Seconds, minutes, hours, all felt longer than what they were.

She assumed the rest of the crew was sleeping. Simon had checked on her, dimmed the lights and left. Monitors beeped, machines whined and purred, and her IV slowly dripped.

And Wash never left her.

He talked about everything, what he had been up to mainly. Apparently he and Book had been appointed a house on Seraphim Lake just out of the city of Zion, five acred lot (which is hard to get, but between the good credit they had racked up they managed to get it). The lake was beautiful, always spring with no allergies. The flowers always in bloom, the water like translucent gold, with a little flock of goslings that swim around their dock. Book apparently tolerated Muffin, and had taken up cooking while her late husband helped out from time to time by flying a gold transport ship over to the pearly gates and busing newcomers to Information.

“You need to rest.” Wash explained softly.

“Can’t.” She wheezed through the oxygen tubes Simon had placed under her nostrils.

“I’m not gonna leave you Baby, I promise I’m not going anywhere.” Leaning in, he kissed her forehead and she swore she could feel the softness of his lips.

“Hello Hoban Washburn.”

Wash gave a befuddled expression to the door.

Zoe looked up to see River walking in with a whisp of a welcoming smile against the right side of her mouth. “You…?”

River leapt up onto the counter, Boston following her as she tucked her knees up to her chest and positioned her chin atop them. “Can’t see him, feel him though, sense.” Tapping the side of her head, she smiled a little more. “Missed you, quirky sense of humor.”

“Aww, I miss the little crazy River too. Although now she’s all semi-normal.” Wash smiled warmly, watching the new pilot. “Tell her I said hi and she’s a great pilot.”

Zoe opened her mouth.

“Heard him. Your ears hear, project words into your brain, I read your brain, I listen to Wash too.” The Tam girl cut her off. “Thank you Celestial Washburn. Cannot fill the space you have left. Nevertheless, I try.”

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

“I know it ain’t the same… stuff we can’t change… I ain’t got much… but I love you. Ai-ya you make me foolish. Eyes land on you and everything sensible spins and topples. Which is why I wanna marry you.”

The voice, his own voice, young yet scarred, wheeled through his mind. And suddenly he was back there, back on the carrier ship he had gone through boot camp on. A plucky little pup of the thing, bright eyed and green to the military. Zoe was beside him, young and naive herself, though already having a dark lining in her eyes that showed ferocity. They were gripping their duffle bags; buffed, ironed, and trimmed in their fresh enlistment uniforms along with the rest of the overflow cadets that had been shipped to the carrier because the forts had no room to train. The Admiral barked on about honor and duty, but his hopelessly young eyes fell upon her.

Her.

Her with her dark hair and soft eyes. The way she sat at the game table, laughing like a fiend in his lap and helping him with his hand of cards. The way she first said I Love You, slightly drunk from the scotch they had pilfered off of a general, but still true to her heart. The way she arched her back and cried out in three different languages during sex, how her body fitted and moved against his own. The sweetness of her face in the morning, stealing out of her bunk before the morning trumpet. The sadness of parting when their tours went separate ways. The chaos of love and passion when they finally reunited each time.

"I know it ain’t the same… stuff we can’t change… I ain’t got much… but I love you. Ai-ya you make me foolish. Eyes land on you and everything sensible spins and topples. Which is why I wanna marry you.”

They way she smiled.

“I’m gonna get a boat, get Zoe, three of us have a decent crew. Get away from this zheng-fu de xiao-hua, away from being under the heel of all this. We’ll be free… Darlin’, we’ll be free.”

She let go of him, disengaged from their lover’s embrace. And suddenly she was with him, alabaster against his glistening dark skin. Kissing him, loving him, betraying himself. Love gone. Future dead.

Malcolm Reynolds standing there as they flew off.

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

Mal gasped.

Eyes flying open, he found himself back in the realm of real. His arms held a figure loosely, a female figure. Inara Serra with raven black hair fanned out in silken branches on the pillow. Her frame nude and supple, and in her arms Meilin, who was finally sleeping after being fussy, in a diaper as Serenity’s internal heating kept the cabin warm. Mother and daughter relishing skin on skin contact. Seeing them, the relief they gave him with their tranquility, Mal let out a deep breath and deftly pressed his lips against Inara’s shoulder. Meilin yawned, resting her cheek on the upper curve of a breast as Mal reached over and gingerly stroked one of her miniaturized hands. She stretched, letting out a low whine as she puckered her rosy lips and held onto her mother’s skin. They were quite the pair, yet as he watched them, he saw her. He remembered the imprint of her body against his, and he imaged her there instead of Inara, and their own child instead of Meilin.

