Title: Civilized

Rating: PG

Characters: The crew, the PCs.

Pairings: M/I, in places.

Summary: A PC one-shot. Spans 25 years in the life of mother and son. This is a companion (giggle) to Echo, but can be read completely separately.

Disclaimer: Most of the characters (sans the PCs) aren't mine, but the situation is.

For newbies: New Leaf, Brother, Shadow, Mei-Mei, Mischief, Forty, Pirate Children, Mistletoe, Hell-Raising, Delinquent, Barriers, Tough, Echo, Civilized

Author's Note: A little more serious than Delinquent. Just giving Inara and Abe equal treatment. Mirrors Echo.

***

She supposes it should be ironic. This pristine porcelain was once so integral to the cleansing ceremonies of her vocation, so precious and important to cleansing herself after serving men and women whose faces now fade and blend. At one time, she could remember each in perfect detail, their desires and quirks, but now her attentions are so entirely focused elsewhere.

Now the water in this precious porcelain cleanses not her own body and soul, but that of the most important being in her life: three-month-old Abram Derrial Reynolds. He makes sweet faces, yawns grandly as she sponges the warm water across his baby soft skin, his eyes lighting as he listens to her voice, gentle and even. The perfect newborn blue of his eyes is already beginning to darken a little, and Mal swears he’ll have her eyes.

He is her world now, her serenity. She meets his eyes and sees understanding and empathy. She likes to tell him things she’s never told anyone else, knowing he’ll keep her secrets. They have long conversations, and though she does all the talking, the conversations never seem one-sided. As she washes his tiny fingers, she tells him of his grandfather and uncle, both of whom he so resembles. She recounts childhood memories she’s never shared before: falling asleep, scrunched between Fahmy and Noor on the couch as her father’s strong, smooth voice read aloud, sneaking into her father’s office while he conducted b