Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me, they are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and Fox.

Feedback is always welcome.

Takes place shortly after the series ended and about a month after the events in Delta Rain. Long time coming for this chapter, sorry about that. Had some RL things going on, work and all that...plus one nasty case of writers block! Big thanks go out to Tori and Cassie and Jebbypal for continued swift kicks in the rear...and a speedy beta from Cassie, thanks so much!

* Quote from Delta Rain, by The Blessing

Chinese translations: Hwoon dahn: Son of a bitch

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Zoe paused in the doorway to the bridge; she loved seeing her husband like this. He'd taken a break from playing with the dinosaurs to go over some charts. Mal had asked him to plot a less direct route to Whitefall, just in case. His face was serious and calm as he hunched over the console.

Smiling serenely, she walked over and smoothed his hair down. He had a habit of running his fingers through it when he was concentrating or nervous, made it stick up kinda funny. In a cute, totally sexy way.

"Hey wife," he turned and gave her that smile that always made her feel warm and loved, seeing that smile was like finding home every time, "thought you'd gone to bed."

"Not yet," she leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss, "Mal wanted to talk some thing over. Like how to deal with Patience if that is what River has in mind."

"I'm still for the shooting her first thing." he said jokingly.

"Hardly conductive to getting her to help us, wouldn't you think?" Zoe responded with a smile, settling down next to him in her favorite spot.

"See, I'm just not seeing the whole Patience helping us out thing." a slight frown creased his brow. Zoe resisted the urge to smooth it out.

"Me either." she said softly, turning slightly so she could gaze out at the black. "I