E-mail: browncoat_malcolm@gmail.com

Status: Completed 9/12/2008

Word Count: 2779

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Zoe woke at the sound of Mal's soft moans. She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him. She put the back of her hand to his forehead. He had a slight fever, but it didn't seem too high. *Coulda been a lot worse seeing as how he felt like a human Popsicle when they brought him back.* That thought made her blood boil. *What the hell did they do to you?* Looking at the bruising on his face, and marks on his back, she was sure she didn't really want to know. Now that his body temperature was up, the bruising was more evident on his back. Even though she couldn't see his chest because of the way he was lying, she was sure the bruising was bad there as well.

She watched him sleep for a few minutes. Something just didn't feel right. She knew Mal well enough to know that he didn't tell them anything. So why had they brought him back so soon and, relatively speaking, in good shape. A lot better shape then she'd been expecting to see him anyways, what with him being gone as long as he was.

x x x x x x x x x x x x

Mal groaned as he rolled slightly, the movement pulling at his aching ribs. He rolled again and moaned softly, but didn't open his eyes. Something was wrong. He shouldn't be hurting so bad. Every part of his body ached and he didn't rightly know why. As he slowly came fully awake, he began to remember. "Ruttin' bastard," he said in barely a whisper. The more alert he became, the faster the memories seemed to come back. By the time he was fully awake, he remembered it all. Including why he'd been let go. He'd been relieved when he'd heard that Reginald had been ordered to release them all. As he'd been dragged away though, he'd seen the look on Reginald's face and he had a sinking feeling that, even if the others were released, the bastard wasn't done with him yet. Mal pushed the unwanted thought aside.

"Sarge?"

At the sound of the frightened young voice, Mal finally opened his eyes.