Disclaimer: It belongs to Joss and all those business people. I'm just playing.

Rating: PG to NC17. I will not put warnings on each chapter, because I don't want to give things away. In general, don't be getting into any of this if you're not prepared for adult storylines, violence, explicit sexual content, and - oh my - bad words.

Many thanks: fireflyfans.net members: and for beta.

Links: Prequels: The Fish Job () (), Easy Tickets () (), and Book I () (). Timing, pairings, and canon blurbs are in my .

Eighteen years ago

“That’s her!” Kari says, excited by the beautiful face on the shuttle’s cortex screen. It’s the first time since she came aboard the Firefly a week ago that she and Sylvia have gotten the cortex to themselves; they’ve been waiting for their chance, but the shuttles have been busy. “What’s her name? Does it say?”

“Aileen.” Sylvia sighs after she says the name, as if to add Isn’t that the best?

Kari watches Sylvi