Hello All,

Well here's chapter 2. I got a bit distracted with some computer ahem issues but all is better for now so I'm able to post this chapter. More to come so I hope y'all are liking this!

-Moki

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14 Days earlier……..

With his bags over his shoulder, Wash walked between the ships looking for the Serenity. His step was relaxed and he hummed a little tune as he went along. He had already met Captain Mal Reynolds at a nearby space station for his initial interview but today he would be meeting the rest of the crew. He wasn't nervous as he always enjoyed getting to know new people. He knew most people found him easy to get along with and that didn't bother him one bit.

Finally he saw the Firefly up ahead and started walking up the ramp of the ship that would now be his, for all intents and purposes. Wash had a theory that a pilot couldn't be a good pilot unless he loved his (or her) ship and he felt in order to love it he had to feel like he owned it. This big beauty was his now and he was looking forward to getting to know her and to love her. Then she would respond to his hands like a partner in a dance. Well, those were his thoughts on it anyway.

"Howdy" a friendly voice called out and Wash looked up to find a young woman smiling down at him from the top of the ship's ramp. She was happily ensconced in an old lawn chair, wearing a big rimmed hat and holding a glass of something that looked cold and refreshing. Now this is my kind of ship, Wash thought to himself. He liked a nice relaxed workplace and this certainly fit that description so far.

"Howdy" Wash replied, returning her grin with one of his own.

"You must be our new pilot. My name's Kaylee and I'm the mechanic, pleased to meet ya" Kaylee got out of her chair and took Wash's hand in a firm handshake. He noticed that she just kept right on smiling, almost like her mouth didn't know how to stop once it started. It was downright fetching.

"I'm Wash" he said, returning her grin.

"The Captain's out rustlin' us up some supplies with the rest of the crew but I can show you around if you want" she said and without waiting for an answer took one of his bags and walked into the ship. Smiling at her guile, Wash followed behind.

Kaylee proceeded to give him a tour of "her" ship, as she called it (apparently mechanics had the same beliefs as pilots about the ships under their care). She kept up a running commentary the whole time and Wash wondered if this was the deluxe tour.

"This here's the galley and we usually eat all our meals together. We ain't got no cook so everyone just pitches in. Can you cook?" But she went on before Wash could even think to open his mouth to reply. "Well it don't matter if you can or you can't, you'll just have to learn is all. Just like the rest of us"

"Actually I can handle myself in a galley, I may not be a gourmet but I can certainly chip in with the cooking" Wash finally got a chance to reply as Kaylee inhaled before getting ready to continue right on talking. She smiled and nodded at him and then continued the tour. She took him through the entire ship, commenting on everything the whole time. He was beginning to lose interest when something she said finally caught his attention.

"This here's the Infirmary. We brought the last pilot here after that last job. Didn't do him no good though since he was already missing some pieces by then. Captain tried to fix him up best he could but there weren't nothin' he could do. One heck of a way to end his first day on the job, that was for sure" If Kaylee noticed Wash turning a particularly sickly shade of green at this point she made no mention of it and continued on her way through the door. Wash following like a zombie behind her. Did she think this was funny or did it never even occur to her that he may not want to hear about how their last pilot ended up (in pieces no less) after his first day on the job?

Strangely enough he wasn't any more comforted when she showed him to his bunk.

"This here was our last pilot's bunk and like I said he didn't make it very long" she was saying cheerfully. "Mal wasn't happy when the idjit got himself blown up and he was right pissed that he had to fly us out of there himself" She stopped and indicated a ladder leading to a bunk below and Wash happily went down. Maybe now he would have a few minutes to ponder over everything she had just said. But the next thing he knew he saw a pair of boots following him down. Even though he was familiar with ships and told her he could figure out where everything was, she insisted on showing him around the small cabin. It was a little annoying but Wash was happy to at least put his bags down, even if he didn't get a moment to himself.

"Well how'bout I take you to where you'll be spending most of your time?" Kaylee asked with another one of her mile-wide grins. Knowing she meant the cockpit, Wash smiled back at her.

