She looked up as Mal walked in and grabbed the mic for the intercom, his features carefully controlled in an all too familiar way. She shared his concern and that fear she knew both of them were fighting back. Problems that attack with guns and knives were one thing - unknown problems that kill out of nowhere were another entirely. She squeezed Wash's shoulder and he looked up, waiting for the announcement. Whatever Mal had to say, he didn't want to repeat it and that was a bad sign.

"I'm sure all of you heard by now, our passenger died a few hours ago. We don't know the cause yet and I don't want anyone bothering the Doc while he's trying to work it out. If it ain't an emergency stay out of the infirmary. Anything particularly strange or troublesome happens let me know. Being troubled ain't the same as something troublesome happening." He clarified before he put it back and dropped into a chair.

"Where we going, Captain?" Wash asked carefully. Zoe relaxed slightly, he had been pretty worked up and had started to set course for the nearest hospital before she could talk him down. Commandeering the ship wouldn't help the situation - it would just make things harder on Mal.

"Hold course for now." He said after a moment. "Deadwood don't have to be our destination but the Blue Sun system is distant enough for comfort. We can pick up work on Meridian."

Zoe didn't have to look to know Wash disagreed but he knew better than to argue. At least at a time like this. It wouldn't do anything more than annoy the Captain and make a bad day worse.

Just then all that mattered was she had spent a couple of hours scrubbing blood off every surface within sight of the location of their ex-passenger's last breath. She trailed a hand across her husband's chest before stepping away. "Going to go get cleaned up and grab a nap. Back in a bit."

"No exploding." He ordered with a forced smile, a desperate attempt at lightening the mood as was normal when he was stressed. "I'll be furious if you explode."

She nodded, doing her best to return the smile but she was quite sure it came out more of a grimace. There wasn't anything she could say to make Mal feel better so she walked by silently. His eyes were closed and she couldn't tell whether he'd fallen asleep in that chair or was just deep in thought. It hardly mattered right then - being clean was all she could really bring herself to care about.

It was hard not to linger in the calming hot water but by the time she was sure all traces of blood were gone she felt almost groggy. It had been an unbearably long day and she gladly dropped onto her bed. Even without the comfort of Wash nearby she was asleep in moments.

She glanced around an unfamiliar street, breathed unfamiliar air, looked at unfamiliar houses and reached for her very familiar weapon. Pretty green lawns, carefully trimmed hedges, white picket fences, old fashioned architecture… She had only seen this in a few places, all trying to emulate Earth That Was, but there were no tell-tale signs of this just being one of those whimsical and expensive locales.

One house looked less friendly than the others, less inviting. The grass was a little overgrown, the paint a little chipped, the windows a little cracked. She eyed it uncertainly and started to back away. This was wrong - how did she get here?

She had taken three steps back when she tripped over something and stumbled. Looking down she saw Jerry's head smiling up at her. Another two steps away and the eyes opened.

"They really should have listened to me. Now Freddy's going to get all of you."

"Who?" She demanded as she drew her gun and prepared to fire on the next thing that moved.

A strong hand grabbed her shoulder hard and spun her around. "Me!"

Zoe was inches from the grotesquely smiling face of what she could only describe as a Reaver - his badly scarred head was partially covered by a dirty old hat, an ugly red and green striped sweater covered any scarring that extended to his torso. He raised one hand and wiggled blade tipped fingers in greeting.

Zoe gasped as she woke. She was standing in a corner as if she had backed into it, her gun was in hand and she was alone. Slowly she took a deep breath and released it, forced herself to repeat silently that it had been a dream. A strange dream.

When she reached out to set the gun down she became aware of a worrying pain.