“Soon?”

Bethie sighed. Jesse had been asking the same question for days, and as much as she wanted to tell the little girl to wait, she couldn’t. She wanted it to be now, her own self. “Soon,” she agreed.

Ethan looked up from the drawing he was doing as a surprise for his mother, and nodded. “Soon, Jesse.”

“How soon?”

“Soon soon.”

“ Soon soon soon?”

He smiled at his baby sister. “Yes.”

Jesse smiled widely, showing little white teeth. “Good.” She went back to tickling Fiddler’s belly as he lay on his back, one of his legs kicking in ecstasy as she found the right spot. She giggled.

Ethan looked at Bethie, who had an expression on her face far beyond her years. “I'm glad they’re coming for us,” he whispered. As much as he loved his Auntie ‘Nara, he wanted to have his Mama hold him, to show his Daddy how much he’d grown.

“Me too.” Bethie had seen, through her Auntie River and Auntie Freya, the small ceremony on Prometheus, when her grandpa was laid to rest. She knew she shouldn’t be sad, but there was a little hole in her heart somehow. She’d only known him a few hours, but he was her grandpa. She lay back and looked up at the ceiling of the nursery above them, but not seeing it as her mind went over the images again …

-

As much as all the crew wanted to see their children, that was going to have to wait until after a much more sombre task. The two ships put down high on the hill, waiting for Jayne and Hank to finish the digging, then everyone gathered at the grave site.

The warm breeze caught at River’s floaty dress as she stood next to her mother, Simon the other side, supporting Regan as Alex, Jayne, Breed and Dillon lowered Gabriel’s body into the ground.

“Should be raining,” Kaylee murmured, standing just to one side with Zoe and Freya. “Somehow, shouldn’t have funerals when the sun’s out.”

A butterfly wandered past, dipping on the gently moving air, captivating them for a moment before Mal’s voice broke into their reverie.

“I seem to have done