Disclaimer: Property of Joss and Fox.

"Are we going to get caught?" River asked for the millionth time that day.

"No, meimei, we're not going to get caught. We've done hundreds of jobs like this before and it's usually gone fine."

"I meant by mom and dad. Are they going to catch us here? Make me go back to that school?"

Simon hugged his sister tightly. "Over my dead body," he said seriously.

"What if they hire assassins?"

He couldn't tell if she were being serious or not, but decided to answer anyway. "Then I have you to protect me, don't I?" His sister nodded. "So no one is taking either of us from the other. Dong ma?"

"But what if-"

"River, they don't even know we're on the planet. They don't even know we're on this ship. No one from back home does. We've been in our rooms all day, and I'm sure the captain hasn't set up signs all over the place telling people where we are. You're worrying too much."

"Perhaps you don't worry enough," she countered, sticking out her tongue for emphasis. Simon chuckled. "Will your boyfriend be back soon?" she asked innocently, although a dervish grin had spread across her lips.

"Would you stop that?" her brother said impatiently, dealing out another round of cards.

"Is that not what he is?"

"No."

"Oh… have you chosen to go separate ways?"

"No."

"Then he is your boyfriend, yes?"

Simon blushed. "No," he said. "It's… complicated. Hush up and pick up your cards."

"Why not call the rose a rose? You are with him, he is with you… he is your boyfriend."

"Would you call Jayne Kaylee's boyfriend?"

River gave him 'the look'. "That's different," she said, indicating it was soooo obvious to someone who wasn't a moron. "He is the father of her child. They are a couple without labels."

"There, ok, fine. So I am a couple without a label."

She shook her head adamantly. "Neither of you are in the family way. You're boyfriends." She thought a moment. "Lovers."

"Violet wild," he said, trying desperately to change the subject. "Dealer takes two."

"You love him, don't you?" Her huge eyes wanted to know, searched her brother's expression for an answer. "So you are lovers."

It was apparent there was no getting out of this one. "Yes," he said quietly. "Will you please take your cards already?"

"What'd we get?" Wash wanted to know.

Mal, Zoe and Jayne stalked onto the ship looking somewhat pissed. For awhile, no one said anything. It was Zoe who finally broke the tension. "Eggs," she said, as though that explained anything.

"Eggs?" Wash repeated. "You mean like chicken eggs, goose eggs, scrambled, fried?"

"Dinosaur," his wife told him flatly.

"Dinosaur? But aren't they… yeah last I checked they were pretty much all dead."

"Apparently not." She gave Wash a quick hug, then stomped off after Mal and Jayne toward the kitchen.

Wash chased after her, not liking how annoyed everyone looked. "Okay, dinosaur eggs," he reasoned. "That's not such a bad transport, is it? I mean, not unless…" He tucked his rather large angel wings behind him, although they still dragged across the walls and dripped feathers all over. Serenity's hallways were far too cramped. "Unless they're supposed to hatch, right?"

"They ain't real," Mal said crossly, dropping his shoulder holster onto the eating table. "Some sort of chicken-lizard crossbreed."

"Okay," Wash said. "But it's still work, right? Why does everyone look so gorram mad?"

"They got insurance," Jayne snapped, slamming his butt into a chair. The feeble wood creaked threateningly. "Parently Monty's dealing with some kinda circus folk, and they got (finger quotation marks) "genuine dinosaur eggs". Thing is though, they gotta transport these eggs out to the Rim, place called New Glory. But the circus ship don't trust itself to take 'em safely, so they're hiring us to do it. But they won't give us the job unless we agree to the insurance arrangement."

"Which is?"

"We break one damn egg we get no pay!" He slammed his fist down angrily. It seemed Mr. Cobb was out to bust some furniture, as the table groaned unappreciatively.

"Apparently they're damn fragile things," Zoe said shortly. "Jilt 'em just a little and they crack. Once they crack, whatever's inside dies."

"Simon, get up here," Mal yelled into the intercom. "Hell, everyone get up here."

Zoe continued without pause. "So we're supposed to take these two dozen extremely fragile eggs onto a cargo ship, expect them not to jolt, and if one of them breaks we lose all pay."

"Not only that," Mal chimed in, "we have to pay for the damage."

"Well," Wash said as the footfalls of the rest of the crew echoed in the hall, "that sounds like no deal. We can't possibly comply to all that."

"Oh, it gets better," Mal assured him. "Say doc, do you know a Melvin Greenburg?"

