Its up a week and a half later than I said, but its finally done.

Since this is my first Firefly fanfic, please comment so I know what I'm doing right.

What Joss created is his and the rest is mine.

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Chapter 2: Where the Past Meets the Present

Inara was confused. One moment Mal was leaning in to kiss her, and the next moment he was walking across the room to talk to another woman. She quietly fumed a bit until she saw the way they stood there and talked to each other. Mal smiled at the mysterious woman and hugged her the way old acquaintances greet each other after long partings. Inara started to make her way across the room.

“I heard that you captain a Firefly now. Serenity , right?” Inara heard from the woman as she came closer to the two people.

“Yeah! Funny, you’ve heard about me, but I haven’t heard an utterance of you. I thought you… ” Mal trailed off.

A forlorn look came across the woman’s face. “Yeah,” she said quietly. “Well, I’ve spent most of my time confined to small circles.”

“Hello,” said Inara stepping beside him.

Mal turned to the companion. “Oh, Inara. This is Annaleigh Men, we grew up together on Shadow. Annaleigh this is Inara Serra, she used to rent a shuttle from me.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Annaleigh, holding a hand out to Inara smiling.

“You too,” she said warmly, shaking Annaleigh’s hand. Annaleigh’s shake was firm. Her hand felt calloused, but the nails were trimmed and manicured.

“I was just about to tell him that I heard about his little run-in with Adelai Niska,” said Annaleigh. “I can’t believe you escaped the clutches of that maniac. How did you manage to pull that off?”

“I sweet-talked him.”

“Haha! Right! Did he treat you to dinner and a movie?”

“No, he reenacted the works of Shan Yu.”

“How charming! Was there a volcano?”

He laughed. “No, but he did cut off my ear. That didn’t make my crew very happy.”

“Cut off your ear? I see two perfectly