A/N: Hi, everyone. Well, spring semester has already started, so the next few chapters will probably be churned out a bit slower. We are winding down towards the end- maybe 5 chapters left, I haven't completely decided yet. But hey, at least I'm leaving all of you with Mal's confession to satisfy you for now. Enjoy!

Chapter 17

"Alright," said Kate, sitting down on one of the chairs placed around her dining table. "I'm listening, Castle."

Mal pulled up another chair to face her, and took a deep breath. "My name isn't Richard Castle."

"I know," said Kate.

"You know?" said Mal, deeply confused.

"It's just your pen name," she explained. "Practically everyone knows that."

"Um, yeah," he said, rubbing his hands across his face, deciding how best to rephrase his statement. "But there's a lot more to it that almost no one else knows. My real name is Malcolm Reynolds. Martha Rodgers is not my mother. And I'm actually from the future."

Silence.

He looked into Kate's eyes as she just stared back at him until she suddenly opened her mouth to speak. "The future? Right... Now, if you'll excuse me, it's really late and I'd like to get in at least a few more hours sleep before having to get ready for work." She began to rise from her seat, but Mal grabbed her arm to motion her back down.

"I know it seems ridiculous," he said, "I wouldn't believe it myself if I didn't experience it first hand."

Kate obviously still would not believe him, but at least decided to remain a bit longer in order to humor him as he told his story.

"I'm from the 26th century," he continued. "I'm the captain of a spaceship called Serenity."

"Say hello to Mr. Spock for me," she said, moving to leave again.

"Will you please hear him out, Detective Beckett?" Alexis spoke up. Kate sighed, but stayed.

"Go on," she told him. "What's it like in the future?"

"A few centuries from now," Mal told her. "The Earth will get used up, so we'll have to terraform a whole new galaxy of planets to live on."

"Guess Al Gore was right then," said Kate.

"The Central planets of this new solar system formed the Alliance, and waged war to bring everyone under their rule. Some out there didn't like that idea very much and decided to try and fight it. I was one of them."

"You fought in a war?" scoffed Kate. "You cry out whenever I sneak up on you in the break room."

"Well," he said. "You should learn to give a guy a little warning when he's carrying hot coffee."

"Fine," she said. "So tell me about your spaceship... What was it called again?"

"Serenity," he said. "It was a transport ship, Firefly-class. I had a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even had our very own Companion." As he said that last part, he looked over towards Inara.

"What do you mean by 'Companion'?" asked Kate.

"Would you like to take this one, Inara?" he asked.

"I'm not ashamed of my occupation," Inara said. "Much though you think I should be. Secondly, I think it should be made perfectly clear that I was not in any way yours. What I did for you was to bring a necessary reputability to your den of thieves that would otherwise have been missing."

"How so exactly?" Kate asked again.

"Whoring," Mal said bluntly.

Inara gave Mal an artificial smile before explaining to Kate, "I'm not a whore, detective. I'm a licensed courtesan, and I deal with only high-society clientèle. I'm part of a guild and have had years of training."

"You see, whoring has become a more respectable occupation in the future," Mal added.

"And tell me, Mal," said Inara. "When will thievery become respectable?"

"How is knocking what I do supposed to convince me to come back and do more of it?" asked Mal.

"Because you..." Inara began to say, but quickly changed her mind. "It doesn't matter what I think; the fact is that is that in the eyes of those looking for answers after the fall of the Alliance, tales of your exploits and moral judgments have made you into a hero. You've become a household name."

"I've become a household name here, too."

"They've written a folk song about you," said Inara.

"Really?" Mal asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Better than Jayne's...?" he asked.

"Catchier and more popular," she said.

"Huh..." Mal leaned back in his chair a bit to ponder over this matter.

"Okay," said Kate. "Now I'm even more confused than before, and that's saying something. If you are from the future- and I'm not saying that I believe you- but if you are, then how did you get here? A Delorean? And what exactly did you do with this spaceship of yours to pass the time?"

"To answer your second question first," said Mal. "As I mentioned before, I fought in a war against the Alliance, but my side lost. After that, I didn't really feel at home anywhere, so I purchased a ship. And with that ship I knew that I had the capacity to make a life for myself without having to worry about the cat's paw of the Alliance.

"I formed a crew, and together we took whatever jobs we could get. If it hurt the Alliance, that was a bonus, but we were mainly just looking to survive."

"So you broke the law?" said Kate.

"If you don't hold by the lawmakers, then you can't hold by the law," said Mal.

"Did you ever kill anyone?" she asked.

"Of course he wouldn't," Alexis interjected. When Mal remained silent, she turned to him, and said, "Right?"

"Only when I had to," Mal said. Kate and Alexis both stared at him in shock. "Namely, if they would've killed me instead. Times were tough; people did anything to survive."

"But to kill someone?" said Alexis, suddenly seeing her father in a whole new light.

"Like I said, I made enemies of the Alliance, as well as other folk of the lowly variety. A fella can't do that and not have to constantly watch his back. Come to think of it, it's a miracle I survived this long. I've been shot, stabbed, suffocated, tortured."

"Kissed," said Inara. Mal gave her a dirty look.

Kate, already long forgetting to remain skeptical, said, "So you still haven't told me how you ended up here?"

Mal glossed over the events of Miranda, then about his being captured by the Alliance, and his starting a new life with Martha. He explained to Kate about the incident with Zoe and Jayne, followed by the pleas of Simon and Inara for his return to resume his place as captain.

"It's not just that we- they- miss you," Inara said to Mal. "If it was, we would have left you alone when we saw that you had moved on. To put it simply, you're needed. The Alliance has crumbled, and the people need someone like you, with your sense of justice and moral code, to make sure that everyone gets treated with the respect they deserve, the respect that is the right of every human being."

"I'm not a god, Inara," said Mal.

"I'm not saying they'll make you into a king," said Inara. "But you've already become a legend.

"Look, I know you miss us. You already admitted that much, so there's no point in lying about it now."

"I'm doing good here," said Mal. "I help catch killers."

"People get killed in our time, too," said Inara.

"I'm friends with the mayor," said Mal.

"You've made friends of entire communities," she countered. "Mal," she continued more softly. "I told you something a long time ago, something that I shouldn't have."

"What was that?" Mal asked.

"That I was going to pack up my things and leave," she said. "I convinced myself that it would be bad for me to stay, and, once I was gone, I convinced myself that I had made the right decision. But I was wrong. The family we all made, the love and support that we shared, that has bound us forever. I thought that by leaving when I did that I was avoiding getting tied to it, but what I didn't understand was that I was already permanently attached. You are, too, Mal. If it was hopeless for anyone to be able to separate themselves from Serenity, it's you. That ship is yours; that ship is you.

"Besides," she added. "Kaylee really misses you."

Mal stared at Inara pensively, causing her a bit of unease. She knew that being so open to him would leave her vulnerable to the man around whom she always needed to be strong.

"I'll think about it," he finally said. "You know, for Kaylee's sake."

"Who's Kaylee?" Kate whispered to Alexis, who had found her way over to the detective's side.

Alexis shrugged her shoulders, unable to answer.

"But, really," Mal said after a moment of thought, turning towards his daughter. "It's up to Alexis."