Mal had to be dreaming. Because there was Wash, looking not so speared, sitting on the edge of Mal's bunk with a go-se eatin' grin on his face.

"Hey Mal, howzit goin'?"

"Uhhh...OK, I guess. Ship got pretty tore up, but she's doing better."

"Yeah, noticed that. Also noticed you promoted the resident spookgirl into my chair."

Mal ran his fingers through his hair. "Girl's got a talent for it, I'll give her that. Not as good as you, mind, but...why the gorram hell am I talkin' to a ghost?"

If it were at all possible, Wash grinned even wider. "Because you need to."

"I need to be up at ruttin' o'clock in the mornin', talking to shadows?"

"Yup."

Fine time for his ex-pilot to go all laconic on him. "Alright, I give. Why?"

Wash got up off the bed and started wandering aimlessly around Mal's room, picking up various objects, looking at them, and then putting them back. He finally leaned against the ladder and said, "Because, with all due respect, Cap'n, you're one stubborn hump."

Mal gaped like a fish. "You came back from the Great Beyond to tell me that?"

Wash nodded, grinning like a baboon. "Yup. You don't even see what's right under your nose. Or, more to the point, what's living right on your ship."

Mal swore in Chinese. "Did Kaylee bring some sorta fluffy critter on board? I've told that girl..."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call the Doc fluffy."

Against his better judgment, Mal had to laugh at that. "Alright, quit talkin' in riddles and make yer point."

"Her."

"Who her?"

Wash rolled his eyes. His captain could be so dense at times. "Let's work the math here for a sec. Not Zoe, because then I'd have to show up lookin' a helluva lot scarier than I am now. Not Kaylee, because she's all swoony over the non-fluffy doc. And certainly not River because...yeah, resident spookgirl. Which brings us to..."

Mal stared. "Inara?"

"Cap'n wins the prize! Yes, Inara, you idiot!"

"What about her?"

Wash threw his hands up in the air. "Merciful Buddha, deliver me from this man's sheer thickheadedness! Because, mon capitan, she feels the same way about you as you feel about her. Christ on a cracker, Mal, do I need to use cue cards? She. Loves. You. You. Love. Her."

Mal shook his head. "Hold on there. She doesn't...I don't..."

"Mal...Mal...Mal. Never ever lie to somebody who comes to you from beyond the grave." He took on a spooky tone. "We see all...we know all."

Mal shifted uncomfortably. "So assuming, she is...and I am..."

Wash smirked. "Oh I know for a fact, buddy boy, that you are. See, one of the advantages of being all non-corporeal is that I can see into your dreams. And lemme tell you, yours are en fuego. If it makes ya feel any better, so are hers."

"So you've come here to spy on my dreams?"

"Please. If that was all, I'd rather spend my time with Zoe. No, I'm here to tell you to do something about it. About the way you feel about Inara. Before...hell, before you end up like me."

Mal snorted derisively. "What? Dead? Wash, we all come into this world alone, we all go out alone."

Wash finally lost his temper and shoved a stack of maps off Mal's desk. "No, you stupid hwoo-dan! Before you have no more chances to tell her how you feel! Mal, I'd give anything to tell Zoe one more time that I love her. To hold her. To see our baby..."

"See your WHAT?" Mal interrupted.

Wash continued, ignoring the interruption. "I'm never going to get that. Not ever. If there's one thing I've learned in all of this it's that we all have two things in common. We all get born, and we all eventually die. It's what we do in between the two that really matters. Don't waste all those in betweens, Mal."

"OK, so just supposin' I am...with her. How do I know she won't just laugh at me. Or slap me in the face?"

Wash sighed. "You don't."

"Now there's a great comfort."

"Not the point, Mal. The point is to take the risk. You don't think I took a helluva risk in pursuing Zoe? I mean, when she finally slammed me into the bulkhead, she coulda just as easily broken three of my ribs with just her pinkie. But she didn't."

Mal had to laugh at the image of Zoe bodily lifting Wash up off his size 13 sneakers in order to have her way with him. "She coulda at that."

"And so could you. If you'd just get the gorram hell outta your own way and get busy with living. Because, lemme tell ya Mal, dying is not so much with the fun. So why rush to get there?"

Mal looked away, staring in the general direction of Inara's shuttle. "Hey, Wash, just how en fuego? Her dreams, I mean?"

There was no response. Mal was talking to empty air.

*****

Part the Second to follow...