A short post-Serenity (the movie) piece that hit me out of nowhere last night. M/I, standalone, PG.

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"Reparation"

by HawkMoth

8/3/2006

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Inara remembers the way she helped Mal and Zoe mourn for Tracey--laughing and drinking in the galley, not knowing it was premature, not aware of the deadly pursuit about to make its presence known.

There's none of that now. They did their grieving on Haven, with proper graves and candles lit and rockets sent screaming into the sky. The rest of their pain was channeled into making Serenity live again, moving on as best they could into an uncertain future. We gotta keep flying, Mal didn't say. It was in their blood, in their bones, the only way they know how to live, the best way to honor their dead.

Moving on. Inara had given Mal a non-answer, which seemed to be what he wanted. For now it was enough to try to make her shuttle a little more liveable, using whatever Kaylee could scrounge up from the passenger dorm--bed covers and pillows, wall ornaments and lamps. Her life now was all about bits and pieces.

She had fought alongside this crew--this family--had been ready to die with them, for them. It wouldn't be right not to live with them now. Therefore she has sent no waves back to the Training House, and breathes a little more easily as each day passes and none arrive.

Whatever is brewing back in the Core--the inevitable repercussions and changes brought about by what they--what Mal did--they can ignore out here in the black. For now. Life goes on along the Rim, on the border worlds, and there are still enough ways a crew and ship can make a living. As far as they can tell, the Operative's word was good and no one's after them.

Inara can live with that. She can live on Serenity and it almost feels like home, like she never left. Mal acts the same way, and any sniping is good-natured and mostly by rote, more of a game than ever before. Other things are harder. She doesn't know how things were when Book left, but the double loss of cour