This chapter is for Athelina: Happy Birthday!!!! Hope you like the chapter!!!

Chapter Four: Endless Masquerading

"There you are," Adam said, walking onto the bridge.

Wash turned around in his pilot's chair and grinned, "Where else would I be? Someone has to fly this thing."

Adam sat down in the co-pilot's chair, "Thought I'd let you get us on course before I came looking for you."

Wash leaned back and gestured towards the black, "Flown this route so many times I could do it in my sleep."

"Isn't that how you spent most of flight school anyway?" Adam pointed out.

"Second in my class," Wash reminded him. "You weren't even in the top 50% of yours."

"Still can fly, though," Adam pointed out. Adam looked around the bridge, "Nice ship, looks like you got yourself a good thing here. How long you been flying with this crew?"

Wash shrugged, "Since just after the war. I flew a few jobs after the war ended but didn't stick with 'em long. Then I met up with Mal and Zoë…been here ever since."

Adam grinned, "One look at her….I'd have signed on too."

"Hey," Wash said, mock-threatening. "That's my wife you're talking about."

"You are going to have to fill me in how that came about," Adam said. "How a beautiful woman like that wound up with you…."

Wash smiled, "Just lucky I guess."

"You always were," Adam said. "Wish I was half as lucky as you.."

"You've got your share," Wash pointed out, his face becoming serious. "You survived that crash, didn't you?" He shook his head. "I still don't know how that happened?"

"What do you mean?" Adam asked.

"You don't remember?" Wash asked.

"I remember the ground rushing up to meet us…then waking up in the infirmary."

"We crashed," Wash said. "I was okay, banged up but nothing serious. I was trying to check if you were okay…alive even, but before I could we were swarmed with troops. I got hauled off one way and they took you another. I tried asking about you but they either wouldn't say anything or they hinted that you hadn't made it."

"That's what they said about you," Adam said. "That you'd been killed. They tried to use that..making me think that I'd crashed the ship and killed you."

"You didn't crash us," Wash said, a confused look on his face. "Don't you remember? They were firing on us, hit the ship and we lost power, that's why we crashed."

Adam stared at him, then said slowly, "Right, that's what happened." He shook his head, "I don't remember much of what happened, just a few flashes."

"You were hurt pretty bad," Wash said. That had been putting it mildly. He'd spent years trying to push the image of Adam slumped over in the pilot's chair. He'd been unconscious, bleeding from several small injuries with a piece of metal stuck in his head.

"That's what they told me," Adam said. "I woke up in the infirmary. They said that everyone on board had been killed. I didn't believe them. I thought that I remembered hearing your voice after we crashed."

"You did," Wash said. He didn't mention that after the crash he'd been frantically trying to get free, to get to Adam and that he'd been drug away. "I was calling your name, trying to see if you were alive or not."

Adam nodded slowly, "I think I remember that. You sounded scared, the last time you sounded that scared was when you were ten."

"I still owe you from that," Wash said.

Adam shook his head, "Anything you think you owe me, you've paid me back a long time ago."

"Some things can't be repaid," Wash said. He glanced down towards the dining area and saw that most of the crew had gathered for a meal. He motioned towards them and said, "Let's get some food and you can meet everyone else.

They walked over to the dining area where the whole crew was assembled, minus Simon and River. They all looked up when Wash and Adam entered, curious at the newcomer.

"I see we have a new face," Book said.

"Right," Mal said. "This is Adam……. Washburne,"

"Actually it's Allen," Adam corrected. "Adam Allen."

Mal nodded, "Alright, this is Adam Allen. He'll be heading with us to Beaumonde, along with his cargo." He looked at Adam, "There's a bed made up for you in the passenger dorm. Try to stick to the common areas and the mess while you're here."

Wash started to speak up in protest but was silenced by a look from Mal.

"Washburne?" Book asked, looking at Wash and then at Adam. "Are you two related?"

"They're brothers," Mal said quickly before Wash or Adam could answer.

