DISCLAIMER: I do not own Firefly, or the Firefly IP/universe/characters. While the words are mine they are based in an IP I do not own. I do not make money from this, it's all in good fun.
Author's note: If any of you have read my work before this should feel familiar. I had previously written this in a script format, but due to the reviews I have redone it in a more readable format. I hope it's true to the characters.
Mal, sitting in the new pilot's chair, leaned over the cortex, poring through it. He sighed, and rubbed his eyes, not satisfied with what he found. Looking over his shoulder he gave a small nod to Zoe as she approached, her face a mirror of his own grim one. She nodded back and sat gingerly in the co pilot's chair taking care not to jar her spine as she sat. Without looking at him she spoke, "Anything?" Mal snuck a glance at her before he too spoke to the black drifting past, "not a gorram thing." Slowly their gazes turned toward the dinosaurs all over the instruments.
They had been out in the black for just a few days. With repairs completed Serenity felt like a new version of herself. Many of the wiring flaws that had always given his boat a certain amount of character had been fixed. Mal still hadn't decided whether that was a good thing or not. Course that wasn't the only thing affecting the general atmosphere of the ship, and though they already had a job lined up, good food on the table, and Simon and Kaylee grinning like the kids in love they were, the ship felt heavy and oppressive. He had a pretty good notion of what Zoe was thinking on in her chair, and he snuck another glance at her.
Her face was frozen, as frozen as he'd ever seen. Or perhaps more frozen. It had been a long while since she'd been the stone cold woman he was seeing now. Sure to others maybe she always had been, but they didn't know her the way he did, and for a while there she had been glowy, cheerful, carefree even. Mal repressed a sigh, and turned back to the cortex, his companion on the bridge just as silent as the black they sailed though.