Title: Shadow

Rating: PG. "So there /is/ kissin'..."

Characters: the whole crew, plus toddlers Kacey and Lolly, Baby Abey, the Reynolds-Stokes clan

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 have a job on Shadow.

Author's Note: I had so much fun writing this one. I have a cousin who is currently about Baby Abey's age, so he's really the inspiration for everything Abram does. So this is also dedicated to him. This is the end of this story, but there are more to come. Serra will be returning soon, I promise. :)

Part 5

“Can’t believe he went back there,” Laney sighs, pulling out a chair from the kitchen table and beckoning for Mal to sit as well.

“Sam Wilkins was just a young kid, a wanderer. Signed onto the ranch just ‘bout the time your grandparents got sick. Jack’s age, eighteen. Took a shining to our Maggie immediately, and why shouldn’t he? Pretty little thing of sixteen, iron-willed, bright smiled. Jack caught ‘em in the hayloft a couple ‘a times, innocent kid stuff. Then Ma and Pa died, and Maggie lost it, held onto Sam for all she was worth, ‘cause he was the only one not gone or mournin’ left in her life, ‘cause he let her forget, I figure. Their relationship weren’t exactly healthy, but we were all so lost at the time, them dying three weeks apart, and me only twenty. The next year I married Silas. Just wanted to leave the ranch, leave the memories. Boys came too. Your mother pitched a mighty fit. I know you don’t think that’s possible, but she could throw ‘em fierce. She refused to come here, so I dragged her. She went running right back after a few months, back to the ranch, to Sam. I guess she relied on him to keep her sanity.”

Laney pauses, studies her nephew’s face. It’s a mask, not revealing anything, which says so much in itself.

“They fought all the time, over the ranch, over Sam’s wanderlust. Killed him to stay in one place so long. I figure he never meant to start anythin’ r