A/N: Seems there was some confusion as to which children belonged to who. Sooo...

Warren (17) & William (7) Reynolds: Mal's from a relationship long past. Didn't know about them, kinda needs to know them now.

May "Mayday" Washburn (6 mos): Zoe's post-BDM daugter. Though everyone is helping rear her.

"Mal."

The Captain stopped, his fingers nearly touching the door to Inara's shuttle. Turning, he faced the Companion who was none too pleased.

"So you're not going to make a decision?" She asked impatiently.

"I'm sorry, is she on a strict timetable?" He asked dryly. "Because something tells me she's not."

"Zoe wants to shove her out the airlock, the rest of us don't know what to do, and meanwhile you act like you can't deal with it and are leaving this crew to their own devices." Inara said in frustration. "You should-"

Mal stepped in, his face hardening. "No I shouldn't, 'Nara. You don't get it. I go down that path, I think about what she did? I think about the war? About Shadow? I don't come back from that." He growled. "Those whelps you insist I bond with were bad enough. So leave me be. Give me time."

"Captain?"

Simon's voice made Mal's eyes roll.

The doctor paused, realizing he was intruding on something. "Am I-"

"No." Inara lowered her eyes. "We're done."

He floundered a bit, looking at the two clearly tense people. "I was uh… wondering if I had permission to keep Emerson on her med schedule. I know we haven't made a decision with her, but she could deteriorate quickly if we just left her tied up and without access to her regimen."

"Fine." Mal said quickly, brushing past the two to reached the door. He wanted nothing more than the lay on Inara's bed whilst smelling incense, listening to soft music, and trying to calm his aura or whatever the hell it was she was always saying about clearing the mind.

The door opened and the children looked up. River and William were laying on the floor drawing and Warren was on the couch with May, looking as if he had run out of ideas to entertain the baby.

Mal frowned, turning away to retreat to somewhere that wasn't full of people.

"He's uh." Simon pursed his lips. "He's not handling any of this well, is he?"

Inara's eyes slide sideways to Simon, as if he had to ask.

"Right."

"I say we hold her fer ransom." Jayne suggested as he sharpened his knife at the table.

Zoe, who had been pacing, stopped.

Kaylee looked at the merc in confusion.

"Her dad's some fancy military guy, right? He's gotta be rich." He leered. "I say we send him a wave with her all trussed up. See if we can make our credit accounts nice and fat b'fore we toss her off planet side. He gets his daughter, and we get the money."

"Jayne," Kaylee sighed, cradling her mug of tea. "I love you all sorts, but that's the dumbest. Idea. Ever."

"Aw come on!"

"You know what I want to do with her." Zoe said as she disappeared.

"At least it's an idea." He tapped his head with the pommel of his bowie knife. "At least I gotta criminal mind. Unlike your doctor."

Kaylee shot the large man an exasperated look. "Is this because of the job?"

"He's got no business being at that business meetin'!"

"Quite the collection you have here." Simon told the captive as he brought her a large paper cup filled with over half a dozen color pills and another cup filled with water. "May I ask how you get them on the regular?"

"VA. Any clinic can swipe my card and get me my refills." She said as he unhooked one of her wrists to let her take her drugs.

"So you know how deteriorated your cells are?"

"Minor. I got my drugs early. I lost my sense of taste, though." She said after the first three pills. "I uh… I get bad headaches sometimes. Crippling. But very rarely."

"Lucky they caught it so early."

She finished her pills and set the cups back on his tray. "I never wanted to be in the military." She told him honestly, softly. "I wanted to fly, but not for a color. My family's military though."

Simon didn't quite know how to respond. He nodded and re-secured her. "I'm sorry I have to do this."

"It's alright. I understand. Nobody wants to hire a Horseman, much less be near one."

"Thanks for watching him." Warren told the Companion as his little brother was busy still drawing away with River. Since Zoe had retrieved May, he had been sitting with them, listening to the pair spin tall tails. However Inara had been working over on her couch, flipping through her cortex handheld. And he had wandered over to talk to her.

"Not a problem." Inara said as she looked over the guild registry to Highgate's capital city Antilles. "There's not much watching needed. He's good at entertaining himself, and River's good at entertaining."

"He's always been like that. Of course he's a snuggler, never really figured out where he got that."

"They tend to like affection at that size." Looking up from her handheld, she studied his far off gaze. "Are you alright?"

"They gonna kill her?"

Inara set the device down and folded her hands in her lap. She opened her mouth, but struggled to find the words. "Did you hear what she was?"

