Simon woke up. Next to him lay Kaylee. No, his wife. He couldn't believe it. He'd done it. He'd actually, finally done it. He'd proposed, and she said yes. Not only that, he thought as the memories of last night returned to him, but she'd tried to repay him in full right there and then. With his bruises and her shoulder, and last night, he couldn't figure out why he was still able to move. Ah. Maybe not, then. Next to him lay Kaylee. Mrs. Tam. He could tell she liked the ring of it. Kaywinnet Lee Tam. Nice. He moved beside her, feeling the pain that came after pleasure. For the life of him, he couldn't think of where she'd have learnt those things she did. Probably better not to ask, he reckoned. As she stirred, he hugged her tight.

'Morning, honey.' He said. She snuggled up next to him, relaxing next to his warm body.

'Morning, hubbie.' She said. 'Didn't think I'd forget, did you?' She asked, teasing him.

'As a matter of fact, no. I didn't think you'd forgotten.' He said, stroking her head. 'In fact, I thought by now you'd have gone on the cortex and picked out your dress.'

'Hmm. Later. Now, sleepy time.' She said, hugging him. She sighed. 'Last night was just like a dream, you know?' She asked. Simon nodded. 'I mean, we had such great sex, and then you proposed, and then-'

'More great sex.' He finished. They kissed, memories of last night flowing through them, before they fell asleep again.

'So, did you say yes?' A voice asked. Mmm. Simon was such a tease, Kaylee thought.

'Course, honey. Why?'

'Gotta spread the news.' Kaylee opened her eyes. River was standing there. Simon was stirring again.

'What? What's going- River?' Simon noticed his younger sister, who had unceremoniously dumped their clothes at the end of their bed, before she ran out the shuttle. 'She's gonna tell them isn't she.' He said. It wasn't a question, but Kaylee decided to answer her husband anyway.

'Yeah. Why, you afraid?' She said.

'Kinda. You know, Mal's going to have a gorram field day.' He said. 'And Jayne…oh God.' She put a finger to his lips, indicating that he should calm down.

'It's gonna be shiny. Everything will work out, you'll see. It always does.' She told him.


Once dressed, they staggered out of the shuttle, hand in hand. They were both so sore, but it just didn't seem to matter. They walked on, regardless. They heard noise from behind one of the doors. Once they reached it, Simon put his arm around Kaylee, hugging her.

'After you, Mrs. Tam?' He asked.

'No, Mr. Tam, after you.' She replied, playfully. They walked into the room, holding each other. Oddly enough, everyone was preoccupied with the ship in what appeared to be a hanger. Unlike the rest of the satellite, it wasn't shiny white. It was a grey, bluish colour, with parts littering the floor. Kaylee squealed when she saw the ship, open to the world, being repaired. There was a bang as Nikolai meddled with something in the engine and the ship's prow pulsed purple. He observed it for a couple of seconds before delving back into the engine.

'Hey, if I knew he was a psychopathic schizophrenic, I wouldn't have hired him, okay!' Mal said as the door behind the couple opened, and Mal and Belle walked through, arguing.

'Well, why did you think he didn't open his bag, hmm!' Belle replied, clearly angry.

'Look, I really don't want to get discussin' with you.' Mal said. 'If you're gonna help, you could at least tell me when you can get me to my ship! He took it, you know!'

'Hey, I checked the records, and yes, the molecular transfer unit did-'

'The what?' Mal said. Belle continued unhindered.

'While the molecular transfer unit did take him somewhere, I can't just look up the destination.' Belle sighed. 'Once a transfer has taken place, the destination is erased for security purposes. I do, however, how a strong suspicion as to where he might have gone.' She walked up to a wall panel, hit a few buttons and a map of the system appeared. Belle pointed to a small planet, near the rim, and the map zoomed in, showing the satellite as well. 'We're here. A molecular transfer unit has a small radius before it has to hitch a ride on another unit.' Mal looked suspicious. 'Look, the only one with that radius is this one.' Belle pointed to another planet, not too far away. 'Again, radius. Again, no other cannons. He has to have gone there.' She pressed a few more buttons on the wall panel, and the map closed. 'Most likely he dumped the ship after the windows smashed, and took another.' Mal decided she might be right.

