"See, that's what I don't get about you," Wash said as he sat on the edge of Mal's bed and finished lacing his boots. "You're a passionate man, a great lover," he inclined his head conceding and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "and also quite clearly in love with her, so why don't you just come out and say as much?"

Mal stood in front of his mirror, shaving delicately. "Woman's a Companion, Wash," he answered, as though that would explain it all. "Surely y'didn't forget that, did you?" he leaned forward so he could see Wash's reflection in the mirror.

Wash adjusted the tongue in his boot and pulled the other shoe on. "Of course, I remember that. But, you know, that doesn't mean you can't tell her."

Mal rolled his eyes and refocused his attention on the mirror and the razor on his skin. "All right, Wash, sure. I'll send her a wave right after breakfast with a big red heart on it and 'P.S. I love you' scrawled in sixteen different languages. She can read 'em all, y'know."

Wash threw a balled-up dirty sock at Mal's head. "Six months after she boarded this boat, Jayne and I made a bet about when you two would finally hook up." He shook his head. "I lost two years ago." He stared at the back of Mal's head, disappointed, and then got to his feet.

Mal scowled, finished shaving, and turned the water on to rinse his razor. He checked his neck for hair or cuts, and, satisfied, he faced Wash. "It ain't like tellin' her would change things. Hell, it'd only get more complicated." He moved to get a fresh pair of socks out of his drawer and sat to put them on. "She and I . . . we ain't like you and Zoe." He shrugged.

Wash sobered a little and paused in the middle of his lacing to ponder that. "Well, me and Zoe aren't exactly best buddies right now, if you haven't noticed."

Mal glanced over at him and sighed. "You two are gonna get back together," he stated in his serious voice. His eyebrows rose, as if for emphasis. "She'll come 'round."

Wash sighed and ran a hand through his hair before he returned to his lacing. "Well, I'm not holding my breath until then."

Casually, Mal put his hand on to Wash's thigh, drawing his attention there. "Hey. You ain't allowed t'give up."

Looking from Mal's hand up into his eyes, Wash smiled softly. "I'm not, Mal. I could never give up on Zoe." He shook his head ruefully. "Just think she gave up on me."

Mal squeezed his leg gently. "That ain't so. That ain't so," he repeated reassuringly. "You're gonna come back from all this, and she's gonna see what good you done." He gave Wash such a warm smile, it seemed like he had to be telling the truth. "And you'll go back t'your beautiful wife and never have t'sleep in a room full of stinky, dirty socks like this again." With his toe, Mal nudged the mate to the dirty sock Wash had thrown at his head.

"And you'd be okay with that? Me going back to just her?"

Mal's smile was genuine. "You just worry 'bout gettin' back here in one piece. I'll worry 'bout me." He tilted his head and gave a playful smile. "Maybe I'll give Inara that wave after all."

Wash slumped a little and leaned against him, shoulder-to-shoulder. It wasn't what Mal had expected him to do; he had hoped for a wacky smile and another witty quip. "It's only been a week, Mal," he noted and studied Mal's fingers on his leg. "Yet, it feels like it's always been this way with us."

It took Mal a few moments to formulate a response to that. "We can do this," he softly replied and patted Wash's leg. "Long as you like."

Wash lifted his head and looked sidelong at Mal. He was greeted with Mal smiling at him. For a moment, Wash simply studied him, and then he reached out and touched Mal's lips softly. He grinned as Mal kissed them. "You're a sap," he noted in his normal tone. "Extremely loveable under all that stoic, captainy angst, but utterly sappy."

Mal broke into a broad grin. "This coming from the man who started calling me 'kitty-eyes' the second night we slept together?"

Wash laughed. "I'm telling you, you've got cat whiskers for eyelashes, Mal," he explained in a jovial tone. "You almost poked my eyes out."

Mal took in Wash's face and features for several breaths, wondering how he possibly got mixed up with a character so colorful. Then he easily moved Wash's hand aside and leaned in and kissed him. It was short but sweet and lingering. He kept his gaze trained on Wash's and smirked at the pleased surprise that registered on Wash's face.

