Part 1 - Moving Parts

The face on the cortex screen was bland and unassuming–the round, pale face of a minor functionary in the middle of a port town. Not Badger's class–but not what Mal assumed Simon's folks must have been, either.

They had just picked up from Eavesdown Docks on Persephone when the WAVE came through. Mal was just as glad to be leaving–a part of him was quite sure Atherton Wing would be monitoring the docking 'nets, and wasn't the type to be above paying some muscle to shiv him while he was in port.

Their trip had been short and sweet–deliver Badger's cut of the last two jobs, see if Harrow had anything he might need ferried off-world. But Persephone was quiet as a tomb. Well, a tomb with a few raucous barroom brawls going on inside it. Still, quiet enough, compared to what they were used to. They'd set down just in time for Wash to get some fresh jiao-zi from his favourite street vendor, and lifted off again less than an hour later.

"I have been told by a certain mutual acquaintance that your crew is both reliable and discreet." Readout said he was a Dr. Nelson Wyner, and was transmitting from Riverside on Zephyr, less than nine hours away. They hadn't had a gig on Zephyr in over a year. Good a time as any to head back, Mal was thinking.

"That we are. Reasonably priced too, if I say so myself."

"Money–as they say–is no object. I only require the utmost secrecy." Mal almost smirked–sometimes, he wondered if the folks he had dealings with were all reading their lines off the script of the same melodrama. But work was work, and after handing most of their coin over to Niska, they needed it. Badly.

"That we can also provide."

"The cargo is breeding stock to be delivered to the Han Province, on Paquin."

"We got a hold capacity of fifty head of cattle–plus room for two weeks' feed."

"I assure you, Captain Reynolds, the cargo won't require that much space. It's in cryo for transport–one cylinder, to be exact, to be decanted on Paquin. Shall we meet in the morning? Ten? I'm transmitting my co-ordinates now."

Mal glanced at Wash, who nodded.

"I look forward to doing business with you." The screen powered down, and Mal clapped his hands, grinning. "Well, folks, looks like we got honest work. Well–work, in any case. If it was honest, they wouldn't come to us."

"River, hold still–" Simon frowned as his sister squirmed on the examining table. He was trying to get a sample so he could run her blood work, but she was steadfastly avoiding the hypodermic. She drummed her fingers on her thighs, moving in time to a tune only she could hear.

"The only thing keeping me from flying apart is my skin," she informed him seriously.

"I see."

She rolled her eyes. "No, you don't. Your moving parts are on the inside, where they belong."

"So are yours, River. I'd think I'd notice if your circulatory system, for example, were on the exterior. Speaking of which, I just need a vein–ow! River!"

He sucked his finger where the needle had stabbed him.

"Moving parts," she muttered, ducking her head and allowing the curtain of her dark hair to hide her face.

"Fine," he said around his injured digit. "No needles today–I'll just assume that your medication is working. But tomorrow–"

"Thank you, Simon!" She beamed at him, and threw her thin arms around him before bounding off the table. "I'm going to go dancing!"

"You do that," he said with a sigh and watched his baby sister skip out of the infirmary in heavy leather boots. Her mood swings weren't as severe as they had been–but he still couldn't tell what sort of a day they were going to have usually until they were halfway into it. And that was exhausting him. Still, at least she seemed happy.

He dug one-handed through the drawer for a weave, and tore the wrapper on the synth skin with his teeth. The bleeding had stopped, and he smeared some disinfectant gel on the wound and wrapped the plaster around it, frowning.

He'd given up everything he knew–everything he had–to give River the chance to be free. Be happy. Be a seventeen-year-old girl again. He would give anything to keep her that way. Seeing her happy... helped.

But his finger still throbbed.

Simon closed the drawer with his undamaged hand, and looked up as Kaylee strolled past the infirmary. She was thoroughly engrossed in the contents of a wax paper bag, and didn't even stop to glance inside.

"What'd you pick up on Persephone?" he called from the doorway, and she poked her head in, smiling brightly.

"Nothing," she said coyly, holding the bag closer to her chest.

"Don't I get to see?" he asked, slightly hurt.

"Maybe," she drawled. "If you're real nice to me."

"I'm always nice to you!" he said, shocked, and she giggled.

"Depends on how nice."

Her playful mood was somewhat infectious. Simon suddenly understood a little better about moving parts.

"Come on... let me see."

She got a mischievous gleam in her eye–not unlike River, when she was about to do something she knew she shouldn't. "Naw–you gotta catch me first!"

