PART 3 – Rejected and Forgotten

Mal hated waiting. Jayne could stand there, still as a statue, staring out the observation window watching the surgery, but Mal couldn’t stay still. Were it old times, Jayne would be just as restless as him, and they’d be finding something that needed doing, even if it was just re-lacing their boots. Everything was broken, now that he’d lost Serenity. His family had scattered. Jayne hardly looked at him. Inara stayed by his side, but all she ever did was look at the sky and dream about going back. They’d all come together a few weeks ago for Cole’s wedding. It didn’t matter that most of them had never been to Sihnon before. Just the fact that they were all there made it home.

Mal had paced the common areas from the cafeteria to the waiting room to the observation lounge. Michael was around here somewhere. Inara suggested he might be on the third floor visiting River, and the simple option of a different path to walk was sufficient motivation to look. It wasn’t until he poked his head through the door and looked with his own eyes that his neurons fired sharply enough to realize something was wrong with his little Albatross.

River slept peacefully in the bed, though all the sheets and blankets were kicked off and tangled below her knees. Kaylee sat in a stiff folding chair by the window, and she smiled tiredly when she saw him.

“Hey, Cap’n,” she greeted. When Kaylee smiled, the worlds smiled with her. Mal felt his heart lighten half a kilo just anticipating the sweet kiss on the cheek he’d get if he leaned his face close enough.

“I’m not a Captain anymore,” he said, though he knew getting Kaylee to stop calling him ‘Captain’ would be as impossible as getting Zoë to stop calling him ‘sir.’

“Old habits die hard, I guess,” Kaylee said, hugging him hard and not letting go.

“They surely do, mei mei. I was lookin’ for Michael and I heard my little Albatross had a broken wing.”

“Yeah,” Kaylee sighed. “The Alliance nicks you once and you bleed the rest of you