Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

Takes place shortly after the series ended. And yet again my Muse seems to be taking a detour, this time into Zoë 's PoV...hopefully she'll let me tell the River piece I've had floating around in my head since chapter 6 soon...LOL

Many thanks to William Topley and The Blessing for their song "Delta Rain", it helped inspire this piece.

River sings bits and pieces of it to Jayne.

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Zoë knew she had to get her mind back on the job at hand. Now was not the time for aimless daydreaming. Even if they were on Liberty's first moon instead of Liberty itself. She was mighty glad Matty had known a guy on moon one that might be able to take the cargo off their hands. Really hadn't been looking forward to Mal in a bar on an Alliance friendly planet trying to make a contact with only the hint of an idea who to talk to.

From what Matty'd said the moons tended towards Independent sympathies though they had never openly shown them, as much as they depended on Liberty to survive she couldn't blame them. But she did wonder if Jayne had been aware of that. And if he had been, when he'd been planning to let Mal know there was a safer place to fence the goods.

"Somethin' ya need to talk on?" Mal asked her. "We're a mite early, bar's pretty deserted too."

Which meant there was something Mal wanted to talk on. Since he had not been there to overhear her and Wash's conversation last night, she knew it had to be about River. And maybe Jayne, they hadn't hashed that over yet. Both of them hoping it was nothing more then a crush on River's side. She looked around the bar, only her and Mal, the bartender and one other guy. Both of whom were situated to far away to catch any stray conversation.

"You think this thing between them might be a problem?" she asked, already knowing he did. It had made her uncomfortable at first too, but the more she thought on it...

"You don't?" she held back a sigh at his accusation.

"First off, Sir," man could get so tetchy sometimes, "it isn't really any of our business, River is an adult now..."

"A very emotionally disturbed adult who ain't had no experience of this sort." Mal interrupted.

"Like you aren't, Sir," she smiled at him gently, to take the sting out of her words, "emotionally disturbed, that is. And perhaps it is time she got some experience of this sort."

Mal just stared back at her dumfounded, so she went on. "And the way I see it, she's gotten a hell of a lot easier to deal with since whatever happened between them that night, happened. She's communicating more, hasn't had no outbursts in over a month now. That's two weeks longer then she's ever gone before. Can't all be Jayne's doing, I know that. But he seems to calm her some, steady her." she paused to see how Mal was taking this.

"Might sound crazy, but even though she was tellin' me an' Wash about how she gets thoughts and feelings, I don't think she'd have been able to do that if she hadn't felt Jayne nearby. Think that was why she was wearing his hat and that sweater, anyone could tell his Ma had been knitting it for him. I think it was helping her feel more connected to him."

"She's changed him too. He's been moody as hell the last week, but that's 'cause he's fighting this and trying to deal with the loss of his Mother at the same time, can't hardly blame the guy. I really don't think he's any happier about this then you are."

"That supposed to make me feel better?" he said, "'cause it don't, man has a bad history of doin' stupid things when he feels trapped."

"Don't think that'll be the case here, Sir." her eyes drifted over to the door as a man entered, she cooly looked him over. He sure seemed to fit the description Matty had given them of Jon Clyne. Kinda short and scrawny with a tattoo just barely visible over his collar. Looked vaguely like Amie too, Matty'd said he was some distant cousin.

He walked over to their table after grabbing a beer from the bar. "How's Amie doin'?" he asked as he casually sat down across from Mal.

"Fine, said to tell you howdy," Mal responded, keeping his tone as casual as Jon's. "asked if we could bring back word on how you and the missus were doin'."

"Jus' peachy," he grinned at Mal, showing a gap where he was missing a front tooth. "Matty said you had some thing's you'd be wantin' ta trade?"

Zoë was able to listen with half an ear to the business transaction between Mal and Jon and still keep an eye on the customers slowly filling the bar around them. It'd do them good to have a solid contact in this area, couldn't afford to have something, or someone, interfere with this first meeting. But Mal and Jon quickly came to an understanding and made plans to transfer the cargo over in half an hour. Her and Mal stayed for one more round after Jon left, thankfully the bar had filled up enough that Mal didn't bring River and Jayne up again.

She had more important things she needed to think about right now. Like how to tell Mal her and Wash had decided to have a baby. She let her mind chew on that while they headed back to the docks.

Maybe she should get Wash to tell Mal, but no, she loved them both too much to subject them to that. Mal deserved to hear it from her and Wash didn't deserve having to tell Mal. She'd already told Wash that she wanted to stay on Serenity if Mal was willing, she'd been pleased that he'd looked relieved at that. Flying was as much a part of him as watching Mal's back was of her. She had still expected him to make some quip about Mal being able to take care of himself, but he hadn't.

It seemed he had come to a kind of peace regarding her and Mal since Niska had taken them. She knew that was a large part of what had re-sparked her wanting a child. The sharp jab of fear that she had lost Wash and Mal when she first realized who had taken them. But she hadn't lost them, she had gotten them both back. Might be they were changed by the experience, but they both lived and that was enough.

She headed up to the bridge as soon as they got back, leaving Mal to wait for Jon and his men in the cargo bay. Making a brief stop by the engine room to let Kaylee know they'd be leaving soon.

"We made the contact, Mal wants to leave soon as the deal is done." she told Wash, smiling at his startled look. He still got embarrassed when she caught him playing with those damn dinosaurs. She noted with amusement he'd been singing River's campfire song through them.