He couldn’t sleep.

But then that wasn’t unusual.

He hadn’t been able to sleep well since Miranda.

Though he found it oddly amusing that it wasn’t because of Miranda that he had trouble sleeping.

Kaylee was one extremely loud young woman.

And it surprised him that the doc was every bit as loud as she was.

Kinda creepy that.

‘Course it was creepier that he knew that….but still.

Up until five months ago Zoë’d been awful quiet.

Too quiet.

It’d worried him plenty, which is why he’d not moved into one of the bunks next door to Jayne.

He still remembered the day he’d first met Zoë.

He’d been a shiny new Sergeant, assigned to a new platoon, their old Sergeant not being so good as him at keeping bullets from hitting vital parts.

When they’d introduced her as his corporal he’d felt a shiver of fear run down his spine.

He smiled at the memory…may as well be honest if only with himself.

She’d scared the gos se out of him.

He’d been certain that she would kill him as soon as look at him.

She’d never smiled, laughed or spoke, except when it was necessary to do so.

He’d thought she was inhuman.

Heartless.

Sometimes he wondered what would have happened if he could have made it to the cover he’d been heading for.

He hadn’t though.

Instead he and Zoe’d spent a long night cramped up in a soggy hole.

He guessed she’d thought he was asleep when she started crying.

Weren’t real loud.

Wouldn’t have known she was crying if they hadn’t a been so squashed together.

But they were.

And he could feel her body shudder as she cried.

He’d had no idea what to do.

So he’d just waited for her body to stop shaking and then he’d given her his hanky.

She’d cried every now and then.

Not often that was for sure.

And less than he himself did.

She was still so strong that she scared him.

But after that, he couldn’t think of her as inhuman.

Heartless.

Since then he’d learned her ways.

Knew how she healed.

Had learned that if she cried silen