"What was that for?" he questioned curiously.

"Need a reason now?" Mal asked before he bent to pull his boots on.

Wash thought about that for a bit, and then he resumed lacing his shoe. "No," he replied quietly. "Just wanted to know what I said so I could say it again any time I wanted my captain to kiss me."

Mal grinned at that. "You just ask, Wash," he noted and then got to his feet and turned to face him. "You ready for this?"

Wash put his foot on the floor after finishing lacing and looked up at Mal. He rested his hands on his knees and sighed. "Am I ready to fly alone into the most heavily guarded and secured Alliance planet, armed with just a pair of sunglasses and a fake resume?" He laughed nervously and got to his feet. "You bet."

Mal reached out and straightened Wash's collar absently. He kept his eyes off Wash's. "You're gonna do fine," he stated.

Wash allowed himself to be fussed over. "Well, I've gotta come back," he noted pointedly. "I'd be crushed if anything happened to you because something happened to me." He offered a smile. "Now stop fussing," he swatted Mal's hands away and ducked around the ladder to exit the room. "I'm gonna be changing into that ridiculous Core get-up in an hour, anyway."

Mal shook his head mirthfully and followed Wash out.

"Heya, Wash," Kaylee cheerfully called. She was coming up out of her own quarters as Wash surfaced out of Mal's. "Cap'n," she noted to him with a nod and a bright smile as he followed Wash.

"Mornin', Kaylee," Wash replied back to her. He immediately lifted his head and inhaled deeply. "Mmm, coffee," he announced. "Real coffee."

Kaylee's smile increased. "Yup," she agreed. "Got myself some a couple weeks back when we was dirtside. Thought since today was such a big day'n'all, I ought t'share it."

"Very generous of you," Wash honestly stated, looking right at her. Then he turned to Mal. "Wasn't that generous of her?" He grinned brightly. "I'll see to it that not a drop gets wasted." He bounded off down the stairs.

Mal found Kaylee shyly looking him over. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," she noted with a shrug. "Just still gettin' used t'this new happy captain of ours," she added and nudged him playfully before heading towards the kitchen.

"I'll have you know, Wash and I have a perfectly innocent relationship—" he protested, trailing off as he heard footsteps behind him.

"No one wants to hear it, sir," Zoe called from behind him somewhat mirthfully.

Mal turned to question her about the comment, but she just brushed past him into the kitchen, and he had no choice but to follow.

"What I don't get," Jayne stated from his seat at the table, "is why th'hell I get almost killed for doin' what he's doin' now." He gave a disgruntled glare in Mal's direction.

"That's because you ain't good at what you do," Mal answered as he came down the steps. "And we ain't having this conversation at the breakfast table."

"Thank you!" Simon cried, relieved. "I was afraid he was going to start into the details."

Wash brought over his coffee and breakfast and settled down beside Simon. "They're good details, though," he encouraged and looked at Jayne. "I'm sure we broke a couple of medical rules doing what we did."

"Wash!" Mal warned with a serious glare.

"Yes, sir," Wash obediently replied and turned away from the other men and stirred his protein around in it's bowl.

Turning his attention to the business end of things, Mal addressed River. "How far out are we?"

She didn't look up from her food. "We're queued. Number forty-two for entry." She lifted her eyes then, still haunted from the trigger break. "Another hour at most before we're cleared to break orbit."

"Kuai," Mal breathed. "Time sure do fly." He quickly helped himself to his breakfast and coffee and joined the rest of the crew around the table. "We finish here in fifteen minutes. I want everyone dressed, on the bridge, and ready to go in thirty. We only get one shot at this."
--

The bridge was crowded when they finally reached the head of the queue. Before them loomed the beautiful planet of Londinium, sparkling against the black as the billions of lights from its millions of cities spread across the dark side of surface like lace. River piloted easily, keeping her eyes on the traffic markers floating out before them. The trade ship in front of them cleared the check station, and River brought Serenity forward to be scanned.

