“Mal, got something to ask ya.” Jayne stepped out into the sunshine.

Mal turned, a cup of coffee in his hand. “You know, I could get used to this,” he said, smiling a little. “Seeing the sunshine first thing.”

“Nah,” Jayne said. “You’d get land-crazy after a while.”

“Maybe.” Mal shrugged. “Still, nice to have some place to come to occasionally.”

“Yeah. Look, Mal …” He stopped.

“Whatever it is, you’d better come out and say it.” Mal looked at him. “You planning on leaving?”

“No!”

“Well, that’s that out of the way. Now maybe you can tell me what it is.”

“River’s … she don’t want to move in with me.”

“And you want me to persuade her?” Mal shook his head firmly. “Your love life’s your own affair.”

“No, it ain’t that. It’s my room.”

“Your room.”

“She says there’s too many people in it.”

“Right.” Mal took a sip of coffee. “Too many people. Course. Sure. Why not.”

“She ain’t being crazy, Mal. And they ain’t real, just … memories. All the women I’ve paid for, and all the nights there weren’t one on hand, so to speak.”

“So you move into her room.”

“That ain’t gonna happen.”

Mal suppressed a grin. “Simon?”

“And Kaylee. And the squirt. Hell, Mal, I ain’t gonna be able to let myself go with them right next door.”

“So what’s your solution?”

“I was wondering … could I set up home in the shuttle?”

“The …” Mal stared at him. “My shuttle?”

“Yeah.”

“Jayne, I -”

“I mean, I’d pay. Well, maybe not pay as such, but ya could give me a smaller cut of the money we’re making. And it’d still be around for ya to use if ya needed to. And my girls’d be there, so if we needed firepower on a job we wouldn’t need to -”

“Jayne, stop.”

The big man ground to a halt. “It ain’t like you never rented it out before.”

“Inara was a businesswoman.”

“That ain’t what you used to call ‘er.”

“What I called her is between her and me.” Mal took a deep breath and held it for a long moment. “You think this is the only way you and River can be tog