The job would take them back and forth across the galaxy, more than Malcolm Reynolds cared to do.

The Bulger brothers had arranged this job for them, setting up a very complex affair of a heist of Alliance surplus energy heating converters on Stonybrook, a terraformed moon out on the eastern part of the rim, and a run straight across the galaxy, past every Alliance cruiser and criminal in operation, to deliver them on Hanover, a similar terraformed moon. The purchasing price on Hanover had already been negotiated and settled, and the Bulgers were expecting thirty-five percent, leaving Serenity with a healthy earning, making the risks of carrying this merchandise well worth it.

But Mal just couldn’t get into it, his heart wasn’t there. His mind was still on Beline. He felt so empty and dead inside, it was hard to get interested in anything. His crew was keeping a safe distance from him, especially Inara. He felt a powerful guilt for the way he had lashed out at her, but she should have just left him alone. Because that’s really what he was, wasn’t it? Alone. He remembered visiting planet where men took multiple wives, and one man telling he loved three women equally. He had thought a lot about that man in recent days. He couldn’t conceive of loving more than one woman at the same time. He couldn’t begin to see how a man could do it more than once in a lifetime.

Annabelle had taken something inside of him and killed it dead, and the worst part of it was the fact that he knew full well if she called him again, he’d come running. He’d run as fast as he could and leave everything behind to get there. The thought made him disgusted with himself, but he knew it was true.

But it went beyond just that. He kept thinking about Minerva. He kept seeing himself behind the woman whose name was Felicia, drawing his piece and airing out the top of her skull. He kept thinking of the endless dreams where he had seen this play out, and where she has still come back, despite the headshot, and where she pointed her finger a