The empty tin caught him by surprise. He was looking for some tea, a special kind he'd bought because it smelled like the delicate herb teas Inara made. It tasted like... well, like hot water, but its smell made him feel... it made him feel like he was home again.

Home was Serenity, before Inara had left the first time. Before the Shepherd had settled on Haven. Long before Miranda. Home was a noisy ship full of family - Jayne and Simon bickering, River and Kaylee giggling, Wash and Zoe... well, doing anything. Long philosophical discussions with the Shepherd, especially when he had too much whiskey in him and he got all melancholy and the Shepherd would try - not very subtly - to convert him.

Book had told him once that with a little of this stuff, you could make anything taste edible. They'd been out of it for quite some time, and no one even noticed; not a soul on board had the heart left to taste their food. Them that was left, anyhow. Inara had gone back to her Training House when he hadn't been able to say what she wanted to hear, and he reckoned Simon was looking for a good place to take River and Kaylee and settle now that the Alliance wasn't on their tails. That left him, Jayne and Zoe.

Zoe wasn't eating well, not enough to keep herself alive, let alone the little secret she carried that she thought no one knew about. Mal had been with her nearly every day since the war, and while there were a lot of things he missed, he noticed that she wasn't getting her monthlies no more. Maybe if he picked up a tin of this stuff next time they were planetside, it would work the miracle they needed to get her taking care of herself again. And it would make a mighty pretty name for a little baby girl.

Rosemary.