New chapter! Just a short bit here, so I can get full on into Riverfiki mode next time!

"Hell of a place, ain't it?" Mal asked, closing the door to the pod and dropping his wet coat over one of the chairs.

"It's peaceful," Inara admitted. She turned and looked curiously at him. "Tell me something."

"Course."

"If you've been alive all this time, why didn't you return to Serenity?"

Mal shifted uncomfortably. "Needed some time to myself, I guess. Not be bound by anything, held to anything. There's freedom out here. It's great."

Inara pursed her lips, looking down. "You know, we've really needed you at home."

"No one needs me."

"Yes." Inara said. "We do. You're our captain."

"Inara." Mal sounded irritated now. "I'm not Captain. Atherton is."

"Mal," Inara said quietly. "He…" her hesitance sparked a bit of concern, and Mal looked slightly alarmed. "He takes us out. Far. Even if there are warnings."

"What?"

"The smaller ships, and the slower ones that would trail behind a bit…Reavers have taken some. They leave no survivors, and Atherton comes through and salvages the ships to sell for a huge profit. Everything's destroyed, most of the ships have been sold, others have left, Mal, if you don't do something soon, everyone will be dead and the Reavers are going to take Serenity!"

"Inara, I can't go back."

"Why not?"

Mal looked angry. "You wouldn't understand."

"I've had six years of training in a fine program, Mal, what exactly do you think I wouldn't understand?"

"Look," Mal said, putting his hands on her arms. "Sometimes bad things happen, and there's just nothing you can do about it. So why worry?"

Inara backed away from him. "Because…because those people…they're your responsibility! They're your family!"

"They're your family too," Mal said. "And you left!"

"You're being such a hypocrite!" Inara said. "I left to get help. I left to find anyone that could make things better. And I found you. Can't you stop for thirty seconds and realize you're our only hope?"

Mal stared at her angrily for a couple seconds. "You know, it…I…"

"What?" She said, her eyes narrowing.

His breath came out through his teeth before he got himself under control. He pressed his lips together. "Nothin'." Turning on his heel, he headed toward the door.

Inara ran up and jumped in front of him, blocking his way out. "What happened to you?" she asked after a long silence. "You're not the Malcolm Reynolds I remember."

"I suppose you're right," Mal said. "Satisfied?"

"No," Inara said sadly, shaking her head. "Disappointed."

"You know," Mal said, stepping around her and opening the door. "You're starting to sound like my father."

"Good," Inara said. "Someone has to."

Mal whirled around, the door slamming into the wall. "Listen, you've got a lot of nerve prancing in here after all these years and telling me how I have to live my life!"

"Prancing in here?" Inara said. Her hands were on her hips. "I'm not the one who walked out on everyone!"

"No, you're the one who whores herself out to lonely, pathetic rich men."

"Companions need a certain number of clients per quarter to remain registered," Inara said, her eyes flashing. "My job requires that Serenity leave the more dangerous parts of the verse on occasion and travel to core planets where I can work and the people can rest easy for a few days! You've got no call to make me ashamed of trying to keep people safe, something that's supposed to be your job. It's what I thought you would have wanted! At least I'm doing something."

"Is that what we were back there?" Mal said. "A job? Did you decide that bedding me was the way to get me to come back? Was I the something you had to do?"

"Mal!"

He'd gone too far. He could tell by the look on her face and the tears that were quickly forming in her eyes. Mal's existing levels of anger at Inara were being overpowered by anger directed at himself. "You…you don't even know what I've been through!"

She pressed her lips together, taking a step toward him. "I can't know unless you tell me!"

Mal stepped backwards into the threshold of the door, pointing a finger at Inara as if she wouldn't know who he was talking to otherwise. "Forget it."

He grabbed his coat and glared as he turned to exit, leaving Inara alone in the pod, staring after him angrily. "Fine."