'This planet he went to, what is it?' He asked.

'Don't know.' Belle replied. 'Classified. Says that it's uninhabited, but since it's marked by the ATLAS computer, it could be important.' Mal rubbed his hands together.

'Well, let's just teleport there, get my ship, fix it and go. How hard could that be?' Belle sighed.

'Hard. We can't transfer.' She said.

'What? But he-'

'Yeah, well, when he did transfer he fried the circuits. The molecular transfer unit was designed to be used after powering up, otherwise you destroy the firing circuits, and without those, the next person to be teleported can say goodbye to their cell structure. You might as well walk through a meat grinder.'

'Huh.' Mal replied. It was only then that he saw Simon and Kaylee, looking at the ship, awestruck. 'Well, you two look rested.' Kaylee giggled.

'Not really.' She said, smiling her usual Kaylee smile. Simon hugged her and gave her a kiss on the forehead, grinning broadly. Mal watched them, watched their body language and realised there was something more than just the usual elated high after sex.

'You two got something to tell me?' Mal asked. Kaylee turned to Simon.

'Shall we tell him?' She asked.

'Well, River's going to tell them soon, so why not?' He told her.

'Tell me what?' Mal asked. Just then, River came in, leading Zoe and Jayne.

'Right here.' River told them, pointing at the three others. Zoe looked puzzled.

'Sir, what's going on?' Zoe asked. 'River told us to come down here, said there was something we ought to see.'

'Somethin' about these to rutters havin' somethin' important to say.' Jayne said.

'Well, these two were about to tell me what.' Mal told her. Kaylee turned to Simon, smiled brightly, then turned back to Mal.

'Simon proposed!' She said, hardly able to keep back her excitement. Mal stared at them both, uncomprehending, before the full effect of what she'd just said hit him like a sledgehammer.

'He WHAT!' He screamed. Nikolai rose so suddenly, he hit his head, muttering countless Russian curses. Zoe and Jayne just stood there, gaping. Belle and River were the only people, apart from Simon and Kaylee, who were really enjoying this.

'We're getting married!' She said, and with that, turned to Simon and kissed him, as he lifted her off the floor in a massive hug. All Hell broke loose. Mal started shouting about "gorram shipboard romances", Zoe started arguing with Mal about how Wash and her were no different, before she stopped, remembering her late husband, then continuing for Simon and Kaylee's sake. Jayne shouted at Mal about letting Kaylee get hitched to some pretty boy Doctor. Belle came over to congratulate the couple on getting engaged, and River came over to give them both a hug, and told Simon that "maybe he wasn't such a boob after all". Nikolai walked over to Belle and started saying how he had a splitting headache, and how he couldn't work in these conditions. The last two, an Irishman and an Australian, sat in the ship's cockpit, checking controls and watching.

'Everything set?' Hannigan asked.

'Ready, set, but a shortage of go.' Alice said. 'You know, it's nice, those two getting hitched.'

'Yeah.' Hannigan replied. 'You know it's sad, knowing Jack's still out there.' Alice sighed.

'I know. Wonder what the old git's doing now?' She asked, rhetorically.


The old git in question was stomping around a battleship's control room, fed up with the lack of service. The firing codes hadn't worked, not on any secondary firing station anyway. He looked down at the map. ATLAS would wipe out over half the Alliance fleet and destroy their entire economical and political worlds in an instant, causing mass hysteria, panic, and chaos. Eventually, anarchy would arise, and a new dark age would begin. Jack didn't care about causing chaos. All he wanted was the annihilation of all forces that tried to distort the will of God. Politicians, figureheads, celebrities, wealth, all these things contributed to the lack of faith. He was a thumb of God, and he would do anything to see the Light. Jack smashed the computer console, hitting it again and again with the butt of his gun. He stopped, looking at his hands.

Bloody Hell, he thought. I broke a nail.