Not too far in the future …

There was a cupboard on board Serenity where stuff was put. Just stuff. Like when it was broken but maybe someone thought it was too good to be just thrown out with the garbage, or if someone figured maybe it could be fixed one day, then it was put into the cupboard. Once in a while – maybe every six months or so – Mal would go through it, toss what was obviously useless, and shove the rest back.

There were memories in there that he didn’t want to lose, but that were too painful to remember all the time, or have on display. Like the dinosaur of Wash’s that had somehow ended up in the transfer linkages, and the head got burned off. They hadn’t gotten rid of the smell of melted plastic for days, until Kaylee turned up the air scrubbers. Wash had placed the dinosaur in the cupboard himself, and said a little prayer for him. He’d walked away with his head high, a tear glistening, but no-one had ragged on him.

Now River wanted it.

“Broken,” she kept saying. “I can’t be fixed but too precious to throw away.”

Simon crouched down outside the cupboard. “ Mei-mei , you have to come out. You’re in labour.”

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But for now, back to the beginning …

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Since the encounter with the AI ship, the atmosphere on board Serenity had been somewhat more relaxed than usual, and people seemed to remember there’d been two weddings not that long before. Hank was grinning inanely at everyone until they told him – or at least Mal had – that if he didn’t stop he’d got a date with an airlock. Jayne, on the other hand, just looked hunted as River got less and less mobile as she approached her due date, and the crew of Serenity had begun to keep knives and other sharp implements out of her way, particularly after the infamous ‘spoon throwing incident’.

“It’s all right, mei-mei ,” Simon assured her, grimacing as Zoe removed the offending utensil from his shoulder. “And I need more painkillers.”

“But I didn’t mean …” River was wringing her hands.