In the infirmary, Naomi was asleep on Simon’s table. She was sore as hell and everything hurt not to mention that the bandages wouldn't let her move, when she woke up, she found her beloved mama holding her hand with a watery smile.

"Hey, mama..." she managed between coughs and immediately saw a glass of water coming.

"Take it easy, my little butterfly." she said as she supported her daughter's head to drink and planted a kiss on her temple, she then put the glass on the tray at the side.

"Mommy? I’m sad, can you hug me?" she said, giving her that begging-puppy look.

Inara placed her daughter on her lap and let her rest her head on her breast, she always remembered when she used to nurse her when they were like this and she knew that this was helping her but she also knew that she needed to take it out of her.

"What happened back there, sweetie?"

Naomi sighed "I went to that kitten and caught him but then I felt a hand around my neck, I tried to escape but then it went to my mouth and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was in an empty room and then two man came in - one of them was the boss but he wasn't nasty, the other one hated me though and he told me that they'll kill you when the boss discovered I was lying about the alliance..." at that Naomi started to sob.

Inara soothed her little girl and when the crying subsided, she continued.

"My eyes were closed but I could hear everything, there was shooting and I heard daddy yelling for Jayne and Zoe to go then daddy came in and lifted me up and started to walk but somebody shot at us again and daddy was running real fast 'till we got to Serenity... that's what I know...- where's daddy?"

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Mal entered the room and sighed. He and Jayne had loads of fun with them last night; he left Jayne to play with them a bit more when he went to see his little girl. He had told him not to kill them but from what he saw, he doubted he obeyed - his thoughts were interrupted with a groan of pain. The two men were completely purple now.

"We gave you your experiment, why did you do this?" one of them asked.

"She's not an experiment." hissed Mal, turning red with rage "She's my daughter you, son of a bitch!"

"But we still gave her to you." jumped the other.

"YOU HURT HER!!" he shouted and he couldn't take it anymore, he pull ed his gun and riddled them with holes, satisfied they had a painful death like he planned.

He was also shot in the arm so it was double pay.

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Finished that, he went to the infirmary to see how his little girl was fairin'.

"Hey daddy" she smiled as she saw him

"Hi munchkin! How ya fairin'?"

"Good enough." she gave a small smile looking downwards.

"What aren't you tellin' me, Naomi Inara Claire Reynolds?"

"It's just that I thought you won't come for me there and I'm feelin' a might guilty about that..."

Mal smiled as he lifted her tiny chin up and kissed her cheek "I'd never leave my baby behind. Never. But that doesn't mean you can't have bad thoughts in bad times. That happens to everyone, darlin'" He pulled her to his chest and let her rest there. He was so proud of his lil' butterfly... -------------------------------------------------

That night, Mal entered the shuttle to se a real nice view; Naomi was in her mother's lap as she read her favorite fairytale. He kissed Inara on those lips which drove him crazy and his little girl on her temple.

"Hi daddy." she smiled

"Heya princess, how you feelin'?"

"Not so bad... Simon patched me up real good and gave me pills for the pain. Mommy's making things better as well!" she grinned as she recalled the chocolate she gave her today.

"Glad to hear that lil' one." smiled Mal "'cause I got a small surprise for ya..." He lifted out the kitten and Inara gaped.

"Where did you get him Mal?" she asked.

"It seems he noticed how wonderful my wife looked and ran after her till you got to Serenity, the doc and his sis found him near the infirmary." Everyone was caressing the kitten as he purred.

"Oh thanks daddy! I'll take care of him real good, I promise... but I gotta give him a name-" she was looking at Inara now.

"How about Neeko? I had a kitten called like that when I was a child."

"I like it!" grinned the girl "I'll cal him Neeko."

"You do that but you have to get to bed now." he chided softly noticing the chronometer.

"Aww! But I want to stay up a bit longer daddy... please?"

Mal frowned. Things were back to normal.

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How was it? Bad? Good? Hell-on-earth?