A/N: This is a "bridging" story for my Book series (God Indeed, Men of God, Something Unworldly and The Devil Lost) and my Jayne series (The Way, Judas and Mercy, Redemption of the Broken Vessel and The Return of St. Christopher).

This one can stand alone.

Disclaimer: all things Firefly/Serenity are the property of Whedon et al. I'm not making any money off this, just playing with his toys.

Not beta'd.

Persephone had never looked so good to Mal. He was hypnotised by it as Serenity took silent orbit around the planet. Truth was, he rather enjoyed seeing worlds from the Black. Everything was so simple, peaceful really. No politics, no bar fights. Just land and water. Really all a man needed.

“Sex,” River added.

“What?” Mal blinked and shook his head, leaning to the controls in the process.

“Man needs sex. So does Woman.”

The Captain scratched under his eye and cocked a grin. “Don’t think yer brother’d much care for this line of ponderin’.” He ventured a look to his pilot and was grateful that she didn’t seem to be implying that he sex her there.

She laughed. “Not you.” She flipped a switch. “Someone younger.”

Mal was unsure if he should be relieved or insulted. Relief seemed safer.

Twenty minutes later, Serenity was docked at Eavesdown and the crew was happy for the dirt, even if it was noisy and smelled...colourful. Mal marched down the ramp with Zoe at his side, while Simon and River remained on board. Until the Captain knew for certain if the arrest warrants were still active on the brother and sister duo, it was safer to hole up in the ship. Simon had given a specific list of medicines and other medical supplies that the ship was very much needing.

Mal scratched his ear. “Seems awfully long, Doctor.” He looked to Simon. “You sure we need all this expensive stuff?”

“If the anaesthesia is too much then you could just pick up a stick so you can bite down on it the next time I remove a bullet or repair internal bleeding.”

“Wasn’t lookin’ for