Capacity Chapter 6

Joly

Rated PG-13

A stopover at Abaddon Station leads to some issues.

I don’t own the crew or the ‘verse, I just like playin’ in it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were Abaddon Station again. Picking up mail, the crew getting a chance to enjoy the carnival like atmosphere, generally just enjoying some R&R before starting another run.

Mal passed through the crowd, alert and edgy. He came to the postal kiosk and signed for the crew’s mail and packages. No unusually large packages this time, much to his relief. He stuck everything in a large bag he was carrying and headed back to the ship.

Something caught his eye, a flicker in the crush. Long brown hair, somehow familiar. He changed course and followed the flicker. The woman made her way through the crowd, slipping deftly away.

“Gorramit,” Mal breathed and stopped.

She was gone.

~~~~

“When are we leaving, Mal?” Wash called from the top of the catwalk as Mal entered the ship.

“You in a hurry?”

Wash just smiled, “My wife, your second, wants to see the sunset on Clayborne, which is next on our schedule. You know how loathe I am to keep her from something she wants.”

Mal, by this time, had joined the man on the catwalk.

“Plus, might be a hormone thing…”

Mal stopped in his tracks.

“You sayin’ Zoe’s pregnant?”

Wash grinned from ear to ear.

“I’m not saying anything. Ask her yourself.”

Mal narrowed his eyes at his pilot and headed further into the ship.

“She’s on the bridge,” Wash called to Mal’s retreating figure.

~~~~

“You pregnant?” Mal asked immediately upon coming across his first mate.

“I’m fine, sir. And you?”

“Zoe.”

She shook her head, smiling.

“I am.”

Mal sat in the co-pilot’s seat, stunned.

“Don’t look so surprised. You knew Wash and I were trying.”

Mal looked up.

“It’s not that… Thinking about it is one thing, thinking about the ‘mights’. I just never saw it in my head. Zoe Washburn, soldier, first-mate… mother.”

Zoe sat back in Wash’s chair,