"Beginnings are such delicate things, child. Hold them gently."

The final words from Inara's first House Mother before...not that it mattered. Much. That had been a lifetime ago.

Not unlike what she once told a scared young girl trying to bring a new life into the world. it was just a moment in time that would pass.

And so it had. As all important moments do.

Even the moment her heart broke, realizing that a whore was better than a Companion in Mal's eyes. It had just been a moment in time. She'd let it pass, as so many others between them had done.

But this moment she did not want to have just pass her by.

He'd asked her why she'd not left again. Why she had decided to stay

And in that instant she knew.

Whispered, so he had to lean in to hear. "Because it is a beginning, Mal. A delicate thing."