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

**Mousing over the Chinese should reveal the English translations on most browsers. If not, translations follow the story.

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“Inara!” Kaylee cried, running up the stairs from the cargo bay to the catwalk. She threw her arms around Inara’s neck, enthusiastically greeting the Companion as she emerged from her shuttle. “Missed you like crazy!”

Inara smiled a welcoming smile and hugged Kaylee in return.

“Missed you too, darling,” she said. She descended the steps into the cargo bay where the rest of the crew was gathering, Kaylee’s arm around her shoulder affectionately as she peppered Inara with questions about her week.

“Hey, Inara,” said Wash, who was tinkering with the mule, trying to ready it for whatever job Inara potentially had for them. The crew was enthused about the possibility of a job, as transporting Alex to Zargon was the most lucrative thing they had come by in awhile; and despite the fact that the transport involved extra fare, it still could not come close to bringing in what a good cargo or smuggling job would do. The mule, however, had been loaded with explosives and detonated inside Niska’s Skyplex during Mal’s rescue, and, because of that, was scorched and barely running.

Inara touched Wash’s face, running her fingers over the bruise above one eye.

“You look better than when I last saw you,” she told him. She had departed for a week to help train Companions on Paquin shortly after the kidnap and torture at Niska’s hands, and Wash and Mal had both still been pretty banged up when she left.

“Hey, you get your hands off my man!” Zoë yelled teasingly to her as she came into the bay.

Inara smiled up at her. “How are you, Zoë?”

Alex was in the doorway to the passenger dorm observing the crew as they greeted Inara. Shepard Book walked up beside her.

“Good morning,” he said in his melodious