Ch Rating: R

For: Hello? Sex! Didn’t I say I would get to the dirty part?

Disclaimer: Do I have to say it again? It’s very late….Fine, Joss Whedon not me and so forth.

Zoe was throwing up again. There was no mistaking it any more. She started to cry. Not because she was alone but because she wasn’t anymore. It was as if Wash had come back from the dead.

*****

Mal sat on the bridge, staring at the screen. The woman had been dead for days in real life but on the cortex, she died again and again. He couldn’t look away. The image broke up into lines and the lines broke up into little bars of color and light. It was all his fault. All this misery on board. Mal put his face in his hands. In the dark all he could see were lines breaking up into bars of color and light.

*****

Kaylee sat with Serenity. It had been days. She didn’t know what to do. So she sat in the engine room, trying to work, but just staring.

“You should go to him.”

River stood, ghostlike, in the doorway.

“Me ‘n’ Simon are over meimei.” River looked at Kaylee like she was being stupid on purpose.

“Not Simon. The shore. Home. Go to him. He needs you, but he’s afraid.”

“River, I-“

“Go. Soon this will pass. But not now.”

Kaylee was confused. “What do you mean it’ll pass? The way me and Simon passed?”

“New-old people are coming,” River whispered conspiratorially. “Wash is coming home. Now go.”

River grabbed Kaylee by the shoulders and turned her toward the door. When Kaylee hesitated River gave her a final shove.

*****

Jayne was lying in his bunk on his side. He was crying the only way he ever did: silently, looking like he only had bad allergies. Jayne Cobb didn’t kiss on the mouth and he didn’t cry. Before his daddy had left for greener pastures and younger women, that’s what he’d taught his oldest son.

“Jayne?”

Kaylee. Why was she here?

“Well if you’re not going to say anything, neither am I.” Kaylee took off her boots and her coverall. She lay down next to Jayne and spooned him into her. It was a funny way to