Havin the ship for himself always gave him that special outstanding look. On the ship, on the crew. A strangely growing crew which he most times understood better, when they were away. Except for the shepard maybe. Or River, of course - but nobody understood her, so that won't count. He found himself at her door again an immediatly tried to excuse - Captain has to check his ship from time to time, so he straightly walked over to the other shuttle. Which surprisingly was in a good state. Before he could continiue his investigation, he heard the crew enter. Kaylee tried to persuade Jayne of something, that surely was nice and naive like herself; and Jayne replied with something rude, which the shepard of course told him was not the right way to talk to a girl and it would have led to a longer discussion if not the doctor and his crazy sister stepped in - somewhat in a hurry. "Sorry, we're late." a confused doctor said. Mal ignored him, hell knows what it was now they run away of, he wanted to get on himself. "You're all just right for tonight's deal" he told them from the gallery, "let's get this cargo sold." As they all got started, Inara entered quietly, slipped to her shuttle, but he saw her. He pretended to have something important on his mind as he slowly wandered her way. She didn't hear him, when he came in. She just wanted to get these clothes of and wash this guy away. Yeah, a companion is to chose its clients, but sometimes... well, she chose, but you never know whats in these guys minds. Lots of guys get rude sometimes, but there are rude guys and the ones that make you feel guilty of what you are. "Since when you are so silently? Well, you are always silent, but,... " There was something around her that made him do the sillytalk, he got something around 16 years old when she was near. "Not now." She sounded tired from behind that curtain. "What do you mean ,Not now', Darlin'. You, I'm countin on you; at least, we're gonna dance tonight" and he smiled somehow proud about his own joke. "Mal..." He didn't like, what he heard, but he was also a bit surprised when he heard the harshness in his own voice saying "Ready in thirty minutes - I don't want anybody to be late. This is an important job and you know that. So dress up, puppy and dance." As he was about to make a dramatic leaving, she called him from behind. "I cannot help you tonight." She was wearing something undefineable, again - but it didin't cover the bruises on her shoulder. As she followed his look, she turned around to hide. "I need you tonight. Kaylee is with Jayne and Zoe is with Wash. We need every hand to get this stuff to where it is supposed to be." "It is, where it is supposed to be" she said with a sound of resignition in her voice. "And I can't elp you tonight, that's it." "Oh, you won't let me down now." He really started feeling a bit betrayed. She chose to be, what she is, it won't become his problem. "Mal, just tonight... it's..." "So, I'm gonna hire you!" And he got his dramatic leaving. Thirty minutes later they all met, dressed up, even Jayne looked quite charming, in his own special "I'm gonna kill you, if you don't think, I'm pretty"-way. Zoe and Wash looked like the settled couple, they might have become, if things had gone different. The shepard and Simon had come to have a look at the crew, when she wasn't looking like travelled through the universe and back, but even they couldn't help but whisper "Oh, lord..." when Mal walked in - which was actually what he looked like. He made Kaylee a compliment about the dress she borrowed from Inara, which he recognised but tried to not show in a way it was more than obvious, so Kaylee just smiled at him when she saw Inara enter in a hilarious dress, that made her look like something too precious to touch. She didn't gave him a short glance as Mal kissed her hand and refused to take his arm. Atmosphere had gone frosty, even before the door opened, looks where exchanged as Mal ran after Inara without making any snappy comment on her behaviour.

Kaylee had seen her going to the restrooms and waited on the outside. Inara tried to cool down. Mal was right. She didn't belong here. Or she belonged as much as he did. She lived from this Society, not with or in it. But he even accepted her less than anybody else in this room. Except for the crew, his crew, he engaged to do this stupid stealing. She had to get out - "hey you". It was Kaylees soft voice and the way she sounded so caring, it made Inara smile. "What is it? Is It the captain? Because you... you didn't smile while you two were dancing, what you always do when you dance... I'm sorry, it's none of my business." Kaylee looked on the floor. "It wasn't Mal" she saw him waiting, pretending not to see her. "I had a bad night, I am a bit tired and Mal just isn't so charming when you work for him." She had cooled down. Smiling again she said: "I think, I shall dance now." "You do not work for..." "He hired me." And so they danced. "Last time we danced, you seemed more pleased." He knew he went to far, but he had to find out how far. And why. They had a commitment - no need to get all shirty about that. What is shirty anyway? That's not even a word. "Last time you didn't hire me." Oh well, that was a good reason. "I wouldn't if I didn't had to. Well, there were times, I thought about that, but I respected your policy..." "You just showed that you have no respect for me in any way." There was something in her eyes that made him feel her anger physically. As he was not worth touching her.

Getting some expensive jewellery from a party of drunk people is not really a challenge, but they nearly got caught for the whiskey, got away and really drunk afterwards. Inara had gone to bed early, for him that seemed no good reason not to say Good Night now. Obviously he made more noise than he thought while he tried to find his card for the shuttle, because the door opened and there was Inara, looking great, and he wished he would be able to say that, but his abilitiy to speak correctly had gone somewhere together with the last glass of whiskey. He realised that soon he had to answer the question, what the hell he was doing here. It would have been a good idea to think about that earlier, it came to his mind. "What the hell are you doing here?" I definetly saw that one coming. Fuck. "I wanted to say good night." "Its almost morning." "I'm sorry. I didn't have the right to treat you like that and..." Wow, where was that coming from? "...And now that you're drunk as hell, you thaught about the other things relating to hiring me." He felt uncomfortable, something had gone seriously wrong, but he couldn't really say, what it was. So he said that. And knew he only could make it worse. "Yeah, something really went wrong when you hired me to be your companion" she said and closed the door. He sat down to try to think and maybe find out, what just had happened. And he still sat there, when she woke up early in the morning. "Hey." He slowly woke up. "Come in." While she was cuddling herself into his arms he was asleep again. "This is Zoe for the Captain. Sir, we're arriving Niobe in two hours." Damn, his head was heavy as hell. And there was something.... really warm and smooth in his arms. His head did hurt even more, as he was trying to think of what had happened last night. She must have seen his shock and said softly "No need to run. You were just tired." She still holded his hand at a place, where it didn't usually belong. He had to lay his head down. He breathed her scence and suddenly felt her shuttering. Pulling her closer didn't had the effect he wanted, it just made her shoulder worse. "I'm sorry" he whispered. "What was that for?" "For you" he said and kissed carefully her neck where her dark curls started. "Captain, this is Zoe. Get up and get on that bridge."