Title: Shadow

Rating: movin' on up to PG. "So there /is/ kissin'..."

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: This part is longer to make up for the long wait. Sorry about that! Midterms. Also, this entire story is dedicated to my homesickness. :) The St. Mary's River and all dock-jumping antics are dedicated to Savannah, Georgia.

Part 3

She finds him down by the river, back pressed against an old oak, Abe sleeping on his shoulder.

“It’s getting cold,” she says, sitting gingerly beside him, pressing their shoulders together. She slips Abe from his grasp and settles him snugly against her breast. Mal puts his arm around her, tugging her closer and burying his face in her dark hair, lost in the soft and the scent.

“She used to love these things.”

His voice is muffled by her hair. Inara knows whom he’s talking about, immediately.

“Never could get any seafood on the ranch. Only kind available was imported from here, too expensive. She loved shrimp. Ocean’s just a few miles down the river, you know. Keaton, Chris, and me used to take the boat out, ride over the shrimpers’ wake. They’re just a couple years younger. Better with the boat, though.”

He pauses.

“I met them. Keaton looks like you,” she says softly, gently prodding him to continue.

“Yeah. She and Aunt Laney loved teasing each other, saying they’d had twins a year and hundreds of miles apart.” He laughs roughly. “Like I said, she loved these things. All the family together. Kids on the dock used to be me and my cousins, Hannah watchin’ over us like a mother hen. Only two years older’n me, but all kinds of uppity. She used to squeal, too. We’d threaten to push her in or put snakes in her bed; she’d go cryin’ to Ma and Aunt Laney. They’d be too busy gabbing to yell at us and send Uncle Em and Uncle Jack instead. They were old softies w