Disclaimer: Firefly and all related elements, characters and indicia © Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, 2003. All Rights Reserved. All characters and situations—save those created by the authors for use solely on this website—are copyright Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television.

Author's Note: Thanks to Pearl-o and Dangermom for last minute betaing! Written for fic challenge #1.

Letting Go
by Tara O'Shea

"A job," Ephram Frye repeated, still in shock.

His baby girl—youngest of their brood—had come home from the docks, running pell-mell through the house, her pigtails flying and her dress all askew and her hazel eyes were just shining with wonder. He'd been in his workshop, trying to get his brother Cal's mule up and running for the third time that summer. The old beast was on its last legs, and was held together pretty much with spit and bailing wire. But Cal was family, and you did for family.

"He just up and offered it to me—Oh, Daddy, she's a firefly! An aught-three, a real beauty! I got a look at her engine, and she could use a fair bit of work—"

"What kind of job?" he asked, wary.

"Mechanic."

"That all?"

"Daddy!"

"Man offers a girl a job out of the blue—might be expectin' somethin'."

"Daddy!" Kaylee blushed crimson—and his girl wasn't one to blush easy. "We ain't had work in weeks—and this would be real work. Steady work. I can send part of my cut home to you and Momma. Help out. She's such a pretty ship. If you'd just come out and saw her..."

He set his tools down on the bench, wiping his grimy hands on his coverall, and looked at her.

She was still a baby. Hell, didn't matter that she was close to the age Meg'd been when he'd married her. In his mind's eye, Kaywinnet Lee was still five years old, trailing after him and her brothers to the workshop while her