After being hit with a plot bunny stick (Damn bunnies hit hard), I have decided that I have more material than what I originally conceived as a 5-7 chapter fic on courtship. Therefore, it's been renamed New Haven. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Don't be ashamed." Mal held her tight, against his chest, the embrace protective. "But don't do that again 'neither. You deserve better treatment, and I ain't gonna have you go show leg for dirty money."

Inara's independent streak tried to show through her ignominy, but it was hardly a squeak instead of the usual roar whilst the tears cascaded down. "Mal, I'm capable of making my own decisions. It's my body."

"Yeah, but you ain't a whore."

She pulled back, reading his face with some humor. "Really? You're telling me I'm not a whore?"

It was obvious he was dumbstruck for saying that. Caught in his own crossfire he tried to cover it up. "Yeah... you uh... you ain't...."

"Thought there wasn't much distinction between my profession and prostitution...." She wiped her eyes with a finger, composing herself simply because of his slip up.

"Well there ain't....." he squinted at her. "You're above that sorta work. You know.... ya had papers..... and... title.... and all that stuff made ya somethin'..."

"Something?"

"Yeeeah. It uh... gave ya all that dignity 'n confidence you so hubristically flaunted... this don't.... and you ain't gonna do it." Exhaling through his nose, it was clear he had problems trying to get to his pint. "You're worth more, you can do other things." Mal gave a smug look, the right side of his mouth pulling up. "Hell I'll have Kaylee throw ya in one of her grease monkey suits and she'll teach ya about widgets."

Inara gave an eye roll, and a tight smile as her fingers patted Mal's chest. "No, no.... I'll happily assume the roll of den mother."

"That's an onerous job."

"What can I say. Someone has to keep you up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaylee squealed.

The prairie weather could turn on a dime, and the clouds had rolled in like a raging stampede to hide the moon and dump rain on Western Shadow. It pounded Serenity, and as it was late fall, it was cold to boot. Too cold for Simon and Kaylee to sleep on board with just the spare blanket. So they had finished dinner as well as the bottle of wine, cleaned everything up, and were now running the distance from Serenity to the house. It was late, but the porch light was on as they tipsily raced in the muddying yard. Getting to the door, Kaylee held her fruit crate that had everything packed in it as she laughed at how drenched her date had gotten.

"You're not any better." He chortled, stealing a kiss before opening the door.

"Well come on, we better dry off and get warm." She suggested, pulling him inside.

"We should put our leftovers up though, wouldn't want to spoil good food." Taking the box, he headed over to the kitchen, Kaylee skipping along in the darkened house. There was a small light on over the range, allowing them to make their way over to the humming fridge. He set the box on the counter, and she opened the door.

"I reckon the cap'n might not like what I did with a chunk of my pay." She realized as Simon took out the goods and passed them to her so they could be set on a shelf to keep.

"I doubt we'll be able to do something like this for quite awhile. We can explain this was just a one time deal, and that I paid for a good deal of it. I had a little bit of money saved up from the last robbery and I used it all up." He explained. "You worked for the rest, so it's not like it came out of his pocket."

"You used up the rest of your coin?"

"What can I say, I wanted to spoil you." With everything put away, he went over and settled his hands on her shoulders, kissing the back of her damp head. "You deserved something special... always fixing everything.... putting up with me."

"Yes, you're horrible." She dead panned, rolling her green eyes. "Dunno how I live with you."

"You know what I mean." He kissed the back of her ear. Since Miranda, he had been trying hard to get his talking to girls problem down, and Kaylee had grown more resistant to his slip-ups. His hands slid down her shoulders and to cotton draped hips.

"Night doesn't have ta be over." She suggested with an impish grin, spinning in his arms to see his equally lusty eyes. "I think you're gonna get lucky ta-night Dr. Tam."

"You don't say."

Kaylee giggled, grabbing his tie before marching him up the stairs.

"Hey, I'm not a horse." He teased with a whisper.

"Really, 'Cause I was gonna ride ya hard." She suggested, looking over her shoulder, the mechanic saw his silently eager face. Opening her mouth, she made the face silent laughter. Kaylee did shriek though when her stallion lunged and picked her up. "Simon!" She burst into guffaws as she wriggled in his arms, nearly making him pitch backwards and fall down the stairs. "You chi xiang dou..."

"Shh..." He fought laughing with her, but it was too damn infectious "you're going to..."

"HEY." Mal's shout could be heard from his room. "Ni ai gin ben-dan feng zai chen-mo! Qi-yu de wo-men ai shui!"

