As a bit of a departure, most of my notes will be after the story, rather than before.

Serenity, Mal, and the rest, are all property of Joss. Everything else belongs to me.

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Confedration, Part 3

"Hold off a minute," Mal muttered, giving himself a bodily shake which actually sprung him free of Inara's grasp and dropped him onto the tarmac. He rubbed his shoulder, glancing around as he tried to force some air into his lungs. It felt like he'd been running for hours. "What'n the hell just happened?"

"We're almost there, Mal," Inara's response was distant, as though she were barely keeping her feet.

"There was a bomb, I was hit bad..." Mal stared up at her. "Real bad. What happened?"

"A little miracle; please, Mal, just get up. We're so close," she grabbed his arm and hauled him back onto his feet.

"So," Mal said with a wheezing chuckle. "It's 'we' again, is it?"

"You know what I meant, Mal..." She hissed, her voice quiet and her face focused on the dark shape at the far end of the docks. Malcolm pulled her to a stop.

"Let's pretend for a moment that I don't," he posited.

"Mal, we need to..." she gave him a tug, but by now, Reynolds had regained his equilibrium, and there was no power in the 'Verse could move him. She tried to grab his other sleeve, but he caught her hand first, so she was locked, staring up into his eyes.

"We need to what?" Mal asked. Ai ya, it felt like he was standing on the edge of a real damn high cliff. She shook her head, the light glinting off of her cheeks for some reason.

"Hera's not safe," she said, her voice mastered. A new explosion from Mal's five-o'clock illuminated her in flickering orange light. Her cheeks were damp, and not from the perspiration that dotted her brow. He leaned closer. He remembered that smell, of heat and desparation. So long...

"No, no it ain't," Mal said. Tearing his eyes away from her's was about as easy as surgically removing one's own heart, but he managed to, regardless