Spoilers: post-BDM

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Not mine, obviously, all Joss's & company's

Warnings: Nothing really.

A/N; This didn't re-appear with my other fics after the site was hacked, so I'm assuming it was irreparably lost and re-uploading. The second, last part will be up after a bit.

If you read it, please let me know what you think!

---- Separate Checks ----

The little bar was homey and welcoming, its lighting golden yellow and muted by a dark plank floor. The half-timbered interior arched in interesting places and formed spaces that felt private even though it was really all one open area. River appreciated the room’s aura, though she wished it had a less deceptive character. Hideaways should be true hideaways.

But there were cloth napkins and a hostess; the tables were served by waitresses; and at the end of the room a long bar gleamed with polished cleanliness. River breathed in the rich piney smell and let a part of herself relax. She’d been able to do that more and more, as time passed and with it milestones. Kaylee and Simon moved into the same room. River celebrated her eighteenth birthday. Mal and Inara passed several days without a harsh word between them.

It wasn’t common that this many of Serenity’s lot congregated in one place dirtside, but in the three or so months since the battle on Mr. Universe’s moon Zoë had built a barrier around herself that none of them could breach. So when she finally broke that wall with tears and collapsed into a soggy puddle right at the dinner table, Mal had listened when she demanded they all leave her alone. He’d dragged them away from the meal they’d yet to begin, commanding the tearful Zoë to put the food away before it spoiled, and then took the remaining crew all the way off Serenity and into the nearby town. To give his first mate space for grieving, he said. River had felt Serenity that way, at that moment, a grieving space that wanted Wash back.

No one had argued with the captain. Inara was puzzling her way through the new