A.N. Hello all! Repost because of the unfortunate hacking occurrence...so to reiterate, this is just a sad, poetical little fic that I thought I would test the waters with here …Obviously, I don’t own any of the characters or anything as Joss Whedon, the master of goodness such as Firefly, and some random corporations do.

Onward, brave souls…and pretty please review again!

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It is a bit ironic how it can take a lifetime to finally reach one instant in time, and one instant in time to steal a lifetime.

It was ridiculous really. She shouldn’t have even been there. There was no life-defining to be had that day; it was a simple outing, one of the rare and treasured few hours where the crew was given their leave, and one of those days where there had been a cancellation and high-paying clients were scarce. She had joined them in town, having heard Kaylee’s squeals from a ways off and felt her heart racing even before she had seen him.

“Inara! What’re you doin’ here?” Kaylee had asked brightly, retracing her steps so that she could loop her arm in Inara’s, and alerting the rest of the crew to her presence.

“Yeah, didn’ expect to be seein’ you for a few days. Pay wasn’t good enough? Or maybehaps the young fellow didn’t have quite as much stamina as you expected,” Mal had sniped at her, earning him a sharp look from Zoë and a grunt of laughter from Jayne. She had felt her smile fade and her anger rise.

“I believe you saw him, captain, and he is under similar employ. Having been around men with guns and a need for petty thieving for so long, I know by now when there isn’t much to be had,” she had replied flippantly, noting with a demented sense of pleasure, and an extreme wave of guilt, the look of indignation and anger that marred his features. Wash had given a low exclamation of “Yikes!” that made Zoë emit a small snort of laughter as she had turned from Mal’s death stare to a panicky Kaylee who was glancing nervously at Simon who had been pulling at his ear, visibly unc