It had taken precious moments to extract themselves from their crowd of admirers, and by the time they reached the hallway, the captain and her aristocratic looking man were nowhere in sight.

"Shit." Su twisted her mouth, searching from left to right, unable to even begin to guess where they would have gone.

"I'm telling you, she just met someone appealed to her fancy." Kouji said, patting her on the back. "She's probably halfway to heaven already."

"No., he wasn't the type. She like's 'em brave to the point of foolhardiness." Su mused, still peering around for some hint of direction. "That man was all sophistication and no fight. Prolly ain't touched a caster in his damn life. There!" She trotted forward, her usual lope awkward in her glamorous dress as she ducked down to seize a small jewel from the ground. "It's one of her earrings!" Kouji gave a low whistle.

"Well spotted." Reaching into his suit coat, the man came up with a gun, grinning as Su raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Hey, Kouji, looks like the lady thinks she's the only mysterious space pirate here. Damn Kouji, it's like she doesn't know we have more important things to do. C'mon, lady, we gotta save Cap'n!"

"Hold on!" Su turned her back on Kouji, looking at him over her shoulder. "Unzip me. I can't run for shit in this damn thing."

"Kouji, how did you get yourself into this mess with these broads? I dunno Kouji. Karma? All that sinning when we were young?" He unzipped her, watching as she sprinted away, returning moments later with a small metallic card tucked into her cleavage, grinning as he took his turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Coat check. What?! It's the nicest thing I've ever worn! I'm not getting it all shot up after one night." She took off, not thinking twice about sprinting down the marble hallway in not much more than her boots and brassière.

"Kouji, you gotta find yourself a new ship. You got that right Kouji. You got that right."

Gabriel Tam paced restlessly in front of Mari, fuming as he searched for a place to start his questioning, unsure in the etiquette of interrogation. Mari sat as still as she could in the straight back chair she'd been shoved into upon entering his suite, warily pondering the man before her. She'd known Gabriel as a strict, loving father-figure since her childhood, but she had never once pictured the man in a state as he was before her now. She had seen men like this before, and it usually ended in a broken nose or bruises. The transformation was unsettling. He was a man driven to desperation by the loss of both his children. A man who knew that it was his own fault that they were lost to him now. A man who could be capable of anything in his sorrow and rage.

He sat heavily on the bed, running his hair through his hands and muttering to himself, all semblance of dignity gone as he looked up at her, his expression unreadable. "We were going to try and have the two of you wed once. Did you know that?" Mari blinked, the sudden change of subject startling. She let him ramble, her hands fidgeting with the purse on her lap nervously. "Your father and I thought it would be a fortuitous match. You had so much promise." He trailed off, unseeing in the space between them. "But then you went and met that man."

"His name was Zachary." she bit at him, forgetting herself for a minute as her lip curled into a pained snarl.

"Yes, yes. Good man." Gabriel muttered absently, getting to his feet and crossing the room to retrieve a small envelope. He handed it to Mari, eyes never meeting hers. "I wonder what he would have said about this?" Her hands opened it gently, pulling out the photographs. Surveillance stills from the port she had docked the Genrou at for their last long stay, a cocky Malcolm Reynolds leaning on the nearby wall, waiting for her. And a few more... far more intimate ones from when he returned her home early the next morning.

"Where did you get these?" she asked coolly, returning them to their envelope as she fought to keep the red out of her cheeks.

"There are people out there much better at what you do, my dear. They've been doing it a lot longer." he sighed.

"Then why not hire them to bring Simon home? Why keep me here?" He looked at her, his resolve finally breaking, tears running down his face as his desperation took the forefront.

"I want my children safe!"

"Gabriel, I've known you my entire life. This isn't like you! Hired thugs and threats? Is this what you want to become?" she pleaded with him as he wept openly, unsure of what to do. "Will you really destroy me in the hopes of finding them again?"

"I'll do anything! I never should have sent River to that place. I had my doubts, but Regan, she..." Mari was on her feet, enfolding the man into her arms before he could stop her. She felt his back stiffen a moment before her relaxed into her, clutching her bare shoulders as he sobbed into her hair. "Both my children... lost to me now." he choked roughly. "Lost to me forever because I was too stubborn. Too proud." Mari stroked his hair, guiding him to the chair he had been threatening her in. She knelt gently by his knee as she rummaged through her purse, pulling out a handkerchief and praying he wouldn't notice the initials M.R. embroidered delicately into it.

"Your children are safe." Mari soothed, pressing the small square of fabric to the corners of his eyes. "Safe and cared for. Loved, even." He looked at her, eyes red and watery. "They're scared, so they're running. But they have each other." She bit her lip nervously as he looked at her for a moment, longer than was comfortable, looking for some scrap more. " I can't tell you more than that, Gabriel. I'm sorry." A loud knock sounded at the door, followed by the sound of two very large men entering the room. Mari closed her eyes as she heard the clicks behind her, not needing to look to know that several pistols were trained on the back of her head.

"Lord Tam?" One of them questioned the scene before him uncomfortably, his expression unreadable behind his dark glasses.

"Leave us." he coughed, trying to regain his composure. "I was... I was mistaken. Wait at the box for me to return." There was a small murmur of confusion, but the men obeyed, leaving the room and closing the door softly behind them.

