He'd spent the better part of the past four hours going over it again and again in his head.

He was going to be a father. With bottles and diapers and burpings and such.

The man who hadn't had much of one his own self was, at any second now, going to be tossed by the scruff of his neck into uncharted territory.

Mal tried to conjure up the image of his own father. There were vague images of a big man lifting him up onto broad shoulders to look at the cows in the pen. And one birthday where he got his very first toy gun and holster and his Pa had shown him how to hold the gun proper, with big hands wrapped around his smaller one.

But mostly there was nothing. A big empty hole where his friends all had their fathers to teach them to shoot and ride and do all those boy-like things that he had to learn from the ranch hands.

They'd taught him well, no doubt of that. But Mal always knew inside that he was different because he'd had no father around.

What if he couldn't do it?

What if the fact that he'd not had a father meant he'd be a lousy one himself?

Sweet Jesus, what if it's a GIRL? Boys he understood all too well. But how in Creation would he be expected to deal with her first time of the month? Or the clothes? Ai ya, the clothes alone... Or the inevitable mood swings that females were prone to?

Best leave that to Inara. Let him take care of chasing off the boys with Vera.

Still, what if...

What if he turns out just like his Pa? Unable to handle the pressures of fatherhood?

At that moment, Simon stuck his head out of the infirmary.

"Congratulations, Captain. You are the proud father to a brand new baby girl! Come say hello to your daughter."

Figures it would be a girl. Just to make his life more difficult, another female on his boat.

He smiled at a very tired-looking Inara. "Thank you, bao-bei."

Simon held up a squirming bundle of blanket. "Here she is!"

Mal stared down at a tiny human being that was half him and half Inara. Her golden skin and dark curls, with what appeared to be his blue eyes.

Yep, Vera was gonna get a whole lotta use in another 13 years or so.

"Caroline. That was my Ma's name. Caroline Marie Reynolds."

He held the baby up and gently kissed the top of her head, whispering so that only she could hear, "I swear I'll do right by you, little one. I'll be better than him. I swear it."