Chapter 23: Thoughts and Thanks

---

Throughout the entire ship everyone was asleep. Oz could hear each of their hearts beating the rhythmic melody that signified sleep. Serenity was so quiet when everyone was asleep. The engine was only a gentle hum and of course nothing can be heard in the vacuum of space.

Oz was making his way around the ship and ended up in the cockpit. He sat down in the pilot's chair and took in the information the console offered. They would make White Marsh in three or four days. That is if no more delays happened. If you could call what happened a delay.

Owen Forests was so close. The Blue Moon Monastery had sent him a wave so suddenly. They knew that Oz was a werewolf and had sheltered him for years at a time when he had needed to get his head straight or had needed to be off the radar.

The monks there had also helped a few other werewolves that Oz had brought to their doors. Including a little boy, Xang, that Oz had found infected on some sparsely populated planet. Xang's family had been killed by the werewolf that had infected him. The monks have taken him in permanently and care for him. All of the werewolves that Oz and the monks had managed to help were able to make it so that they were one with their wolves. But for some reason none of them ever got the same ageless clause that Oz got.

He owed the monks of Blue Moon Monastery a great debt, which he didn't mind paying. Oz just wished they would have told him what was wrong. Oz turned as he heard Wash walking towards him. "Hey."

"You couldn't sleep?" Wash asked taking a seat in the copilot's chair.

"Yea." Oz said.

"How come?" Wash wondered.

Oz shrugged, "Got a lot of energy."

Wash looked at Oz's still form and grinned, "Yea I can tell." The two men were quiet for several minutes, just looking out at space. "I thanked you for saving me right?" Wash glanced at the werewolf.

"Yea." Oz nodded. Then he turned to look at Wash. "I wasn't going to let any of you die no matter what the cost. And the fact that you guys, with the exception of Jayne, seem to accept me for what I am. It really wasn't that big of a price to pay."

"Wash?" Zoe's voice drifted in from the hallway.

"Just a second honey." Wash got up and as he walked past Oz he placed a hand on his shoulder, "Try to get some sleep, cause there's no way a body can sleep when everyone else is awake. Unless you're Jayne. Good night." The pilot patted him on the shoulder before leaving the room.

"Night."