Disclaimer thingy: Firefly/Serenity are owned by other folks and not by me, though I appreciate being able to write some stuff purely for fun inspired by the Firefly 'Verse.

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This is my first ever fanfic post: kindly feedback will be kindly appreciated. I've enjoyed reading contributions from many others in BSR, so I've finally got up the nerve to put up some stuff I've written, for all you nice people to have a look. Initial chapters of this story may be a bit angsty but I promise it'll get livelier as the story goes on... That's assuming anyone out there would like to read more!

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The alarm sounded, its small but penetrating bleep piercing through the darkness of the cabin. A faint green light glowed from the little digital clock, revealing a shape on the bed wound in the covers. The shape stirred: Zoë twisted over towards the clock and reached out with her eyes shut. Her fingers found the shut-off button and the bleeping stopped, leaving only the faint green glow stretching across the bed. Zoë pulled her hand back and let her arm fall across her face, pressing across her closed eyes. They felt wet. She wiped her hand across them and breathed in. Got to stop this crying in my sleep. Getting to be a habit.

Opening her eyes she looked up into the darkness. She couldn’t remember anything of her dream. She never could. Only this waking, every morning, with the emptiness inside her: the feeling of something gone missing forever. An ache like a missing limb, never diminishing, never going away.

She turned over onto her side in the bed. The ache turned with her, sunk deep in her chest and belly. Even now, in this smaller cabin she’d moved to, when she woke and turned over in the bed her arm fell onto the empty space beside her and she missed him so badly it could have happened yesterday. Missed his warmth, his morning smile of welcome and promise. Missed the touch of a body she’d