"Mal..." Inara could be heard protesting his shouting.

River peered out of her room as Simon stumbled up the stairs with Kaylee. Wide brown eyes watching them with irritation as her brother awkwardly made his way to their room and Kaylee was still in the throws of a horrible laughing fit. She looked at them and grumbled. "Boy meets girl, boy gets stupid, boy and girl live stupidly ever after."

"Hey." Simon ojected as he fumbled with the door knob. It wasn't much of an objection though, he was fuzzy from the bottle of wine.

"It's true."

"Funny allegory Lil' Tam." Mal poked his head out of his room, obviously sans shirt and as grouchy as a grizzly. "But you two don't shuddup I'm puttin' a chastity belt on Giggles."

It simply made Kaylee laugh harder as she was toted into their room. "Will do Cap'n."

"Children." He slammed the door to crawl back under the flannel covers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoe was finally able to sleep through the night.

The first couple of months she had been unable to on her own. Everyone else would drift off, and she would stay wide awake, pacing Serenity until Simon woke back up and gave her the sedative she had initially refused. Now, she was able to sleep, though she wore Wash's boxers as jammies. When they had come to claim rooms in the ranch house, she had taken the only room on the bottom floor. It wasn't because of the privacy, nor the space of the room, it was the military in her.

It was for what was about to happen.

The rain came down, a torrent that pounded the roof and made her put a cup below a leak near her bed. And it was during that prairie storm that spattered against her window, that the dogs started barking a warning. With a sleeping style that had kept her alive during the war, she roused quickly and leapt out of bed. Throwing on her pants, shirt and boots, she grabbed her Winchester Randall and raced out of her quarters. Unlocking the metal bolt door, it and the screen door were flung open, the bang awakening everyone else.

Five shots pierced through the rain.

Seeing by the light of the barn's halogen, she fell upon the two men pulling a skittish Jia out of the barn. Her shot was a reflex, within the crack of a whip she had aimed and pulled the trigger while storming to the scene, the mud bogging her down. The horse reared and bolted, the lead it was on being yanked out of the horse thieves hands as one yelped and crumpled into the sopped terra. Before the other could run, she racked the carbine and shot again. By the time the other thief hit the floor, she was staring down at them, another round racked and in the chamber as had the barrel pressed against the forehead.

"You move you won't be feelin' nothin." She growled out.

Mal came tearing through the rain in his pants, boots and a shirt, Simon following and Kaylee throwing on her coat while holding the lamp. "What's goin' on?!"

"Horse thieves." She reported tersely. "Jia ran off."

"Only these fools?" He looked around, drenched from the downpour as he had his gun ready. Gazing back down at two silent faces, both aching from bullets in their kneecaps, he gave no remorse. Briskly moving, the captain checked inside the barn and found the other horse spooked yet inside.

"Only two I saw."

Mal turned and headed back to the house. "Simon, you and Zoe take these purloiners into the barn, I want them bound and not so much as a band-aid on their wounds 'less they're gonna kick the bucket."

"Cap'n."

The worried tone of Kaylee made him divert off to the side. He stopped, and his heartstrings felt a tug when he found her holding Chester. The poor pup had blood trickling out his side as he cried in pain. He took a step in and gathered the cowdog in his arms. "You tell the Doc that when he's done tyin' those bu-ren yin-jing tou up he's been promoted ta vet. Now you get me a shuttle runnin' 'cause I need to find that gorram horse..."

"We can't do that." She told him meekly, eyes threatened with tears as someone had stooped so low as to hurt a pup.

"Why?!"

"I got Serenity a job 'n she's barely got enough fuel ta make it to the nearest fuel station if I revert the shuttle fuel back ta her."

He set his jaw, mulling it over. "You best tell me this job is worth more than my horse."

"Hundred credits per run, one run a month." She announced.

"Er di yi kao di-yu, ran-shao dui de huola-shi...." He growled, as it was obvious he was going to have to chose the job over the horse. "Fine. daybreak comes though you're on that mule and you're lookin' for that rutting horse." He left Kaylee and hurried back to the house with the dog in his arms. Without regarding the fact he was soaking wet and tracking in a riverbed amount of mud, he went over to the couch and set the dog there.

"What...."

He cut Inara off, and took the com she had out of her hand. "Thanks. Get a towel and put pressure on the gunshot wound till the Doc treats him." Turning, he hit the com button. "Jayne, you there?" He waited, and bared his teeth. "JAYNE NI YIN LU-ZI XIONG-MAO you better wake up!"

