Author’s Note:

This is the penultimate one of the series, folks, but don’t be disheartened. There’s plenty more to come, but after number 18, I’m going to skip ahead a few years.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After delivering Hannover’s goods to Persephone, Serenity had taken a trip to Greenleaf for building supplies, before returning to their new refuge to start construction, a month after leaving. Jayne and Esper had stayed behind and, with the help of Hans, had marked out the plots, as well as buying a supply of local bricks. They all agreed that they wanted the place to look like all the other houses in Hannover and the wider community, one of the reasons being, they did not want to draw attention to themselves.

All of the remaining crew were in the cockpit as Serenity came in to land, viewing their new haven with enthusiasm, despite it being little more than just earth and scrub at the moment. Bane was the only one not in the cockpit, having been working all hours for the past few weeks, on the construction of her first batch of munitions, made completely blindfold. No one but her and Karl knew it, although Bane had an idea that River did, but she had said nothing other than do all the piloting, as promised. She had finished too, that morning, but still did not want to go up to the cockpit, preferring to catch up on some sleep instead.

Jayne and Esper, with Hans and his son, were there to greet them as they walked out into the sunlight. Zoe, carrying Marcus, welcomed her man with enthusiastic longing. Knowing that Serenity was where they would all be sleeping until any of the houses were built, she had finally sorted out her quarters, packing away the last of Wash’s stuff. There were some of his things she had given to Karl - things from his childhood - although there were precious few. She kept the dinosaurs though, as they belonged to Marcus now. He had quite a collection, including a few new ones from the crew.