It was the first Christmas Carly had spent away from Serenity. In the past year, she had learned how to march in her sleep, make a bed so tight you could bounce a coin off it and develop a mean upper cut when anybody gave her shit about her old man.

Her father had been right. It was that much harder when everyone found out she was the offspring of the Liberator of Miranda. They either fawned over her or – more often – were that much harder on her to see if she was made of the same stuff as Mal. A black eye delivered to the biggest guy in her unit in exchange for him grabbing her ass had finally settled the matter as far as everyone in her unit was concerned. The three weeks following of peeling potatoes on kitchen duty settled it for her superior officers.

PFC Caroline Marie Reynolds indeed had the right stuff.

Still, she hadn’t been quite this homesick since her first week of bootcamp, with hundreds of eyes asking the very same question: You really HIS kid?

She missed the tinsel Kaylee would strew about the mess. The spicy hot cocoa Zoe would make. Simon’s surprisingly lovely tenor leading everyone in Christmas carols. The silly joke gifts she and her brother Derry would exchange. Jayne’s Christmas feast, where there would be an actual roast bird, roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables – even if it meant protein mash for the month following. River’s goofy Santa hat that she would wear the entire day. And her Pa’s inevitable grumbling about the entire foofarah, before surprising everyone with the best gifts possible. She even missed her long-gone Mama, who would preside over the gifting in her prettiest silk robe.

So sitting in the mess, shoving around a tin tray of protein mash gone cold, she was feeling a right sorry mess for herself and never saw Jesse Gomez drop the sizeable package next to her.

“Yo, Reynolds! Mail call. Looks like a doozy too. Gonna share some of Kaylee’s fudge again?”

Jesse Gomez was Carly’s best friend in the unit. She barely came up to Carly’s chin and maybe