“I got what?” Mal said with a puzzled look on his face. His voice sounded like it had cycled through his nose once too often.

“A cold, an old fashioned cold,” Simon told his patient.

“I had plenty of gorram colds but nothing like this.  Don’t you have anything for this?”  Mal sneezed loudly.

“We still don't have the cure for the common cold.  There are too many viruses and they mutate too rapidly.  The best I can do is to give you an immune system booster but you’ll still be miserable for a day or two.”

“Guess it’s better than nothing.” Mal rolled up his sleeve to get ready for the innoc.

As Simon bent over Mal’s arm to give him the booster. Mal let out his biggest sneeze so far.

“I wish you'd turn your head when you sneezed. Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to stay in your bunk the rest of today. I don’t want the rest of the crew getting sick.”

“I’ve got captainy things to do.” Mal whined. “Got a meet up in two days on Verbena.  It'll be our first real job since Miranda. Gotta be better by then. Need the coin to keep this bucket in the sky”

“If you follow my orders, you'll be better tomorrow.  I’ll look in on you later on today and see how you’re doing.”

Mal sneezed again almost spraying the Doc.

“Just go... go  to your bunk!” Simon almost shouted, waving Mal away.  Simon turned toward the sink as Mal left the infirmary. Mal could hear Simon muttering to himself something about the infection rate of the common cold in a closed environment and caught a glimpse as Simon washed his hands up to his elbows and started to wipe down everything in the infirmary with disinfectant.

A few hours later Mal was in the half asleep state of the sick, when he heard someone coming down the steps.  From under his half-closed eyes Mal could see a female shape coming down the steps of the ladder into his bunk.

The shape crossed the room and stood next to Mal as he lay sprawled on his bed. A delicate hand felt his forehead, accidentally running her fingers through his b