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

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

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**********F.Y.I. to those leaving comments...Some of you have been wondering about the timeline between Alex's escape and what's going on with Mal and Co. I have left it undetermined how long she goes without rescue, but when I wrote it I was not trying to parallel her escape exactly with where Serenity was at the time. So I'm thinking she's not out in the woods the whole time the crew is trying to get to her.

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“Where the hell is Mal?”

Wash had yelled into the ‘com until he was hoarse, and had searched everywhere he could think of that Mal could conceivably be. He was running out of ideas.

“Honey, last time I saw him he was here.” Zoë was as stymied as her husband. Neither of them had seen Mal since he had last left the bridge, and that had been several hours before.

Wash sighed in exasperation and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I found his contact at the prison more’n two hours ago, and I’ve looked everywhere...you and Jayne didn’t lock him in the hold, did you?”

Zoë thought he looked slightly hopeful. She smiled and shook her head. “Not me, but I can’t speak for Jayne. I think he’d like to ‘bout now.”

Wash snorted.

“Not sure I wouldn’t,” he mumbled. “The prison official—Officer Logan is his name—said we can’t park on prison grounds...I really need Mal to talk to him, see if there’s any way around this.”

“Way around what?” It was Mal, finally, stepping onto the bridge and looking a good deal more pulled together than he had before.

“Where have you been?” Wash asked. “I looked everywhere for you!”

“I heard ya on the ‘com,” Mal answered, waving a dismissive hand. “I just had...stuff...to take care of.”

Wash f