"Yeah I'd like that, thanks" He chose not to mention that he could have found his way to the cockpit blindfolded and with his arms and legs tied together. She seemed to be having so much fun that he didn't want to ruin it for her so instead allowed himself to be lead along like a child.

Once in the cockpit, Wash sat down in the pilot's chair to get a feel for it. He ran his fingers lovingly over the controls and smiled to himself, enjoying the way the ship felt to his sensitive hands. Sitting in the pilot's seat of a new ship was always like a first kiss to him and he treasured it. He didn't think he'd ever get tired of flying. Ever since he saw his first shuttle as a little boy it had been love at first sight.

Lost in his own musings, he didn't even notice Kaylee leave or her big grin at seeing his reaction to her ship. She liked it when people bestowed affection on her "girl" and she could tell Wash had fallen head over heels. So she left the two new lovers to get acquainted.

Now alone Wash looked out the cockpit window and sighed in satisfaction, leaning back into his flight chair. Of course right now his view consisted of nothing more than other ships and a docking area but soon enough it would be full of stars. All nervousness after Kaylee's long-winded documentary of their last pilot's misfortunes vanished as he touched the yoke and felt like he was finally home again. It had been a few weeks since his last mission ended and even in that amount of time he'd missed being in the pilot's chair. This was where he belonged and danger be damned. His place was in this cockpit and he felt as long as he was in this chair, he would always be safe. This is where he was in control of his own destiny. What could ever happen to him while sitting in his own chair?

Wash's communion was interrupted by the crackling of the internal 3ntercom. He sat up as he heard his name called.

"Wash. If you're done settling in up there we could use some help here in the cargo bay" Mal's voice informed him.

"Aye Captain, be right down" Wash replied and headed out with one final glance behind him. Yep, he liked his new ship. He liked her just fine.

Wash headed briskly for the cargo hold, his light boots tapping on the grates below him. When he arrived he found the place a flurry of activity and immediately found the captain, who was holding a checklist, to see what he could do to help.

"How can I help, sir?" he asked and Mal pointed towards a tall woman with dark hair and dark skin who was unloading crates from the back of a rover parked in the hull. He tried to remember what her name was but it didn't come to him right away. He knew she was the captain's first mate but that was about it.

"Go help Zoe get those squared away" Mal said and turned away to supervise the rest of the work being done around him. Nodding an affirmative, Wash went where he was told. Some pilots might turn their nose at doing menial labor but not Wash. He liked to pull his weight anyway that he could and on smaller operations like this that often meant that people had to wear many hats.

Wash walked up behind the woman as she was bending over to pick up one of the smaller crates. Now Wash wasn't a sick sort of fellow who went around staring at women's body parts but he couldn't help but to notice that from his current angle she had very nice legs. Not to mention the tops of those legs too, he thought.

"Hi" he said "My name's Wash and I'm the new pilot. Mal sent me over here to help so can I help?" he asked and realized that must have sounded rather stupid. Nice first impression idiot. Since her back was still turned towards him she didn't see his grimace at his own stupidity. For this small favor Wash was extremely grateful.

The woman turned around after putting down the crate she'd been holding and proceeded to look Wash up and down. That look couldn't have lasted for more than a few seconds but to Wash it felt like forever. It wasn't exactly pleasant and in fact it was more than a little unnerving. But Wash held his ground and simply looked right back at her, keeping all emotion out of his countenance. He had a feeling that he was being tested and he also had a feeling that he sincerely wanted to pass.

Finally deciding that the new recruit was worth a moment of her time (well at least enough to get his help with unloading the rover) she finally replied to his question.

"I'm Zoe. Take these crates and move them over here" she said tersely, pointing to some larger crates and indicating an area of the deck nearby. She then turned back to what she'd been doing and paid the newcomer no more attention than she would have a fly on one of her boots.

"Sure, no problem" Wash replied to her back and got to work. He decided to be polite, even if she wasn't paying attention to him. It was then that he noticed that she had given him the largest of the crates to handle while she took the smaller ones. Not that he blamed her of course. They were very heavy and though he had a feeling she could handle them just fine, he knew she'd rather he did it. She wasn't stupid after all.

