Zoe laid Dina gently in her bassinet. Inara still had Rex, he was a loud and energetic one. Even only a few days old, he tried to stay up and look at the world with his big blue eyes. She could already tell he was going to be so much like Wash. A tiny stab pricked her heart.

She'd wished she'd known she was pregnant when her husband was still alive. It had come as such a surprise to find out less than a month after his death: she was nearly two months pregnant. Her tears had been in sorrow and in happiness.

Somehow, she'd settled herself to living alone for the rest of her life, always watching Mal's back. The man attracted trouble to no end, and needed a minder. Simon had given her the news when she'd thought she'd caught a bug on Santo after a short run. He'd given her the results in a quiet neutral tone. She'd been thankful that he hadn't shown pity or even worse happiness. And it was his professional demeanor that had helped her make the right decision. She hated to admit it, but she had thought about terminating the pregnancy. She didn't want to think about looking at a little person that would remind her so much of him. When Simon gave her her options in his neutral voice, she'd demanded why he didn't show any emotion, why didn't he judge her, why didn't he tell her what to do.

“Because you have to decide for yourself whether you can live with only a little bit of your husband for the rest of your life.”

It was that statement that had opened her eyes.

She turned the baby monitor on, pocketed the portable one and climbed out quietly. River was just climbing out of the spare bunk to the right of hers.

“Are you sure you want to move in there? It can get a bit claustrophobic if you ain't used to it,” she informed her.

“Special guests. They'll need the best rooms. Three should be enough.” River shrugged and led the way back to the passenger dorms.

“Kaylee's right, though. Captain ain't gonna be happy to know you moved things around without his permission.”

“He would have told me to do it anyway. This way, it's done already. Captain will growl, but he'll appreciate it inside,” she shrugged again.

“Hm. Well, I'm glad I just had babies. I can blame hormones on it,” she muttered.

River laughed out loud. Zoe couldn't help but grin. River hardly gave a hearty laugh, but when she did... well she out-shined even Kaylee. Wash would have loved to hear her laugh like that at one of his jokes. The tiny jab was felt again.

“Don't. It hurts him when you hurt. He still watches, and will wait for you patiently. Won't be for many years, but he'll wait.” River said quietly as they entered the passenger dorms.

Zoe gave her a hard stare and said nothing. It hurt too much to talk about it. She didn't even want to know that River could hear her thoughts. So she ignored her.

“River, I ain't so sure about this. I mean, Simon and I ain't even talked about sharin' bunks,” Kaylee was packing up Simon's room.

“He sleeps there every night anyway. This way he can stop trying to be proper about not technically living in sin with you.” River shrugged.

“Still...” Kaylee was very hesitant to push Simon. He just got around to stop being so stubborn and stiff. And this was after months of bein' together.

“You can blame me. Tell him I didn't give you a choice. It was share with you or share with Jayne,” River suggested.

“Well if that don't motivate the doc, I don't know what will,” Zoe laughed.

“I could always give up my shuttle, if these guests you speak of are so important.” Inara suggested as she handed over a sleeping Rex.

“Boy won't sleep in his bassinet, but he'll fall asleep in a beautiful woman's arms. Just like his daddy,” Zoe smiled down at her baby.

“In more ways than one,” River whispered. “No. Captain will not wish to let you leave your domain. And... you'll be needing your privacy,” she blushed.

“I'm not taking anymore clients, mei-mei. I'm retired,” Inara said surprised.

“It won't be clients,” River muttered.