GANG KOU, April 2525:

“C’mon, Kaylee. One more push, you can do it!” urged Inara. Kaylee panted and braced herself to try again. Simon was torn between wanting to comfort his wife, completing the job as her doctor and the wonderment of the knowledge he was about to become a father. Kaylee pushed with all her remaining strength and Simon, with the baby’s head in his hands, felt it ease from Kaylee’s body, slowly at first and then with a rush.

“That’s it! You’ve done it, bao bei !” Kaylee flopped back, exhausted. Simon stood up straight holding his new baby daughter as she opened her mouth and started screaming. Kaylee opened her eyes again and gave a tired smile, glad it was all over. She had been especially worried about the labour after Inga’s tragic problems in February. Inara stepped back to give them some privacy, and then decided to leave and go tell the others, who she knew would be waiting outside for news. She walked out of the Tam house into the bright sunlight, having to shade her eyes.

“Well?” said Mal, expectantly and he wasn’t the only one waiting. Inara went over to him and took their daughter, Serra, out of his arms. Unlike her tempestuous parents, she was an exceedingly quiet baby and at this moment was taking one of her many trademark snoozes.

“It’s a girl,” she said with a wide smile. Jayne whooped and pulled out the cigars from his pocket, handing one to Mal and another one to his brother. Matt declined, specially since one cigar would likely make him cough for a month, but he was glad of the gesture. He was also not about to repeat what was fastly becoming a tradition each time a baby had been born; two days of drunken celebration, or close to. There was too much work to be done, Matt thought, and his brother and their friends didn’t need much of an excuse to celebrate. Simon and Kaylee’s child was the fifth child to be born at Gang Kou since he had arrived. The baby would be closely followed in several more months by Jayne and Esper’s fourth child. His br