Inara lay in her bed and tried not to look around the shuttle. Virtually everything else had already gone, taken apart and reassembled in her house. Her house. It sounded odd, even to be thinking about it like that.

For so long this small ship had been her home, and by extension the larger Serenity. Even during the months she was away, she still found herself thinking about going home , and it was always the Firefly that sprang to mind. Only now home would be bricks and mortar, four walls and a newly-stolen roof …

She sighed and turned over. She’d left the door to the shuttle open tonight, not as an invitation, but just so she could hear anything happening. The ticks and groans as Serenity settled, the occasional ping as hot metal cooled, the faint buzz of conversation from various parts of the ship … She wouldn’t have that any longer. Could she cope, knowing that she couldn’t just walk down the catwalk and watch them playing ball? Or stroll into the galley to watch Kaylee create miracles with moulded protein? Or just go and sit with Ethan and Bethany while they played quietly?

Bethany. What Mal had said at dinner didn’t surprise her. The little girl had obviously inherited her father’s intellect, being so advanced for her years, and with a mother like Kaylee … There had been times too, lately, when she’d said things, made little comments about events she could know nothing about, and Inara had wondered if River’s gifts had been passed on as well.

It wasn’t going to be easy for the smallest Tam, Inara realised. Even with a loving family all around her, she would have to learn to hide her abilities, unless Simon intended knocking them out, like the slavers had done with Freya. No. He wouldn’t do that. No matter the look on his face when he realised Mal wasn’t joking, this was his daughter, and he loved her. Freya would teach her, as she’d taught River …

Freya. And Zoe. And Hank … she was going to miss them all so much. Even Jayne. This really wasn’t the time to b