Mal rose into consciousness to three familiar sensations. Two disagreeably familiar; One; he’d been knocked unconscious during a fight. Two; he’d been drugged and the third not so disagreeably familiar ; the feeling of holding a woman in his arms. He opened his eyes and, blinking once or twice in an attempt to clear his cloudy vision he discovered that he was in a very dark place, physically rather than mentally this time. He looked around him. The last thing that he remembered was being awakened by a scream in the dark night. “There was men.” He thought. “ They’re very blurry. Why are the men who attack me on my own boat always blurry?” He shivered slightly, his arms tensing. Inara felt him stirring and was awake in an instant, albeit a little groggy. She looked up and when her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could just make out Mal’s face, grinning, goofily. “You’re pretty.” He said. He sounded very drugged. “Well from what I can tell you aren‘t.” She replied, reaching up to run her fingers gently over his puffy, bruised face. “How’d you see that? I can’t see a ruttin’ thing.” “I felt -” “Ain’t that illegal?“ He interrupted. “’Sides that ain’t right.” He said wincing. “Ain’t you suppos’d to tell me I’m the prettiest man you ever met?” He said, obviously hoping for a compliment of the kind though none was forthcoming as all he got in return was a frown he couldn’t really see as she sat up. “Why did they hit you so much and not me?” She asked. “If they wanted both of us then why only beat up one of us?” “’Cos like you said I ain’t got a pretty face and they didn’t wanna spoil yours. ‘Sides. I hit them. They hit me. Usually how it works.” He groaned and got laboriously to his feet, half pulling Inara up with him and half using her as support. “Sure they didn’t get you?” He asked. Pulling her into the limited light beams radiating from the door-frame and putting his thumb gently on his chin as he tilted her head to the side to try to get a better look. While he was so absorbed Inara took the opportunity to examine him properly in the half-gloom. His lip was split and puffy and his face was covered in a few shiny new bruises but all his eyes held was that confusing concern for her, and suddenly she was standing in the doorway to Serenity’s infirmary and she stepped back from him abruptly. Just the way she had back then, just the way she always would. She saw the exact same flash of hurt and regret in his eyes - but this time it happened so quickly she could have imagined it. He was used to it now. Used to her shaking him off whenever he got too close. “Who are ‘they’ anyway?” She asked briskly. It was an shaky attempt to steer them to safer and more immediate topics, replacing the door between them. The door with no key. “Ain’t rightly sure.” He said in just as brisk a manner, acknowledging and accepting it. The fact that they woke in each others arms every morning was never spoken of. It was almost a deeply buried secret. The reasons behind it too fragile to be spoken and during the daytime they reverted back to their usual roles of aloof Companion and antagonistic Captain. He turned away and began to try to search the room. “You got any crazy and or evil men out to get you?” He asked. “No. They happen to be the general consequences of your profession. Not mine.” She replied scathingly. “No. Don’t conjure you would make many enemies, male ones anyway. But, then again. You ain’t exactly choosy are you?” He said, his voice hard and unforgiving. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” She demanded indignantly, hands on hips. “Oh nothin’, nothin’ “ He replied , his dismissive manner succeeding only in irritating Inara further as he continued. “ I only meant you take women clients as well as men don’t ya? Now would that be on account o’ there not being enough men that meet your standards or are you just desperate?“ Inara stood speechless for a moment. He was only ever that rude to her when he was trying to get a rise out of her for some reason. But why now? “Me? Desperate! Just because you’re so puritanical about sex that to you having sex more than once every three years means you’re desperate for it then - “ “You might think that my morals are old fashioned and not so in tune with your fine an’ dandy core ones but at least I have them!” “Morals? You’re talking about morals now? You’re a thief! You don’t have morals! Your morals are part-time!” And in that instant the small room was flooded with bright fluorescent light. Two large metal doors were thrown open to slam against the walls and Mal and Inara discovered that they were almost nose to nose and were both breathing heavily. Neither of them had noticed that they were shouting. They turned their heads to the door to see the silhouettes of five large men framed in the doorway against the fluorescent light from above and behind them. They moved into the room and, although they were all completely different people they were all the same. But it was impossible to tell why, other than the fact that they moved so similarly that it was almost robotic. Inara however knew that this was unlikely as even the most advanced robots didn’t look as physically realistic. There was just something off about them, something in their eyes, something she couldn’t put her perfectly manicured finger on. Inara’s attention was instantly brought back to Mal by the sound of his cheery voice from where he had moved to stand slightly in front of her. “Well, hey there! Don‘t ‘spose any o‘ you fine lookin‘ fella‘s know‘s what we‘re doin’ here?” “Hold them.“ Said a commanding voice from behind the men and they moved towards the two former combatants, three of them moving towards Mal, the other two towards Inara. The man who had spoken was wearing a grey, unremarkable, military issue hat that threw most of his face into shadow, though as he sauntered up to Mal and turned his face upwards to look at him his one, distinctive feature became apparent. Mal grinned slightly, evidently amused by the mans lack of stature. The man looked them up and down coldly, as if surveying cattle for slaughter. His eyes rested on Inara and he smiled slightly, as if at some private joke. ‘Ya know, if you wanted to invite us to a party all ya had to do was ask. We prob’ly woulda RSVP’d in the negative but it seems to me you weren’t burdened with an overabundance of party-giving lessons when you was a mite so I’ll let this one slide, s’long as you let us know whose li’l party this is.’ Mal said loudly - though his words got no reaction from the triplet thugs whose vice like grips were unrelenting. ’I’ve been to parties with you, Sergeant and they never turn out well. A hasty exit was most often needed.’ The commander replied calmly. Mal stiffened. Ok, so he knew this man - so who the ruttin’ hell was he? But before he had the chance to ask there were two flashes that momentarily blinded both him and Inara before the doors slammed closed again, sucking away the light with them. Leaving them alone in the dark once more. ______________________________________________________ Hey guys, I'm not even going to try to make an excuse for why I haven't posted in so long. All I will say is that I lost confidence in what I was writing, but last night something made me read my old chapters and I saw the reviews you wonderful people had written. I felt so guilty for not posting that I wrote the next chapter today. So this chapter is for anybody who read my fanfic and wrote me a review!