Author Notes: This story will most likely be only three chapters long. Starting with His Thoughts followed by Her Thoughts and then to be concluded in Their Thoughts. I considered expanding it to a full fledge story, but I don't have a complete thought in mind so I will most likely start a new story instead of expanding this. Please R&R as this is my first fanfic in almost 3 years I would love feedback. Thanks.
Disclaimer: None of the characters that appear in the story belong to me. Any similarities between any real person, place, or event are purely coincidental.
Thoughts in Space
His thoughts
Mal lay in bed staring up at the ceiling of his bunk, dressed in his usual attire minus his boots; he just sat back and stared. The last few weeks had been busy for the crew. They had several back to back jobs with little time to recoup from the previous. Mal liked it that way, it let him focus on things he knew and didn't leave him a lot of time to dwell on the things he didn't. Things were looking better for the crew as a whole, Zoë no longer walked around with her eyes haunted by the memory of Wash, she still wasn't quite herself, maybe she never would be, but her interactions with the rest of the crew began to take a more normal feel for everyone. The physical wounds from the battle with the reavers had healed and their daily routines were set once again. Everyone, of course, missed Wash and Book, but accepted that you can't undo what has already been done and had to remember to be thankful for those that were still here with them.
As Mal sat up his bare feet touching the metal of the floor, knowing he should sleep, but accepting he would most likely be up for awhile longer his thoughts drifted to another member of the crew; one that would still be awake and not very far from where he was sitting right now. He couldn't exactly remember when it began; he would catch himself thinking about her at the oddest times or catch her scent as she entered a room. Of course nobody knew of his thoughts, her least of all, but it made him uncomfortable to think of her that way.
Sighing, he opened the door to his room and climbed up the ladder to stand in the hallway of Serenity. He turned first left then right, toward the control room and lightly stepped toward the room. As he approached he couldn't see her, of course she was most likely sitting in the co-pilot seat and he couldn't see it yet, but he was hopeful she wouldn't be there, and then he could continue his night of thoughts that didn't involve her.
But Mal was not a man of much luck and as he finally stood in the doorframe he could see her; staring out into the black, her knees pulled up to her chest and a deep purple dress hung from her shoulders. He wanted to curse his luck, or lack thereof, but as he went to he found himself softly smiling at the back of her hair.
He stood in the doorway examining her as one might examine some priceless object they could never afford in a lifetime. She was young, much younger then he, she was darkly beautiful and everything she did seemed to be with grace, even now when she did nothing but rest her chin on her knee it seemed the most natural thing in the verse. She had been better since the events of Miranda and even better so after the rest of the crew convinced her that the death of Wash and Book weren't her fault. Except for Zoë she seemed to take the deaths of their two friends worse then the rest of the crew, at the least she was the one most open about her feelings, as she blamed herself and thought the crew blamed her for what transpired.
However, that was now months behind them and things were much more normal now, or at least as normal as things could be on the ship. Mal wanted to sigh aloud, what was it about her that made his mind drift to her whenever it had a free moment to think for itself? Was it some paternal instinct and need to protect everyone on his crew? Was his mind just trying to focus on someone that was still here so it wouldn't drift to Wash or Book? Did he fancy her? No, that wasn't it for sure. He forbade crew members to become involved with one another as he didn't want any rifts between them on their small home in space. Of course there was the fact Wash and Zoë had married and the fact that it was likely something had blossomed between Kaylee and Simon. Did anybody ever listen to him he thought. I mean he was the captain and the captain knows best.
Finally as he took his first step onto the bridge, his eyes never really leaving the seat she sat in, his final thoughts were that maybe, just maybe, Malcolm Reynolds wasn't right about everything that involved his crew.