"Kaylee!" Simon lunged for her, but she just laughed and side-stepped him, the bag clutched close to her chest as he chased her around the infirmary.

She squealed as he cornered her opposite the diagnostic scanner, trapping her with arms on either side of her shoulders. Her cheeks were pink and her hair had fallen into her face. She tried to duck beneath his left arm, but he pinned her with the length of his body, hips flush against hers.

"Stop! You'll crush them!" she cried, alarmed.

"What are they?"

She opened the wax paper sack, and held up a ripe strawberry to his lips. He bit into it carefully–the flesh was sweet and slightly bruised, and juice ran down his chin. She laughed and leaned forward to wipe the corner of his mouth, her thumb resting briefly on his bottom lip. Her hazel eyes seemed enormous, so close to his.

His finger didn't hurt anymore.

He leaned forward and kissed her, the taste of strawberries still in his mouth. Her lips parted beneath his. He twined his fingers in her hair, the smooth strands catching on the bandage as he pulled her closer.

"Kaylee!" Mal's voice shattered the moment, and they sprang apart like two teenagers caught necking in the family parlour. The captain's eyes shone with barely suppressed mirth, tempered by annoyance. It was a look Simon was coming to recognise.

"Yes, Cap'n?" Kaylee said, a smile still playing around the corners of her mouth.

"We got us a job–picking up a load of freight on Zephyr to take to Paquin. Thought you might want to send a WAVE ahead, to let 'em know we're coming."

"Shiny, Cap'n." She popped the half of a strawberry still held between two fingers into her mouth with a grin, and then licked her fingers. Slowly. Suggestively.

Simon swallowed, feeling a blush creep up his neck.

Mal however only rolled his eyes. "You go on, now. We'll hit Zephyr in the morning, and got work to do 'fore we make the pick up."

Kaylee sighed, closing the bag of strawberries and tucking them into the pocket of her jump-suit. She leaned over and gave Simon's unbandaged hand a quick squeeze before she slipped out of the infirmary.

Mal just leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, and Simon could feel his ears starting to burn with an unwanted blush. He busied himself with arranging a tray of instruments, trying to look industrious.

"Can I–is there anything you needed, Captain?"

"Me?" Mal raised a brow. "Not a thing. We're setting down on Zephyr for two days to pick up a load of cargo, refuel, and re-supply. I figure the Infirmary has got to be running low on something, even after the Ariel job–what with our propensity for getting shot at so much. So you need anything in town, you might want to go on a little shopping trip. Riverside's not so big as all that, but being a port town, I'm sure you can find someone who's got what you need."

"What about the Alliance?"

"Zephyr's far enough out on the Rim that Alliance don't have much presence there. You'll be fine, so long as you don't get in any trouble."

"Thank you, Captain." Mal turned to go. "Was that all you needed?" Simon called after him.

"Yep–you expecting something else?"

"No–yes. No."

"You ought to make up your mind there, Doc," Mal said, purposefully guileless.

Simon swallowed, and ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back off his forehead in a nervous gesture. "No grand, dramatic threats to space me, if I break her heart?" he asked flat out, and then waited for the answer, ready to flinch as if from a blow.

"I need me a doctor 'bout as much as I need me a good mechanic," Mal said with a shrug. "And doctors are a mite harder to find, out here."

Simon let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. Mal smiled at him.

"But no one ever said you needed your kneecaps for doctorin'."

"I have no intention of hurting Kaylee."

"Well, you know what they say about the road to Hell."

"...and then he just kissed me." The young mechanic was practically vibrating, she was in such high spirits. Kaylee sat on the edge of Inara's bed. Her pant legs were rolled up, and Inara could see the chipped pink polish on her toes that Kaylee had carefully applied the last time she'd spent an afternoon in Inara's shuttle. For all it was only a fortnight ago, it felt longer. Inara had missed their stolen afternoons.

She drew the brush through Kaylee's hair with a smile. "Well, of course he kissed you. You're very kissable."

Kaylee laughed. It was a full-throated laugh, easy and real. It made Inara smile.

"What? You are. Three months of pulling your chair out for you at dinner, and politely seeing you to your door at night. It was time for kisses."

"It was just so... Felt so right, you know?" She sighed, her expression in the glass wistful as she no doubt relived the moment. "It was like, we was fooling around–not being serious or nothing. And then it just happened. No time to think it through, or second guess–"

"Now why would our Simon second guess kissing the prettiest mechanic on the ship?" Inara interrupted, and Kaylee eyes widened.

