Disclaimer: all things Firefly/Serenity are the property of Whedon et al. I’m not making any money off this, just playing with the toys.

“Malcolm.”

The captain turned his head towards the direction of the voice and squinted. Too much gorramn fog about the place. Couldn’t make out a hand in front of a body’s face.

“Malcolm.”

Mal looked another way, still unable to tell who was calling his name. He stopped. Ain’t no one called him Malcolm, ‘cept the Feds - then only including his last name - and his...

He pushed his chin out, leaning a little. “Ma?” He blinked and gave his head a shake. Going feng luh, he was. Mama Reynolds had been on Shadow when the Alliance come through. He shut his eyes. Thinking on that was only to cause heartache and Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity, had seen more than he cared to.

“Malcolm.” The voice had greater authority. “Come here.”

Without thinking, Mal’s legs took him towards the voice, feeling himself the thirteen year old boy having been caught behind the barn with Melinda Chiu. He grinned; first girl in his class to start developing.

‘Course, that didn’t matter no more if the rumours he’d heard about her hooking up with Henry Colson were true. Henry’s folks had the largest cattle ranch on Shadow and he was destined to take over. There’d been talk about how they managed to keep the place secure and more than one tongue wagged about purple palms. Figured now that the stories weren’t true or that they weren’t enough to keep the purplebellies from storming.

“Malcolm Reynolds, if I have to say your name once more...”

“Yes, ma’am,” he heard himself reply and wondered when he started believing that this voice was that of his mother’s.

He continued to stride through the thinning mist until a form came into view. Finally, he was able to see clearly and it nearly scared him to death.

Her face was softer than he remembered and her dark hair fell onto her shoulders. Her lips were coloured a little red and her eyes were bl