"Zoe, can I see you outside for a moment?" Mal fought to keep his voice calm.
"Not now, sir."
"Yes, now. Right now."
"No, Mal!" Her eyes were blazing. Mal glanced from her to Wash and relented.
"You have two minutes."
"Thank you, sir," she said coldly. Mal turned his attention to Simon.
"Are they going to be okay?" he whispered.
"I can't say. The ambulance wasn't very well stocked, I couldn't do much… It's really a miracle they're alive."
Mal said nothing, just nodded and left the infirmary. It was well over two minutes later when Zoe came out, but he hadn't had the heart to go in and get her.
"This is your fault." He had intended to shout, but it came out barely above a whisper. Zoe hung her head, but did not reply. "I told you. I warned you that this would happen. I asked you, I begged you not to go. " His voice began to rise.
"Well you didn't help!" she shouted.
"What?"
"You knew we were going to go through with it whether you liked it or not. If you hadn't been so stubborn, you could have come and helped, and maybe they wouldn't have gotten hurt!"
"Don't you dare try to blame this on me. It was your plan, your-"
"I never said it wasn't my fault!" she burst out. "I just-" She buried her face in her hands and sat down heavily on the couch, "I just wanted Wash back."
Mal found Zoe asleep in her chair by Wash's bedside. He shook her shoulder.
"You should get to bed. I'll take this shift," he said with a tired smile. Since their fight, things had more or less gone back to normal between the two of them, united by their common pastime of sitting in the infirmary and watching the patients. Wash was improving greatly, back to his normal, carefree self, but Mei hadn't stayed awake for more than a few minutes in the last week.
"Hello, captain!" Wash said brightly when he woke up, "Sure is nice of you to visit me so often." He studied Mal's face for a moment. "I'm really sorry about what happened, I-"
"We talked about this before. Weren't your fault. You didn't ask her to help. Hell, no one did. I just don't understand that girl."
"You talkin' about me?" mumbled Mei. Mal spun around to look at her. Her eyes were still closed, but she was smiling. With what looked like great effort, she opened her eyelids a crack, and smiled a bit wider. "'Lo, Mal. How's it going?"
"Fine. Ni ne?"
"I've been better."
"Well, you should rest."
"I've been restin' for so long," she moaned, "Even my dreams are getting boring. I just had the longest dream about shopping for socks."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"Can you tell me a story?"
"Um…
"I've got some good ones if you want to hear them!" Wash called.
"OK, go."
He thought for a moment. "Once upon a time, there was a boy named Harry Potter-"
"I've already read Harry Potter."
"Really? Okay then. Once, there was a man named John Watson who-"
"And Sherlock Holmes."
"You like old Earth-that-was classics?"
"Yep."
"Hmm… How 'bout this one: There was once a girl named Lyra-"
"Oh, I love the Golden Compass!" she said. Wash sighed.
"I'd be willing to hear it again." Mei offered.
Wash smiled and began, "Well, Lyra lived in Jordan College, the richest and greatest of all the colleges in Oxford…" Mei closed her eyes and listened contently as Wash retold the story of Lyra's fantastic journey, and it was a while before she realized that Mal was holding her hand. It felt strange for a second, but it was comforting, so she squeezed his hand and let it be.
"… and Lyra gathered Pan into her arms and walked with him into the sky."
"She's asleep, Wash."
"Oh."
"That was a nice story."
"Well, I didn't write it. If I did, there would be considerably more ninjas. I mean, really, there are witches and daemons and armored bears, would it kill them to fit in a few ninjas? Ah well…" he sighed. "She seems nice," he said abruptly, "I can see why you like her so much."
"What makes you think I like her 'so much?'"
"Well, you've been staring at her for the past week."
"I felt bad. She's not like us, she's never been shot before."
"If you say so."
"Ni ai wo ma?*"
"Of course." It was Wash's first night back in his own bed, and he had expected Zoe to want to talk. Still, that was an odd question to ask.
"Then promise me something."
"Anything."
"Don't die again." Her face was deadly serious.
"I wasn't planning on it," he laughed.
"I'm serious. I nearly died last time, if I lost you again… Just promise."
"Sure thing, bao bei. But you have to promise me something. If I do die again, move on!"
"Wash-"
"I mean it! No more bringing me back, no being 'quiet.' I'm guessing that meant you were depressed?"
"Well, what did you expect? That I would just forget?"
"I would have hoped you'd let go. Live a normal life again. Can you promise me you'll do that?"
"Fine."
"And thanks. It was stupid and suicidal, but I appreciate it."
"I missed you."
"I really didn't have time to miss you. One second, I was on the bridge, the next I was in that room. And you were always there."
"So, there was no…screaming?"
"What?"
"Nothing. Just something River said."
He snuggled closer to her. "Wo ai ni."
"I love you, too."
* This hasn't been confirmed by either Firefly or my Chinese teacher, but there's no reason it shouldn't mean "Do you love me?"
