Authors Note: Hello All, this is my first bit of Firefly fanfic. I've been writing Buffy and Angel fic for a while now, but with characters this colorful, I knew I would come to Firefly next. I love writing River near as much as I love writing crazy ass Drusilla, and well the rest of the characters sort of flow out. Pardon the lack of Chinese phrasing, I'm doing my best to throw it in here and there. This is going up here first to determine if I'm gonna keep at it. My Buffy fic fans would likely shoot me for starting yet another damn story without finishing it. Find a problem? Hate it? Love it? Let me know, just don't flame the hell out of me, or I might have to introduce you to my gun, I call him Jayne.

Time Frame: Post Objects in Space, Inara still hasn't left, River has become a member of the family (well as much as a crazy girl can be), Kaylee gets no doctor lovin', Jayne and Vera have a loving relationship (but will his cunning hat come between them??), Book is a curious character, Mal is a mean old man, Zoe and Wash are all romantical. ::sigh::

The legal stuff: Oh yeah, it all belongs to this guy, he has ears, and he lives in California and his name is Joss. He invented this world, I just like to play in it, in a completely non-financially beneficial sort of way.

Summary: Inara centric. Inara's past (my interpretation) comes back to her. Eventual Mal-Inara pairing, and hopefully I can get that crazy Kaylee and Simon thing to work out too. Warning, there may be scenes with plastic dinosaurs, these scenes may involve River, a bible and wine. No plastic dinosaurs were injured while writing this story. Sorry if there are spelling errors or whatever but I don't have a beta and I'm lazy!

Rating: R-ish, may end up NC-17 (this version if made will be available at fireflyfans dot net in the Blue Sun Room)

China Doll

Prologue:

"I don't expect you to understand, I don't even expect your blessing, I just wanted you to know."

"Mei mei, you have worked too hard to just walk out on the