Mal knew the day was coming. He’d just not wanted it to happen so fast.

So fast?

How does 18 years seem fast?

She’d gotten in the habit of doing the final walkabout of the evening with him. For all that she looked like her mama, she really was more of him than Inara. This evening, he knew it was coming.

“Daddy, we need to talk.”

Mal looked over at this amazing creature he had been a part of making and sighed. So much looking like Inara, save for his blue eyes.

Dear Buddha, did you have to make her look so much like her mother?

“Yep, that we do, Carly-girl.”

“I’m going. Gotta help finish what you started.”

He winced. Hated to be reminded of that. That the broadcast he had sent from Miranda had been the one pebble at the bottom of the dam that had come free and set loose a flood.

“Carly-girl, you know I never meant…”

“I know, Daddy. But you always taught me to never start a fight, but always finish it. We’re just gonna go finish it.”

Winced again. It was the same argument he’d used against his own Ma when he’d upped with the Independents. And now it was coming back to haunt him.

“This was never what I wanted for ya, Carly-girl. Life of a soldier, it ain’t an easy one.”

Carly rested her arms on the catwalk railing and leaned over.

“You’ve still got Derry, yanno. I’ll come back and tan his hide myself, he tries to up before he’s 18.”

“If Zoe or I don’t get to him first.”

But he knew that if this new war dragged on, Derry would go as well. Just as he had, and just as Carly was about to.

And the last two pieces he had left of Inara would be gone.

“You miss her, doncha, Daddy? I can tell when you look at me or Derry in a certain way.”

“That I do, Carly-girl. Every gorram day.”

“Not his fault, yanno. Derry’s, I mean.”

And just as perceptive as her mother.

In truth, for all that Carly was very much like him, her brother was more like his namesake – all quiet and spiritual. Wouldn’t have surprised Mal if Derry expressed an interest in becoming a Shepherd his own self.

“I know that, Carly-girl. He just wanted to get born.”

“He don’t know that. Blames himself, even though he never met Mama. He should get to have one, yanno.”

Mal glared at her wicked grin, another gift from Inara.

"You know there ain't ever gonna be anyone like your mama."

"Not unless the Alliance has perfected cloning. Which they haven't. So quit lookin' for another her."

Mal cleared his throat to change the subject.

“When ya goin’?”

“Once we get to New Melbourne. In a week.”

He wanted to tell her not to go. To make her see that everything she could ever want was right in front of her. But he knew that just as he needed to see more than just the dusty hills of Shadow, she needed to see more than just a cargo bay.

“Yer mama, she’d be proud of ya.”

“And you?”

“Carly-girl, you are the first-born child of the Liberator of Miranda. Or whatever in hell it is they call me these days. Doncha let ‘em forget it.”

“I surely won’t, Daddy.”