Disclaimer: Joss, Fox, Universal Own em’. (Except for Allan. He's mine) I’m just playing. No money being made.

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This story takes place four years after Serenity (BDM) and has the established couples of Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Zoë/Allan and Jayne/River. Follows seven months after Birthday.

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A/N: this story line will explore Allan's life back on Earth when he was a young man. It will consist of a number of long flashback sequences. I've never written anything like this so cross your fingers.

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Thanks again Chris for the Beta.

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Recollections

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Chapter Two

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Allan couldn't sleep. Zoë lay against him. Grunting in her sleep occasionally when the baby kicked.

Rolling onto his side, Allan pulled his wife closer to him. Feeling the warm swell of her womb against him. Another kick and another grunt. He even felt it himself this time.

Reaching out, Allan brushed the hair away from Zoë's sleeping face. He loved to watch her sleep. The stoic first mate was replaced by the woman. The woman that Allan loved.

Zoë rolled over. She was an active sleeper and flopped around during the night. The baby made it worse. With a sigh, Allan rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head.

The memories that the video clip he had played earlier brought up wouldn't go away. Normally, he could go to sleep almost at will. Tonight, sleep eluded him. As he forced his eyes closed, images came unbidden from his subconscious...

XXXXXXXXXX

He could smell bacon cooking. Allan smiled for a moment as he sat up until he realized he was on the sofa in the living room and the reason why he was sleeping there instead of in his own bed...

Sara.

“Was it a dream?” he said almost silently. Praying that it was.

“Allan? Are you up?”

He didn't answer for a moment. The events of the previous night running through his head. The problem with being an engineer was that he knew every force that had acted on Sara's small car last night. Mass x Velocity = Energy.

He'd overheard the troop