Next morning when Mal woke she was gone. The only evidence of her ever being there was the exotic scent she left behind. A rich, sensuous perfume of Jasmine and Sandalwood that he could still smell on the sheets and on the pillows where her head had rested for a while.

He didn’t know why she had come back to his bunk, in truth he had spent the previous day wondering if she would leave again. He didn’t know what it meant, what would happen. Just that it was time to face the music, and his crew.

So a few minutes later he climbed the ladder and walked into the galley. He had expected to find a whole host of chattering crew members, joking at his and Inara’s expense but there was just Zoe. She sat alone in Wash’s seat, a mug of coffee before her, staring into the distance and fingering the necklace at her throat. A symbol of her love and devotion to Wash, she would never take it off.

He was unwilling to disturb her but just as he was about to turn and go her eyes lost their saddened, far away look and focused on him. Smiling she took a gulp of her coffee and grimaced when she realised it was cold.

“morning’ sir “

“morning’” he replied “ is it morning’ , by the way?”

“yep, crew should be down any minute in fact, good timin’ “

“gos se” he groaned sitting down at the table.

“it’s gotta happen’ sometime sir and you don’ stay , iffin’ Kaylee’s gonna corner you someplace and that’d be worse…right?”

He didn’t answer her for a while, just sat there slowly drinking his coffee trying to decide.

“So do you walk or do you stay?” she questioned, thinking that he couldn’t escape Kaylee even if he got on another ship.

“Neither.”

He said getting up and gulping down the rest of his coffee before slamming the mug back down on the table

“I run.”

He walked over to the door but Kaylee emerged smiling sweetly at him as he backed away. He turned and went for the other door which he found was now blocked by Simon, River and Jayne.

“Zoe, you have somethin’ to do with this?”

He said eyeing his crew warily.