Inarra Lies Inarra Serra went to her shuttle, and settled in the pilots' chair. Through the window, she could see stars, bright against The Black, serene, to her inner turmoil. She concentrated on that, and her heart beat, until someone knock on the door to her shuttle.

That would not be Mal, of course. Malcolm Reynolds would simply have barged in, as he had done before... although, come to think of it, he had not done so, since she had rejoined Serenity.

Simon was polite enough, but she rather thought he and Kaylee, and River, too, would be having a talk, or maybe River would give them some alone time, or...

It all passed too close to what upset her so, and she shied away from it. Enough! Some one was polite enough to knock, and wanted to see her, and she was being anti-social, un-polite. She went to the door to her shuttle, and opened it. She was very surprised to see Zoe there.

"Zoe!" Inarra put a little extra into her smile, because she really could not imagine what she and Zoe had to talk about. Mal, perhaps? "Can I put a little water on, for tea?"

"Actually," Zoe said, "I brought a bottle." She showed Inarra the whiskey, from a mid-market distillery on Beaumonde. Zoe had something serious to discuss, it seemed.

"Is this about Mal?" Inarra asked, quietly alarmed, now.

"No, at least, not directly," Zoe said, and looked around the room, then back to the companion. "This is about the baby, and Kaylee, and you."

Inarra nodded, and indicated the couch, and while she got out two shot glasses, Zoe had herself a seat. She leaned back and closed her eyes. For a moment, Inarra thought that she had gone to sleep, but Zoe opened her eyes, and sat forward, taking one of the offered shots of whiskey.

"As my jewish freinds would to say, L'chaim!" Zoe tilted the glass back, and drank it down in one gulp. Puzzled, Inarra followed suit, and felt the warmth of the spirits. She had set a plate of finger food, and ate something, so that she wouldn't get drunk, although this bottle would certainly do that, if the point was to get drunk.

Was that the point, to get drunk?

Inarra poured, and they drank the second glass more sedately. She was too schooled in putting others at their ease to come right out and ask, so she waited Zoe out. She waited a rather long time.

At last, Zoe set the second shot down, empty, and nodded to Inarra. "A little liquid courage. Strange, but I was never the sort who needed it, even back then..."

"The baby is a problem for you. Why?" Her first instinct was to deny and redirect, and to re-establish control of this conversation. Control was the first rule, the first lesson… but not this time. There was a time for truth, as surely as there was a time for ease and pretense.

“I am truly happy for them, but I am jealous, as well.”

“You want a little one of your own? That seems so, so un-companion-like, somehow.”

Inarra smiled sadly. “I’m sure Mal would make some appropriately inappropriate remark, at this point, and, if it was the two of us, we could launch into a much more comfortable argument.”

“That is what you two do,” Zoe agreed. “Why is that, I wonder?” But she was smiling, and the other woman did not feel the need to answer her question.

“You know that it is Guild Law, that companions do not have children by clients? And, of course, recreational activities,” Zoe snorted, around her third shot of whisky, “never lead to issue, either. Do you know why?”

“I imagine, you know, some sort of precaution, something.”

“Sterility, both the reversible kind… and otherwise.” Inarra gulped down the rest of her shot, and poured more for both of them. Zoe looked at her, saying nothing, but the look, it was seeing deeply, into Inarras’ secret place. The companion felt naked, and she had never felt that, before, even in the presence of certain of her clients.

“I was fast approaching a position of responsibility and trust, in the Guild. This was a way of proving my commitment, and I… I thought that I knew what I was doing.” Inarra wiped her eyes. They drank, and she poured, again.

“My mother told me, ‘Your children change you’. Even the children we don’t, or won’t, have.” Zoe leaned back, and this time her gaze was looking a long ways off.

“You and Wash,” Inarra said simply.

“Yeah.” They sat drinking, and talking, about the men, and women, that they had known, of family and little sisters.

