The shower had been on for the last twenty minutes. There was absolutely no reason for a person, on their own, to need twenty gorram minutes for a shower. Mal wasn’t really mad at Kaylee; he just didn’t like being the one to have to talk to her. He agreed that he wasn’t the one who should be there, but it was never the simple. He had been appointed by the rest of the crew; the crew that he was the captain of, it was a hell of a start to the day.

Shaking his head, Mal decided to just deal with it before there was no more water left in the ship. “Kaylee, I need to talk to you a minute,” Mal managed sounding calm over the pounding he was doing on the door. The lack of answer was unnerving, but he pushed through that. “Kaylee, you are alone in there, right, girl?”

“Yes, Capt’n, I am all alone in the general shower room,” Kaylee’s voice was rough from crying as she answered. “Is something wrong with my girl?”

“Only that you are using up all the water,” Mal regretted the words as they carelessly emptied his mouth and head simultaneously. This is why Zoe or Inara should be talking to the girl. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for the last ten minutes.” More like working up the courage, but he wasn’t going to split hairs on this point.

“Sorry, Capt’n,” Kaylee managed despite her less than audible sobbing in the shower. It just felt better to cry in the shower, no one really noticed, there was no tell tale signs afterward, it was great. She didn’t rightly know why she was sobbing again, she and Simon called it quits nearly a month ago, and didn’t last nearly that long. It didn’t really bother her that they weren’t sexin’ any longer, or that they weren’t a couple. She just felt sad was all.

“You okay in there, Lil’ Kaylee?” Mal asked despite not truly knowing what to do if she weren’t. Again, no answer, he really would have rather sent anyone in his place, but he puffed out his chest in a captainy fashion and strode into the general shower room. “Kaylee, I’m pretty close to having a ve