A/N: I am so glad that the Tams and their interaction with Simon and River was so well-received. I tried very hard with this story not to paint them as villians as it is often the easier route to take ... trust me, it was a struggle!

This chapter sees a bit more fluff, which I hope you all enjoy. Comment and tell me about it!

And to Leiasky - for the beta, the updates on Flan (which is a GO, thank Buddha) and everything else. You're just great!

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Best Intentions, ch. 16

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Inara could not sleep, which did not surprise her. With a warm mug of tea cradled in her hands, she stepped out onto the terrace that ran the length of her’s and Mal’s apartment and let the cool night breeze fan her face. With a contented sigh, she walked towards a lounge chair and pulled her robe about her a bit more snugly as she sank into the cushion and leaned her head back to look at the stars.

Mal was leaving tomorrow on a job and Inara had elected to stay behind. The decision had not gone over well. Mal of course assumed this was the beginning of the end; her first refusal to sail with him and he worried even more that if he left her behind, on this fancy planet where she obviously fit so soundly, he would lose her for good.

Her lips curled into a tight grin at the thought. Raising her tea to her lips, she took a tentative sip, the hot liquid just burning the tip of her tongue before it washed down her throat and to her belly. Inara knew, from years of training and experience, that men truly were dense, but Malcolm Reynolds had raised cluelessness to a whole other art form.

In Inara’s mind the fact that he panicked over losing her was both endearing and frustrating; endearing because it told her, without Mal having to actually say the words, how much he cared, how much she meant to him. Inara had never had someone love her that deeply, not even Jeremiah. But it frustrated her as well, because it also meant she had to spend countless hours of each day assuring him that she was not going t