River Flows

River left the two lovers alone, as was their wish, though they didn’t tell her so, not in words. It was her wish as well. She could bask in the warmth of their love for each other, and the little one, from anywhere. Inside the ship was fine, but she got into one of the spacesuits, and went for a walk.

The crew was in a little turmoil, but, as she knew, pain and suffering was all part of life. This wasn’t philosophy, at least not theory, so much as practice. Practical life, and she, and they, had been well schooled in it.

She crept around to where Inarra’s shuttle nestled in its docking cradle, and wondered if the little sister they were talking about was her, or Kaylee. Probably the latter. She made both of them uncomfortable.

River sat on the hull for a long time, watching the stars move, as Serenity turned slowly, a spin that Mal favored. He was so unconventional, she thought. The were headed for Beaumonde again, and the world grew large, every time it rose, waxing perceptibly before it set again, minutes later. At last Mal checked their spin, and hit the intercom.

“Hey, little one. I think it’s best if you come on inside, now. And, for future reference, I’d kindly like a little heads up when one of my crew goes outside, dongma? I don’t much care if you feel the need to commune with The Black, I just need-“ Mal’s breath caught, and River smiled, “I need to know you’re all safe. All of you.”

Jayne Speaks

Jayne admired his handiwork. He had woven some rope into netting, and, while it wasn’t much, it was a start. A start on child-safing Serenity. Might be months and months premature, but Jayne had been restless, with the need to do something. He reached up and climbed, handhold after handhold, on the outside of the rope-netting, up to the upper run of catwalk. He swarmed over the rails, and, breathing a little hard, turned to lean out and admire his handiwork from this vantage point, too.

“Mighty cunning, if I do say so, my own self,” he said. Right by his elbow, River said, “It is somewhat clever.”

Jayne started. He turned and barked, “Girl, ya ought a not sneak up on a body, especially a killer, like me.”

“Oh, you’ve killed more Reavers than me, have you?”

Jayne remembered a certain incident involving family jewels, a vise-like grip (and since when did the girl know him that well, anyhow?) and three or four seconds of agony. He edited himself, and changed the subject.

“Whatcha said, is that whatya really think of my baby-tyke nettin’?”

River smiled, and that was an improvement on the scenery, and no mistake. Jayne liked her, even if she gave him an uncomfortable-ness, sometimes. Other times, he had other thoughts about her, but she was a scary package. Of course, that was exciting, too.

“I think that Shepherd Book would have been happy with what you’re doing.”

Jayne stepped back from her. Oh yeah, he was afraid of her, of this, and he wasn’t afraid of guns and knives, blood and death, not so much. But she saw into his mind, and into his heart.

“You leave the Shepherd outta this business!” He said, a little too loudly. He started to back away, again, when she came at him, and reached up to touch his forehead and then his chest, over his heart.

“But he’s still here, and right here and here,” River said, and Jayne grabbed her hand.

“That’s just moon-brained talk, girl. Man is dead, because of-“ Jayne’s face was like stone, and he squeezed her hand, so hard that they heard the bones creak. His eyes were bright.

“Because of me.”

“Damn straight, coz of you, and your brother!” Jayne drew in a ragged breath, and let it out. “You, both of ya, owe the lot of us, a life. A coupla lives, actual-like.”

She looked at him with a calculation that he knew very well. Did he, did she, need to kill? Was it safe, was it necessary? But whether or not it was right, that never entered into it, not for killers such as them.

Jayne shook his head. “No, not that. I break bones and spill blood, and I kill, but I ain't wrong, in that way. I… I want this kid, as much as any of us do. She won’t be the Shepherd, and she won’t be the Little Man, but, you know.”

Zoe came on the intercom then, and they could hear ship noises, as Serenity transitioned from flight to landing mode. "Jayne? The Captain wants us on the mule for a little meeting. Could be we've got some work."

The big mercenary dropped Rivers' hand, and turned away, to look out over the cargo bay.

“She’s ours, now, and we protect what’s ours.”