. Simon’s bare feet were peeking out from under the blanket and there, at the end of the couch, a goat was licking the toes on his left foot. Kaylee’s hand flew to her mouth in an attempt to stop the laughter that was working on exploding out of her. Oh, she thought, this would kill him. Tears of suppressed laughter were rolling down her cheeks. Okay, she thought, just ease off the couch and move our little friend away. Simon never has to know. “PSSST,” she hissed to no avail. Just as she tiptoed behind him to nudge him away... “AHH! Wo De Mah!” he was standing on the couch like a woman afraid of a mouse. Kaylee could hold it no more. She was completely overtaken with laughter. The goat with the foot fetish ran off. “My shoes? Did it eat my shoes.” Kaylee shook her head and held them up for him to see. She was still laughing too hard to be able to speak. Some time later, Simon would laugh about it as well. Much later.

Inara was in bed, but not yet asleep. She heard a faint knock on the shuttle door. Almost like a scratch. Her first thought was that it was Kaylee, knocking lightly so that if Inara was asleep, she would not have woken her. She grabbed for her robe. Then she thought it may have been Mal. Things had been going so well between them lately, and as upset as she had been, telling him what was happening would be a comfort. She had not been acting like herself lately, perhaps he was coming to talk. See how she was doing. She was wearing was a nice nightgown, yet not indecent, so perhaps she should not bother with the robe. In case he was coming to...Inara stopped her thought there. A comfort or not this was the same hard-headed, stubborn, rude man he had always been. Inara snatched her robe off the hook. She put it on in a huff and opened the door to the shuttle all but ready for a fight. She had forgotten about Kaylee all together. Instead of the blue eyes she was expecting, she got nothing. She looked down to see a sheep pooping on her slipper. She looked up, mouth agape. “No, you don’t,” she said shooing it out of the room and closing the door behind her. She ran down into the cargo bay to find it empty save for the broken corral and Jayne mostly unconscious on the ground. She walked to the wall to hit the button for the comm. Mal was asleep for once when her voice came over the speaker in his room. He thought he had dreamed it. “Mal? Mal you need to come down to the cargo bay. I think we have trouble. Simon, you too. Jaynes down.” Jaynes down, he thought, who taught her the lingo? He grabbed his gun and headed down. When he got there, Simon was already leaning over Jayne. “He gonna be okay? What’s wrong with him.” “Oh, just a concussion and two really bruised shins.” “Is there someone else on the ship?” asked Kaylee “I don’t rightly know. Okay, but what we do know is that we have is thirty animals loose on this ship that need to be herded back here. Jayne, any idea what happened to you?” questioned Mal. “They knocked over the corral. The little one hit me in the head.” "Did a human help them?” Jayne shook his head. “So, you were overtaken by 30 farm animals. Right. Okay, well, let’s be careful bringing them back, people. Apparently they are quite crafty. Zoë, you help Simon get Jayne to the infirmary...” “No,” slurred Jayne. “I’m okay, I’ll help bring them back.” “Doc,” asked Mal, “any chance for permanent brain damage or anything to that end?” “Would you notice?” quipped Inara Simon shook his head, chuckling. “I couldn’t get him to the sick bay against his will, anyway.” “Okay then, here’s the plan. Kaylee stay with me and put the corral back together. The rest of you work on bringing these animals back here. Simon, you stick with Jayne in case he gets worse. Inara, if you wouldn’t mind teaming up with Zoë. I’ll join the rest of you when I finish here. Take some of that rope there, use it to make a lasso of it, if need be. All right, folks. Let’s get this over with.” As they walked off, Jayne took his gun out of his holster and made sure it was ready to go. Mal, taking advantage of Jaynes damaged reflexes, grabbed the gun out of his hand. Mal hit the comm on the wall. “Folks, I’m, only going to say this once, as I’m sure it’s common sense to everyone but Jayne, but don’t...I repeat don’t shoot the cargo. That’s an order. Thank you.”

