It wasn't long before the pilot returned. Zoë was on the bridge sending a wave to Lennox that they were going to be on Eros in a day of two when he walked in.

"I think you're in my chair." Wash smiled. Zoë just shook her head and left. She banged on Mal's bunk's door.

"Your pilot's here."

Wash was making his way to down the bunk when the odor hit him. "Wuh de teyn, ah. Did something die in here?"

"Problem?" Zoë shouted down the bunk.

"Umm…no everything's shiny." Wash screamed liked a girl.

Mal came out his bunk a bit irritated. "Zo, did you give him the stinky bunk?"

"No, Sir, I gave him the bunk closer to bridge."

"The stinky bunk."

"Logistics, Sir" Zoë walked down to the cargo bay.

Mal climbed down into Wash's bunk. He took small breathes.

"You can umm…take another bunk if you want. Don't really know…" Mal jumped as something scampers across the floor. "Don't really know, but I think something died in here."

"I like a challenge."

"It's not a challenge, its suicide."

"All the same, I'll stay." Wash looked around his room. It really, really smelled bad, but he wasn't about to show any signs of weakness if he was going to impress the first mate.

"Your nose." Mal climbed out of the bunk gasping for air and decided to have a talk with his first Mate.

"He's staying."

"Really, Sir." Zoë arched her eyebrow.

"You reach Lennox?"

"I told him that we reach Eros in a couple of days."

"Good. It's good to have cargo and a crew wouldn't you say Zo."

"Shiny."

They reached Eros a few hours early than they had originally planed. The pilot was pretty good. Mal and Zoë left to go deal with there client leaving Bester and Wash to tend to Serenity. Something else blew in the engine room and Wash went down to help Bester out.

"Sooo what's the deal with the captain and the first mate…are they a couple?" Wash handed Bester a tool.

"Naw, Mal was Zoë's sergeant in the war." Bester tinkered with something else. Wash noticed that he was doing it wrong, but didn't say anything. "So, is she always like that?"

"Like what." Bester knew what he is going to say, because he thought the same thing, but he wanted to hear someone else say it.

"Like a shiong-tsan sha-sho." Bester laughed. Wash grew tired of the mechanic and decided to go to the bridge and work on some stuff. The bridge was pretty dull. He decided to make it his own. Wash went to his bunk, which still smells. He took out his favorite dinosaurs and some plastic trees and headed back to the bridge. He scattered the dinos and trees around the console. "Shiny." He was quite please with his handy work. Now that is done. He decided to tweak the console a bit, to get some more movement out of Serenity.

Wash liked to sing when he worked. "Now, sometimes baby just can't understand. The mud on my boots and the grease on my hands. I try to explain how it makes me feel. The awesome power of my hands on the wheel. If I can't find the words to set things right. I just scoot over and I let my baby drive - she likes big boy toys, motors and lights knobs and switches and space shi..." Wash's song was cut off my Mal on the comm "Wash take us out, ma shong." Wash jumped up and started Serenity up.

Once they where in the black Wash tired to find Mal so they could talk about some parts he wanted for the bridge. He searched in Mal's usual hang outs the cargo bay and the kitchen. No Mal. His next stop was the infirmary.

"Hey Mal, I…" Wash stopped in his tracks. Zoë was lying on the table and Mal sat next her holding her hand. Her shoulder was wrapped up with gauze.

"What happened?" Wash tip toed in. She looked so frail, not the same women who frisked him when they first met, or ignored him the past few days. Mal looked up.

"Ambushed. Killed Lennox and his men. They wanted the goods. We got caught in the cross fire. She took one in the shoulder."

"She gonna be ok?"

"Zoë's rock solid, it's going to take more than a bullet to the shoulder to do, her in." Mal smiled as he looked down on his friend. "She's just doped up." Mal placed her hand back on her belly and got up. "She needs to rest. She gonna be pretty pissed off when she wakes up." Mal closed the infirmary door. "Pretty fine flying, getting us out of here like you did."

Wash forced a smile "I aim to please." He couldn't take his eyes off of Zoë. When he signed up for this job he really didn't think about what types of jobs Mal and Zoë did. He thought it would be fun.

