Letters to Home

by Mike Smithwick

Adapted with permission from the Virtual Firefly script by Thomas Cohn and DC Washington

http://www.stillflying.net

(note: the software on this site doesn't preserve the original formatting of the text. You might want to read the story on Fanfiction.net, which keeps the formatting and so is a bit easier to read.)

Chapter 1

Even as the elegant couple whirled among the many guests of Persephone’s annual ball, they were alone and quite content to just be with each other during this most dignified of events.

“I’m trying to give you something. A life. If you want it,” Atherton Wing whispered in the ear of his stylish partner. “You can live here,” he offered, dropping his disarming voice even more. “As my personal companion.”

The chamber orchestra changed tempo slightly, and the couples instinctively changed to match.

“Atherton, you are a generous man.” Inara replied, smiling gently, even slightly embarrassed at the proposition.

They glided by the mountains of the freshest and most expensive fruit, ignoring the young women in the corner and the gossip they must be sharing.

“That’s not a ‘yes’…”

Inara paused. “But…you see…I couldn’t leave Serenity, or my captain.”

Her partner came to a sudden stop, causing a near collision on the dance floor from the other couples. Wing was shocked, for no one ever refused his requests. They couldn’t. In fact, they shouldn’t.

“You belong here, Inara, not on the flying piece of gho-se with that stupid captain of yours,” he protested.

“I said ‘no,’ Atherton. I’m sorry”

Changing from charming gentleman to demanding ruffian in an instant, he grabbed Inara by the arm and dragged her off the dance floor. The gossips in the corner couldn’t help but flutter over the sight, eagerly trying to capture any phrase, word or mere syllable so as to fill their bottomless cisterns of scandalous knowledge. Cisterns that would no doubt be empted time and time again over the following years.

He never saw the punch coming, the one t