"A bit." He shifted uncomfortably. "But- But they really kill people. On this ship." He hung his head, wondering what he had gotten his little brother and himself into. If he had sealed their fate and they really had a horrible, murderous pirate father.

"Sometimes." Inara said softly, trying to keep it out of the little one's earshot. "However, only to protect this family. Do you understand?" She pressed. "Wǒmen bǎohù zhège jiāzú. They're not taking their decision lightly. Your father-" She shut her eyes, saying what also put her in the wrong. "He's not letting his past mire his decision making with Emerson. He's forcing himself to distance himself from the matter and take his time."

He nodded his head. "Haven't heard that word in a long time."

The Companion looked at him questioningly.

"Family."

Inara heard noise by her shuttle door. Turning, she looked over to see Mal lingering behind the drapes. "Well you're about to hear it quite a bit. Excuse me." She walked over to him.

"Can I come in?"

"Not sure." She told him with an edge, but her voice softened. "Have you had enough time?"

He stepped closer, staring down at his boots. "Been thinking about... everything but our current problem really. But uh... Jiāzú." His eyes flickered up to hers. "I like it when you say it."

"It's what we are." She told him. "This crew, this ship."

"You know, when I said you were insisting I bond with them," He scuffed his boot on the floor and let his lips. "I didn't mean that. I wanna bond with them. Just don't know much how."

Inara reached out and took his wrist, watching him struggle.

"Reckon I may learn from your example."

"I don't think you need much learning, Mal." She told him softly. "All this stress certainly isn't helping though."

"Yeah, well, we get this job and maybe there'll be less of it."

"Oh, I dunno. I guess?" Simon reported as he climbed into Kaylee's hammock, freshly showered after an awkward, silent dinner and a quick straightening up of his infirmary. Reaching onto the shelf, he picked up his latest medical journal and found the page he had ended on the night before.

"What do you mean, you guess?" Kaylee said, wiping the sweat from her brow as she shut the fuse box. "You've been wanting to get more involved in crime."

"I know." He sighed. "But I wasn't expecting to have my high society skills being utilized. I'm a bit out of practice, truth be told. It's been over two years since I left the Core and you've corrupted me terribly."

"And it's been my pleasure." She chirped.

Simon smiled, peering over the edge of the hammock to watch her putter around. "Two years away from that though? My clothes are old compared to whatever is now in fashion. I'm not sure I can really look the part anymore. Not to fool someone from the Core at least."

"Well you're still real good at being pretentious, so maybe that'll fool 'em."

"Hey."

Kaylee giggled as she slipped under Serenity's engine. "Sweetie, you're just too easy sometimes."

Simon settled back into reading the article on organ farming. The clattering of his beloved tinkering on the ship he shared her affections for filled the air. It was a good sound, it drowned out the thoughts of his patient handcuffed and chained in the dorm room just down the stairs.

"So did you see the boys before you came in here and got mad at me for teasing you?" Her voice resonated from underneath.

"I'm not mad. And Inara put the boys down." He announced. "I mean, Mal was there but he kinda lingered at the doorway. Being uncharacteristically unsure of himself."

"Yeah, that's been happening a lot since they got here."

"Don't think I care for it. He's gotten ornery. You know… more so than the usual."

"He'll be a good father, but it's gonna take some time." Kaylee said as she rolled out from under the engine. "Those boys are so sweet though. He got lucky there." Wiping her hands on the rag, she looked up at Simon and smiled.

Simon caught her expression out of the corner of his eye and put his journal down with a curious smile. "What?"

"Oh nothin'." She bounced up to her feet and grasped the hammock's rope. Leaning against it Kaylee pushed him slightly. "Just wondering what a little Simon Tam was like on Osiris."

"Ohhh." He gave her a far away look, his smile widening as he reminisced. "Well… I… was not the most socially well adjusted child… Kinda just played with River."

Kaylee giggled. "You were a nerd, weren't you?"

He laughed, trying to feign hurt, but failing horribly. "A well rounded nerd, thank you very much. I had chess club, fencing, and paino on top of my studies. But yeah, I didn't exactly run around with friends on the playground. I was usually in the library."

"Oh Simon."

"However," reaching out, he tugged on her coveralls. "I was an adorable nerd. So I had at least that going for me. And my father-" His smile widened. "My father, our father, was great. He'd take me to the hospital and I'd do my homework in his office. He'd even let me play with his kit and practice on him or River's stuffed animals. We'd go to the museum, the opera, he'd take my fishing once a year, just the two of us. He was just…" Simon's face sank. He withdrew, feeling a tightening in his chest.