"Thank you, Gabriel." He offered her the first real smile he had spared her in years, weak as it was, his hand squeezing hers gently as he returned her handkerchief to her.

"Come, my girl. I remember how fond of the opera you always were." He was on his feet, pulling her to hers gently. His rage had left him empty, soft, as he let his sorrow enfold him. "It would be a shame to miss the second act."

Kouji and Su came careening down the hallway just in time to find Lord Tam escorting Mari from his room on his arm, the pair whispering quietly.

"Cap'n!" Su bellowed, diving for the pair in naught but her boots and skivvies, a borrowed pistol in her hand as she skidded to a halt at Mari's furious gaze.

"Where? Is? Your dress?" Mari ground out as Lord Tam shifted uncomfortably at her side, coughing into his fist and averting his gaze in a gentlemanly fashion.

"Cap, I thought you..." she sputtered as Mari stared her down, gaze icy.

"I said best behavior. BEST. Behavior."

"But Chief, I..!" Mari sniffed sharply, her eyes widening as the gin tickled her nose.

"And you're drunk?!" Her left eyebrow was in danger of retreating into her hairline as her face turned red. "You too?" Her gaze snapped to Kouji, the man too confused to do anything other than gape at Mari. Their captain sighed heavily, her pretty face falling behind her hand for a moment as her fingertips massaged her forehead. "Both of you, dressed and back in the box. NOW!" Kouji's arms were around Su's arms, pulling her down the hallway before the woman could ask what happened.

"What did you tell the dame, Kouji? I told her the Cap was just having a little fun, Kouji, but would she listen to ol' Kouji? Nooooooo!" His voice trailed off as they disappeared around a corner, leaving a very flustered Mari in their wake.

"Well then." Gabriel coughed. "Back to the opera?" Bewildered, the pair made it back to the box just as the lights began to dim, Gabriel holding the door open for her. "Mari, I have no right to ask this, but would you perhaps care to dine with me tomorrow afternoon? I would very much like an opportunity to catch up with the remarkable daughter of one of my dear friends." Hh smiled sadly at her, and she found herself nodding.

"Goodnight, Lord Tam." He leaned forward, depositing a small kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight, my girl." She slipped into the cool of the box, her back settling against the wooden door as she let the last of the shaking in her limbs still. She stepped forward to her chair, noting idly that Su and Kouji sat in rapt attention, hands in their laps, perfect angels save for the intermittent hiccups that plagued Su when she got too excitable in her cups. She opened her mouth to scold them, but closed it again as the first notes of the aria broke the still of the room, pulling her gaze away.

There would be time for that later in the evening. Right now, she was at the opera.

A hum curled from her throat, the closest justice Mari could pay to the arias that had washed over her that evening. She settled before the ornate vanity once more, slowly wiping the makeup from her face as she listened to her crew changing in their own rooms, a bemused smile crossing their lips as they shouted across the hallway at each other.

"All night black-jack!"

"And fancy gin!"

"And roulette!"

"And FANCY GIN!"

Pulling the last of the pins from her hair, Mari moved to put away her jewelry, freezing as she noticed her bare right ear. She sighed, staring at the lonely twin in her hand, remembering she had plucked it from her ear on instinct, hoping Su would grab the hint had things gone for the worse with Lord Tam. They had been from Zachary, a gift at their wedding. Beautiful opals that glimmered and danced in even the lowest of lights. She rarely wore them for exactly this reason. Her life just didn't support the finer things now. It was a cruel reminder; she hadn't expected the life of Captain Mari, the bounty hunter, the would be outlaw, to encroach of the life of Lady Mari, the opera goer, the once-socialite; but it had. The outlaw ways had stomped in with their muddy boots and snatched one of the few nice things she had left from that time before.

You can't shine up a bandit and call him a prince. You can't perfume a thief and call her a lady. Just as tonight, a lord couldn't fall to crimes below his station. But where did she fit in? She was never dirty, never brash or brass enough to be true outlaw. But even now, trying to clean off the years of effort, she couldn't return to society, either. Not without people expecting certain things from her they wouldn't expect of a lady. A cruel thing, indeed.

A soft knock interrupted Mari's musings, Su's head peeping through the door. "

You still mad, Boss?"

"I s'pose not." Mari sighed. The girl smiled, slipping through the door, shutting it closed behind her. Mari took Su in, eyes tracing over the clothes she had changed into, so comfortable in the worn jeans and threadbare top. So at home in her skin as she settled at the vanity next to her captain, eyes looking at their juxtaposing reflections in the mirror. So different, but sharing so much.

"Got something for ya, Cap." The girl held up the missing earring with a grin. "Served great as a road map. Hey, what's wrong?!" she asked, startled as Mari threw her arms around her, pulling her close in a rare hug. After a beat the captain let go of her first mate, laughing past her misty eyes and shaking her head as she took the bauble from the girl, reuniting it with its mate in the small velvet box.

"Nothing, nothing. I just thought it was gone. Now, you and Kouji go have fun, drinking and gambling and raising hell and what not." Su gave a confused shrug, grinning at the still-elegantly dressed woman before her.

"Thanks cap." As the outlaw slipped from the door, Mari smiled ruefully at her own reflection.

"Thank You."

Music: Musetta's Waltz – Anna Netrebko