“Could you see me with a passel of critters underfoot?"

Mal groaned and allowed his head to fall back on the pillow with an unceremonious puff of the down beneath his head.

Old wounds torn back open were the most painful.

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

River had gone back up to the helm to sleep.

And Jayne knew the doc was off in the engine room with Kaylee, sleeping in their hammock like two peas in a snug pod. The captain and ‘Nara were in their bunk, which meant no one was there to see him.

He had a reputation to protect after all.

Sneaking into the infirmary, he sidled up to Zoe, sleeping deep as the machines blipped and hummed around her. Tilting his scruffy chin down, his eyes welled with tears, and the enormous merc sniffled. Jayne Cobb whimpered, wiping his eye with a mighty fist. Lip quivering, he took her hand and frowned sorrowfully. Reaching into his pocket with the other, he took out a toy diplodocus and set it in her palm, wrapping her fingers around it and setting her hand across her stomach so the dinosaur wouldn’t fall.

He heard footsteps.

Jayne turned to find Simon in his pajamas, making a late night check on his patient.

Simon gazed at the large man, somewhat taken back by the emotion.

Souring his face, though it was ripe with burgeoning tears, the larger of the two plowed out of the infirmary, letting out a squeaky grunt that couldn’t hide his emotion. He did however hit Simon with his elbow, and sent the doctor into the wall.

Simon recovered, though he was still a touch stunned at the near blubbering of Jayne Cobb, the man who would have turned on him and clobbered him in a heartbeat if it hadn’t been for River’s threats to kill him in multiple ways. Padding over, rolling his injured shoulder and rubbing it he checked Zoe’s monitors with a face of consternation. He took the time to adjust some things, yet hearing feet the blue eyes shifted to the door.

Mal.

Mal took a handful of heavy steps until his figure, slumped from sleep and worry, hung above Zoe. With hair askew and eyes heavy, he blinked and looked to Simon. “How is she?”

“Truthfully, tomorrow I can garuntee she’ll be on a breathing tube.” Simon turned up the oxygen level. “Her lungs are filling up with fluid, in a few hours I’m going to do a procedure to remove as much as possible, but it will just come back. Plus....” Soberly he went over and pulled the blanket back to show her darkening feet, swelling and discoloring from circulation.

Nodding his head, Mal rubbed his crop of wild hair before sliding it down his cheek and taking it to Zoe. The captain, silently, in a way that would remind anyone of the way Simon treated River, smoothed her sweat caked hair back, and kissed her forehead.

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

The morning had passed without much to talk about.

Those who ate breakfast, ate it in silence. Simon had drained a cup of coffee himself before taking to the infirmary to do a procedure on Zoe, whilst Mal took to the helm with River. Jayne was sitting in the galley, trying to appear unemotional, yet not accomplishing it at all. It left Inara feeling useless to the cause as she went to the engine room. Meilin had continued to be fussy that morning, which Simon attributed to the slight transition the inner ear felt when on a ship for the first time. The father had taken the fussy bundle to the engine room, and Inara had heard nothing for the past three hours or so. Heading back, with a cup of tea in her hands, Inara slipped into the engine room, heart of Serenity to listen to it’s rhythmic beat of life. Kaylee was under the engine housing, the clank of her tools echoing from beneath the metal organ. However Kaylee slid out, smeared with grease, and gave a little smile.

“Hey Inara.” She greeted, quietly whilst standing and wiping her hands on her coveralls.

“Hello Mei-mei.” Inara pushed a stray piece of hair out of the young woman’s face, kissing her forehead. “I came to see how you and Meilin are faring.”

“She’s shiny.” Kaylee gestured to her hammock, where the babe was napping. “Cap’n set her in here and she hushed down pretty quick.”

“That’s good.” Not wanting to disturb the sleeping child, she just watched her.

“It’s Serenity.” Kaylee saw Inara’s questioning eyes and further divulged. “Well, her engine, really, all the workin’s and how they hum. Babies like it, soothes them, my daddy used to call it the boat lullaby. When me and my brothers and sister were little, my folks weren’t landside, my daddy was a mechanic on a luxury liner and they lived on the boat. Whenever we were fussy, he’d take us down below and we’d just get soothed by the noise.”

Silently, she nodded to the explanation.

“Zoe’s… gonna pull through, right?” Kaylee’s demeanor switched immediately, and her eyes reigned down sorrow.

