“Do locks not mean a gorram thing to people anymore?” Mal muttered, firing two shots without looking in the general direction of the intruders as he huddled behind a crate in the cargo bay with Zoe.

“Just a wild guess here, sir, but I’m gonna go with no.”

“A person locks some’in’ ‘cause they don’t want nobody just waltzin’ in an’ shootin’ up the rightful owners.” he cringed as bullets tore up the crate they were behind. “Wang bao dahn, stop puttin’ holes in my cargo!”

“Things never seem to go smooth do they, sir?” Zoe asked sarcastically.

“Not a once.” He seemed genuinely baffled. “This is getting’ just a might tiresome. If we survive this remind me to ask Kaylee to swing an upgrade for Serenity’s security.”

“If , sir?”

Mal’s only response was a muttered, “Bwah.” as he jumped up from behind the safety of the crates and started firing in earnest.

~

“Wash, the last of our guests has been dropped off, kindly take us off-world.”

“Will do, Cap’n.” over the comm Wash sounded more than eager to be going. He always got nervous when Zoe was in a fight and tended to blame Mal no matter what the outcome.

Mal switched the comm to broadcast throughout the ship, “Drama’s over people. We’ll be exiting atmo in a few, then dinner will be served as planned. That’s all.”

~

Heading from the bridge Zoe paused at the mess hall doorway as seven faces turned toward her expectantly then all but one drooped slightly and went back to staring at the still untouched food sitting on the table.

“Hi, honey.” Wash said, as Zoe sat down next to him and he gave her a kiss on the cheek. No one else said anything or really moved for a moment.

Finally Simon cleared his throat softly. “Will the Captain not be dining with us this evening then?”

“No,” Zoe said slowly, “not for a bit at least. He’s found something that seems to require his immediate attention. I don’t think he’d mind if we started without his this once.”

The collective sigh of relief was drowned out by the mad scramble for the biggest roll in the basket a