A/N During Serenity the Episode. Book and Kaylee share in creating a meal. The characters were created by Joss Whedon and only borrowed by me. This is my second Firefly story and I hope I got the language right.

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It was just a little bit after 1700 when Kaylee made her way from Serenity's engineroom to the dining room. She was in a good mood. The captain had taken some new passengers onboard today and they all seemed really nice. Specially that doctor, who was very handsome. But what put her in a particularly good mood was the prospect of some real food. As she skipped down the few steps into the dining room she thought back to the strawberry she had secretly tasted earlier that afternoon and her mouth watered.

Shepherd Book, another one of the new passengers, was already busy chopping vegetables in the kitchen. He had kindly offered to help her prepare the evening meal and had provided all the vegetables they were going to have. Kaylee looked down to the fantastic display of fresh vegetables that lay on the kitchen worktop. Carrots, parsnips, swedes, onions and tomatoes, some already washed and waiting for Book to start cutting them.

'You know, Shepherd? I ain't seen this many real vegetables in a long time.' She picked up one of the shining red tomatoes, looking at it as if she was trying to catch her reflection. 'We're gonna have the best meal ever!'

Book looked up at Kaylee with a smile.

'I take it you space travelers don't see much fresh food once your underway.'

'No, we don't. We don't see much of it when we land either. Most of the planets we go to are very poor 'n even if they have vegetables, we usually don't have the money to buy 'em.' There was a little bit of sadness in her voice. She shook it off.

'But look at all this food today! How d'ya come by it Shepherd?'

'I grew it myself at the Abbey.' He started slicing the tomatoes. 'I had a small vegetable plot and when I left I dug up the vegetables and picked the tomatoes. I didn't want them to go to waste.'

'I'm very happy ya brought 'em with ya to Serenity.' Kaylee smiled at Book and picked up a spare knife. 'What are we making?'

'I was thinking of grilling the vegetables and then putting them together in one dish with some of the spices I brought.'

At the thought Kaylee's mouth started watering again.

'And I can whip up some of our protein 'n make it look like mashed potatoes,' she said.

'Excellent idea.'

Kaylee set to work, peeling and cutting the vegetables.

'Do you often take passengers? Book was laying the last hand to an impromptu tomato salad.

'Not that often. We usually ship cargo from one colony to another, hope to get paid. Have been a bit unlucky lately so Cap'n decided to take on passengers.'

'Ah... It can't be easy for Captain Reynolds to keep his ship in good order and his crew safe and fed.'

Kaylee, who was digging up a potato masher from the back of a draw looked up and smiled.

'Cap'n at times looks like a stern, horrible man, but he's not really. He cares more for Serenity 'n her crew than any of us on board her.'

Book was touched by the loyalty of her words.

'Let's create a feast for tonight, for everyone to share, so we can get to know each other,' he said. 'How about I make an extra special dessert of those strawberries?'

A big happy smile lit up Kaylee's face as she started to mash the protein.