Kaylee was beyond pleased that Meadow was so taken with her new little cousin. Since Simon had allowed her into the room, she's been sitting beside the bassinet, her chin resting her in hands, her eyes glued on the tiny sleeping face.

It warmed her already bubbly heart.

"Hens," River muttered disdainfully as she slipped into the room. She smiled and scooped up the baby before sitting down next to her daughter so they could scrutinize the newest Tam together.

And then came the dreaded question, "So, what're you gonna call 'im?"

It was a simple enough question, and it had a simple enough answer, but as Kaylee and Simon looked at each other in their full bunk, neither of them knew how to say it.

"You must know what you want to call him," Inara said in surprise. As with River before Meadow was born, Kaylee and Simon had been decidedly silent on what they were going to call their offspring. Of course, no one could really figure out why, seeing as the couple didn't psychically know if they were to divulge the name of the baby it would cause a ripple that would disturb who the birth would come about in the first place.

Annoyed with their silence, Meadow tore her eyes away from the baby and leaned her head all the way back and to the side to look at Zoe. "They want to name the baby Washburn but they think you'll be upset."

"Couple of hens," River added, shedding light on the phrase she'd been muttering repeatedly for months. "Horrible, chickeny cowards. Four months want to name the baby after Wash and can't ask Zoe."

Her face the usual cool stone, Zoe looked down at the baby then demanded, "Well, who in their right mind would call that child Hoban Tam? Of course you'll name him Washburn."

Meadow leaned forward and gently kissed her cousin on the cheek, the jumped up and grabbed Zoe's hand. "Aunt Zoe, I would like to make a cake in celebration of baby Washburn's birth," she said decidedly. "Would you supervise and tell me about how you met Uncle Wash again?"

River gracefully got to her feet and handed the baby to Kaylee. "It has been pre-established- along with your acquiescence- that the employment of a convectional culinary device would be strictly without physical interaction."

"Wha'd she say?" Mal demanded.

"She's not allowed to use the oven and she knows it."

Meadow gave her mother an only partially patient look. "That's why I asked Zoe to supervise."

"Zoe hates cooking. She'll tell you stories and I'll turn on the oven," River said as the three of them made their way out of the buck.

The five remaining crew members were silent until Kaylee demanded, "Did anyone else know Meadow calls 'im Uncle Wash?"

She was answered in a head shaking to the negative from Simon and Mal but Inara said, "I've heard her mention Uncle Wash, but I didn't know Zoe was the one who told her the stories about him."

"Ah hell," Jayne muttered, "that lil' girl knows more'n we're like to give 'er credit for. What makes ye think Wash'd be any differ'nt?"

They were quiet again and after a moment Simon demanded, "So, we were the hens, huh?"

"Yeah, sweetie, we're the hens," Kaylee nodded.

>>>>

I just wanted to thank everyone for your positive response- it's been a really nice pick-up during finals. Also for the next couple of weeks, I'm going home for the holidays so up-dates might not be quite so frequent, but there are still more tales to be told so fear not.