"She's gonna be fine. She had worst." Mal lead the pilot away from the infirmary.

"Zo, Zoë?" Mal looked around. He didn't know where he was, his sight was still kind of blurry. "Ssshh, try not to talk." Mal didn't recognize the woman's voice. "Where am I?" "You're in a hospital on Mauritius. Your platoon was hit hard. Medics had to airlift you got. It's a miracle that you survived." The woman had a nice enough voice, but Mal still was confused. "Zoë?" Mal tried to sit up, his chest hurt like hell.

"Lay back down you need to rest." The nurse tried to lay Mal back down but, he got up anyway. "Zoë!" He pulled out his IV and started running through the hospital ward shouting Zoë's name. He checked behind, curtain after curtain, but still no, Zoë. Two orderlies tried to hold back Mal, but he was too strong for them despite his weaken state. "Zoë, gorrammit, Answer Me!" Mal was in tears, his memory started to come back. The last thing he remembered about Zoë was that she told them they were to lay down arms. "Son, you need to calm down. Laurie, honey, get him a wheelchair." Mal despite his best efforts sat down in the chair. The doctor shined a flashlight in both his eyes and checked his pulse. "Still a bit weak. Son do you know where you are?" Mal was feeling tired. "Hospital."

"Do you know what happen to you?"

"Dead, they're all dead."

"Yes, they're all dead and the war is over." The doctor patted Mal on the shoulder. "You where out there over a week while the big boys where discussing a truce."

"Did we win?"

"Its war, nobody wins, son." The doctor took the handles of Mal wheelchair and began to push Mal back to his bed. But, his feet stood fast to the floor.

"Zoë?"

"She's not here." Mal's face dropped to the floor. The doctor realizing what he just said. "I'm sorry, Son, I misspoke, your friend is not on this floor. She's in ICU." There was a small glimmer of hope in Mal eyes. "I want to see her." Mal tried to get up, but his legs wouldn't let him. "Sit, back down, Boy. I'll take you to her." The doctor pushed Mal through the hallways. Mal hated hospitals, too sterile for his taste.

After what seem like forever, they reach the ICU. "Wait here, I'll go check on your friend." The doctor walked over to another group of doctors and the whispers started. Mal's doctor pointed at him and looked back at the others. He had waited enough; he had to see if she was still alive. He made himself stand up and walk through those doors.

"This boy is one of the most stubborn patients I have ever seen." Mal stumbled a bit. His doctors help him steady himself. "She's over here." He took him to her. It was his Zoë.

She looked so beautiful and peaceful. He almost didn't want to touch her, but he had too to make sure that she was real. "She's as stubborn as you are. She should be dead by now." Mal took her hand. "Had a really bad chest wound. We thought she was dead. Until she grab one of the field's docs legs, scared the poor boy to death. She went into septic shock. The wound had gotten infected. Her hart stopped twice. She held on."

Mal held on to her hand even tighter. She was the only one to survive. Mal lead a thousand, men just to loose them all. The numbers dwindled down. Zoë was the only one to survive. They thought that were going to just take Serenity Valley from them. But they showed them, he and Zoë had showed them. They held their own for six weeks before they got the word to stand down. And then they waited at the gates of hell before they got any type of help. It was all coming back to him now. The bloodshed, the pain, the failure.

Mal felt like he died that moment he looked over that hill. Everything that he believed in was died that day in Serenity Valley, almost. The only thing Mal had left was Zoë. She had been there for him since day one, saved his life more times than he could count. Mal leaned over to Zoë's ear and whispered, "We lost Zo, we lost."

"You need to rest, Son. Laurie takes him back to his bed."

"I'll stay here if it's all the same." Mal didn't take his eyes off of her.

"Fine, Laurie, why don't you bring a bed over here so the Sergeant can be next to his friend." Laurie brought a bed over next to Zoë and helped Mal into it.

Mal couldn't sleep. He would get up in the middle of the night and put his hand under Zoë's nose to make sure that she was still breathing. He never left her side. They were in ICU for two weeks before Zoë showed any signs of improvement. "Sir, what are you doing?" Zoë said. She was still weak.

"Checking to see if you're still breathing."

"Well, stop it you're creeping me out."