Chapter 9 Inara and Zoë, an odd pairing if there ever was one, headed up the cargo bay steps into the common area near the infirmary. “Hope you got your runnin’ shoes on,” said Zoë as she tiptoed around the corner. “Do I ever?” replied Inara “You’d be surprised how comfortable…SHH, there’s one.” A fully grown sheep was lapping water out of a mug that was left on the table. Zoë nodded. “You grab her from behind and I’ll get her with the rope.” Inara snuck up behind the sheep and grabbed it around the waist. With one fast movement Zoë had the sheep lassoed. The sheep bleated and pulled away before Zoë expected it to and it pulled hard enough to cause Zoë to tumble over the arm of the couch and land face down in the cushions. The rope slipped out of her hands and sheep headed toward the cargo bay. “Well," sighed Inara, “at least she’s headed in the right direction.” She turned back to Zoë and was put off by what she saw. Zoë was sitting on the couch head in her hands, her shoulders heaving with emotion. “Zoë are you okay? Should I get…” A sudden outburst of laughter from Zoë cut Inara off. She was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face To say that some of those tears were not mournful, however, would be a lie. Inara started laughing as well. “Oh, Ahh, I’m sorry Inara. This is just so absurd. Wash would have had a field day with this.” “Yes, “ she nodded, “and mostly at the Captain’s expense.” “If I believed in an afterlife, I’d think this was his doing.” said Zoë, wiping her eyes. A silent heavy moment hung between them. Inara looked at Zoë. “We don’t talk much, so I have never gotten to tell you how much I admire your strength during all this.” “Death ain’t nothing new to me,” replied Zoë. “It’s one of those things war does to people. They can be a trifle off on how they react to things. It’s the things you take for granted that you miss. The smell of him, his weight in bed, the physical presence of him.” Inara nodded, “One doesn’t realize how much physical companionship is worth until it’s gone.” “Yeah, but you’ll get back to work. As a Companion…” “Former Companion,” interrupted Inara. “I have been relieved of my duties.” Zoë was surprised. “Relieved of your duties? They really said that?” Inara nodded. “Well”, said Zoë mischievously,” at least you still have hope of exploring physical companionship again.” Inara looked suspicious, “What do you mean?” “You not being a Companion opens up all kinds of doors with the Captain. You two seem to have been getting along quite well lately.” “Zoë,”exclaimed Inara, louder then intended. Zoë immediately returned inside herself. “I’m sorry, I was out of line.” “No.” Inara stumbled. “It’s not that. I, I just didn’t know...” “What, that we notice these things? We do, and always have. It’s just before now; well, I always had something else to do. All I’m saying is that if you have an opportunity to be happy, you need to at least try.” Inara’s smile at Zoë faded when she saw a goat eating Kaylees favorite blanket behind them. Zoë saw this too, “Back to work,” she said standing up. “Yeah, back to work, “ mumbled Inara, mind not on the work at hand.

For a while Mal and Kaylee worked in silence repairing the corral until Kaylee felt the need to be Kaylee. “You’re awful quiet Cap’n. Everything okay?” “Fine, Kaylee”, he replied, not looking up. “Just focusing on the job at hand.” “Have you talked to Inara lately? I’m a little worried about her.” “She’s been keeping to herself since we picked up the mail. Hell, except for meals I’ve barely seen her let alone spoken to her. OW! Niou se!” He cut his finger on a jagged piece of metal sticking out from the side of the corral he was fixing. Kaylee looks up knowingly. “She hurt your feelings.” She was teasing him a bit. “Inara didn’t hurt anything of mine.” He was sucking on his finger, trying to stop the bleeding. “You wanted to take her out and she said no, so now you’re afraid to talk to her. It’s only normal Cap’n.” “She didn’t say no!” Kaylee laughed at how easy he gave that up. ”Besides, what makes you think you know so much?” Mal asked, becoming annoyed. “My boyfriends sister is a bratty psycic. I know a lot that I shouldn’t.” “Well, fine. But it’s no concern of yours or Rivers, so I’d take it as a kindness if you just let it be.” “Well neither is Simon and my doings, but you always have your nose in that full well.” Kaylee was taking a stand. “That’s different.” He knew he was going to lose this fight, but that had never stopped him before. “My mechanic and my medic doing…whatever together is a business issue. If something goes wrong between you two, all hell breaks loose on my ship. That makes it my concern.” Kaylee snorted. “Like you and Inara finally getting together wouldn’t effect the ship. Would make you a whole lot easier to work for.” Anyone but Kaylee would have been punched long before now. Mal looked stern. “End of conversation.” “Fine.” Said Kaylee going back to work. For about a minute. “You don’t have to worry, you know?” “About what?” he asked sighing. “About Simon and me,” Kaylee smiled. “He’s real good to me, Cap’n.” “Never entered my mind that he wasn’t. Doc’s a mannered and sensitive individual. I’m sure he knows how to take care of a lady,” Mal looked at Kaylee. “Plus, he’s well aware of a couple of things.” “Like what?” although she already knew the answer. “He knows what would happen if he ever did wrong by you. People split up, things happen and that’s all fine and good, but there are certain things that if I ever hear he’s done to you, well, he knows that would mean his death by my hand.” Kaylee grinned, always appreciative of how much she knew Mal cared for her, for all of them. “Fair enough Cap’n, but if that day ever comes, don’t kick him into Serentiy’s engine. It took me two months to clean up after the last time you did that.”

