Glad you're all liking it. I always saw a possibility for friendship between Jayne and Simon. Here's two more chapters to tide you over until I get back from my holiday!

Chapter 2: Letters, Dinosaurs and Mirrors

Wash picked two-year old Malcolm out of the pool of cereal on the galley floor. He grinned at his son and set him in his high chair. Around them the Dinosaur, his name choice for their ship, hummed quietly in standby mode. He wiped his hands on the front of his Hawaiian shirt and picked up the spoon of Mal's food.

"Open up for the space ship," he said, flying the spoon towards his mouth.

Mal's mouth remained obstinately shut.

"Open up for daddy."

Heavy boot steps signalled the approach of Zoë.

"Hello wife," he said with a grin, putting down the spoon. "Any good post?"

She held out a single letter silently and didn't respond to his wife jibe. Wash stared at her. Her face was pale and she looked afraid.

"Zoë?"

She shook her head as though in a trance. "It can't be," she muttered.

Wash snatched the letter, suddenly terribly frightened. He read the address; it was the usual Mr. and Mrs. He slowly opened it and unfolded the paper inside.

He slowly read it out loud, his brow crumpled in thought.

" 'Dear Zoë, and Wash'. Hey I'm an afterthought!"

Zoë couldn't even raise a smile.

He continued. "I have walked in the shadow of the valley of death. I have seen the darkness in my soul and I have redeemed myself."

He looked at Zoë with wide eyes, and reeled off the coordinates.

"That's Echo Zoë. Who the hell would write a cryptic letter sending us to Echo?"

"Ghosts," she said her mouth barely moving. "Ghosts."

Wash stared at her, Zoë didn't believe in ghosts. She believed in things she could shoot.

"They're ghosts," she repeated. "Ghosts."

Inara brushed out her long dark curls before the mirror in her room in the guild house on Persephone. She saw a sadness in those eyes. Inara didn't like to think back to the things which had caused that sadness. Nigh on six years ago now. She knew Kaylee still thought of those things, those people. Kaylee still scanned every face in every crowd, looking for a handsome doctor, a crazy girl, a preacher and a hardened mercenary. Inara was more realistic. If they had escaped the Reavers, then the Alliance was hard on their trails. And if not the Alliance then plenty of other things could have befallen the four. Jayne might be hard, but he was rash and impulsive and lacked the most basic common sense. She tried not to think about what might have happened to them nowadays. And she never spoke about them to Kaylee.

A younger companion knocked on the open door and entered.

"A letter Inara."

"Thank you," she took the letter and nodded to the younger girl, who left the room.

Inara picked up a silver letter opener and slit the letter neatly. She pulled it out with perfectly manicured nails and let her eyes scan the page.

"My mêilì Inara. Zhè bìng bù huài. I didn't realise it would end like this. If you want to hear the hush again meet me here. Echo 23-46-78."

She frowned at the letter, reread it and laid it neatly on the dressing table. Inara tapped her nails on the table, thinking about the letter. It wasn't the normal thing suitors wrote to her. She was intrigued.

At that moment a head poked round the doorframe.

"Inara? You have a wave. Its Kaylee," the woman said with a grin.

"Thank you Salla."

All the companions knew about Inara's dear little Kaylee, her almost sister.

Inara went and answered.

"Hello mei mei."

"Inara? I got a strange letter…."