Morning

Mal awoke to the same thoughts and feelings as normal: hate, sadness, and guilt. He heard a taping noise at his door. "Go away!"
He heard another noise. It was muffled. "Mal, get the gorram up! Problems..." It was Jayne and he didn't sound too happy. Mal heard laughter. Surprise birthday party. How did they find out? Kaylee knew everything, so it had to be her.
Mal grumbled. "Give me a moment." He got up, putting his clothing on and went up the stairs. No one was laughing by his door. Actually no one was there. It was rather dark. Mal knew it was morning, his clock had said it was morning. He went into the kitchen, where everyone yelled out as soon as he stepped in, "Happy Birthday Mal!"

Mal acted surprised and let Kaylee push him into the chair were she brought out her famous tofu, protein friendly birthday cake. He smiled and forced himself to eat it and open the presents, which was a new holster from Zoë, Wash, and Jayne he had paid Zoë to add him with the present, shining powder for his gun from Kaylee, and new boots from Simon and River.

He looked over at Inara, who was the only person who didn't give him a gift. "So, where is my gift from you?"
Inara got up and moved towards Mal, giving him a French kiss, in front of everyone. The next thing he knew, he was kissing Julie, in their bedroom. A noise. They broke the kiss, his hands her up back. She turned towards the door. "What was that?"

Mal shrugged. "I don't know."

Screaming. Blood. Bones breaking. Cracking. Screaming...

Mal woke up in a jolt. He was panting, cold sweat running down his face. The same dream. Mal got up and walked over to the sink. He looked in the mirror, his face turning angry as he punched it, making it spider web, a few pieces of glass sticking to his knuckles. He didn't yelp, or cry, but just swore and put his clothes on, walking up the ladder to the kitchen, ignoring all the noises and Jayne's soft snoring in the cockpit. He walked straight to Inara's room.

Knocking on the door softly, he waited. Inara came to the door sluggishly. When she saw Mal, she rolled her eyes and pulled him in softly. "Mal, what do you need?"

He rubbed his head with his bad hand. He had forgotten about it and it stung badly. "Khan-lah fuh iso muah!"
Inara took his hand into her hand, pulling gently at his wrist beckoning him over to her vanity. She grabbed her first aid kit and started to pick at the wound, taking the glass out of it. "Damn Mal, what did you do, destroy your mirror or something?"
Mal looked sheepishly down. She rolled her eyes with a sigh as she continued. She sighed again, lightly this time, touching his wound, trying to get the some of the glass out that he had been so careless not to do himself. He instantly flinched, pulling away a bit, but Inara had a firm hold on his hand.

"No," she whispered softly to him.

"But it gorram hurts!" he grumbled back at her.

"Then go along, get an infection, because I know Simon won't want to help a childish patient that is a grown man. Shu-feh, Mal, shu-feh." Inara angrily got up and stormed over to put the first aid kit away. Mal watched her, knowing what she was thinking.

"Do you really want to leave?"

Inara turned around slowly, looking up at him, shaking her head. "Mal, I don't want to leave. Your making it sound like I have to go or I am seriously thinking about leaving. I'm not. I would miss our fights too much." She smiled at him, returning to the vanity chair, the aid in her hand. She took out some cleansing fluid, gaze pad, and bandage tape. She went back to picking out the glass, fresh blood under her nails. Mal winced, but didn't take his hand back from her. Instead he watched, noticing she was being gentle and soft with taking out the glass.

"It seems different, seeing your hands get all bloody like that." Inara looked up and smiled.

"Well, it's not like I haven't done this before." She gave him a quick smile before returning to cleansing out his hand.

Bombs were going off in the background; Zoë was trying to stop the bleeding, her assistant or the doctor's assistant the doctor was in a million pieces scattered somewhere across the battle field giving her the instruments to help take the bullet out. The battle was getting worse. Mal returned from outside, bringing in with him only two boys, the other eight dead. They should have listened instead of goofing of out there, Mal thought to himself: he was trying to pull the weight of guilt off of him. It wasn't working, only making him feel worse.

Zoë made a mad grunt. "Gorram! Mal, he's fading. Paul, get his body in an upright position, slowly. We have to get the blood pumping through his body." Zoë shouted above the war bombs. Paul did as told. Zoë started to push on the bloody heart, exposed from her incision she made to get the bullet out. She had made it wider by a bit, hoping that she could get her fingers on his heart, pushing it every two seconds. The boy had passed out a while ago. She waited to see if the heart was pumping by itself. No. She looked at the boy's face. Pale and blue. Dead. "Ahhh! FUCK!"

Mal looked up to see Zoë standing above the boy, her head bent. He came closer to Zoë, pulling her away. "Zoë, don't worry about it. Paul, set the body down, close the wound. Make sure he had his name tag on him." Zoë slapped him firmly across the cheek.

"We are not leaving him Mal! I won't—"
"Zoë, I am not going to lose you because of someone that died. I need you, all of us do. We are all going to gorram get out of this alive, you following!"

She gave him a harsh look, turning away from the body, following Mal. About 5 minutes later, a bomb hit the exact spot of where they had been. Zoë looked at Mal, anger flooding to her face, but she turned and went on.

Mal felt a tugging on his hand and saw that Inara had put a wrap on it, to make sure no infection would happen. "Thanks."

She smiled at him and got up to put the box back in the cupboard. Mal got up and started to move towards her, but he stalled as she turned around. Their eyes were intense as they met, not looking away. Inara walked over towards her door, Mal following her. He was surprised to find her closing her door. Inara turned back and looked at Mal with the same expression he was giving her. He looked down and laughed a bit. "I thought you were going to lead me out."

Inara smiled shyly and opened the door back up. Mal started to walk down again, but Inara stopped him shortly. "Mal?"

He turned around, lazily looking back up at her. "Yes?"

Inara leaned forward, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and neck. Mal was surprised at first, but ended up hugging her close. She pulled him inside of her room, breaking away to close the door. Mal smiled as she pulled him over to the bed and stood above him taking his suspenders off and pushing him onto the bed, crawling on him. Mal wrapped his arms around her, taking in her kisses like candy.

Later

Mal kissed Inara's neck, the sweet coming off of them both; heavy breathing as he gave her one last push and turned over, both of them trying to slow their breathing down. Inara felt better that Mal had taken control; she finally got some time off from being the controlled one. She found his hand, pulling it over her as she pulled him closer, giving him one last kiss. She leaned close to him and laid her head on his chest, her feet hanging off the side of the bed. Her breasts were bare and she looked up at Mal, a small smile on both of their faces.

Knocking was at the door. Had they forgotten the time? Mal swore as he rolled out of the bed in a panic and got on the other side of the bed, laying flat on the floor naked. Inara threw her clothes over where he was at, putting her robe on. She opened the door, Jayne standing there. He looked at her suspiciously. "Where is Mal?"

Inara sighed and gave him a stern look. "You truly think that Mal is in here Jayne? Haven't you noticed I have been a bit pissed at him lately?"

Jayne looked at her, speechless. "Well...no, but.. Wash said he last saw you with Mal. So I thought..."

He didn't finish his sentence when he saw the look on Inara's face. "Just tell him that we are looking for him."

Inara closed the door in Jayne's face, seeing Mal get up and start to put his clothes back on. Inara sat back on her bed, looking up at Mal, watching him. "Coming back?"

Mal looked at her, leaning over, he kissed her on the top of her head. "No, I'm going to leave you pregnant for the hellhole." He could tell that she was being serious. "Do you want me too?"

Inara didn't answer him.