Mal turned his head slightly, looking across the dinosaur-strewn dashboard. River was nursing her baby daughter in the co-pilot's chair, her hair falling over her bare shoulder and exposed breast.
"Do you have to do that in here?" Mal asked, his voice full of defeat and exasperation.
"She likes it up here. It's relaxing." Though River had gotten a lot more social and normal over the past few years, she still spoke in short, cryptic sentences. "Besides, you let Airon up here."
"Yeah, but I don't breast-feed 'im." Mal replied, his eyes monitoring the open space before Serenity.
"True."' River responded without looking up. Mal sighed loudly, and returned to surveying the vast and endless space before them.
Hours later, Mal was done with his turn at the helm, letting River take over. In return, he carried River's baby daughter, Lyssa, down to the dining room. Jayne sat at the table, cutting his meat with a sharp knife and reading a letter from his mother, narrowing his eyes to focus. Zoe sat across from him, with her five year old daughter on her lap. The girl was light skinned, just a shade lighter than Zoe, and had blondish light brown, curly hair. In the face, she looked just like Zoe, but her eyes had glints of Wash in them, usually when she laughed. She was a good little kid, already smart. Mal was sure that she would make Zoe proud some day.
Mal handed Lyssa carefully over to her father, and Jayne put his food and paper aside instantly to take her. He rocked the infant slowly, gingerly, and stood cautiously and walked down to the nursery. One of the spare rooms on the main deck had been repurposed for the younger children to sleep in.
Mal walked right passed Zoe, who gave him a little nod over Alleyne's little head, and up to Inara's old shuttle. Entering quietly, he found Airon where he had left him hours earlier, staring at a puzzle.
"Hey," Mal sat down next to his son.
The little boy looked up and gave his father a tight little smile. "Hi, pa."
"What's happening, little man?" Mal asked, looking down at the puzzle in progress, a map of the central planets.
"I played with Alleyne this morning." Airon said, putting a piece into place. "And Aunt Kaylee made me lunch. It was terrible."
Mal laughed, ruffling his son's hair. Though Airon's dark curly locks were from his mother, his blunt manner, even at four years old, was just like Mal. "Maybe it's about time we took on a cook." Mal said thoughtfully, rubbing a spot of dirt off of his son's face. "We already have everything else under the sun. Why not?"
Airon cracked a smile.
Mal worried about his son. He wasn't blind, or stupid- the kid was sad. Losing your mother will do that to you. But he didn't play much with the other children, he liked to sit up alone, in Inara's old shuttle, with Inara's old things. But then again, so did Mal. So Mal put the worries out of his mind and put his son to bed. Still, as Airon's breath grew long and even, he stared at the puzzle, at the incomplete picture of the central planets. The world his son would only know in pictures, so abstract compared to the world his mother had known.
Kaylee woke at two in the morning, to the sound of a little whine, emitted from a baby monitor on her bedside table. Careful not to wake Simon, she slipped out of their bed. Stretching, she pulled a robe on over her night gown, and walked over to the nursery. Sure enough, little Sam was standing at the bars of his crib, a little fist in his mouth and his wide blue eyes full of curiosity. His mouth broke into a jubilant smile at the sight of her, and he reached out to her with a chubby little hand. Kaylee lifted him onto one hip, and he clutched her, wrapping his legs around her waist. She walked him around the room once, looking down at the sleeping faces of the other children. Alleyne slept soundly, her hair a wild mess about her pillow, Joy, Kaylee's four year old, slept with her hair braided down her back, the light brown glinting to gold in the light. Kaylee leaned down and kissed her little girl, then stepped out. She walked the little boy down to the engine room, and set him down in a play pen. Sam calmed as the sounds of the engine soothed him. Within seconds, he was silent, and within minutes, sleeping. Kaylee smiled, and, picking up a tin can full of bolts, she went to work. Serenity was old, really old, but Kaylee kept her running. She did what she had to, not only fixing things, replacing parts, and reusing things to within an inch of their lives, but tinkering with the design, learning the way Serenity spoke and trying her best to reply in kind. Over the lat six years, Kaylee had made a lot of progress. Her happiness with Simon only helped her work, and Serenity flourished.
Kaylee fiddled with a replacement part she had bought on their past stop. Weeks ago, she had picked it up in a second hand parts shop, seen how she could fix it, and thought that it would be good to have a spare part, just in case. She had "Just in case" on her mind a lot lately. Since Wash and Inara had died, the reality of the life they were living had sunken in for her. What they did was dangerous, and Wash had left Zoe alone with their little girl. Sure, Inara had died of sickness, but it had all reminded Kaylee that life was short. Inara knew that. That's why she came back to Serenity, that's why she married Mal. Kaylee sighed. Serenity was the home of five children, only three of whom had both parents. She and Simon were lucky, lucky that they got to hold both of their children, lucky that they were both healthy and alive. Lucky to be in love. They weren't so lucky in their business. Simon had never broached the subject of leaving Serenity, he knew that Kaylee loved the ship, and everyone on her. But sometimes, against her loyal nature, Kaylee thought about what life would be like if they left. Simon wasn't a fugitive anymore, he could become a doctor on a non-central planet, and they could raise their children peacefully. But Kaylee couldn't see herself anywhere other than on Serenity. What would she do elsewhere?
Kaylee set aside her heavier thoughts and opened up a file of Serenity's blueprints. The engine plans were some of her favorite reading materials, she knew them inside and out. While Simon read medical journals before bed, Kaylee went over the engine by memory, thinking of ways to simplify design and increase mileage. She had her best ideas there, lying beside her husband, or soothing her baby, or reading to her toddler. Her family was her inspiration, and she didn't know how she could have worked alone.
Zoe sat up that night, polishing her boots. She whistled under her breath, the same tune Wash always had. She had tried to keep things the way that they were since he had died, nearly six years ago. All of his clothes, still in their wardrobe, tucked into the far left side. His books, on the shelves nailed to the walls, his old comic books. Everything was neater than it had been during his life. Her military precision dictated cleanliness and neatness, his style was haphazard and random. All of his things were still in the room, but there were neatly tucked away and put in places that they might have belonged, but never had. Tucking her hair behind her ears, Zoe opened up her journal, writing about Alleyne's progress in writing and reading, an of the events of the day. Journaling filled the hours of the evening, reading filled her sleepless nights. Her loneliness was her choice. She needed her space, she needed her time. Mal understood, she thought. He was always sitting up in Inara's old shuttle with his little boy. He too was clinging to a ghost, trying to stay in the past of a place. Zoe put down her pen and journal, and lay down to sleep, closing her mind to the thoughts that always haunted her at night.
"Cap'n?" Kaylee asked, walking into the kitchen and dining room, carrying her little Sam.
"Yeah, Kaylee?" Mal looked up from his meal, and putting his tin cup down on the table.
"I just talked to River, and she thinks we could go ashore on Beaumonde by t'morrow."
"D'we need to go 'shore?" Asked Zoe, sipping a bitter cup of coffee and grimacing.
"Yep," Kaylee responded. "I need some parts, but we're also out of sugar."
Zoe raised her eyebrows and glanced down at her cup. "Makes sense."
"A'right, seems t'me it's already decided anyhow." Mal shrugged. "To Beaumonde we go."
AN: Thanks for reading! Hope you like it. Please review!