Simon took a chair beside Jayne, being much kinder to it than the merc had. "Melvin Greenburg? Let me think… yes, I think I do. A young man, probably twenty at the most. Dark brown hair, green eyes? Freckles? Looks kind of sickly?"

"That's the one," Mal agreed, "although he's looking less sickly by now and more, well… unsickly."

"My first kiss," River said quietly, blushing from the memory.

"What?" her brother asked, more shocked than angry. "Really? He's so much older than you."

"Only a few years. It was dangerous." Simon snickered, as River might be the only person alive who would ever refer to Melvin Greenburg as 'dangerous'.

"Yeah, well I'm glad y'all love him so much, cuz he's coming aboard."

The color flooded from Simon's face. "What?"

As Mal went on to explain the eggs, and the insurance, and how infuriatingly impossible this job seemed to be, he added that the circus folk demanded one of their own to go with the eggs to make sure they were properly cared for- got enough heat, enough moisture and the like. They had taken a young med student into their caravan, and that student was the one and only Melvin Greenburg.

"He'll tell on us!" River cried out. "He'll tattle to mom and dad!"

"We ain't decided if we're taking the job or not," Mal assured her. "No need to go on a crazy rampage just yet. Figured I'd ask you and your brother about it first."

"I don't know," Simon said. "We can't just stay in our rooms for the next week, and I truly don't like the idea of seeing someone from home. How would I explain all this?"

"This what?" Kaylee asked. "You mean how you ended up on a firefly? What, you ashamed of Serenity now?"

"No," he said patiently, knowing he was probably getting into a fight no matter what he said next. "Well, the ship is part of it. I was thinking more about the whole 'number one enemy of the Alliance', and disappearing for over a year now."

"Two years, one month, seventeen days," River corrected him.

"No, that was since I got you from the school. I was gone a few weeks before then, so it'd be two years, two months, and three days. Or maybe four."

"Who cares?" Jayne said plainly. "Are we taking this job or not?"

"That's for you all to help decide," Mal said. "We all know the risks, but here's the benefit- if we can do this, job pays a great big chunk of change. Might make it worth our while."

"How big is this chunk of change?" Kaylee asked.

The captain paused for dramatic emphasis, mostly because he didn't think he'd ever be referring to this number again in front of his crew. "Half a million credits."

Everyone was dumbstruck. Most of them (well, actually everyone but Inara and the Tams) had been unaware there had been that much money in the universe, let alone just that much for one job. The amount hung in the air like a cloud for everyone to see. Each person imagined what they could do with their share. The possibilities were almost endless.

"You okay, Kaylee?" Simon asked, breaking the silence. "Sometimes big shocks can induce labor, I just wanted to make sure-"

"No no, we're good," she assured him. "Think Joss is too stunned to move right now." Her eyes were wide, staring blankly at Mal.

"Half a million," Zoe confirmed, though she too was still in shock.

"Wow," Wash chimed in. "Guess I see now why you all were so pissed. That's quite a lot of coin to turn down or lose."

"Right," Mal agreed. "So, the big question, and we only have two hours to decide- do we take this job or not?"

Everyone had to think it over. Was good money to be had, there was no doubt, but was it worth the risk? "How likely is it the eggs will break?" Simon asked.

"Oh, very," Mal assured him. "They almost guaranteed it."

"Do you have the agreement in writing?" Inara asked.

Mal quirked an eyebrow. "In writing? Not as such. Why?"

"Sounds like a scam," she said simply. "They have precious cargo that's almost guaranteed to break. In the agreement, if anything does break, you not only lose all pay but you have to compensate for the damages. Sounds to me like they're looking to transport as many as they can for free. Making you think you lost your own deal just makes it easier for them to scam you."

"Sounds reasonable," Zoe said. "You think they even have half a million?"

"I very much doubt it. They put a high price on it so you think you're getting a deal, so you will try hard as you can to keep the cargo safe. But they know it won't work. And sending one of their own may insure that something goes wrong no matter how careful you are about it."

"So we don't take the job, then."

"No, no," Inara said. "Take it."

"But you just said it was a scam," Mal interrupted. "I don't like being scammed."

"They expect you to store their precious cargo on your clunky old ship where who knows how much can go wrong."

"Right."

Inara smiled. "Get the agreement in writing. They'll understand. It is a lot of money that most people- especially those bound for the Rim- don't have. Tell them you will take the job, and if they must, let them send along their man."

"But River and I-"

"You won't have to worry about it at all, Simon," she assured him. "He won't be on Serenity more than five minutes."