"You think I'm pretty?"

"Of course I do. You're a lovely girl, and I'm just glad Simon finally noticed that."

"Oh, he called me pretty–um, I mean, I knew he thought I was pretty. I've known that a while now. I was just waiting on him–you know how he can be. All stiff and proper."

"A lot of men go stiff when they kiss a pretty girl," Inara said slyly.

"'Nara!" Kaylee brought both hands to her mouth as she dissolved in helpless giggles. Inara set the brush down, and enfolded Kaylee in a hug with a laugh.

Inara had grown up on Sihnon an only child, all her family's hopes and dreams for the future resting squarely on her shoulders. She'd known the friendship of other girls while attending the Academy, but Kaylee was like the sister she had never had. She treasured the time they had together to simply talk. Be women, without credits changing hands at the end of it.

"He's just–it's so nice to see him happy on Serenity, you know?" Kaylee sighed as Inara lifted her hair off her neck, slim brown fingers twisting it up into a bun. Kaylee peered into the mirror. "Oh, that looks nice!"

Inara smiled. She still remembered the first time she'd asked Kaylee if she could brush her hair. The girl had been barely eighteen–her brown hair had been longer then, and was almost always pulled back in a messy braid to keep the long strands from wrapping around delicate moving parts as she worked. She'd been so surprised, and had been painfully shy when Inara had asked her back to the shuttle.

They'd become fast friends–much to Mal's annoyance and the amusement of the rest of the crew. Inara liked to believe she was mentoring Kaylee to an extent–acting the part of worldly and experienced older sister. But the truth was, Inara needed Kaylee's friendship and unfailing good humour much more than the girl needed fashion tips or a sympathetic ear–both of which Inara was more than happy to provide.

"Want me to pin it?"

"Shiny!" Kaylee grinned. "He's been running scared for so long, and just a bundle of nerves. Kinda skittish, you know?"

Inara nodded as she fixed Kaylee's hair with two silver and garnet pins. She'd been somewhat fascinated to see how Kaylee had carefully and methodically drawn the shy doctor out of his shell over the past few months. The girl had a single-mindedness of purpose that Inara found admirable. But what might have started as a simple crush had become quite something else entirely, as Simon and Kaylee had gotten to know one another. There was a genuine sweetness and caring there that Inara envied.

"I think our skittish Simon is starting to make a home here," Inara observed as Kaylee held up a gilded brass mirror to admire the Companion's handiwork.

"I hope so," Kaylee said, smiling at her flushed cheeks reflected in the glass.

"Gorramit!"

"Why don't you get Kaylee to do that?" Zoe asked, leaning down to where Mal's legs poked out from beneath Serenity's main console.

"I can get it."

"That's what you've been saying for the last hour," Wash reminded him as he leaned back in the pilot's chair, fingers interlaced behind his head. "And yet my screen is still on the fritz. This may in fact be because you're a captain, and not an engineer."

"Ain't no reason to be botherin' Kaylee–it ain't the engine what needs fixin', just a stupid gorram wiring–tamade!" Mal slid out from beneath the console, nursing his bruised elbow.

"What's got a burr under your saddle, anyway?" Wash asked as Mal dove back in for another round with Serenity's wiring. "You been tetchy all day."

"I am not–Qingwa cào de liúmáng!–tetchy!"

There was a clang and another muffled curse from beneath the console. Wash looked up to see Inara and Kaylee come onto the bridge.

"Mal?" Inara stifled a laugh. "What are you doing down there?"

"My screen is on the fritz," Wash explained, gesturing at the dead cortex link.

Kaylee peered down at the screen, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Cap'n making it better? Or worse?"

"Well, let's see–started out, there was lines all across. Now I'm getting no picture, just audio."

"Well, that ain't good." Kaylee frowned, and reached over to mess with the dials and buttons.

Mal stood up, making a face as he massaged his elbow. "Surprised you noticed, from way up there on cloud nine."

"What are you–oh. Is that all?" Kaylee laughed. "Ain't got no cause to be tetchy on account of me'n Simon!"

Wash glanced at Zoe, who simply quirked an eyebrow at him. Obviously, the boring old married folks were missing out on the latest scuttlebutt.

"I ain't too fond of shipboard romances, as you well know. Gums up the works."

"I dunno, Captain–I think me and Zoe worked out okay."

