Disclaimer: The characters and ‘verse portrayed in this fanfiction were created by Joss Whedon. I’m not stealing them, just borrowing them. Please don’t sue me over this, I’m broke!

Some re-editing was done from the original versions to make the flow from one part to the next smoother, and to improve the story a bit. Mostly, grammatical errors were corrected, and the lead sentences at the beginning and ends were deleted because it seemed repetitive. Don’t worry, I didn’t pull a George Lucas and make Kaylee CG and really annoying!

Also, I want to thank my friend Jenny for giving me a little insight on being a parent. Basically, I stole a quote from her and gave it to Kaylee. I know she’ll probably never read this as she’s not a browncoat (yet), but I like to give credit where it’s due.

Enjoy!

Part 1

It was another night where neither one of them could sleep, and they ended up in the galley drinking chamomile tea and talking. The conversation was calm for once as the main instigator for their arguments, work, didn’t seem to matter so much since Miranda… Well, for now at least!

Mal sat at his place at the end of the table with one knee pushing up against the table to balance him on the back two legs of his chair.

Inara sat adjacent to him. She had no make-up on and wore her dark blue dress, the one she wore when she told him she wasn’t sure if she was going back to the training house.

While they talked, a loud snore came from the direction of the bunks.

“Sounds like Jayne has a chainsaw in there,” he muttered into his mug.

Inara laughed out loud, then her hand went to her mouth to stifle the noise in an attempt to keep the midnight peace. Their eyes locked, and Mal smiled at her. She dropped all of her fingers, save her index finger over her lips, and smiled back at him. No wiles, just Inara.

Lost in the look, it was half a second too late before the sensation of falling backwards registered. The words “oh, Lord” passed through his mind, then the str