"You have a brother?" Kaylee said excitedly.

"I can see the resemblance," Book said dryly. "I wasn't aware you had a brother."

"Yeah," said Jayne, his mouth full. "I was wonderin' that. Since do you got a brother?"

"Since I was three," Wash said, giving Jayne a disgusted look.

Mal looked at Wash, startled. He would have sworn that Adam was older than Wash. He glanced at Zoë and it looked like she was thinking the same thing.

"So you're brothers, huh?" Kaylee said. She grinned at Adam, "Bet you've got all kinds of stories 'bout when Wash was little."

"All sorts," Adam agreed. "How about when he was 5 and got his first set of dinosaurs. He took those thing everywhere he went, just swinging them around, hit everyone who got near him." He pointed to his arm. "I still have a mark there from where he hit me."

"Who gave them to me?" Wash pointed out.

"Those the ones you've got on the bridge?" Kaylee asked.

Wash nodded, "Except for the Raptor." He gestured to Adam. "He broke that one when I was ten."

"You still have the ones I gave you?" Adam asked, confused. "You didn't have them during.."

"I left them in storage when I started flight school.," Wash said quickly, interrupting Adam. "I picked them up once I started looking for work."

Adam nodded and glanced around the table, "This your whole crew?" He asked Mal.

"Mostly," Mal said shortly.

"Who's missing?" Adam asked.

"Yeah," Kaylee asked. "Where's Simon and River?"

"She had a bad day," Mal lied. "So he's keeping an eye on her."

"Is she ill?" Adam asked, his voice concerned.

"No," Kaylee said. "Her mind's just a little mixed up cause some.."

"Kaylee," Mal said, quiet but firm. "No need to discuss other people's troubles." He looked over at Adam, ignoring Kaylee's hurt look. "They, along with the Shepherd here, stay in the passenger dorm so try to give them their privacy."

Adam nodded, "Of course, I understand. There were days in the infirmary where I would have given anything for a little privacy and quiet."

"Infirmary?" Zoë asked.

Wash groaned, knowing that whatever answers Adam gave, it was not going to end well. Adam caught Wash's eye and Wash shook his head slightly.

Adam gave a quick nod and said, "I spent a bit of time in the infirmary growing up."

"You attended boarding school?" Inara asked.

"Of a sort," Adam said.

"Which one?" Inara asked. She was familiar with many of the schools in the Alliance system.

Adam turned his most charming smile on Inara, "Not one that a lady like yourself would have heard of."

"What planet are you from?" Inara asked, returning Adam's smile. "Maybe I've been there?"

"I should hope not," Adam said, oozing charm. "I'd hate to think that a beautiful lady such as yourself had breathed in even a breath of Ares' air."

"I've never been to Ares," Inara said. "I have heard about the pollution, though. The planet's supposed to be almost uninhabitable."

"I haven't been there in years but if the pollution levels have increased even slightly, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not fit for human life."

"Nothing on that planet is fit for human life," Wash said bitterly. "Everything there is toxic."

"Don't disagree, Kid," Adam said. "We got off, though."

"How many times have I told you…" Wash started to say.

"Kid," Adam said. "A guy with the name Hoban shouldn't be complaining about any sort of name he's given."

"Hoban?" Kaylee asked, trying to hide a giggle. Until Adam's appearance moment only Mal and Zoë had known Wash's real name.

"Thank you, Adam," Wash said, throwing up his hands. "You've undone years of hiding in one minute."

"Glad to help," Adam grinned.

"Any other things you been hiding?" Mal asked, looking at both Wash and Adam. "Anything I should know abou…" His voice trailed off as River floated into the dining area.

"River?" Kaylee said, starting to stand up.

River didn't look at Kaylee. She stared at Adam and slowly moved towards him. Once she reached him she put her hands on his head, one hand tracing the scar on his face, the other running over the side of his head.

"They took it all out and put it back in, which is them and which is him?" She said in her dreamy sing-song voice.