Nightly Routine
Rated: PG
Category: Double Drabble, Mal/Zoe Friendship.
Spoilers: BDM.
Summary: Zoe's Not Sleeping Well Post BDM, But She And Mal Work Things Out.
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Serenity was quiet.
Everyone was asleep.
Everyone except her captain, who sat quietly on the bridge.
Once Mal was certain he was alone in wakefulness, he set the auto-pilot and tip-toed to the lounge area.
That's where he found her.
As he'd known he would.
She was curled up on the couch, fast asleep. Her long legs barely fit onto the sofa and she looked uncomfortable, but she had a type of peace to her.
A peace she was rarely allowed.
Mal sighed.
He reached into a storage locker, removed a thin blanket, and spread it over her sleeping form.
Then he grabbed another, wrapped it around his shoulders, and sat down on the floor across from her.
He could see her from there, and when the nightmares came again, as they always did, he could wake her before the others heard.
She'd take his watch from him then, without a word, and they would both understand.
Zoe hadn't slept in her own bunk since they'd lost Wash, and Mal's nightly routine was habit by now, too.
No one questioned why the night watches never rotated anymore.
Mal took first.
Zoe took second.
Without a word.
And they both understood.