Author’s Note: This is a coda to "Objects in Space," but it also contains SPOILERS FOR "HEART OF GOLD," the (presently, but hopefully this will change soon) unaired episode whose script is available on http://www.fireflyfans.net as well as other websites. Proceed at your own risk, but otherwise enjoy!

He hadn’t budged from this spot in what felt like hours. It had started when he realized that this would be another sleepless night and had wandered around the upper catwalk, trying to force himself to focus on what he was supposed to do now. He’d leaned forward on the railing, resting his head on his arms, but even under the pretense of thinking Mal still couldn’t pinpoint an answer to his problem.

I’m standing on the bridge

I’m waiting in the dark

I thought that you’d be here by now

Life had thrown him some pretty tough catches, but this one seemed the worst. Inara, leaving the ship – he couldn’t let it happen. It had become almost a home to her – she’d told him that, once, and though he’d masked it with laughs and cheer, the very thought had scared and exhilarated him. This was his home, and for her to live here, in the same place as him, with him – It seemed too good to be true.

There’s nothing but the rain

No footsteps on the ground

I’m listening but there’s no sound

And it was. A week or so ago she’d announced her plan to leave, and, though they hadn’t reached any planets that suited her tastes, she hadn’t shown any signs of going back on her word.

Isn’t anyone trying to find me

That’s `cause she was too ruttin’ stubborn. Kinda like him, actually. Neither would budge from their positions – she wouldn’t stay, he wouldn’t ask her to. Nandi had noticed that they were also similar in that neither liked complications in their lives.

Nandi. . . . It was after their visit to the Heart of Gold that Inara had announced her intentions of leaving, but Mal wondered