"Heard from Wash yet?" Mal was stiff from being flat on the deck for so long.

Kaylee blinked, disoriented for a minute. "Not yet."

"Give me that thing." Mal stretched for the squawk box.

"Wash? What's takin so long?" Mal demanded of anyone listening. "Kaylee's cold as ice and I'm hungry."

"Sir, we're moving quick as we can. Serenity is being contrary." Zoe answered.

"What's wrong?" Kaylee leaned forward.

"Overheating." Zoe said.

Wash was obviously too busy to answer and that worried Kaylee. She grabbed Mal's hand on the box and choked it. "Don't you burn my girl out, Wash. Cap'n can eat the gorram crackers. We're toasty as buns in here."

Mal tried not to laugh at the sparks of indignation buzzing around Kaylee's hair. She slid from under him and started dragging things toward the engine. He gave up and let loose the laugh before assuring Zoe, "We're so shiny Kaylee's paintin flowers all over the place."

"Of course, sir." Zoe signed off. Her doubt scratched Mal's ears.

Next thing Mal knew, Kaylee's hands were under his arms and she was dragging him toward the engine.

"Hey!" He shouted. "You trying to drag my leg off?"

"Shut up, Cap'n." Kaylee was worried about her girl and mad as a hornet at Mal. She hauled him as close to the engine as she could without actually crawling under. He was sprawled between her legs, his head resting against her heaving chest, an idiotic grin battling a grimace for control of his face.

" 'Shut up, Cap'n'? Where'd you learn talk like that?" Mal sat forward, fought the dizziness, then heaved his back against the engine. Resting alongside her, he waited.

"Sorry." Kaylee shot back at him. She rearranged his blanket, fussing with it like it consumed every brain cell, to capacity.

"What's got you put out?" He smiled, couldn't control it even if he'd wanted to.

"Needn't make me sound like I'm whinin and complainin. I'm doin my part, ain't the one warblin in deliriums." She put her hands in her lap, prim as a schoolteacher offended by a burp in the third row.

Mal's hand covered hers. "Look at me, Kaylee."

She met his eyes, tried to look away but couldn't. With his smile lazing across his face and the humor lighting his eyes, she couldn't stay mad either. Long before she woulda allowed it, if she'd any strength, a smile flushed all of her.

"They know it's me doing the whinin and complainin." He winked, right before pitching face first into her lap.

Kaylee inched closer, just so's she could keep him warm. She patted his shoulder like a child. "You are a nice man, Cap'n."

--oooo--

When next he woke, Kaylee whispered, "When something happens to me, I want ya to promise not to look on my dead body. Get some stranger to put me in a box."

"What?" Mal cleared his throat like it might clear his mind. "I promise ya, ain't gonna croak here on your lap."

He felt her sigh through his suit. Her gaze was locked on something he couldn't see. Mal caught her hand as it moved to run through his hair. He rubbed her rough knuckles against his cheek, trying to get her to look at him. That didn't work, so he opened her palm. He waited for her to tease him and smile her tenderness on him. Still she gazed at a rusty spot on the wall, not him. With a gentle tug, she freed her hand.

She fingered his hair, unsettling Mal with her soft-spoken commands. "Promise you won't never take my body back to my folks. Just find me somewhere quiet. And donchya look. Promise me?"

Mal struggled to sit up. She caught him with a huff of breath between them. His words slurred together, "There something you ain't tellin me. You hurt somewheres?"

"No, I'm fine, Cap'n." She grinned, he could feel it – Kaylee grinned with all of her body.

The walls were spinning around Mal. He was sure of it. But he wasn't waiting for the 'verse to quit moving to figure this out though. He shot at her, "I could send ya right on home."

"Couldn't." Kaylee said it lightly,

"No. I couldn't." He said, certain.

Kaylee nodded, eased by his certainty and offering a promise without him ever asking, or knowing he wanted one. "Just like I won't leave. Not Serenity. Not you. Not willingly. Not ever."

More confused by the obvious, Mal tried to jump on her train of thought, "You don't want a family gatherin like Tracy had? Thinkin it'll hurt your folks more?"

"My folks already buried four sons from the war. They'd grieve but they know the way the 'verse is. Can catch a virus in the air and die at home same as get blown apart in a war or do something stupid out in the black." Kaylee hugged her knees, rested her cheek and watched Mal. He nearly didn't hear her next words, "It's knowin the gatherin would hurt you. Don't want to be a ghost to haunt ya."

Mal was certain she wasn't telling him something but his brain was bashing against his skull like it needed to escape. He turned to look at her. The pulse of agony running up his leg matched the rhythm of the pounding in his head. "Ain't nothing gonna happen here but thrillin heroics, Kaylee, dong ma?"

Kaylee nodded with a resigned expression he didn't like. He didn't like it at all but he couldn't figure it out … where the hell were those angels?

"Cap'n?" Kaylee steadied him before his head hit the deck.

"You're not goin before me." Mal commanded, recoiling from her touch. He was angry but not sure why. Angry like he needed to be before a major objective…. No, this was Kaylee, not the war. Had no reason to be angry with Kaylee. Mal snatched at fuzzy reasoning, a thought he remembered havin years ago. "You'll find some nice man, run off and leave me with nothin but the likes of Bester's to suffer all my days."

"No." Kaylee said, not laughing or smiling like he expected. "So long as you're flyin, I'll be there till I ain't anywhere. Promise or I'm gonna tell Jayne you make little kitten sounds in your sleep."

