Jayne limped into the cargo bay with a bottle of whiskey, he was so drunk he could barely see his own hands – not to mention the sore fist from the fight he’d gotten himself into, Mal and Zoe weren’t the ones to help him this time and that made things harder. He grunted as he climbed up the stairs, spilling some whiskey on the last three steps, making his way to his bunk. Tomorrow’ll be a ruttin’ rough mornin’.

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“Mal, I need my things…” Inara seethed as the followed him to the cargo bay.

“I need to go to Badger for work. We’ll go to whore-school to get them once I sealed the deal.” Mal said, his voice going up in anger.

“YOU’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR WEEKS!” she shouted loosing her temper. “I’ll go and them myself, don’t strain yourself slick.” She muttered angrily earning a scowl from Mal.

It was when she descended on the third step when she slipped and bumped her head with the rail and tumbled down to land in a heap at the bottom.

Everything turned slow motion in Mal’s mind. He tried to catch her but it was too late, Inara was going down like a rag doll and he could do nothing about it…

“’NAAARRAAA!!” he shrieked.

He practically flew down the staircase and lifted her unconscious body to his chest slowly, afraid to move her suddenly or that he would hurt her. She wasn’t moving and her arm was twisted in a weird angle - to his shock, he saw blood trickling down from the side of her temple… ‘Please no… not now- not Inara!’ his mind screamed as he cradled her head to his heart.

“Please say something, love, c’mon, wake up honey...Listen, you gotta wake up and hear me telling you that I love you and that-” Inara didn’t move an inch and Mal was, to say the least, frantic.

“What is it, sir?” asked Zoe running into the cargo bay with Simon in tow.

“We was… then she – I tried ta –“he stammered in shock. Zoe had to literally pull him back from Inara so that Simon could take a look.

“This gash is nasty.” He said checking her head for further injuries “Let’s get her to the infirmary.”

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Mal watched as Simon sewed the cut.

“It’s quite a nasty gash, probably will cause dizziness – how did it happen anyway?”

Mal sighed, never taking his eyes off of his sleeping love and his heart clenched as he saw her like this, knowing that this was partly his fault

“We was bickerin’ as usual. She was goin’ down the stairs and slipped… I couldn’t even catch her…”

Inara fluttered those long lashes open and Mal’s heart soared when he saw those gorgeous chocolate pools looking at him.

“Hey sleeping beauty.” He smiled.

“Welcome back, Inara. How are you feeling?” asked Simon gently.

“A bit dizzy…” she confessed.

“It might actually be good right now because it’s time for the bone re-setting…”

“The what? What happened?”

“I need to reset your arm bone, Inara, and as to what happened, I think the captain is the appropriate person to tell you afterwards…”

Mal took her unharmed hand “won’t be but a click, darlin’.” the gesture actually soothed her a bit.

“Ready?”

Inara nodded hesitantly and bit her lip as her arm did ‘click’, not to mention she almost broke Mal’s fingers with her squeeze.

“That’s it ‘Nara. Your arm’s gonna be right and shiny.” reassured Mal as he gave her a grin while Simon wrapped her arm in the plaster cast.

When Simon was done he went to his bunk to shower up for dinner and that left Mal and Inara alone.

“How you feelin’?” he asked as he sat beside her.

“A bit sleepy…” she sighed

“Mmm.”

For a moment nobody talked then Mal broke the silence.

“It’s best if I leave you to rest then…” he said letting her hand free, making her miss the warmth of their connection and heading for the door when Inara called him.

“Mal,” he turned ‘round “I love you too.” she said before she close her eyes.

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Aiya, she heard him! Inara Serra knew that he was in love with her – but the fact that she loved him too was the cherry on the cake… He’s been dreaming of this since she came on board but hope was born when she told him she left the active companion status and after Mirinda, she surely wasn’t fit to service clients.

That’s when Kaylee came from the galley.

“Hey cap’n!” she greeted him with that smile which was the sun on Serenity apart from his ‘Nara.

“Hey ‘lil Kaylee, what’s the notion.”

“How’s ‘Nara?”

“Good. Doc fixed her up…she’s fine.”

Kaylee noted that the captain had a stupid grin on his face and a hop in his step – surely something happened between her cap and her best friend.

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That night Mal was spooned against Inara, holding her to his chest as he rubbed circles on her tummy. She was soft and warm and she smelled of the peaches his ma used to get him on Shadow, he wanted to stay and cuddle her for the rest of his life… she felt so right nestled in his arms, he never wanted to let her go.

“Mal?”

“Yeah, honey?”

“What happens now? – I mean I don’t want this to end and…”

“We just hold on to each other and keep flyin' darlin’”

Inara let out a yawn and they drifted off to sleep.

That accident had a silver lining after all!

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