Disclaimer: Don't own it. Nope not even a little bit.
A/N: Yay for random lines that appear during finals…Mal PoV, Zoë-centric, Post-BDM, heavy on the spoilage(though if you haven't seen the movie by now, what have you been doing?). Read, enjoy, let me know what you think.
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She don't play the part of the grieving widow and that unnerves him.
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In the days before Miranda— before Wash too—they was just Zoë and Mal.
He could read her better than anyone in the 'verse, knew when to stand and when to fall back. Knew what made her laugh, what would make her cry even if she never shed a tear, knew what would piss her off and what would make her happy.
Then Wash came along, and one day, he didn't know her as well as he thought.
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They bleed brown, the two of them and that means something.
Means they are tired and worn out but they are still fixing to fight. Means they survive—anything and everything.
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He should have known things would end badly the minute he saw that Wash bled red.
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In the days following Miranda—following Wash too—he still hears people talking about Zoë and Wash.
And it doesn't help matters any that he still thinks that way too.
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She smiles when she's got to and she still laughs if the moment decrees it.
She still walks straight and set as ever and her shot's never been better. She talks with Kaylee and keeps Jayne in his place and talks River out of her hiding holes whenever the girl goes a bit scattered in the brain pan—because it still happens from time to time—and it ain't nothing different from before.
Except that it is.
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Inara says he ought to talk to her.
Says Zoë ain't dealing with things like she ought to and that it's his responsibility as captain and friend to see her through it.
He don't bother telling her that keeping them alive was his responsibility too.
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'Sir,' she says outta the blue one day, when he's grumpy and short fused with everyone—and she has never been an exception—'I was wondering if we had time for a stop.'
And there ain't nothing different about her, not in her eyes or the set of her mouth or her shoulders or anything. She's just Zoë, like she's always been.
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They go and she kneels in the dirt and whispers something while they all keep their distance.
'Hearts endure.' River says, with that faraway look of hers that don't fit the little girl body standing there with them. 'Bypass dirt and flesh, are carried on, for forever and infinity.'
Zoë shakes her head a little and he thinks she might have already known that.
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End
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