Behind her stood Simon and Wash, both staring over her shoulder through the viewing glass. Mal and Zoe stood together in the center of the bridge, Mal with his arms crossed and a deep scowl across his face as he looked at the Core of the Alliance. Zoe wore an impassive expression as she watched and waited. Jayne sat in the co-pilot chair, his feet resting on the console, and narrowed his eyes at all the technology he saw but didn't understand. Kaylee stood beside him, her hand clutching tightly on the co-pilot chair's headrest, desperately excited to be in such a fancy place but knowing it wasn't appropriate for her to show how thrilled she was.

"Firefly transport Ning Jing," a cold military-sounding voice stated into the cockpit, "you are about to enter unauthorized airspace. Please transmit your clearance codes or prepare to stand down."

Mal snorted. "Like we'd wait in line just to be boarded."

"Friendly bunch," Wash noted weakly.

River transmitted the clearance codes Mal and Zoe had bartered for on Greenleaf. She picked up the intercom. "This is Firefly transport Ning Jing; transmitting clearance codes now. Please standby."

Silence stretched on after that. Seconds turned into minutes, and they just sat there waiting for the go ahead to break orbit. The air grew tense in the room as the time lengthened and no confirmation was forthcoming.

"What happened if our codes don't work?" Simon hesitatingly asked.

Jayne grunted and shifted in his chair. "Don't y'know? Y'grew up in the damn Core."

Simon gave Jayne a pointed glare. "I never had to worry about this sort of thing," he retorted a little unkindly. Being this close to the Alliance, who still wanted River, was unsettling all of them, but Simon most of all.

"Simon's got a good point, though," Kaylee noted and glanced rather sheepishly to him. "What if we don't get clearance?"

Mal's eyes were staring hard ahead when he spoke. "We get boarded; our ruse is up. They take Wash and the girl, and the rest of us probably make a new home in prison."

"Or, you know, we could always run," Wash pointed out quickly. "Running is something we're actually quite good at. It's a very viable option in situations like that. I definitely vote for running."

Jayne laughed unkindly. "Yeah, like we could out run th'Alliance from here." He rolled his eyes.

Wash gave him a dirty look. "Optimism is lost on you."

The room filled with static, and everyone straightened up. "Ning Jing, you are cleared for a twenty-four hour entry." There was a collective sigh of relief around the cabin. "Your altitude is not to drop below 8,000 meters; your shuttles are to be deployed only in designated drop locations. Your airspace is restricted to pre-approved air zones, the coordinates of which are being transmitted to you now. Failure to abide by these rules will result in federal intervention. Your access codes expire at 1300 SST tomorrow."

The voice paused, and then another prerecorded one pumped through in a more gentle tone. "Welcome to Londinium, the happy home of Blue Sun. Please enjoy your stay, and live life with Blue Sun."

The transmission ended, and River's fingers were back to typing on the pilot's keyboard. "Transmissions complete," she announced. One of her hands returned to the yoke, and within seconds they were gliding past the checkpoint, heading towards the glossy atmosphere of the planet below them. "We enter the hornets nest," she whispered.

Mal let out his breath and nodded sternly. "Time to stir things up." He uncrossed his arms, moved to River's side, and put a hand on her shoulder. "Bring us down, close as you can." His eyes then lifted to Wash. "You ready?"

"As ever," Wash agreed.

"Then let's do this," Mal called and stalked out of the bridge.

After a few moments of hesitation, the rest of the crew, sans River, turned to follow him. Wash turned to gather the things he needed to bring with him on the mission, and the rest were prepared to see him off. They wanted to say goodbye, just in case.
--

Wash was the last to arrive on the catwalk outside the shuttle. He was dressed in a sharp, lapelless dark suit with a trendy, fiberoptic tie that displayed various silent Blue Sun commercials on it. The tie fell over his shirt collar and down through the loops on his slate grey dress shirt. The loops cut the tie into separate pictures, each displaying a different product commercial. His hair had been darkened to a rich chestnut brown and styled with a part to the right. He wore a pair of dark sunglasses on top of that and carried a genuine leather briefcase.

