Disclaimer: "Firefly" and "Serenity" are the creation and property of Joss Whedon and are used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"...And Treasure"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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"You enjoyed it."

Inara turned at the sound of the voice to see River sticking her head around the corner, "I don't know what you mean."

"Meaning is the interpretation which people attach to words or actions..." the younger woman remarked as she stepped around the corner and into full view, "Yes, you do."

The Companion took a breath to focus herself, "Even if I do know what you mean, it would have been difficult not to notice. Seeing it doesn't mean I enjoyed doing so."

"You're lying. Everybody on this ship lies, but you two do it to yourselves," River observed, "You enjoyed seeing the Captain naked. You shouldn't be ashamed; it's part of the biological processes necessary for continuation of the species to be attracted to the form of the opposing gender."

"I was taught to ignore such things and focus on providing companionship," Inara replied.

"They removed pieces of you and replaced them with pieces of what they want," River countered, "Just like they removed pieces of me and replaced them. But you're not me, you can go back and move forward, I'm stuck in now."

As though there were a greater being intent on making Inara's day worse, the last person she wanted to see - despite what she had already seen - happened to come down the hall just in time to hear River's last words.

Mal glanced between the two women as he finished buttoning his shirt, "Who's stuck in the what now?"

"River," Inara started sharply before taking a quick breath and beginning again, "River... thinks I'm stuck in a certain way of thinking."

"Rutting rut," River chimed in with an innocent expression on her face, causing Mal to shoot her a look of discomfort.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure we all agree that she has a different way of looking at things than what the rest of us do," Mal replied to Inara's statement, "Maybe to her way of thinking, you are in a rut."

"Neither of you are, that's the problem," River interjected.

Frowning, Mal moved his finger around in the air as though tracking something, "Somehow, I get the feeling I just walked in on act three of a four act play... so would someone mind telling me just what the hell is it that I missed here?"

"Well..." Inara hesitated, "That is..."

"Why don't you two just have sex already?"

"What?" both Mal and Inara exclaimed, one at the contents of River's question, the other at the bluntness of it.

"Thief steals her heart; whore sleeps with every man but him; forcing a distance instead of the closeness they really want," River blinked as she looked at them, "I love babies - they're so bright-eyed and squirmy. Can we have one on the ship?"

Mal reached over and keyed the nearest intercom panel, "Simon? Would you please come get your sister? She's rambling again and her mouth's running into places it really shouldn't."

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong," River added in an almost-sane voice, "Just that you don't want to hear the truth because the truth hurts, but the truth hurts if it's told and hurts if it's not tolds, so telling or not telling, it's just a case of which hurts the least."

"I'm on my way," Simon's voice came back over the intercom.

"Don't bother," River spoke up so that her brother could hear her along with the other two, "I'm going now, you can have your privacy even if it doesn't seem like you know what to do with it. I'm going to go talk to Kaylee-Jiejie."

Humming an indistinct tune to herself, River walked off towards the engine room, leaving Mal and Inara standing there in the hall stunned.

"Did she just call Kaylee her 'big sister'?" Inara finally managed to ask.

"Yep," Mal let out a long, slow breath, "Figure I'm going to have to have a serious talk with the Doc about my engineer."

"What about..."

"Yep," Mal interrupted before Inara could finish her question, "Definitely a serious talk with the Doc..."

Inara watched as Mal turned and walked away, presumably towards the medical bay or wherever he could find Simon and tried not to clench her teeth. He should have said something. Once the thought about Mal crossed her mind, she realized that for that matter, she should have said something herself. Someone should have said something. Then she closed her eyes and mentally swore; of course he wouldn't say anything, they had a rental agreement that said she would not provide companionship to him or any member of his crew and he would certainly consider anything he might say and what could come of it a breach of contract and for all the denigrating remarks she made about him being a criminal, Mal never broke a contract without good reason and he wouldn't consider himself a good reason.

What hurt was that it seemed he didn't consider her a good reason either. River had been right; the truth hurt. 'Respectibility', she had said it when she first inspected the shuttle she now rented, she brought a respectibility to the ship and its movements that provided a cover for the crew's less-respectable activities. Except that those activities were infectious; they made her feel alive in a way that being a Companion hadn't ever since she had gotten the news... and that was even before she had taken an active part like she had this time, as much in the background as it had been. The problem was that as long as that contract and respectibility were there, nothing would ever happen between them. She should have said something and she hadn't, maybe it was time to do something instead...

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Author's Notes: By way of an online translator, which we all know aren't that good, 'Jiejie' is supposed to mean 'older sister' or 'big sister'. I've probably either gotten the wrong word or the wrong meaning. My apologies to anyone reading this who knows Chinese and felt that pang of pain upon reading it and it being wrong.

Inara's conclusion about 'time to do something instead' is meant to lead into "The Message" where she tries to convince Mal to let her help fence the Lassiter.