"Huh?" was the crackled response on the other end.

"We got horse thieves over here, is your side alright?"

"Um.... I ain't there?"

"Shen-me?!"

"I forgot one of my knives when I moved out, so's I went 'n got it t'night. Rode back some with my lamp but I got bedded down here halfway under a tree on accounta the storm."

"Listen to me. You RIDE right now. I don't care if you see an ark, you rutting run your horse till you get to the far end or it drops. And you REPORT TO ME AS SOON AS YOU GET THERE." He ordered with a yell. "Dong-ma?"

"Mei-hao."

Just as Mal stopped talking on the com, Simon came in just as waterlogged as he was. "Your patient's over there." Mal said while shucking off his boots.

Seeing Inara tending to the pet, he nodded his head. "Give me a minute to get my bag." Stripping off his coat, and boots, the doctor raced up the stairs.

Mal continued to take off his socks and bloodied work shirt, calm, but with a slow boiling rage in his eyes.

"What are you going to do?" Inara probed, absently stroking wet fur as she applied pressure to the wound.

"Well, can't go lookin' till dawn, gonna get dry and then go see these horse thieves."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoe kept vigilant watch on their horse thieves.

Half an hour's time passed and they didn't spill a vowel. They just shut their eyes and kept mum as she prowled the ground in front of them. Suddenly the barn door opened, and Zoe turned to see a properly dressed captain come in.

"Sorry I took so long." He plucked his hat off and hung it on a hook next to some bridles. "Like ta be comfortable 'n dry." Shucking off his coat to hang it as well, rolling up his sleeves he walked over with a face like stone and gazed down upon the robbers. "They say anything?"

"The fat one whimpered some, nothin' else." She reported.

"Really." He eyed the rounder man with the thick beard. "Oh I wonder what HURTS." He jammed a heel into the bloody knee, not even blinking at the yelp of pain. Retracting his foot, he inhaled and put his hands behind his back. At ease, and wanting to do far worse on the criminals. "You know, I'm supposed ta drop a wave to the marshal so he can come out here, read you your rights and toss your worthless hides into a cozy cell. There's bit of a hiccup with that theory though... 'cause I don't like lawmen."

They looked up at him.

"Nooo, ya see, I'm a mean old pirate. If'n you were preceptive you saw my boat parked outside. Seen more worlds and moons than all yer pretty fingers and I've cheated, stolen 'n killed my way through this rapturous 'verse, so I don't take well ta marshals, and I doubly don't take to folk tryin' ta filch me. That right Zoe?"

Zoe shot the ground between the two men. They jumped as high as they could with bound ankles, and one of them wet himself. "Offly poetical, Sir."

"She don't take kindly ta crooks either." He pointed out to them. "And here's the icing on the cake, fellas," He gave a wry smile "ya'll lost me a horse and shot my dog. Besides I got plenty of reason to shoot a horse theif, I really don't care for backbirths who shoot my dog, especially my favorite dog." Mal observed how their eyes widened, the skinny one beginning to pant with fear. "Problem is for you I ain't gonna kill ya." He kept staring at them, not even twitching towards Zoe's direction as his smile faded and he turned serious. "So, I'm gonna need a fire. Little one, but sizable enough to heat a branding iron."

His second in command wordlessly went to prepare a fire.

Mal shifted his weight. "You wanna avoid gettin' your equipment stamped you best tell me who you work for."

"No... no one." The fat one blurted as he shuddered in fear.

"No offense, but you two don't got what it takes to steal horses without someone payin' ya to. And if you two were jus stealin' a horse for yourselves, ya would have piped up by now. So you have an employer, and I wanna know. NOW."

The barn door opened with a creak.

When he saw Inara come in, wearing Simon's coat with an umbrella to keep off the rain, he walked over to her. "This better be important, I'm instillin' fear."

"We can't find River."

***** ***** ***** TRANSLATIONS

chi xiang dou: Silly sweet pea

Ni ai gin ben-dan feng zai chen-mo! Qi-yu de wo-men ai shui!: You love birds fool off in silence! Rest of us like to sleep!

bu-ren yin-jing tou: Heartless dick heads

Er di yi kao di-yu, ran-shao dui de huola-shi: Son of a f***ing hell, flaming pile of monkey shit

NI YIN LU-ZI XIONG-MAO: YOU DUMB ASS PANDA

Shen-me?!: What?!

Dong-ma?: Understand?

Mei-hao: Fine

*****

*Comments are shiny, whether praise, sugguestions or critism.*