AN: I told myself that if five people commented on chapter 4, I'd go ahead and post chapter 5. When I checked this morning, there were six comments, so I felt shiny and happy and unearthed chapter 5 for y'all. Here it is:

5. You're a very "up" person.

After Miranda

Jayne and Kaylee obviously had to go; Zoe obviously could not be denied the opportunity to go; River might prove to be useful; and Mal was not about to be left behind. So they landed Serenity on Beaumonde under an alias, and left the ship in the care of Inara and Simon while the five of them trooped off together to the scrapyard where Wash – the real Wash – had last been seen. The attendant was not the same person who’d been there the day Wash disappeared, but the Firefly was still on the lot.

Jayne led them – or, rather, they followed in his wake – back through the scrapyard toward the Firefly, which they could just see through the forest of derelict hulls. Jayne moved quickly, with his eyes to the ground, which was a thin skim of gravel laid over packed earth. In places, the gravel was worn bare, and the tracks of men and small vehicles were visible there. Every so often, Jayne would squat to examine something on the ground, picking up small rocks or clumps of dirt and sniffing them, but only River had any idea what Jayne was seeing.

When they reached the Firefly, Jayne held up a hand to forestall them. “If there’s anything left here to find, I don’t want you trampling it,” he said. “Wait here.”

He disappeared around the Firefly as they stood waiting. They heard the airlock door creak open, but nothing more.

Zoe touched Mal’s arm, and he looked where she indicated. Kaylee had wandered off, and was standing underneath the bulbous stern of the ship, looking intently upward.

Mal walked over and stood next to her. “See something?” he asked.

“She ain’t burned up,” Kaylee said.

“Hmm?”

“She ain’t burned up.” Kaylee pointed upward. “They told us she burned up her accelerator core.