Sniper and Engineer were dropped off on Persephone, where they could act as liaisons to Badger for Mal. Medic went to Ariel to work at the hospital, Spy to Santho as it was his sort of planet, Soldier went to Shadow, Scout to Beaumonde, Pyro to Boros, Heavy to New Melbourne, and Demo to Paquin.
Most of them managed to get decent work, like healing people or eliminating pests. However, the few that didn't get a job or two ended up living like hermits, foraging for themselves.
Several years later, Engineer and Sniper got a call from Mal to say that he'd be meeting them at the docks for a little reunion. Mal said that he was looking for a few new people to crew his Firefly, as Wash and Book had died, and Kaylee, Simon, River and Inara had left to go where they could fit in, so Mal needed a doctor, a mechanic, and a decent pilot. As he had a fairly decent memory of the RED team, he went and picked them up.
When Serenity landed, the ramp into the cargo bay opened, and the two drove their vehicles on-board. Their former team-mates all looked considerably older. For example, Sniper had a beard, but, along with his hair, it was very grey, and wrinkles were appearing in his skin. That applied to most of the others too, but none of them appeared to be going bald. If they were, they were hiding it under their hat. Scout and Soldier weren't there, but the rest of their former team had learnt that both had moved on from them. Their former team had also learnt that Scout was raising a family, and Soldier had his own ranch and was in a major Alliance boxing tournament, so neither of them was a good choice.
Still, the rest of them were up for a job, and, remembering Mal's less-than-legal activities, were prepared for a bit of a thrill.
"Well Mr. Conagher, you're my new mechanic, now that Kaylee has run off with Simon. If you do your job, you'll get paid, and we'll get on very well together." said Mal to Engineer.
"Thanks, cap'n. Who else is gettin' employed, may I ask?" inquired Engineer.
"You all are, because each one of you has your own strengths and weaknesses, so employing the lot of you means that those weaknesses get balanced out. Most of you will be sleeping in the passenger dorm, but the next time I take passengers, I'll do a small amount of rearranging, and everything would be fine."
"You weren't just passin' through, so where did you get the money so you could pick us all up?"
"A small Alliance bank robbery. And the good thing was that it couldn't be traced back to us, so Alliance don't get onto us."
"A bank robbery? How many of you were around when you did it?"
"Me, Jayne and Zoë. It was a mighty fine robbery, and they didn't see it comin', nor see the money go."
"Problem was, and still is, that Zoë is as temperamental as an opera singer ever since the death of Wash – the yield of her ideas are low, the talking to her is difficult, the extraction information from her is murder, the trying to understand what she says invites disaster, and her reports are unsatisfactory." Mal complained, "Though we managed to pull it off, in the spite of such setbacks."
"Understood," Dell stated. "But all this time, ah've been thinking about returning to our time period. Before, we did not spend enough of a time span on this fine ship, and now ah was thinking that ah could get started on a device that could return us home." Mal gave him a sideways glance. "Of course, such device would be built in the downtime, when ah'm not spending time repairing the vessel."
Mal sighed, "So your time here will be limited."
"Until then," Dell beamed, "it will be an honour serving under you, cap'n."