Mal gave Wash a look. "You would."

Kaylee laughed, and ruffled up Wash's hair affectionately. "The captain's just mad because you went ahead and got hitched without him giving you the go ahead."

"Now Kaylee, that's water under the bridge, that is."

She laughed. "Like you coulda stopped Zoe doing anything she didn't want you to."

"That is a fact," Mal favoured his first mate with a sunny smile. "But it was my opinion that it was a mighty poor idea. Still is. Having folk at each other's throats when we're on a job on account of a lover's spat ain't professional."

"And we are nothing if not professional," Wash said smoothly.

"Exactly. Wait, was that sarcasm?"

"Me?" Wash feigned shock. "Never!"

"Well, I think it's sweet," Inara said as she draped an arm around Kaylee's shoulders and gave them a squeeze. "I think Simon's lovely, mèimei."

"Isn't he?" Kaylee giggled.

"Oh yeah. He's dreamy," Mal grumbled, and Kaylee punched him in the shoulder. "I got nothing against the doc. Boy's making the best of limited choices. Ain't nothing wrong with that."

Silence descended on the bridge.

Kaylee flushed, and looked down at her boots. "Port stabiliser's been acting a might funny–I'm gonna go see if I can set it to rights."

"Mal!" Inara hissed once Kaylee had disappeared down the hall towards the engine room.

"I just don't want the girl to get her hopes up–and then have 'em come crashing down again. Zoe, back me up here!"

"You're on your own." Zoe just glared at him. "Sir," she added after a nice long pause, and ice floes would have been warmer.

Mal threw his hands up in defeat. "I got too many women on my boat."

The floor of River's room was covered in pencil sketches, and his sister sat on the floor surrounded by a sea of paper. She didn't look up as Simon entered, but she knew he was there. She always knew when he was there.

"I've been drawing."

"I can see that." Simon bent down and picked up one of the sketches of a woman's face, half hidden by a curtain of hair. The eyes were all vacant and staring, despite the fact that River had caught the person in a number of different poses. "These are beautiful, River. Who is she?"

"She isn't. Not yet," River said with a shrug, folding the sketchbook closed. "You had your hand in the cookie jar. Daddy isn't pleased."

"River!" Simon felt his blush return in full force.

River giggled, tucking her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "Did she taste like apples?"

"Strawberries," he said absently and then frowned. "This isn't the sort of thing a brother should be talking about with his mèimei," he said sternly.

"Why?" she asked, dark eyes wide and curious.

Simon decided he should really learn never to underestimate his baby sister's ability to make him extraordinarily uncomfortable with devastating ease. He wasn't sure if it was the crazy part or the sister part that made it so effective. It would be easy to blame the former, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it was, in fact, the latter.

"Well... um... Because."

Strangely, that answer seemed to satisfy her. "Rush like honey, sweet and golden and warm. You like her."

Simon smiled, and sat on the end of the bed. "I like her very much."

She leaned her head against his knee. "I like her, too."

"I'm glad." He stroked her hair. "It's important to me, that you like her. I wouldn't... I couldn't like someone who didn't like you too."

"Kaylee's my friend. She's your friend–more than friend. She's in your eyes, no matter who you look at. Even me."

"River, I..." Simon swallowed, unsure of what to say.

"Kaylee's my friend," River repeated with a smile. "Have to like her. She makes him smile. Also, she loses at jacks. Important to know who your allies are so that when the battles lines are drawn, there are no surprises."

Simon reached out to stroke her cheek. "No surprises, mèimei."

"Shouldn't make promises he can't keep," she said gently, fingers curling around his. With a sigh, she began snatching up the drawings and stacking them haphazardly on her bed.

The port stabiliser was half disassembled by the time Mal got to the engine room, and Kaylee was bent over it, focused squarely on her task. He could see her eyes were puffy as if she'd been crying. He mentally kicked himself, but stood firm.

"You here to apologise?" she asked, not looking up from the mess of wiring her deft fingers were untangling.

"You looking for me to?"

"You got no call to say what you did," she said, looking as steely as Kaylee could look, which, granted, was about as scary as a fluffy little bunny with a pistol. Gun could still blow a hole in you–but that didn't much change the fact that it was still a bunny rabbit.

"I got every call–it ain't nothing but the way of things. Truth be told, I'm still glad it was the doctor you was crushing on, 'stead of Jayne–talking about limited choices and all. But I got to be sensible here, mèimei."

