Don't worry! There's more... I Just gotta get the time to get it typed up. For now how about you settle yourself with this tidbit.

I don't own any of this.

"Do you have any needs?" Kaylee asked the bald man who'd introduced himself as Richard. She realized how that sounded and felt her cheeks grow hot. "I mean do you want anything. OMIGOD! Do you need to stop and get luggage!?"

Richard stared at her blankly for a moment before giving her a ghost of a smile. "Heh... nah." His deep voice resonated somewhere in her core that was making her mighty flustered. "I travel light."

"Right then..." She swung her arms lazily back and forth a couple times to keep from looking like she was fidgeting. "I'll just go let Mal know." With that she turned on her heel and trotted off toward the bridge.

Once she had gotten safely down the hall and around the corner, out of sight, she stopped and pressed her face to the cool bulkhead. Chilling her flush cheeks on the metal of the wall calmed her enough that she could look back on the encounter with a fresh sense of horror. She lifted her head away from the hard, flat surface then let it settle back with a solid THUD, and THUD again.

"Kaylee?" Mal's voice was way too close for comfort, right now. "Is... everything OK?"

"OH!" She jumped to an upright position and put her hand over her startled heart. "Mal! You shouldn't sneak up on folk like that!" She looked up to see Mal and Jayne sitting in the infirmary looking at her with bafflement in their eyes. Mal had a mobile computer in his hands and Jayne's hand was hovering in the air over it as if he had been pointing to it.

"Me?!" Mal sputtered a bit, "If you hadn't been so gorram intent on takin my ship apart with yer skull..."

"Uh, huh... Richard said he don't need anything from the surface." She turned around and headed toward the engine room. "If you need me you know where to find me!"

"In yer bunk? Takin' a cold shower?" She heard Jayne chide from behind her. She made a rude gesture over her shoulder and kept right on walking.

When she got back to where she had left the burly bald man he was nowhere in sight, thankfully. The smell of him was still heavy on the air, though so she hurried past just in case he came back looking for her or something. Everything about that man just tied her tongue up and made her knees wobble in a very good way.

She trotted all the way to the engine room where she could take comfort in the unemotional acceptance of her beloved Serenity.

~:}¥{:~

Riddick had a towel wrapped around his neck and was headed toward the communal passenger showers when he heard the metallic banging of running boots on decking. The sound of it was coming toward him at a fast clip so he found himself flattened against the wall between the bulkheads, concealed in the shadows, out of habit.

He remained perfectly still and completely unnoticed as the mechanic ran back to whatever project she had been pulled from. Moments later the doctor returned to check on the merc and the captain left them to their own devices. Mal strolled out of the med bay like another man might walk into their own home.

"Ya know," Mal started talking to no one in particular, "If you lurk about like that all the time, yer gonna take to creepin' folk out." Riddick realized that the man was talking to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Not lurking," He reassured Mal, "Just got distracted by the action."

"Ah, yeah..." Mal smiled, more to himself than Riddick, "Our li'l Kaylee is right full'a energy. Don't really know how Simon, here, puts up with it." Mal poked a thumb into the air over his shoulder to indicate the doctor in the med bay and Riddick nodded at the unspoken designation of relationship.

"I got some personal grooming to do." He told the captain.

"Don't let me keep ya, then." Mal nodded to him then turned to walk out of the passenger deck. He turned back just before Riddick had stepped over the threshold into the head. "Oh, hey! Zoe did tell you that the cargo hold, crew quarters and technical areas are off limits, right?"

"Yeah..." Riddick lifted an eyebrow but nodded once more.

"Just checkin'." With that Mal walked into the cargo hold.

~:}¥{:~

Mal slowly made his way from the passenger deck to the bridge, making a few stops along the way to check on the workings of his ship.

After he got the cargo information from Jayne, he checked on the cargo himself. He felt better just having laid his own eyes on it. Next he went to the mess hall by way of Inara's shuttle. Inara shooed him on his way as quickly as she always did and so he went to scrounge up something caffeinated to drink.

He took the mug of rehydrated coffee-like liquid up to the bridge and leaned against the bulkhead separating the corridor from the bridge. He just leaned there like that for a spell watching the star scape and sipping his drink while River made minute adjustments to the control panel in front of her.

"Sir." Zoe was behind him. He turned slightly so she knew he was listening, but didn't yet take his eyes off the scenery. "I've been looking up information on our passenger."

"And?" Mal wasn't really curious, but one of Zoe's more redeeming facets was her cautious nature with strangers.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to have him on board." She said in a foreboding tone.

"And, why's that?" Mal prompted her. Sometimes she played her information a little too close to her leather-clad chest.

"Well, he's got a few warrants for his arrest, Sir."

"More than me?" Mal was slightly interested now.

"Well, no..." She grimaced. "But most of these are for murder and one of his warrants states he's wanted for questioning in the ecological destruction of an entire planet."

"Huh..." Mall turned to face her and took the hand-held computer from her. "Good thing we ain't got one of those."

"There are extradition orders attached to these. Helion Prime, Crematoria..."

"Ain't Crematoria one of those penal colonies?" Mal asked her so she wouldn't read through the entire list of places that wanted this guy back. Seemed to him that if this Riddick was such a po'NAN all these places would be glad to never see him again.

"Yes, Sir." She paused, waiting for him to get to the point, then added: "One of those near-solar places where the ground boils during the day.

"Huh..." Mall frowned at the display in her hand, "FAHNG Sheen. Something tells me he wouldn't have gotten away from there if he hadn't paid his due."

"Sir..." She fixed him with her 'disapproving' face, "The one from Crematoria is for jail breaking and mass murder."

"Well, Zoe," He was exasperated with her now. "What in gorram hell do you expect me to do about it now? Push him out an airlock?"

"No! I-"

"Good! Coz that's reserved for Jayne!" He took the last swig of his coffee-like mud and pushed past her back toward the mess hall. "If trouble arises, we'll take care of it. If it don't, then there's nothin' for us to worry about." He heard Zoe huff a sigh at his back as he ducked into the mess hall.

Happy Holidays, folks! I'm not sure if I'll get to another chapter before the New Year. Please enjoy a warm & safe Holiday Season!