As for himself, Wash had no problems with the heavy crates and handled them fairly easily. It was one of the benefits of flying the kinds of ships he did that helped. Many pilots in his field preferred to take on fancy ships. Ones that were piloted with just the mere touch of a few buttons here and there. But Wash liked to really feel his ship and chose to pilot those still using a yoke. He liked to feel every thrust, every shake and shimmy, anything that told him what his ship was doing and even feeling at any given time. Sometimes it meant that he practically had to wrestle them through the air and into rough landings but he liked it just the same.

The upshot of this though was that he had really well developed arm muscles. Those very same muscles that were helping him now, in fact. Many women on many planets had noticed those arms of his even though he wasn't particularly vain about them. They were just a part of him and he accepted them as a by-product of his trade.

Somehow though he didn't think that Zoe had noticed anything about him at all and he certainly didn't think that was why she'd asked him to handle the big crates. Nope, that didn't seem likely at all, Wash thought as he set the last one down. In fact he wasn't even sure that she knew he still existed.

Wash was more right then he realized. The moment Zoe had ordered their new pilot to handle the other crates she went right back to what she'd been doing without another thought. In fact if someone had asked her but five minutes later, she probably wouldn't even have remembered even meeting him.

Once finished with the crates, Wash noticed that everyone else had finished up in the cargo bay except for one other person. Stretching his aching back muscles and wiping sweat from his brow Wash looked over at the other man still finishing up his assigned task. By golly, that man is huge. Wash wasn't a small fry but this man easily towered over him by another head or so. He seemed to be made of pure muscle and Wash didn't doubt that had the other wanted to he could crush Wash just as soon look at him.

Wash walked over to the other man and decided to introduce himself. Best to get to know everyone right away, he thought.

"Hey how's it going? I'm Wash and I'm the new pilot" he said, extending his hand.

Slowly turning around the bigger man simply looked at him and Wash could have sworn that he snarled. Okay wait, nobody snarls anymore do they? He must have imagined that.

Before Wash could try to speak again the big man put down the crate he'd been holding (a crate that looked large enough to hold a small elephant) and simply walked right past. Well actually didn't just walk right past, the big man made sure to slam Wash in the shoulder as he went by. Certainly was nice of him. Gee, I'm making friends all over the place.

Thinking that he must have caught his new crewmate at a bad time, Wash shrugged off the gruff first introduction. Next time maybe he'd catch him in a better mood if he waited until dinner. With that thought Wash walked off to his bunk to get more settled and cleaned up a bit.

Over the next twenty-four hours Wash continued to try and make friendly with Jayne but to no avail. In fact the only reason he knew the man's name was that he heard everyone else addressing him as such. The burst of laughter that started in his throat when he'd heard the guy's very feminine name had almost killed him. Must try to remember not to hold back laughter while eating soup. But luckily he had managed to hold it back or he was sure that Jayne would have used one of the knives he seemed to carry everywhere to turn Wash into mincemeat.

Not that keeping a straight face upon hearing his name had helped at all though. Every time Jayne entered a room that Wash occupied he made it very clear that he didn't like their new pilot. Wash really couldn't figure out why. As far as he could tell he hadn't said anything to the man to warrant such treatment. Hell, I've been trying to not even look at the guy cross-eyed.

However the problem was set aside as Wash got ready to take them off the planet. They were done with their business and it was time to head off to their next destination. It was the first time he'd be piloting Serenity and he wanted to do a great job. He'd flown other boats like her but hadn't actually ever taken up a Firefly before. So he spent a lot of time before they were due to takeoff checking switches and making sure that she was ready and responding to him properly.

He needn't have worried. They took off from their assigned parking spot in the airfield smoothly and a few minutes later came out of atmo with nary a shiver. Mal had sat in the co-pilot's chair the whole time and once they were out, turned with a grin to his new pilot.

"Couldn't have done better myself. Actually I'm sure that's a fact since I ain't no real pilot, not like you. She's all yours, Pilot Washburne" and with that Mal walked out of the cockpit, leaving a grinning Wash in his wake.

Setting a course for their next destination, Wash happily hummed to himself with not a bother in the world. Yet.