E-Mail: browncoat.Malcolm@gmail.com

Story Status: Completed 12/25/2007

Spoilers: Serenity

Categories: Angst, Drama, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, PoV

Pairings: None

Content Level: PG

Content Warnings: None really.

Summary: I don't know what the future holds for any of us, but I do know this; Malcolm Reynolds is my captain, my friend, and Serenity is my home.

Archive Permission: Ask first. I'll probably say yes.

Disclaimer: Firefly and its characters belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, and whoever else has a claim to 'em. I, sadly, am not one of them.

Word Count: 2,162

Author's Notes: This was sitting on my hard drive for a long time. It was much shorter when I started, and is now much longer than I had originally intended to be. This also happens to be the first Firefly/Serenity fic I started to write. Written from Rivers PoV.

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The captain is unsteady on his feet, swaying slightly as he waits to see what the soldiers will do. He looks at me. He's not sure what to make of what I've done. He doesn't fear me. For that, I am grateful.

"Do we have a kill order?"

My hand tightens around my blades as I hear the soldier's question. The captain tenses. After a long pause, the operative answers in gasping breaths. "Stand down. Stand down. It's finished. We're finished."

"Not bad, little Albatross." The captain smiles, relief is clear in his face.

I smile at his comparison. I've read the poem as well. I am touched that he thinks of me as his good luck charm. You wouldn't know it from the way he acts and speaks. My smile fades as he sinks slowly, painfully to his knees.

His pain is obvious, even to those who can't read his mind, but there is no one to help him. Inara is with Simon, putting pressure on his wound. Kaylee is still numb from the Reavers drugs. Jayne and Zoë are also wounded. I don't think any of them realize just how seriously the captain has been injured.

The Alliance don't care. Those who aren't rushing past us to help their leader, are glar