Regardless the mechanic was covered in grease, Inara wrapped her up and squeezed her tight to comfort both the young woman and herself.

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

Mal was at the door when Simon came out. His face clearly demanding to know how the procedure went.

“I extracted half a liter of fluid from her lungs.” He reported. “As well as the same amount in her pericardium.” Seeing how the captain was clearly puzzled, he divulged further. “There was fluid building up around her heart.”

"Oh, well..."

"Captain Tightpants to the helm, I repeat, Captain Tightpants to the helm." River's voice echoed over the loudspeaker. Giggling, could be heard all the way up in the engine room as Mal jutted his lip out peevishly.

"Well, I gotta go." He dismissed himself and walked quickly up to his own helm, passed a snickering Jayne. Once at the helm, he let his words out strung in an exhale. "Only 'Nara's allowed to call me that."

"You placed restrictions. Now I must call you that." She explained, though quickly tapping on a screen and bringing up what she wanted him to see. "Spotted them. Scanner picked them up in the Calypsin Ion Cloud. Blocked their scanners, estimating from airnautical physics and trajectory they are returning from Persphone."

"Looks to be a sunny day." He squinted, thoughtfully, blue eyes trained on the ion space; it an electric cloud of pinks, blues, greens and yellows like a freshly hatched nebula. Malcolm Reynolds set his jaw.

"She's coming." River announced in a tone that straddled awe and apprehension at the same time.

Nodding his head, he reached up and grabbed the com. "This is your captain speaking, all hands on deck. I repeated, all hands to the bridge xian-zai."

"She's strong." River commented, eyes shut as her mind reached out and barely touched the incoming vessel. Just within reach to get a feel for the ship, but not much else.

"That so."

"She's fast... but we're faster."

Mal smirked as Jayne and Inara came in first, Kaylee and Simon not too far behind. Crossing his arms, he began before anyone could ask. "Just watch the outside, I reckon' everyone will be a little roused.

Jayne squinted. "What are we lookin' fer?"

"The Rising Sun." River announced.

Then it happened.

The Rising Sun cut through the ion cloud like a man 'o war through salty white horses. The cloud seemed to part, as if a wake whilst her panels gleamed in the sun that shone through the lofty ions. That light combined with the color of the cloud making her glitter for a moment. She was a Firefly, yet one that seemed like it was cast of bronze. Furthermore she had a small cannon attached under her nose, along with what looked to be missile launchers just above her cargo bay doors. A healthy ship, one that had been well taken care of because of much coin.

Kaylee's mouth was near her toes. Here was a firefly that got what it needed. "Oh... my.... is that...?"

"Armor coated plating." River filled in as she had scanned quite a bit. It was too far away for her clairvoyant abilities, but not too far away for technology. "With electro magnetic pulse cannon and dual missile projectors, each holding one guided high burn PDQ missile. Sophisticated, state of the art radar and core containment. Shuttles have been replaced with compact fighter ships, model 09XS-J22 Orion. Modified fuel cell use. Also has a very large armory."

"How large?" Jayne swallowed, Vera in hand.

"Probably enough to start another war." Mal concluded with a hefty sigh from his chest. "This is who we're up against though."

"Who are these people?" Kaylee asked, worriedly, though she was still nearly drooling over the Rising Sun.

"Craziest hai-gaos that ever hit the system." Jayne scoffed.

"I'm afraid I'm inclined to agree with Jayne." Simon muttered in slack jawed awe.

"May be." Mal began to correct. "But he is the greatest captain that ever ran campaigns in the war."

"Major Virgil East." River divulged like an encyclopedia. "Major of the Independence aircraft carrier ship Zi-you, commanded over the infamous Kong Hu. A squadron of fifty hand picked skyforce fighter pilots flying experimental 0024sx stealth ships, led by Captain Of Formation Genevieve 'Saker' Wilhelm. Due to his belief in unorthodox tactics, Major East is accredited with the victory of the Battle of Lanying. In which...."

"Don't need the whole account." Mal cut her off. "As River so poignantly narrated, that's why he's so ambitious. He's got more brass on his chest then a coin factory, and better yet he's got soldiers as his hands. Take it he runs his ship with some general military finesse."

"So what's the plan?" Inara quizzed, worriedly. "You do have a plan, right?"

*** *** *** TRANSLATIONS/DEFINITIONS Ai-ya: Damn

zheng-fu de xiao-hua: Joke of a government

mei-mei: sister

hai-gaos: pirates

Zi-you: Liberty

******

**As always, the writer appreciates all comments whether they be positive, negative, or suggestions.**