Mal gulped for air when he stupidly shook his head at her. "Gorramit – I ain't givin no promises about you dying."

She closed her eyes, hurt like he'd denied her something vital to keep Serenity in the sky – like he done it just cause he was feeling tetchy.

She fingered his hair from the swelling on his head, smiling when he leaned into her palm. Whispering gently, she reminded him of what she needed to, "Don't look and someplace quiet."

Mal slid sideways, unconscious again. His weight landed on her without warning. Sighing, she let him nest against her. His arm went around her middle, holding on to her like she was his trusted weapon. The tears dripping down her cheeks didn't reach him. She flicked them away before that could happen, determined he rest without disturbance.

--oooo--

Wash signaled he was in position and Jayne was ready to cowboy. Kaylee roused Mal and checked the suit once more. She stuffed his hands in the stiff gloves, sealing them and checking the suit one more time.

Zoe gave instructions over the box, "All you got to do, sir, is catch the ladder outside the hatch. Then ease up. Jayne will be right there. We'll pull you in. There's still a lot of debris, so keep your eyes open, sir."

"How come everyone's tellin me what to do? I ain't lost my mind … have I?" Mal whined.

"Shut up, Cap'n." Kaylee giggled, "It won't hurt ya none to take an order or two from Zoe. Bend down so's I can fit this helmet on proper." Instead of popping the helmet on his head, she reached up and thumbed his cheek, her eyes bright as a sun. "This won't hurt ya none either."

Gentle as rain late in the spring, Kaylee kissed Mal. Weren't no Dainty Miss, tentative brush of nervous exploring. Neither, was it some Prairie Harpy gasping in a corner, false sounds coverning the touch searching for his wallet. It was sunshine in the black, a rainbow of colors bouncing off Serenity's skin like a waterfall. It was a hum, low in her chest that his heart tried to match beats with.

Mal was stunned - for all of a second. His arms surged around her, absorbing Kaylee's energy. Warmth seeped through the suit, brushing his flesh with a tingle that wasn't nothing like the itch he generally feared. When the need for air couldn't be denied, Mal drew away. Feeling the deck move, Mal wasn't sure if it was the effect of Kaylee or a mind lost.

Kaylee's strength held him up. He didn't mind, strangely enough, and it didn't bother him that he didn't mind. She giggled, nervous suddenly, "OK? Wouldn't wanna wound you."

His whisper finally cleared lips eager to forget thrilling heroics, "Don't think this means I ain't gonna stuff ya in the hold for a month, bâo bèi."

She proclaimed her certainty with one more brush of her lips. "You ain't gonna lock me in the hold anymore'n you're gonna send me away."

He rubbed his chin in her hair as she brushed against the vein throbbing in his neck. "You are a devil woman, Kaylee." The hunger in those words made them an endearment she'd never thought to hear for her own self.

She eyed him. Openly, with just enough held to the side, in readiness, so's he didn't feel trampled or cheated. His lips fluttered across her cheek, inching toward her inviting dimple that would undoubtedly get him chastised for dawdling.

"Try and remember that woman part once your brains are unscrambled." She whispered before inching away. With smirking satisfaction, she slammed and locked the helmet down on Mal's stunned expression.

Kaylee shouldered under him, ignoring the curses muffled by the helmet, to walk him to the hatch door. It was slow going. He kept stopping to glare at her through the distortion of the faceplate, like he wasn't sure who the hell she was. Kaylee blushed brighter than fresh picked tomatoes. Quick as she could, she tied the two bags of parts around his middle before taking discarded wiring she'd woven together and hitched it around her middle.

"Parts won't slow you down none, but this-" she tugged on the wiring and shouted so he could hear her - "will keep me from being sucked out. All you have to do is ride the atmo, don't fight it, like Zoe said. And stay awake till Jayne catches you - don't get jammed somewhere he can't reach. You gotta stay awake."

Mal frowned at her through the helmet. That tight-lipped face with his jaw clenched and the veins sticking out on his neck that Kaylee generally tried to avoid. At that moment, his fussin face softened her gaze in a way he'd only seen her caress Serenity's innards with.

"Zhu ni yī lù shùn fēng, Cap'n." Kaylee's grin mocked his confusion.

He gripped the lip of the door, favoring his right leg so's it didn't crash against the outer wall. She gripped the handle on the hatch with both hands. She blew out her breath and gulped a deep one. He nodded; she yanked the handle back with all her might. She intended to crack the door just enough for him to slither through, but the force of the pressure had more energy than she'd anticipated.

Mal was sucked out right enough but Kaylee was fighting to get the door closed again. And then it was dark cause she forgot to turn the flashlight back on and the gorram circuit board took another surge and closed to neutral again.

Kaylee loosened the wiring from her middle but didn't take a step to reset the atmo and lights. She slid to the floor, hugging her knees and inquiring of the darkness, "I wonder if I should let Wash know there ain't no other suit now or wait a until I know the Cap'n is doped but good?"

She laughed until the echoed made her eyes water.

---oooooo---

Note on the phrase zhu ni yī lù shùn fēng : According to koalathebear live journal, this "is a phrase which means bon voyage but literally translates as wishing that the road before you has a 'favourable wind'" She mentioned this phrase on a day I was choking on my own crappy wording. So, this little section is dedicated, with respect, to my favorite student of the 'verse: koalathebear... with all the complementary chocolate that thrill entails, at her own expense, of course.