"I ain't your little sister–and you ain't my brother, my daddy, or my keeper. So I'd as soon appreciate it if you kept your nose outta my business from now on." She looked back down at the parts in her lap, jaw set.

Mal scowled down at her bent head. "I am your captain, you are a member of my crew, and that makes it my business.

She looked back up at him, pale and angry beneath the smudges of engine grease. But she didn't interrupt him.

"What happens when he and River decide to step off this boat, huh? You gonna trail after him, all moon-eyed? Or is he gonna leave you here a wreck for me to clean up? Either way, I lose me a damn good mechanic. So that makes it my business."

"Don't mean you know what's best for me," she pointed out. "Hell, Cap'n–you didn't much care 'bout who I spread for up 'til now–and don't you bother lying, 'cause I know it's true."

"This ain't about meaningless sex, or some fling, Kaylee," he said, trying to keep his tone in check, because the goal here wasn't actually to hurt Kaylee, but to prepare her for what he saw as the inevitable conclusion of this little romp. "A girl falls in love, and she leaves her head someplace and maybe she never finds it again. Can't afford that."

"Zoe–" she began, but he cut her off.

"Zoe is different."

"It ain't different at all!" Kaylee snapped. "She up and married Wash and she's still just as good at her job as she ever was. You got a whole lot of different rules for Zoe and 'Nara than you got for me, and I don't see as how that's fair. Not one bit."

"I told your daddy when I hired you on that I'd look after you–"

See, now, that was his mistake right there–and he'd known it just as the words had come out of his mouth. But if he hadn't, the look in her eyes would have told him. And he was no stranger to that look.

"I believe I am about finished with this conversation, Captain Reynolds. And I'd thank you kindly to get the hell out of my engine room, less you wanna be brained upside the head with a wrench."

Mal clenched his teeth against what he was about to say next–because he really did genuinely believe at this point he would get his head bashed in– and turned on his heel to go.

"Too many women," he muttered as he headed back up to the bridge to finish what he'd started.

Dinner was a strangely subdued affair. Wash handed his wife the rice, and the two of them watched events unfold with some interest.

Simon had smiled broadly when Kaylee had come to the table, pulling out her chair for her as he always did. The boy looked lost and a little forlorn when he received no grin in response. Shepherd seemed equally bewildered, but said nothing. Inara had scowled at Mal, and excused herself, taking her supper to eat in her shuttle. Jayne shovelled food into his mouth, either not noticing the tension, or not caring.

For her part, River kept glancing back and forth between her brother and Kaylee, not saying a word. Wash figured so long as the food stayed on the plates and wasn't decorating the walls or their garments, Ms. Tam must be having an okay day.

Mal seemed placid on the outside, calmly dipping his protein cubes in the savoury sauce Shepherd Book had prepared from vegetables he'd picked up that morning at Southdown Abbey. Mal was even smiling, which was a sure sign that something would blow eventually.

"We should be landing on Zephyr 'round dawn, Captain," Wash said, trying to strike up some vaguely neutral conversation.

Mal nodded. "Zoe, Jayne–you and I'll head over to Wyner's soon as we hit planetside. Preacher, you up to some shopping with the doc?"

"I'd like to check out the chapel at Riverside, actually–if that won't interfere with the pickup?"

"We're on Zephyr for least a day. Long as you make it back 'fore we take off, I got no problems."

"Kaylee? I need to pick up some supplies for the infirmary–Did you want to...?"

Startled, Kaylee looked up from her plate, which she had been staring at as if it contained the secret answers to every question she had ever yearned to answer.

"I imagine Kaylee's got some folks to see, planetside," Mal said before she could answer. "And we got us a port stabiliser still in pieces, if I recall."

"I ain't hungry," Kaylee said as she pushed away from the table.

Simon rose to follow her, but Mal stopped him.

"You best let her get on with her work."

"Hand in the cookie jar..." River whispered to Simon, who sat back down, staring at his own plate guiltily. "Go to bed without supper."

The best of limited choices.

Ever since the words had slipped–easy as you please–out of Mal's mouth, they'd been echoing in Kaylee's head. Sucking all the joy right out of what had started off as a mighty fine day.

That morning, Kaylee'd found a lady right near where Serenity had parked at Eavesdown with a cart full of fresh, ripe strawberries. Berries what had grown in the ground–not a Core hydroponics bay. They'd tasted almost as good as the berries Shepherd Book had brought from the Abbey when he'd first signed on. Better than the strawberries she'd had at that fancy party, even–those had been flash frozen from last summer's harvest, she was pretty sure. Out of season.

