Mal spent the evening sitting at Inara’s side, he ran a hand through his hair when she opened her eyes and sprang up vomiting. As her chest heaved with the violent explosions in her stomach, Mal manuvered himself behind her rubbing her back soothingly and holding her hair away from her pale face. When her stomach had finally emptied, he brought a wet cloth and patted on her face and neck but what shocked him most was the blank look Inara had – there wasn’t any light in them not even an emotion!

“Inara, it’s ok,” he soothed. “You’re home. He ain’t gonna hurt you no more.”

Inara looked at him for a moment. He could see the tears of anguish in her eyes before she tossed herself at his chest and let the intense sobs rack her small form.

“Oh Inara - Aww Christ ‘Nara…” he said wrapping her in his arms.

“He hit me!” she cried in his chest. “I didn’t do anything to him – he hit me!”

“I know honey,” he soothed, as he kept rubbing her back and stroking her raven curls, the endearment coming to him naturally.

“Why me?!” she cried out holding him tighter.

“He was a gorramn sick son of a bitch bastard,” he said, making the insults in English sound harsher than in Chinese. Seeing her like this made him so angry, he wished he could riddle that bastard with holes again. “None of it is your fault, darlin’. He won’t do it again.”

After crying her heart out, Inara fell asleep in his arms. Only then, Mal lowered her on the table gently and threw the covers she had vomited on in the laundry bag and replaced them with new ones, he covered her to her shoulders and after caressing her cheek with the back of his hand, he went to find Simon.

----------------------------

“You’re awake,” smiled Simon as he entered the infirmary, Mal in tow.

Inara gave a weak smile which almost brought Mal to tears.

Simon told Mal to wait outside the infirmary so that he could examine her and he was impressed when the captain obeyed his order without even saying a word.

“Did he really listen to me? I think I’m going crazy” he grinned making Inara smile as well.

He noted the look Inara gave Mal not to go away and the one Mal gave her as a promise that he would not leave her alone as she saw him exit the infirmary.

“Simon, can I ask you something?” Inara’s scratchy weak voice rose up from the bed like steam first escaping from a heating kettle.

“Sure Inara,” he said, listening to her heartbeat.

“I remember what happened, but none of the details, could you tell if I had been…”

“Raped?”

“Yes,” she said looking at her lap, making Simon wonder where was the Inara who would say that word looking anyone in the eye.

“No. I ran some tests and I can assure you that you haven’t been raped.”

Inara sighed, feeling her heart lighter.

“Well,” said Simon as he finished putting his stethoscope in place “I recommend absolute rest and avoidance of any kind of stress. If you want to talk about what happened – that would be excellent but there’s no hurry, just take your time.” With that, Simon left her and Mal came in again.

“Everything okay?” Mal asked.

Inara wriggled uncomfortably, “yes”

“Good.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Mal, I haven’t thanked you yet-“

“Don’t you dare. You know I’d never leave you there,” Mal paused, then gathering his thoughts he smiled bitterly. “I just wish I’d come sooner-”.

“It’s a miracle you found me.” Now it was Inara’s turn to gather her thoughts before concluding, “Not to mention alive.”

Their hands intertwined, as if it was the most natural thing in the whole ‘verse.

“You wanna talk about it?” asked Mal worried that she would.

“No. Not now – not…” her widened in horror, she was shaking and sweat appeared on her forehead, Mal pulled her tight to his chest, cradling her in his arms, chasing the bad memories away.

“It’s all right, ‘Nara,” he soothed in her ear. “It’s over an’ it won’t happen again. I’ll see to that, baobei.” He reassured her, not realizing he had used the term of endearment.

Inara took a deep breath and snuggled closer. It felt like home in his arms; the home she hadn’t had since she was five.

They stayed like that till Mal’s arms were aching, only then did he lower her gently on the table so he wouldn’t hurt her, especially because of the stomach wound and placed a kiss on her forehead “Time to sleep now.”

“I can’t,” she whimpered.

Mal sighed, “You gotta rest so that you can heal.”

Inara gave him no response; her eyes simply stared at the ceiling as if she had gone away and left them behind.

“Look, I’ll stay. Nothing’ll happen to you because I’ll be right here and you’ll try to sleep, deal?”

Inara nodded slowly when she saw his eyes grey with worry. Mal had enough to worry on; she didn’t want to add to that – she wanted to be the one who soothed him!

She relaxed as their hands intertwined and he caressed the back of her hand. It amazed him that she was coming through this and the fact that she was letting him close amazed him even more. She was one of the strongest women he’d ever met but she was also fragile, she was confused and insecure right now and he vowed not to let anyone take any advantage from that.