Mal was going down to the engine room, where Engineer, who was having some free time, was building the machine that would return his team to their own time. When Mal entered the room, Engineer didn't turn around, but did mutter something along the lines of "Hey there, cap'n.".

Mal replied with "Hi.", and looked at what Engineer was doing over his shoulder. With the limited knowledge of Engineer's buildings, Mal recognised the machine that Engineer was working on was a teleporter entrance. Connected to the teleporter entrance, through a variety of coloured wires, was the casing for a dispenser.

"Engineering isn't my area, but how is that going to get you back to your own time? Doesn't it need an exit?" asked Mal.

"Ah'm reconfiguring this entrance so that it teleports us, along with the stuff that initially came through with us, through time, not across, if ya get mah meaning. When finished, it will be part of mah pick-up for the nes'ry power. The 'porter will emit a field that covers Serenity, and we'll all go back in time, along with things like Sniper's van and Medic's doves. Ah've already solved the problem of not havin' an exit, so, when the time comes, it'll teleport us to Mann's land in New Mexico without the exit, but, because there ain't no exit, Ah can't be certain where we'll end up, nor am Ah certain the date that we'll arrive, but Ah've made it get us back to within two decades of us leavin'." replied Engineer.

"Two decades? That could be a long time before or after you got sent here by that electrical pulse."

"Consid'rin' that this will be takin' us five hundred years through time, there's gonna be some degree of inaccuracy."

"Right."

"Ah appreciate the help that you and your crew have given to mah team, an' patience on top of that, for the last seven months, but this little 'porter will be finished in about a week, so Ah can finish making corrections to it. After that, mah team will be eager to go through, and we won't be here long after completion."

"Thanks for the forewarning. I'll start looking for more crew, and I'll radio your other two team-mates, see if they want to go back with the rest of you."

"Alrighty then. Ah appreciate your help."

Mal left the room. The former Independent sergeant felt the forecoming loss of Engineer and his team-mates aboard Serenity as he walked along the ship's corridors. Going through rooms, he remembered all of the good times that they had had, and all of the bad things that they had endured together, as a team. The time Medic had spent several weeks making Mrs Warren feel better since the death of her husband, and the time that everyone had been entertained by Sniper's dancing in the cargo bay following the best robbery that Mal had ever taken part in. Over the last seven months, Mal had bonded with the team, considered them as friends, and it hurt him that they would be leaving soon, and that he could do nothing about it. Their presence was all over Serenity, like the improved accelerator core in the engine room, to the Vanilla Medigun, made from bits scavenged from dead ships, in the surgery, and to the bobble-head on the pilot's console. To Mal, this was worse than before, when he had lost most of his crew, even though he had experience with it. With his former crew, they had their problems, and sometime didn't work together as well as they could, but the RED team members on Serenity worked together, had overcome their differences, and their strengths, despite their weakness, made them so much better as a team, which probably made their leaving so much more difficult.

Mal went onto the bridge without noticing it, so lost in his thoughts. Sniper took him out of his thoughts.

"Crikey, captain, are you alright? You almost fell down the stairs into the avionics bay."

"I'm fine, thanks. It's just that Engineer said that the teleporter that would take you back to your time would be finished in about a week, and I'll have to go back to an almost empty ship."

"You want more crew? I'll sort that out for you if you want me to. I'll also talk to Soldier and Scout, see if they want to come with us, and pick them up if they do."

"Thank you, Sniper."

Mal walked of the bridge, and went into his quarters, where to deal with his emotions, Mal wrote a novel, called Get to the Firefly, Lads!, in reference to what Sniper said during the robbery before dancing in the cargo bay. The book was about Mal's experiences with the RED team in a rather short six days. He went through it, took out all of the errors, and made another copy of it in three more days. In the novel, Mal praised teamwork and friendship, along with the pain of loss and emptiness. He wrote entirely of what had happened to begin with, explaining the mysterious circumstances that the RED team had arrived, then them moving away and coming back, and now the loss that he was facing because of how well these men worked together and with him, Zoe and Jayne. Due to both Soldier and Scout both wanting to go back to 1967 with the rest of their team and the time it took to collect them, Mal was able to hand the second copy of Get to the Firefly, Lads! to Engineer to take back with him.

Before he left, Sniper gave the locations of several prospective new crewmembers that Mal might want to consider.

When everyone was ready, and all had said goodbye and shook hands, Engineer started up the modified teleporter. Like the Texan had said, Serenity was covered in a field that took the RED team and all that had arrived on Serenity from 1967, seven months ago, was transported back in time.

A/N If you didn't want it to go like this, then you should have reviewed or given me a shout through the PM system. Still, please review, as I need encouragement. So far, Smorgesborg is the only person who's given me encouragement and constructive critism.