Like always: I am not boss. Joss is. Joss is boss see? It rhymes.

Jaynesdingleberries presents for your viewing pleasure: Shade Run Chapter Nine

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It was strictly the girls going out this time. After delivering the parts to Serenity

Kaylee and River left Mal and Jayne to help load Siama's things into the cargobay

and rushed up to Inara's shuttle.

Although the now ex-Companion hadnt been staying there, rather had been sharing

Mal's bunk instead, there was only so much leeway the Captain could handle when it

came to redecorating his living space. So Inara had reclaimed her shuttle as a

relaxation room for when she wanted to surround herself in luxury and comfort.

This is where Zoe, Kaylee, and River had agreed to meet her, so that they may

prepare for a nigt out at Madam Izzau's.

By the time the two had reached the shuttle, Zoe was already there and halfway

ready, her hair was left loose and wild, her bronze skin complimented by a lovely

gold and red dress that hugged her figure and revealed the slight bump of her belly.

No one who didnt already know she was pregnant would tell at first glace that the

warrior woman was expecting a child. And the only people who knew at the moment

were Zoe, Simon, River, and just recently Inara and Kaylee.

This was the reason the women had decided for a night out. To celebrate the

comming newborn and to discuss how in hell they were going to break the news to

Mal without him pitching a fit.

Inara, looking impeccable as ever, was just about to add the final touch of

cosmetics when River and Kaylee entered.

"Oh wow Zoe, you look shiny." Kaylee breathed in wonder, her eyes big.

Zoe smiled one of her rare, small smiles, and said "Thank you mei mei. Its been a

while since i dressed up like this."

The last time had been at Wash's funeral.

"So I hear we are having a passenger this route," Inara said with a smile as she

applied a gentle touch of kohl to Zoe's eyes with a deft hand.

Kaylee nodded exitedly as she started to clean up at the small bathing sink. "Oh

yes, she seems really shiny. She kinda looks like River."

River, glanced up from from looking at the available dresses Inara had laid out on

the bed. Her forehead furrowed in puzzlement. "She is five point two inches taller

than me, her eyes are blue, and she have very large mamary glands."

At that her last point her eyes looked down to her own chest and she gave a

dissapointed sigh, "I think I shall never be sufficient."

Inara laughed and, finished with Zoe, she gave the girl a gentle hug. "Large or small

...mamary glands dont' make a woman more or less attractive. It is the woman

herself that is attractive, not her attributes. You are fine mei mei, and more than

'sufficient'." Her eyes twinkled, "I expect Jayne thinks the same."

Zoe and Inara shared a chuckle when River and Kaylee's jaws dropped open at the

same time.

"I just found out today...how did you.." Kaylee asked while River just spluttered.

"I am, or at least I was, a Companion." Inara said gently, supportively.

"And I know how it is between a man and a woman who love each other." Zoe said,

her own eyes sad, and suspiciously misty.

River met her eyes and asked, "Do you think it is love?"

"Do you?"

River smiled and picked up the first dress that had caught her eye, a lovely sleek

silk dress of a rich violet, a perfect blend of blue and red, held it up to her chest and

performed a graceful lady-like curtsey to the the women who were waiting for her

answer.

"I think that the days to come will be very interesting."

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Jayne was locking the last of the woman's cargo down in the cargobay while Mal

was giving this-is-my-boat-I-am-boss-here speech. He was vaugly annoyed that they

were having a stranger on the boat, even though she was kinda shiny.

It didnt occur to him that she was a bit more than shiny, only that another pair of eyes

on the boat that would make his protecting of the moonbrain all that more difficult.

Specially if the lady took it in hear head to betray them.

She was one of Fanty and Mingo's people after all, and that didnt promote trust on

his part, even if RIver said to bring her on. Sometimes that girl didnt know what was

good for her, like all those times she went around barefoot.

He had taken to chasing her around the boat with her boots in hand and a scowl on

his face.

Last time that had happed he had startled Inara when she was making her tea; he

supposed the glare he had been wearing had been rather scarier than normal

because she had nearly dropped her cup.

"Seen the moonbrain?" he had growled, and she had shaken her head in denial. So

he had gripped the boots in hand and started off again, muttering. "Gorram

moonbrain cant even think to wear her gorram boots."

So he wasnt about to fully trust the woman who was listening intently to Mal.

Not that he didnt trust the moonbrain's judgement, but who really listened to Mal that

intently?

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He could feel her above him, and he felt her light-heartedness, her joy. And he felt

the redness beside him. It perhaps wasnt the smartest thing to do, not with the mean

woman so near, but he had to touch the red that was so near to him.

His touch was gentle as he brushed aside the dark strands of suspicion and

annoyance until he had a clear view of the heart of the redness.

He could see the heart of a man, tattered and torn by betrayal and a harsh 'verse.

This man had lived a life full of pain and strife, not as much as the man in the box

had, but it caused the walls of his own heart to flutter.

And then he saw the shades of blue, of River's blue, deep within the heart of this

broken man remade into a stone.

A fresh need to taste her blood assailed him and it was so strong that he had to

fight hard to keep calm, to wait, until his time to come out of his cramped dark box

came.