She'd fished through her overalls for coin, and picked up a bag at a more than fair price–even if it meant that she'd have to make do with last year's coveralls for another season. Or a month with no shiny new toys to play with, like the new grav boot she'd heard about from one of the techs on an '07 she'd run into last week in a portside bar.

People had their passions, and strawberries were one of hers. Engines, berries, and a certain dark-haired doctor. Anyone who knew Kaylee for more than a minute learned that much, and she hadn't cared one whit. Not today.

Because Kaylee loved strawberries. And Simon had kissed her.

If it had been the other way 'round–her doing the kissing–it would have been different. She knew that. This whole time, she'd been the one doing all the chasing, and she was fine with that. Didn't mind one bit. She knew what she wanted, and she'd gone after it. And as time had gone on, she'd gotten so very much more than she'd ever set out to.

From the second Simon had read their destination off the screen, and signed on for passage to Boros, Kaylee had thought he was one of the handsomest fellas she'd ever set eyes on. Her first instincts had been to snag a piece of that grace and class for herself. But as they'd settled in and bit by bit got to know one another, she realised she didn't just like him for the pretty. It was like icing on the richest chocolate cake in the 'verse as far as she was concerned.

Simon was decent, caring, funny–he made her laugh, and made her smile, and made her want to show him he could do the same without giving up an ounce of who he was. He was so focused on what he'd lost, she'd made it her personal mission to try and help him appreciate what he'd found. Not just because she'd spent many a long night imagining his arms around her, his lips moving against her neck or hair. But because no matter what might or might not happen between them, she wanted him to be happy. Everybody deserved to be happy.

And he'd kissed her, and she'd kissed him back, and it had been perfect.

Kaylee wanted to fling the coupler she was wrestling with across the room, but she didn't. Serenity needed every part she could scrounge–she couldn't go wasting them in a fit of pique. It wouldn't be sensible.

"Ni tamade!"

"You shouldn't let him get to you." Inara's voice broke through her musings, and Kaylee looked up to see the Companion standing in the doorway.

"But what if he's right?" Kaylee sighed, and tucked her knees up against her chest, resting her chin on her folded hands. "What if only reason Simon likes me at all is 'cause there ain't nobody else, and he's just making do?"

"Oh, Kaylee..." Inara bent down and brushed Kaylee's hair back from her face, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I hate to see you this way."

"I was so damn happy, you know? And then I come down to supper, and I see him smiling at me–and that's all I can wonder."

"Maybe the person you should be talking to is Simon?" Inara said gently.

Kaylee shook her head, feeling her gut seize up at the very thought. "I-I can't–I mean, what if it's true? At least now I got a fifty-fifty chance, ya know?" She gave a weak chuckle. "Don't know what I'd do if I found out it were true after all."

"If you can't have faith in your own charms, then at least give Simon the benefit of the doubt?" Inara suggested. "Mal wouldn't be in a snit if he didn't think that the good doctor genuinely cares about you. It's just Mal's way."

"I'm trying–I just... Everything's all turned around." Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She stretched out her legs, leaning back against the bulkhead, and picked absently at a loose thread on her jump-suit to give her nervous fingers something to do.

Inara sighed, dark eyes shining with empathy as she sat down next to Kaylee, arranging her flowing silk dress carefully as she stretched her legs out parallel to Kaylee's canvas-clad ones.

"You'll get all dirty," she said absently, fingers aching to pluck at the glowing gold folds. She wiped at her eyes with one sleeve instead.

Inara only laughed, and graciously allowed Kaylee to steer the topic away from her day's woes. "I've other dresses."

"My mamma always told me, never buy something you can't wash yourself and hang out to dry on the line."

"Your mother sounds like a wise woman. The guild pays for my cleaning bill–and sometimes I wonder how many tailors get fat and happy thanks to my trade."

"Do you think maybe–maybe you could take me shopping sometime? To pick out a pretty dress?" she asked shyly. "I love the one I got and all–but I think maybe it's too fancy sometimes. Too much fooferaw, like Zoe said. I'd like–I dunno, somethin' simple. Somethin' classy."

"I'd love to take you shopping," Inara said, patting Kaylee's knee. "We'll make a day of it."

Kaylee managed a smile. "I'd like that."

"Don't worry. Everything will look different in the morning."