Disclaimer: These characters and places are owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy... Sadly, neither of those are me.

For those of you that missed Part 1: http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=14987

His head was splitting in two. It seemed like it would fall into two pieces at any moment, and it came as a great surprise to him that it didn't.

He opened one eye and had to work to get the other one open, it was caked with blood and slightly swollen. Sweat beads rolled down into his freshly opened eyes, stirred into falling at his sudden motions, stinging like no other.

The pain felt in his eyes was nothing like the pain emanating the feeling that his head should be on the ground in two pieces. It came from the side of his head, and that whole section of hair and face felt stiff and sticky with blood.

His hands were above his head, and wiggling them, he felt a chafing that told him he was bound to the wall behind him. The room was dark with only the glow of the red floorlights. The floor had a woven metal pattern and the wall behind him felt that way as well. Beyond that, the room was a mystery to him.

The first thing that came to his mind after taking in his surroundings was: This was not in the job description. He tried to recall what had happened to get him into this situation.

All he could remember was fighting along with the rest of the crew... To do what? It was so fuzzy, he swore he felt texture on it. They had been fighting to... get rid of something... no... someone... someones plural...

They had been fighting to get the intruders off of Serenity! He couldn't quite remember why there had been intruders. For some reason, the words: "Are you a junk collector? Does junk hold a special place in your heart?" stood out in his mind, Mal's voice dictating them with sarcasm.

That still didn't explain how he had ended up chained to a wall. If only he could remember why there were intruders on Serenity, maybe then he would remember.

Words drifted across his memory in Zoe's voice: "Unless they want to steal the shipment of mirrors we're carryin'." Oh, that made sense, there were intruders on board to steal mirrors. No, wait, that didn't make sense, didn't make sense at all. No one in their right mind would go to so much trouble to steal one mirror, let alone a dozen.

Anyway, how did that explain him being attached to a wall in a foreign place? It didn't, there was something else. A vision of the floor rushing up to greet his face swept across his mind, and it brought with it a renewed sense of pain from the wound on his head.

Then he remembered everything. It was like the blow to the head had scattered his memories, and the memory of hitting it had brought them back.

He had been having a wonderful time with Zoe and then the ship had shaken repeatedly; the captain had ordered them to the bridge, the other ship demanded surrender, then latched onto Serenity, whereupon the following gunfight had insued. Kaylee had detatched it, but the jolt had knocked him through the door and onto the other ship, hence the face/floor heart to heart.

Then he had woken up here, where did that put him?... Still here... chained to a wall...

He sighed, hoping for a rescue.

***

Serenity shook. The crew was so used to this by now, that it hardly affected them. It had been going on for the past hour or so, shake after shake after shake. The other ship wasn't shooting at them, thank heavens, just making sure they didn't go nowhere fast while they planned their next attack.

"I don't see what they could want so badly. A Firefly means nothin' more to them than a heap o' metal. And who in a sane mind would steal a mirror, twelve even?" Mal was saying.

"Unless it's a magic mirror. I would steal a magic mirror." Jayne responded.

Mal looked at Jayne with utter disbelief, he started to speak but then shook his head, giving it up as a lost cause.

"Maybe it's time we re-examine these mirrors, sir. Perhaps they're more than they seem." Zoe said.

"High time." Mal said, getting up and leading the way to the cargo bay, occasionally stopping or slowing down due to the shaking. The other three followed.

Once in the cargo bay, Mal went over to the crate containing the mirrors. Prying it open, he and Zoe carefully lifted one out.

The frame was mildly cheap and the mirror was slightly scratched. "Nothin' here, let's have a look see at the back, shall we?" Mal said, Zoe helped him turn it over.

The back was a wooden back with a shiny paper laquered on for added quality, though it really just gave a larger impression of how poorly made it was. A small corner of the paper was flipped up, revealing what looked to be letters.

"What do we have here?" asked Mal, and he proceeded to pull up the paper, which came off nice and clean. Underneath there were words and drawings etched into the wood.

"What is it, Cap'n?" Kaylee asked.

"Looks like plans to some fancy Alliance something or other." He said frustratedly, his hand running through his hair. "You see, this is why I don't trust people. You ask 'em if they're havin' secret love affairs and they say never in a million years, next thing you know, they're off smoochin' on the pilot." he said, Zoe's face darkened with a blush and slight anger. "You ask someone why they want mirrors transported, they say no reason at all, then come to find they have secret government plans drawn on the backs for secret government whosiwhatsits."

Kaylee and Jayne were silently laughing, Zoe sighed and said, "So, what are we going to do?"

"Well we's short a pilot, and they're short some mirrors. Seems perty obvious to me." Mal replied.

"You would do that, give the Alliance plans to things that they might use to kill us?" Zoe asked.

"Would you leave Wash over there to die if I didn't?"

"We could find some other way, sir, there has to be some other way."

"There ain't no other way and you know it." he said, "But I sure as Hell ain't goin' to give them secret plans without takin' secret pictures first."

Zoe nodded. "Kaylee, go get us somethin' to scan these with." Mal ordered. Kaylee hastened to obey. Zoe and Mal lifted the rest of the mirrors out and took off all the paper. "Jayne, go find some kinda glue." Jayne went off to do this as Kaylee was coming back.

"Here you go, Cap'n." she said, handing him a device. Mal quickly began to scan pictures.

Jayne finally came back, just as Mal was taking the last picture with the glue. Zoe and Mal carefully glued the paper back down. Then they put the mirrors back in the crate and sealed it.

After finishing this, the crew proceeded to the bridge. Mal sent a wave to the other ship.

"Ah, captain, you send sooner than expected."

"Yeah, I'm just full o' surprises." Mal replied. "Now, what is it you want? See we're awfully fond of that pilot and we's willin' to make a trade."

"You recently picked up a shipment of mirrors, hand them over and you'll get your pilot back."

"Sounds fair," Mal told him, "Now, how's about you do it the polite way this time and we'll open the doors for ya?"

"Agreed. We'll be boarding your vessel in five minutes." the wave went dead.

"Let's go greet our guests." said Mal, and they all went down to the cargo bay.

Almost exactly five minutes later, they had been boarded. As promised, they had brought Wash with them. "Where are the mirrors you so graciously promised?" The other captain asked.

"Right over there." Mal said pointing to the crate. The man walked over to them, then motioned to one of his crew to come pry the crate open. He glanced at the mirrors and nodded.

"Good. See how easy it is to cooperate with the Alliance instead of fighting us? Let's go." he said to his men, nodding at the one holding Wash. The man kicked the pilot forward, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Pleasure doin' business with ya!" Mal shouted at their retreating backsides, "Let's not do it again!" the door closed.

Zoe went over to Wash and untied his hands. Then she examined the cut on the side of his face, "Ouch! I have a wound there you know!" he said. The sound of the other ship leaving could be heard.

"Come on, let's get him cleaned up so he can fly us to Beaumonde. Gotta hand off these pictures before the Alliance develops their thingamabobs." Mal said, tapping the disk against his fingers.

Zoe kissed the other side of Wash's forehead, "I'm glad you're ok." she whispered.

"My head disagrees with you, but thanks you for the kiss." She laughed and helped him up and off to the infirmary. Soon they were on the way to Beaumonde.