10.

"You can't keep these on the ship," Mal said. "There ain't room."

"I know," Wash replied sadly. The two men stood together on the catwalk at the back of the cargo bay, looking down on Jack Tallis's collection of life-size robotic dinosaurs -- Tallis's legacy to his favorite nephew. The T. Rex shambled over, shoving several of the shorter dinos out of its path, so that Wash could reach out from the rail and pat its nose.

"So," Mal ventured, "Where do you plan to keep 'em?"

"Think I might take out an ad on the Cortex: 'Free to a good home. Nine life size robotic replicas of extinct giant lizards.' What do you think?"

Mal nodded. He didn't want Wash to have to give up his dinos, but there really was no way to keep them aboard the ship. "You know, you could mount their heads or something. Like trophies. They could maybe stay that way."

Wash's reaction to that suggestion could only charitably be described as horrified. "No, Mal," the pilot said. "I don't think I'll do that."

Zoe clattered down the steps from the common area to join them, greeting Wash with an embrace, and a kiss. "Got a 'wave," she said to her husband. "Fellah says he's the curator for Ripley's Fantastical Emporium of Earth That Was, on Osiris."

Wash nodded, and glanced at Mal. "Maybe I just found that good home," he said, and went to take the call.

**

One month earlier (2514)

“Zoe?” Wash said, from the foredeck corridor just outside her bunk. “Got your laundry.”

“Just drop it down the ladder,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t. Mal would. Bester would. Not Wash.

She could feel his hesitation, and suppressed a smile.

“I’ll just, uh,” he said, and stopped, not knowing what he meant to just do if she wasn’t going to step up the ladder and take it from him.

“Well, bring it down, then, if you must,” she said, feigning mild exasperation.

He hesitated so long she began to think maybe he would just drop the clothes down the ladder like Mal or Bester – or she herself