Inara was roused from her sleep by the sound of her shuttle door opening. When she opened her eyes Mal was stepping in. She sat up. “Can I help you?” the companion asked irritably. “Have you seen Kaylee? I need her to check over the engines.”

“No, not since dinner last night,” she replied. “Is that all?” “Yes that’s all,” Mal said sarcastically. “ I can’t find her anywhere.” “Well this is a spaceship. It’s not as if she got up and left in the night.” Inara responded primly. She was aware of Mal’s eyes on her. ‘Nara wanted him to be looking at her but she wasn’t sure of herself. Losing no composure she cleared her throat and said “Have you checked below deck with Simon?” “No, but I will.” Mal turned and left.

***** Kaylee woke up. She was warm and hung over as hell. And someone was squeezing her tits. Jayne. Her head hurt but she smiled. For once she felt like she was in the right place, spooned into this big idiot. She turned over, her forehead under his chin and fell back asleep.

***** Zoe was sick. She was puking half the night. That gorram food! She wished she had something fresh to eat. She wanted tangerines…and noodles. And maybe an ice planet. She couldn’t wait till they could go planetside again.

***** Jayne woke up. ‘Christ I gotta pee,’ he thought. Kaylee was curled up near his stomach, her hand on his back. Almost on his ass. It wasn’t half bad waking up next to her. If only his bed weren’t so gorram small and his head didn’t feel like it was going to fall off. He kissed her lightly on the forehead. That dumb doctor didn’t know what he was missin.

***** Jayne emerged from his bunk just as Mal passed by. “You seen Kaylee?” the captain asked. “Uhh…umm…no.” Jayne lied. He knew the captain would be mad. Jayne actually gave a good gorram about Kaylee. But the captain wouldn’t care. Mal didn’t trust him enough. At all. Mal walked past Jayne throwing him a funny look. On his way back from the head, Jayne walked right into Simon’s looney tunes sister. Everybody said she was on the mend, but Jayne knew she would always be looney tunes. River walked up and placed her hand right where Kaylee’s had been when he woke up. “Hey, hey, hey hands!” he shouted. “She found the shore!” River said. “She won’t drown!” she giggled and skipped off. Jayne gave no more thought to this. She was still looney tunes but that didn’t concern him. He had a girl in his bunk.