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Ten Years Later

by Judy Moffitt

She’d been working on the bridge, calculating different routes for the next leg of the trip after tomorrow’s stop on Persephone. But it was way after midnight now, ship time, and she decided to call it a night. She stopped in the kitchen on the way to bed and found Mal sitting there. He was there most nights and she enjoyed talking to him. Tonight, she had something important to say and it seemed to be the right time.

"Evening River. How are the course calculations coming?"

"Almost done. I’ll have Wash look them over in the morning."

She thought it was nice to have a real job on Serenity as Second Pilot. River was even happier to be mentally stable enough to have a real job. She truly appreciated the effort Simon had made to find a cure for her. Even after three years, she still wasn’t used to being sane all the time. ‘Course she and Mal still had some secrets. He was the only one who knew she still read minds and did other things just with her brain. Even Simon didn’t know or he’d still be trying fix what she didn’t consider to be wrong.

"Day Wash finds a mistake in your calculations is the day I give up Serenity," Mal teased.

She smiled. Mal liked it when he made her smile, she lit up the whole room. And truth to tell, she was so serious most of the time; she didn’t smile nearly often enough.

"Did you know today was ten years to the day since Simon and I came to Serenity? I never really thanked you for taking us in and sheltering us when the Alliance was trying so hard to find me."

"God, has it really been that long? Seems like just yesterday. But so much has happened. Who’d a guessed how it would all turn out.? We’re even respectable most times, nowadays."

"It’s easier now that we aren’t fugitives. Don’t think we can ever thank Book enough for arranging a fake death for us to get the Alliance off our trail." Pause. "Do you remember how beautiful Inara was the day Simon and