On Jayne's insistence, he and Simon took the middle level of Serenity, the level that ran from the bridge to the engine room with the crew bunks in between. “I wish Mal hadn’t taken my gun,” said Jayne somewhere between a growl and a slur. “Would make this a lot easier.” “Jayne, these are harmless farm animals.” Jayne cringed as they walked up the stairs. “Tell that to my head. If I see that little one again I’m going to hurt it.” “Hmmm,” noted Simon eyebrows up, “there’s that pacifist we know and love.” “You know me Doc, I’ll pass a fist through what or whoever need be to get whats mine.” “Right.” Simon stopped and stared at the lack of livestock. “It’s not that big of a ship, where could they be. Oh.” As they entered the kitchen area, he answered his own question. Two dozen of the loose animals were milling about the dining area and kitchen. Heads in cabinets, standing on their hind legs eating off the counters and generally milling about. Jayne reached for the walkie in Simon’s hand. Simon pulled away so Jayne couldn’t reach it, nearly causing him to fall over. “I thought your job had rules against doing harm,” winced Jayne. “Only on purpose,” Simon smiled as evil a smile as he could manage, “accidents do happen.” He was enjoying toying with an injured Jayne. Simon spoke into the walkie, “Zoë, you there?” “Go ahead, Doc.” “Can you and Inara come up here? We seem to have the bulk of them.” Mal chimed in, “Do you need another hand? Kaylee’s about done here.” “No need, sir” said Zoë, all business, “we have the bodies, all we need is a plan.” “Wow,” said Inara as the walked into the room, “so this is where they all are.” “How many did you have downstairs, “ asked Simon “Five, all back in the corral,” offered Zoë. “They were drawn to the food…”trailed off Simon, thinking. “So let’s lure them back that way,” suggested Jayne. "They eat cans right, got a bunch of cans in my bunk, could use them. Save me from cleanin’.” “They don’t really eat cans, Jayne,” scoweled Zoë. Besides, the state of Jaynes bunk was nothing anyone wanted to hear about. “So,” said Simon as he started pacing with thought, “we crumble up some food and make a trail back to the cargo bay…” Inara jumped in, “We put everyone at stations between here and there to keep them moving and herd them back into the corral.” “Brilliant,” smiled Zoë, “lets get to work.” In no time at all the loose critters were back where they needed to be. Kaylee went to check on Serenity before bed. Simon and Jayne headed to the infirmary and Zoë was released of her duties by Mal and headed to her bunk to attempt sleep. That left only Mal and Inara. Mal stumbled, “Thanks for the help, it…” “No, no, “ she said shaking her head. “Just doing my part.” “Well I appreciate it. We should probably…” “…talk,” they said in unison. “Yeah,” he said, “but not now.” “No”, she agreed, “I do have something to discuss but it’s late and you have to…” “Count, yeah and a lady such as yourself needs her beauty rest. You’d better get moving,” he grinned. She smiled, “Tomorrow, then.” “Tomorrow.” Mal nodded, Inara smiled and she walked away. It took every fiber of his being not to watch her go.