Litlle by little the story progresses. I keep forgetting to mention that anyone who wants to archive these stories by me is welcome to. Just give me credit if you post them anywhere. Feedback is most welcome!

THE JOB (Part III)

Zoe looked over the group sitting at the table and stopped at River. "You OK now?"

"He hurts so bad,." she replied.

Zoe’s mothering instincts made her want to hold River and tell her it would be OK. But she had a job to do first; she’d promised Mal. And anyway, it wasn’t gonna be OK as far as she could see. "I know River," she said quietly.

This exchange made everyone focus on Zoe. Obviously something was up and Zoe and River both knew something bad. The room was suddenly filled with tension. There was a long silence as Zoe tried to find the words.

Kaylee broke the silence first. "Where’s the captain? Ain’t he gonna eat dinner?"

"He’s not hungry and I need to talk to you all about the reason for that." This was going to be harder than she thought. She glanced down as Wash sitting beside her. He caught the pain in her eyes and grabbed her hand.

"Honey, what’s wrong?"

God, how she loved this man. It was good to see the concern on his face. Good to know he would be there for her anytime she needed him. And she surely needed him right this minute. She squeezed his hand to reassure him.

"Mal has arranged our next job. I think it’s legitimate work this time. He wasn’t really clear on the details though. Just said we’d be hauling goods to Shadow."

They all looked at each other confused. Shadow was considered to be a prime location and legitimate work wasn’t usually dangerous, so what was wrong?

Tears started running down River’s face. Inara saw it first and reached out to hold her. "What’s wrong with the job, Zoe?" she asked quietly.

"Ain’t the job so much that’s wrong. It’s the location. Mal would never have gone there if we didn’t need the money so bad." Kaylee remembered the long list of needed parts she gave Mal three day ago and hung her head. She w