His strides were long and purposeful, and he kept his head held high and proud. As the crew turned to watch him approach down the catwalk, a ripple of awe washed over them; they almost didn't recognize him.

It wasn't until he stopped and pulled the sunglasses off with a bright, characteristic smile that the universe started spinning normally again. "Well, I guess that answers 'how do I look?'" he said cheerfully as he slipped the glasses into the breast pocket of his suit.

"Wow, Wash," Kaylee breathed. "You look shi xing . . . you look Core."

Simon nodded, too, clearly impressed. "She's right. I'd never suspect you weren't from Londinium."

"Fancy tie," Jayne muttered. "Don't wanna know how much that cost us."

"Briefcase cost more," Mal stated off-handedly. His arms were crossed, and his face was still set in it's serious mode. Either he didn't like seeing Wash dressed in the Core get-up, or he was unhappy about the mission. Possibly both. "Anything you need?"

"Lots of good luck," Wash answered with a slight smile.

"Good luck," Mal immediately replied. He glanced to the rest of his crew.

Kaylee stepped forward. "You be careful, Wash." She moved close to hug him, and he embraced her tightly. She held on as though he wasn't going to come back. When they finally pulled apart, she had tears in her eyes that she tried to laugh off. "Don't mind me," she mused sheepishly. "Just ain't any easier even when when y'do get t'say g'bye."

Wash smiled at her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I'm coming back, Kaylee. This is just goodbye for now, not for good." He patted her affectionately and gave her a firm but reassuring nod.

He looked to Jayne standing beside her, and his grin brightened a little. "Jayne," he noted with a slight incline of his head.

Jayne stuck his hand out for a handshake, but Wash just grinned more, maneuvered around it, and dragged Jayne down into a big bear hug. Jayne grunted and shifted to maintain his balance, eventually relenting to hug Wash back. The rest of the crew had to smile at the sight. "Y'don't go doin' nothing stupid," Jayne muttered as he pulled away. "It ain't right, you makin' little Kaylee cry."

Wash chuckled and nodded. "I'll be careful."

He turned then to Simon, who was looking a little sheepish witnessing Jayne's affection. He just smiled, shook his head, and stepped forward to hug Wash. "There are too many things I could thank you for," he said quietly as they embraced. "But we haven't got the time for all of them. Just know that I am thankful." He pulled back and put his hands into his pockets self-consciously. "This had better work," he added with a light smile.

Wash nodded. "It will. You did good." He patted Simon on the shoulder and gave him a nod. They had come along way together over the past few months.

His eyes eventually left Simon and traveled over to Zoe. He studied her for several seconds, taking in her expressionless face and rigidity. Unsure of what to do or how to touch her, he raised his hand as though to squeeze her arm. She tilted her head just a fraction, but it somehow softened her features. Her eyes closed and she whispered, "what the hell." Before he knew it, she was hugging him.

It was brief, but Wash's smile was practically leaping off his face when he pulled back. "Thanks," he finally breathed.

She crossed her arms again and inclined her head. "Good luck."

He studied her features for longer than he probably should have, but she let him, seemingly amused by his rapture. She shrugged, and he moved away to find Mal.

It was a little weird standing there before Mal with the rest of the crew beside them. There were things he ought to do, and wanted to do, that he wasn't sure he should. He'd hugged Jayne, though, and that meant they could hug. So, he stepped forward, and Mal hugged him. It was warm and welcoming and a significantly different hug than he'd given the rest of the crew. It was closer, and it lingered.

"You come back now, y'hear," Mal murmured into his ear.

"I will. I promise," Wash replied.

"Don't promise," Mal said. "Just do it."

Wash started to pull away and found Mal's eyes and studied them. They were dark but warm with a vulnerable fear he didn't recognize. "I'm going to come back," Wash stated emphatically.

