Inara cracked her right eye open just a little. As she opened both eyes the light hit her eyes and a throbbing pain shot through her head. “I must have had more to drink than I thought. I hope I didn’t embarrass myself. I’ve never lost control of myself in my entire life”. She mused.

Inara drew in a breath. “What's that smell?.” She thought. The aroma that hit her was undeniably male and was vaguely familiar to her very fuzzy brain. It was a mixture of musty wool from the blanket that covered her, perspiration, leather and a strong dose of stale alcohol.

As feeling crept up her cramped and aching body, she realized that she wasn’t in the small, utilitarian bed that had replaced her elaborate queen sized one with ruby silk sheets in her shuttle. She was sprawled in a very unladylike fashion with her legs sticking outside the blanket and she was clinging tightly to the top of someone.

She wasn't the only one in an awkward position. He was holding her in an embrace that pinned her half on him and half against the back of a sofa. Inara had been in many different positions when she awoke with a client but she had never been in this one.

She tried to remember what had happened, but the last thing she remembered last evening was taking a good sized swallow of Kaylee’s concoction and trying to put the mug on the table. After that memory there was none. I just hope it's not Jayne.

Inara tried to slowly twist out of the embrace. The more she moved the tighter his arms tried to grip her. It was soon evident that she couldn’t gracefully extricate herself with out waking him up.

Her dress was bunched up around her waist and as she moved it wrapped itself tighter around her until it was impossible to get up with out falling to the floor. This added to her consternation and an increasing sense that something was wrong. Suddenly nausea consumed her.

She stopped moving and twisting long enough for the wave of nausea to pass and then as her brain finally cleared realization hit her like a punch