Sorry for the wait folks. Enjoy.

Joss is Boss

Mal glared at his breakfast. He knew this situation wasn't the fault of his breakfast, but he couldn't glare at himself. He had a very strong feeling that back in the Mersey he should have just told Nova "thanks, but no thanks, hope somethin' turns up for y'all". The night before, Wash had ascertained that the next planet they could stop at would be Persephone, which worked well for Mal: he could pay Badger, pick up some supplies, and no one would have to feel guilty about leaving the girls on a backwater moon or planet as desperate as they had been on Allen. However, they wouldn't reach Persephone for another five days, three if they went hard burn all the way, but Mal couldn't justify that, even to himself. Serenity was big enough for everyone to avoid anyone they didn't want to see or speak to, and if Simon was so worried about River sneaking off and spending time with them, they could just make sure she was supervised. An inconvenience, but a minor one.

His train of thought was interrupted by Jayne snarling:

"What do you want?"

He looked first at Jayne, and then over his shoulder in the direction Jayne had directed his question. He glared again. This time it was justified, because while his breakfast certainly had nothing to do with the current state of affairs, Nova certainly did.

"Well?" He demanded. "Man asked you a question."

Nova took a deep breath, and forbade herself to be anything but calm.

"I want to apologise for my behaviour last night." She started, then paused, forcing herself to continue. "I'm sorry for causing havoc on your ship." She paused again and turned to Simon, finding this apology much easier. "I'm sorry I hurt your arm." Now she turned to Jayne, which was much more difficult. "I'm sorry I kicked you." But she couldn't help but add: "Even though you were a twat. Anyone knows grabbing someone from behind is a huge tactical error." There she stopped, and waited for any kind of response from the stunned crew. For a horrible moment, she thought they might bundle her out the airlock.

"Apology accepted." Simon said, placing his spoon of breakfast back in the bowl, and reaching out to shake her hand. His arm didn't hurt anymore, and he was sure River was right. He was even considering removing the splint. He also realised that being petty about her apology would cause unnecessary conflict, and hoped the Captain and Jayne would follow suit.

"Cool," Nova was visibly relieved as she shook his hand, but the worry returned to her face as she turned back to Mal and Jayne.

"Where're your friends?" asked Jayne, suspiciously.

"In the cargo bay." Nova replied petulantly. "They said that coz it was my fault y'all are pissed off, I had to come and apologise, though they're sorry for all the havoc too."

Jayne nodded, then shrugged. If they were all gonna be stuck on the same boat for five days, holding a grudge seemed stupid, even to him. Following the Doc's example, he stuck out a hand.

"If ya kick me again, I'm gonna shoot you." He told her, matter of factly as she took his hand.

"Fair enough," she replied, and turned finally to Mal, who still sat silently.

"Cap'n?" Kaylee asked, eventually, frowning a little.

"Mal, she offered you an olive branch," chimed in Inara, not sure if she was glad she'd made the effort to come down to breakfast with the crew instead of taking it in her shuttle as usual.

Mal looked around at all the crew, who were watching him expectantly, and caved.

"Fine," he said, turning back to face her and extended his hand. "Any more havoc, though, and I'll let Jayne shoot you." As the lights snapped out, Jayne and Wash loosing surprised "wei!"s, he calmly continued: "Kaylee, what in the tyen shiao duh just happened?" In the pitch dark, there was a pause before Kaylee's voice replied.

"I was workin' on the wiring afore I started breakfast, left a couple wires clipped together. They musta come unclipped. Won't take me but a minute to fix it, or it wouldn't if I could get there."

There were footsteps, and then they heard Nova's voice yell into the bay.

"Just chill, aight? It's just some wiring come unclipped. It aint the gorram apocalypse!" Before her footsteps returned. "If none of y'all can see, I better take Kaylee to fix this."

"You can see?" Even in the dark, the Shepherd's surprise was evident. "Shi. Night vision is just a part of the Slayer package." She replied, circling the table to get to Kaylee. "Which way's the engine room?" She asked, helping the mechanic to her feet and taking her hand. Kaylee hesitated for a moment, disorientated in the dark, and finally said:

"Through the opposite door to the one you just used."

In the engine room, Nova located a torch, and, at Kaylee's instruction, aimed it at the wreath of wiring hanging from the ceiling. Kaylee worked fast, fingers flicking over the various wires as she searched for the place come unclipped. She chattered all the while, cheerful questions of Nova's childhood in the core, happily answering about Harvest. It surprised Nova how much chatter Kaylee could fit into the two minutes it took her to locate the errant wires. Instead of clipping them back together, she pointed at something behind Nova.

"Couldja pass me that soldering iron?" Nova turned to find it. "Are all five of you from the core?"

"No. Is this the one?"

"Uh huh."

"Taariq's from Persephone, Taban from Whitefall, and Kaige and Ebony are originally from Shadow, though they moved around a lot. They're pretty used to this kind of thing. I grew up on Sihnon, though. I'm still not used to it. It's cool, though."

Kaylee did something with the soldering iron, and the lights came on all at once.

"Shiny!" She grinned.

"Coolio." The other agreed.