The look wasn't chased from Mal's eyes. He just studied Wash more, trying to see through the fog to a clear future, but not even River could predict the way of things, not like that. "Wash," Mal began, mostly to stay him.

Wash didn't pull away, though he knew the whole crew was watching them to some degree. It didn't matter; he couldn't see them past the look in Mal's eyes. It was a look he realized for what it was: love. It was love and a deep fear of losing that love. "Mal," Wash answered a little more uncertainly. He wasn't prepared for confessionals; not here, not now.

Several seconds passed as they stared at one another, and then Mal pulled him close and kissed him. There wasn't a way he was not going to, not if not doing so might be something he'd regret for the rest of his life. The rest of the crew shuffled a bit, some uncomfortably, some just mindful.

It wasn't a long kiss, nor especially passionate, but it meant more than any of their other kisses had. Wash pressed his lips together when they parted, as though to seal it in. His eyes were still riveted on Mal's.

Kaylee laughed softly and drew their attention away from one another. "I should've gotten a capture vid," she mused playfully.

Wash stepped back, grinning again in a completely different, more self-satisfied way. He glanced once more at the rest of the crew. Simon had taken to looking away over the cargo bay to give them a semblance of privacy. Jayne was picking dirt from his nails and seemed to not have noticed.

Zoe's face had changed, and there was quite possibly the most open expression she'd had since he'd come back. It wasn't disgust or confusion, but there was perhaps a sort of realization of dawning comprehension there. He gave her a shy smile and then returned his gaze to Mal.

"We'll be monitoring you best we can," Mal stated, his tone serious and all business again. "When you finish, you just send up the contact and we'll be there to meet with you before you know it."

Wash nodded, stepped backwards toward the shuttle door, and slipped his sunglasses back on. "Will do." He looked at everyone again and smiled sadly. "Well, I'll be seeing you." His tone seemed almost sad and had a final ring to it. He gave a wave to the crew and stepped into the shuttle, sliding the door shut behind him.

For a time, the rest of the crew just stood there. Jayne shrugged and turned to go because there wasn't much point standing there just staring at the door. Kaylee and Simon left after hearing the shuttle power-up, and Mal found himself alone on the catwalk with Zoe.

Before them, the shuttle's unlocking mechanisms clanked as they disengaged, and the catwalk trembled slightly as Wash took off. Mal glanced to Zoe, and she met his gaze and held it. They stood there looking at each other for a while. Zoe's hardened shell was starting to crack.

Without contemplating it, he stepped close to her and took her hand in his. When she reassuringly squeezed his hand, he smiled.
--

It had been well over a year since Wash had piloted one of Serenity's shuttles, but he found that being behind the controls was easy. Everything simply came back to him. He was glad for this because most of his thoughts weren't related to flying, much less his mission.

His hand reached up to switch on the communication channel over his head. "You take care of her for me now, you hear?" He started into the air and kept his eyes on the planet looming beyond him.

"That's the plan," River replied with what sounded like a smile. "She'll be safe here, and when you come back, things will be different."

"Better different?" he questioned softly, using the hand not on the yoke to start flipping switches as the shuttle dropped to lower altitudes.

"Better," River agreed. There was a moment of hesitation, and then she said, "Coordinates for your landing have been transmitted."

"Thanks," he answered, "for everything." He pulled up on the yoke, applying the brakes. "I guess this is goodbye," he added.

"I'll see you when you get back," she answered pointedly.

Wash couldn't help smiling. "All right, then. You'd better get out of here. Best you guys break orbit and stay off radar as long as you can."

She was quiet for a few seconds, but the channel hummed with soft static, so Wash knew she hadn't signed off. At last she said, "You're not alone. You've never been alone."

The communication channel winked off, and Wash switched the speaker on his end closed. The way River read people was unsettling at best but also could be extremely comforting. His hands returned to the yoke, and he urged the shuttle down to the spiraling metropolis below him. Fear boiled in his belly, but on his face he wore a smile.