Mal had to be dreaming. Because there was Wash, looking not so speared, sitting on the edge of Mal's bunk with a go-se eatin' grin on his face.

"Hey Mal, howzit goin'?"

"Uhhh...OK, I guess. Ship got pretty tore up, but she's doing better."

"Yeah, noticed that. Also noticed you promoted the resident spookgirl into my chair."

Mal ran his fingers through his hair. "Girl's got a talent for it, I'll give her that. Not as good as you, mind, but...why the gorram hell am I talkin' to a ghost?"

If it were at all possible, Wash grinned even wider. "Because you need to."

"I need to be up at ruttin' o'clock in the mornin', talking to shadows?"

"Yup."

Fine time for his ex-pilot to go all laconic on him. "Alright, I give. Why?"

Wash got up off the bed and started wandering aimlessly around Mal's room, picking up various objects, looking at them, and then putting them back. He finally leaned against the ladder and said, "Because, with all due respect, Cap'n, you're one stubborn hump."

Mal gaped like a fish. "You came back from the Great Beyond to tell me that?"

Wash nodded, grinning like a baboon. "Yup. You don't even see what's right under your nose. Or, more to the point, what's living right on your ship."

Mal swore in Chinese. "Did Kaylee bring some sorta fluffy critter on board? I've told that girl..."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call the Doc fluffy."

Against his better judgment, Mal had to laugh at that. "Alright, quit talkin' in riddles and make yer point."

"Her."

"Who her?"

Wash rolled his eyes. His captain could be so dense at times. "Let's work the math here for a sec. Not Zoe, because then I'd have to show up lookin' a helluva lot scarier than I am now. Not Kaylee, because she's all swoony over the non-fluffy doc. And certainly not River because...yeah, resident spookgirl. Which brings us to..."

Mal stared. "Inara?"

"Cap'n wins the prize! Yes, Inara, you idiot!"

"What about her?"

Wash threw his hands up in the air. "Merciful Buddha, deliver me from this m