A/N: Dedicated with love to my River, Ivy.

“She’s small, but she’ll do well for ya, ya treat her right.”

Mal looked at the man, nodded. “I know.”

“She’s tougher than she looks, boy. Ain’t afraid to fight back.”

Mal nodded again. “I know.”

Right then.” The man nodded, satisfied, and transferred his wrench to his opposite hand, then offered his wrench to Mal. “She’s all yours, Cap’n Reynolds.”

Mal smiled for the first time since stepping into the mechanic’s shop. “Okay then. Kaylee girl, you ready to go?”

~~~

There it was, laid out before her like some sort of sentient creature. Her dress. “Oh, Cap’n, how’d you ever…”

“Don’t bother with the how, Kaylee girl, just put it on. We got a ball to attend.”

~~~

The whole town had been wiped out. “That was the school,” she told Mal tearfully. “An’ the boys’ treehouse. And—oh—the shop.” She knelt down in front of the pile of rubble and cried silently. After a few moments had passed, she looked up at him with round, wet, serious eyes. “Mal—will you?”

His eyes travelled from the ring on her finger to the rubble that had once been her home. After a long pause, he nodded. “I’d be honoured, Kaylee girl.”

~~~

“I’m not real sure ‘bout this.”

“Simon’s a doctor, Mal, he’ll take real good care of us.”

“My faith in the doc ain’t really the main concern here. We live on a space ship.”

“We seem to do just fine out here.”

“But a baby, Kaylee girl?”

~~~

“She’s haemorrhaging.”

“What’s that s’posed to mean?”

“It means that in a few minutes she will lose most of the blood in her body and die.” Despite his clinically cold tone, there were tears drying on Simon’s cheeks and his wife’s blood on his hands.

“C…can I see her?”

“Be my guest.” Simon led him into the room, refusing to look up.

Mal sat awkwardly at the end of the bed. “I told you so,” he said. “You have a real handsome little boy, Mrs. Tam.” He brushed a lock of hair off Kaylee’s forehead. “Oh, Kaylee girl, are you really ready to go?”