Prompt 10. Opportunities
Mal sometimes thought he was the only one on the Gorram boat with a brain. The whole crew were whinging about going to Whitefall and dealing with Patience. Just 'cos of one itty bitty little gunshot, which had resulted from a legitimate disagreement.
What they just didn't understand was that opportunities didn't grow on trees. Badger had left them to hang with the stamped cargo, and while he may have neglected to mention it was stamped to the crew at large, they couldn't see why it was so difficult to get rid of.
They thought Mal could just use his magic buyer finding powers and offload it at a huge profit on a nice, safe planet that had a low risk of getting shot at.
They thought he was just playing up to the death wish they were all under the impression he had.
What they didn't realise was that Mal didn't like dealing with Patience any more than they did, hell, probably even less, it was him that got shot last time. But if they didn't offload the cargo, and didn't get a payload, or worse got caught with it by the alliance, well, they'd be griping about that to, and worse.
Mal was the only one who truly appreciated that even though Patience was crooked, bitter and money-grabbing, she was the only buyer who'd pay up for the less than kosher cargo they had acquired, and so she was their only option if they wanted to eat that month.
Word count: 251