based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon ----------------------------------------------

The valley was quiet and his men had a chance to breathe as Sargeant Reynolds walked purposely toward Zoe, his second. "Where'd that girl git to now?"

"Went that way toward the tree line." She pointed with the tip of her knife, cutting loose a bur that had tangled itself up in her boot lace.

"Thought I told you to tell her to keep her gorram ass near the unit." He looked mad, but Zoe shook her head.

"I did. Woman don't think she needs to listen to me, just you." She spit it at him, growling as she did. His second seemed to always express how much she hated this new recruit. Only having been with them a few weeks and already had devoured an entire squad just for nothing more than a dead soldier.

"I'll go find her. You hold them here and if there's trouble, fire a couple shots in the air." He turned from her as she nodded.

"Yes, Sir." She watched him as he disappeared over the rise and looked back down at the twelve more burs stuck to her laces. Sometimes, Zoe wished it was as easy to cut out people, especially a certain catlike one.

********

Malcolm found her perched up in the largest tree within a mile of the area, a good twenty feet up humming some drinking song they had taught her last night around the fire. She heard him coming as her eyes looked down at him before letting her body drop, resting on a couple lower branches before her landing caused dust to rise around her feet.

"Cat, you are suppose to be with the men."

"Can't see there. Too close to the ground. How am I suppose to protect you from the Alliance soldiers?" Her long legs carried her in a circle around him as she listened to every noise that filled the air.

"It doesn't matter, Cat. You need to stay with the group and listen to Zoe." He stared at her and she tilted her head to the side.

"You are the leader, the Sargeant, not her. I take my orders from you."

"Cat, Zoe is my second, which means she's in charge when I am not there. Her word is as good as if it were coming from me."

"Interesting." Cat looked out toward the field and then back at him, her green eyes playing with the sun setting in the west. "So, she's your mate then."

"Zo? No," he shook his head, "Absolutely...no."

"She does not please you?"

"Yes...I mean No....I mean...." He stumbled over his words and then looked at her. "You and me...we're friends, right?"

"Friends..." The strange woman played with the word in her mouth. "I take care of you, protect you from that which attacks, but we have no relationship. We are not friends."

Mal looked at her and was taken aback at how this was the same girl that had put down her gun to join him. "Then, why did you not kill me?"

"Because you were different." Something caught her and she shifted her body. Over the hill came a deer and at the sight of them both, took off running in the other direction.

"Well, whatever that means, Zoe and I are just friends, very good friends and she is also my second so what she says goes. Dong ma?"

Cat watched as the deer continued further away, her feet shifting under her. "She does not trust me."

"Well, you were the one sent to kill me. It kind of is a drawback."

"I've killed for all your men over and over again. Is that not enough?" Her eyes caught another movement in the trees as another deer took after the first.

Mal watched them, but not with the insensity as Cat did. "One day, it might be. Just be patient."

Taking her eyes off the fleeing animals for a moment, she looked at him and again he swore her eyes were glowing. "Do you?"

"Trust you? I...I don't know. You are a puzzle I ain't figured out yet."

She tilted her head again, but her body was tensing now almost without her control. Her lips turned in a grin, sunlight flashing off her teeth. "Won't ever." Digging her heels into the ground, she ran after the deer, once out of sight of Mal, her speed increased. Hunting always made sense when everything else did not and the feelings she was having toward the man she just left baffled her. Hopefully, fresh meat would make everything better.

*******

It was night and Zoe turned the deer Cat had brought back over the open fire. Long time since they had good meat...rations were alright in a pinch, but the juicy venison was something that filled the belly with good honest protein. Her eyes caught the beautiful woman's, who was above the dug out on the hill overlooking the camp, high enough so that she could see.

Mal approached Cat, handing her a plate as she raised her hand. "Had my fill. You all eat."

"Deer wasn't touched when you brought it here. What did you..." A look from Cat quieted him. "You're not normal, are you?"

"Define normal." She ran a hand over her hair and watched as the hungry soldiers tore into the food she had brought. "I am what I am and I choose to lend you my talents. Nothing else should matter."

"Just trying to get to know you, Cat." He touched her arm before taking a bite of the meat and she stared at him a moment.

"You shouldn't, you know."

"Why? Did you poison it?" He laughed and Cat gave him a perplexed stare.

"No."

"It was a joke...a funny...nevermind." He took another bite. "What shouldn't I do?"

"Trust me." Her fingers rested on his arm a moment before she stood, shaking off the dust as she felt him admiring her perfectly enhanced body.

"Why is that?"

She looked at him, her eyes almost completely black in the darkness, save for a thin rim of green. "Because one day, I promise you, you'll regret it." With that, her long legs carried her off into the shadows and around the perimeter of the camp, but for a brief moment, Cat 1313 turned back looking at the man she had saved, a pit in her stomach she knew for sure wasn't the other deer.

AN- for those who have missed Cat...thanks for riding.