Disclaimers : Everything belongs to Joss, except for one character of my creation.

As regards that character - hopefully she's not so much of an obnoxious Mary Sue that she turns people off, but the story basically wrote itself in my head and needed to get out. This is my first fanfic ever, and the first writing of any sort I've done in awhile, so all comments are appreciated!

Rated PG for most of the story, mostly for salty language. There is some sex, but not for a few chapters yet. I'll try to put a warning at the beginning before it happens!

***ALSO...for the Chinese, I've set it up (thanks to those on this board who taught me how!) so holding the mouse over it should get the English translation to appear!

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Mal left the infirmary in a daze and made his way shakily to the crew quarters. He approached the hatch leading to his bunk, intending to descend. Instead, he found himself pressing both hands against the wall, trying to keep the world from spinning out.

What in the tian xiao de is wrong with me?

He had reluctantly agreed to accompany Kaylee to the infirmary after she pestered him for so long he couldn’t take it any more. He figured a quick checkup from the doc would get Kaylee off his back and get him back to his day. And, frankly, he was too damn tired to fight her about it.

As hard as he was trying to keep it from the crew, he had to admit the nightmares and the sleepless nights they brought were catching up with him. And apparently he was not keeping it from the crew nearly as well as he had thought.

With all the hardship Mal had endured in his lifetime, bad dreams and sleeplessness had never been a problem. Somehow he was always able to leave his troubles behind at the end of the day and sleep soundly. Maybe it was precisely because of the type of life he led that he was able to do that. With imminent peri