Disclaimer: None of the characters from Firefly belong to me. If you wish to use my OC's, ask.

A/N: Thanks go out to Neroli for her beta help. Feedback welcome.

Sheep or Wolf?

Chinese glossary

Made- fuck

Ni mei shi ba – are you okay

Weishenme – why

Diyu – hell/devil

Zhangfu – husband

***

Mal cursed to himself as he forcefully ordered Zoe and Jayne to stay away from his position. Somehow, the deal had rapidly gone from smooth to royally humped in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, Zoe had left, but she was less than happy to be ordered to return to Serenity. Her reply burned in his ears as bullets ricocheted off of his cover of metal crates.

Turning his attention back to the firefight, he noticed that ammo was running low. One of the Preacher's miracles would be nice right about now, he thought desperately. Mal rolled to return fire when he heard gunfire from behind him. He let out a string of colorful Chinese curses until he saw the face of from his past crouching a few feet away.

"Jing-mae, you are a sight for sore eyes even if your aim was off," Mal told the woman. With her help, he might survive long enough to be chewed out by his second in command. Jing-mae just gave him an odd smile and a wink as she rose to fire another shot at his attackers.

Secure in the hope that his old friend would turn the tide of battle, Mal resumed firing to prevent his foes from further encroaching on his position. He never saw his bullet hit its target though; Jing-mae stealthily approached his unprotected back and used her rifle butt to knock him out.

***

Hearing her Captain state that Jing-mae had appeared from nowhere briefly gave Zoe hope that Mal would survive. The sound of Mal's communicator being destroyed rudely extinguished her new found optimism.

"What happened?" Jayne asked. The entire situation had him almost scared – he didn't think he'd e