Author's Notes: Set post-BDM, so canon character death is featured.
Zoe stared out the window into the dark vacuum. She wondered whether some part of him was still out there somewhere, flying through space the way he'd always loved, wither whether everything that she'd loved about him had just completely faded into the nothingness of the Black, leaving her completely alone.
Except that a creeping sensation made her realise she wasn't alone right now after all.
The detection of the near-silent presence lurking just behind her activated Zoe's long battle-honed instincts. Her hand instinctually twitched towards her gun, fingers grasping the cool metal as she identified the intruder as the Captain. Typically, he was slouching casually against the doorway as if he wasn't just a quick draw from receiving a bullet to the brain. Not that – as his many bullet wound scars could attest – that sort of thing had ever done much to stop him from doing whatever he damn well pleased.
She'd probably still go ahead and shoot him on principle if he even thought about taking the opportunity to tell her how sorry he was for her loss, or if he looked at her the way she sometimes caught the others doing out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't searching for pity, especially from anyone who couldn't understand from experience. While she and the Captain had done so much together, and they'd both seen enough death to last lifetimes, for once this wasn't an experience that he could share with her.
Thankfully, all Mal actually said was, "We've finally landed us a proper job on the line. You about ready to get going?"
He didn't order her, clearly knowing that she'd comply regardless of whether she felt up to it or not, but he didn't needto.
Zoe didn't smile – she rarely had even before, and couldn't conceive of doing so anymore without the one person who had always prompted so much of her happiness – but she had to admit that some part of her felt suddenly just a little bit lighter.
Work. Purpose. The very real probability that she'd get to shoot someone a little less Captain-shaped. The only things that she wanted more right at that moment were the ones that were forever out of reach. Mal might have no personal experience standing in her shoes, but she thought he at least understood thatmuch.
"You know me, Captain," she answered. "Always fixing for a good tussle."
"That's what I thought," he said with only the slightest trace of the smugness she expected.
He stepped out of their room (she still couldn't quite bear to start calling it just her room now that she no longer had anyone to share it with), and she took a second to glance back out the window. The small moon they were heading for was now interrupting her view of the expanse of space, signalling that they would be landing soon enough. That River would be landing them, to be more precise, with all of the skill but none of the colourful commentary and peculiar flair that Zoe associated with Serenity breaking atmosphere.
Zoe shook her head and followed the echo of the Captain's retreating footsteps, looking forward to the upcoming distraction of the job.
~FIN~