Title: Shadow

Rating: pretty G for now

Characters: the whole crew, plus toddlers Kacey and Lolly, Baby Abey

Pairings: Heavy on the M/I, trying not to neglect the rest of canon (S/K, Z/W, J/Vera)

Summary: Set 4 years post-BDM, Mal and the crew has a job on Shadow.

Author's Note:

For those confused by the children and this world, please read the rest of the Pirate Children stories (here in chronological order): Brother, Shadow (this one), Pirate Children, and Hell-Raising. This story is going to be multi-chaptered, along the lines of PC. After all, that one is about Inara going home; this is Mal's turn. Nothing too awkward yet, but there is more to come. Also, this is the first of the stories where the children are not featured prominently (it's hard when they're 1, 2.5, and 3.5) and poor little Serra isn't even born yet. She's feeling a little neglected. But I'm very nervous about my adult characterizations, so be nice! :)

Part 2

“He’s coming in this afternoon?” Laney’s eldest daughter questions loudly over the flock of squealing Reynolds-Stokes children who are high-tailing it out of church, wrinkling and dirtying their Sunday clothes in the grass and mud of the churchyard. Hannah, heavy with her third child, keeps one eye trained on her two rambunctious boys (she’s been praying for a girl) and another on her mother beside her.

“Yes. After lunch. We’ll be cooking all afternoon.”

Laney is bright, glowing over the impending return of her nephew to Shadow. Hannah smiles at her mother, hands supporting her burdened lower back, but is more wary of her cousin’s arrival than her mother. She remembers the dark, broken young veteran who attended her aunt’s funeral, while Laney remembers the mischievous little boy who helped the Reynolds-Stokes boys chase Hannah and the other girls around the cotton fields, brandishing snakes and toads.

“He’s taking the crop to Three Hills?” she asks. “Trying for the regular transport job?”

“Yes, wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Hannah tries to smile rea