Kaylee's shoulders sank. She had never seen so much sorrow flash across his face. The look he gave her before he managed to reign it back brought tears to her eyes.

"He was…" Pursing his lips, he gave a pained smile. "You know, I was so angry when they wouldn't believe me. When they said they wouldn't help with River." He shook his head sadly, trying to fight back tears. "But, they didn't know any better. That was their life, as simple and as… as selfish as that life now sounds." He shut his eyes tightly. "I'm not angry at them. He was a good father, they were good parents. As flawed as they may be."

"Oh, Honey." She swept in and comforted her man.

Zoe wanted to think about the job.

She couldn't though as she held May and sank into the pilot's chair. The black stretched out in front of her, dark and soothing. Her daughter was fast asleep, snoring softly on her shoulder. Shifting the baby down to her breast, she reached out and picked up the plastic stegosaurus on the console. Reclining back, holding parts of Wash to comfort herself, she shut her eyes and tired to allow the loss to leave her mind. The loss the planet killers like Emerson had wrought, and the loss of her husband that hung heavy on her every waking day.

May sighed, snuggling her. Her little hands felt the dinosaur and she latched onto it.

Even in the dark he could tell the child needed comforting. "Hey there, Xiǎo nánrén."

Will turned to see the doctor standing there in his pajamas, watching him as he stood in Inara's empty shuttle. He pawed at his big, wet eyes.

"You okay?" Simon asked tiredly, walking over to the distraught seven year old. He had heard the noises coming from beyond his room, and despite it being the middle of the night had headed out to investigate.

He fidgeted, casting his eyes downward.

"Did you… have a nightmare?" He crouched next to the little one and saw the embarrassment.

William nodded quietly.

"You can't find Inara?" He asked.

He shook his head, looking around the vacant room.

"I think I can help." Standing, he ushered the boy out. He saw Kaylee lingering in the doorway, and gave her a reassuring smile. "Just a nightmare."

"Poor baby." She cooed, tousling his hair. "We'll get you to your Daddy and 'Nara." Walking with her boyfriend and the child through the galley, she was the first to reach the Captain's bunk and quickly knocked.

The hatch opened and Inara tiredly peered up from the Captain's bunk. "Kaylee?"

"We got someone who had a nightmare." The mechanic told her. Her doctor nudged the little boy forward.

Inara took a moment to process that this could possibly be a reoccurring matter in her life. She nodded and slipped down the ladder. "Of course, come here, Will."

Kaylee stooped and kissed the crown of the child's head. "Now you rest up."

Will climbed down the ladder and looked around the room. It was starkly different compared to Inara's warm, inviting shuttle. Like the rest of Serenity, it was grey with tinges of rest and dust. The night lights made the whole room glow in a dim warm light, and it smelled more like gun oil and metal than flowers.

"What's he doing in here?" Mal yawned from the bed.

"Nightmares." The Companion said as she climbed back in bed and patted the spot next to her.

Mal sat up as the boy clambered into his bed. "Wait, he's sleeping with us?"

She rolled her eyes as she wrapped her arms around the frightened child. "Would you like to talk about your nightmare, Xiǎodì?"

Will sniffled, nestling his head on her shoulder. "No." He croaked.

"Okay, okay." She shushed, kissing his temple and holding him close. She caught Mal, watching her in a way that showed he was mildly disgruntled that he had to share his bed yet also unsure of how to be a parent as they had previously discussed. "Let's put you in the middle, hm?" She helped the boy get situated and resumed holding him and soothing him back to sleep. "We're right here."

Mal watched her, envious of how natural she was with the little one. The boy just latched onto her and curled up like a kit would with it's mother cat. She nestled her head against the child's and shut her eyes, humming softly. "Y'know, can't be doing this every night, Little One." Mal said awkwardly, trying to become involved. Reaching out, he kissed the little head and wrapped his arm around Inara and the child. "But we'll make exceptions."

Will looked up at the big, scary Captain who had a kinder face than before. "I'm sorry." He sniffled, picking at Inara's nightgown tiredly. "I know only babies do this."

"Oh now," Mal rubbed the child's shoulder before pulling the covers up. "No need to be ashamed. Inara? She makes me feel safe too. Keeps the space monsters away, she does."

Inara leaned over the child and kissed him. "Hǎo bàba."

"Yeah, we'll see."

TRANSLATIONS:

Jiāzú: Family, clan

Wǒmen bǎohù zhège jiāzú.: We protect this family.

Xiǎo nánrén: Little man

Xiǎodì: Little brother

Hǎo bàba: Good father

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Let me know. I love me some input. And by input I mean reviews.