Mal climbed slowly down the ladder into his bunk, feeling his back aching a little. He knew he probably should go see Simon about it, but the young doctor would only say it was age creeping up on him, or more likely galloping towards him at an alarming rate. He hadn’t exactly been keeping a check on the calendar, but that particular date was heading his way, and nothing he seemed to do was liable to stop it. Just so long as the rest of the crew didn’t figure -

“Hey.” Freya slid the nursery door closed as quietly as possible.

“They asleep?” he asked, his heart beating just a little faster as it always did when he saw her.

“It took two stories and a glass of water, but Ethan’s finally off.” She smiled and stretched her arms above her head. “Jesse, on the other hand, was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.”

“She’s a good girl,” Mal said, watching her body lengthen, taking delight in just knowing she was his wife. “Like her momma.”

Freya smiled at him. “I’m not good, and I haven’t been a girl in a very long while,” she pointed out.

“You’re good for me,” he expanded.

She chuckled. “That’s always good to know, sweet talker.” Sitting down on the bed she pulled her boots off. “Everything all locked tight?”

He unhooked his arm from the ladder. “Autopilot’s set for Beaumonde. Be there in a couple of days.”

“Think this job’ll come to anything?”

“Hope so. We’ll be a bit tight on fuel otherwise.” He pushed his suspenders from his shoulders.

“Then it will.” She smiled brightly at him and started to undo her shirt buttons.

“You ever think maybe we should have a base somewhere?” he asked, mirroring her. “You know, someplace dirtside, where we can wait for the jobs to come to us?”

She paused. “Sometimes. But we’ve got Lazarus.”

“Ain’t ours, ai ren .”

“No. But it feels like home.”

“More’n Serenity?”

She shook her head. “No. Serenity’s where we live. But Lazarus is … I don’t know, it just … maybe it’s the bath.”

He raised his eyebrows at her.