His cell was barely a cell, was the first thing that Mal discovered when he woke up. Half of a wall was missing, allowing him to climb out of the cell and into the main area of the Slam. His head throbbed where Valinski had hit it, but he’d had worse and it was gonna be worth it when he clapped eyes on Dash. On blonde hair and fine bones. On violet eyes. He hadn’t realised how much he’d missed her since the war ended. Since she flew out Hera, away from Serenity Valley, where the brass had ordered her and her Squadron onto some conflict they considered less than doomed. That last night they’d had together, Mal on rotation off the front line, in a field camp a few miles down the Valley, before the conflict had really gotten ugly. Like usual she’d brought something in extra with the Supply Ships she ran escort duty on. This time, that last time, she’d brought them all something special and half of Mal’s Platoon, the Lieutenant included, had been drunk on the finest bourbon, liberated from some country Baron’s mansion on a Central Planet raid. It had been a night of ceasefire, so the guns on both sides had been quiet, for the last time until the end of The Battle of Serenity Valley. Mal and Dash had sat alone on a rise above the camp, watching the fun, together throughout the night.

As Mal smiled fondly at the memory, his revere was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming from outside the cell. He flattened himself against the wall as their voices came into hearing, not to sure he wanted to be encountering any of his fellow prisoners right at that minute.

“And I’m sure I saw Valinski and the other guards dump a new fish down here, Rus!” the first voice was young, but with an edge of hardness to it.

“Yeah, I ain’t saying you’re wrong, but it could be anyone. Lets just wait it out. ‘Sides I don’t like hanging around here to much. This is Harris’s territory. Lets just find JJ and head over to Norys’s with the gear, before his thugs show up.”

There was assent from the first voice and their footsteps faded away a