Serenity took off from Londinium and River effortlessly plotted a course back to Persephone, an enormous weight lifting from her shoulders the farther the ship moved away from the Core planet. She had thought that Bane would blame her for what she had to do, but Bane had barely thought about it. Now that she was free, nothing else mattered to her, and for that River was glad. It still did not take away the guilt, though it went a long way to making her feel better. Mal appeared in the cockpit and sat down in his chair.

“All set?” he asked.

“Should arrive back at the Eavesdown docks tomorrow evening.”

“You gonna stop goin’ missin’ around the ship now she’s back?” River pretended to concentrate on flying the ship, but Mal was not fooled, knowing that River could do several tasks at once, more so than the average woman.

“Reckon so,” she answered stiffly, and she could swear Mal chuckled, but when she whipped her head around he was checking out the switches above him. Zoe came into the cockpit, she was smiling – things were almost right with the ‘Verse again.

“Where to next, Cap’n?” she asked.

“Gotta drop off the Shepherd at Persephone. Might let Bane drop in on her relatives for a few hours. Trouble is I got no jobs lined up ‘cept Bane’s munitions with Monty.”

“We could visit Badger, sir. See if he’s got anything lined up?” Mal was receptive to that idea, it had been a while since they had dealt with him.

Bane was still on a high about being back on Serenity , being back in the Black, hell, just being back. She had promised to tell everyone what had happened at dinner, although she found out that they had watched most of the trial on the cortex. Kaylee had kindly tidied her quarters while she was away – her way of insisting that Bane was always going to come back. The dress she had borrowed for the wedding was folded neatly on the bed. She moved to her desk and immediately saw her journal was there. The last time she had seen it was the night the I.A.V. had come, the night