Zoe Washburne made her way steadily toward the kitchen, thinking all the while. Every day, she reviewed each crewmember, mentally charting their "emotional progress" after Miranda. She needed to keep her mind busy, after all.

First there was the captain, who had called them all to the kitchen for some kind of emergency meeting. Apparently, he'd gotten some intel from the hun dan that had chased them across the expanse of the solar system.

Mal had thrown himself into their collective survival, taking on any jobs he could find. He'd even made a little speech about it, right after Miranda.

"Alright folks," he had said, "we're hurtin'. This whole gorram thing has taken something away from each one of us. It's alright to hurt, but concentrate on staying alive while you do it. That's all any of us can do."

He appeared to have taken his own advice. He was almost back to his old self, now. He was even back to skirting around his love life, or lack thereof.

Which brought Zoe to another person on her list: Inara. The Companion had spent a day in her shuttle, right after the fight. Afterwards, she had come out and done what she could to help set things to rights.

She was still very affected by her ordeal, but she hid it well, and was even back to annoying Mal.

Zoe shook her head. The idiots were still going at their pathetic little dance. She'd have to do something about that before long, if no one else did. In the meantime, she watched them closely.

Simon and Kaylee had each been instrumental in their significant other's recovery. Simon had naturally taken a little longer than Kaylee, due to her ever optimistic nature, but he was surprisingly resilient. As a trauma surgeon, he was no stranger to death, and like Zoe herself, had kept busy by keeping the rest of the crew alive.

Jayne had been unbearable in the black... until they landed at a world with a whorehouse and a bar. He hadn't started any fights, though. Zoe thought he might've had enough shooting to last him a little while. He had come ba