It was being affectionately referred to as the “week of repairs”, though Mal would have preferred the “week of hell.” First was the forward bulkhead plating, some of which detached during reentry, and should have been considered a harbinger of bad to come. Within hours of that happening, every klaxon, every sensor, every gorramn siren on Serenity went off at earsplitting volume. Kaylee eventually was eventually able to shut them down via some fancy override, but that opened a new can of worms. With no sirens or sensors, Serenity could no longer tell her crew what was wrong. Of course the best solution was to search the ship, inside and out, for anything damaged or in need of replacement. When this was done, it was found that more was damaged, than undamaged, and thus the week of hell began.

And to top it off, the shower was broken as well.

A boatload of sweaty, cranky crew, performing round the clock repairs and no shower.

Considering that this was a recipe for unpleasantness, Mal took it upon himself to repair the shower.

And it was taking him a considerable amount of time to do so.

“Yo cho yo ying fei tie,” Mal bellowed. His wrench had yet again slipped from the shower head, causing his had to careen into the wall of the shower. After a fair share of curses, he began to shake his smarting hand in some attempt to alleviate the pain.

When his hand began to smart less, Mal took up the wrench once more.

“Okay,” he said aloud. “Look you gorramn piece of fei yu, my ship is crumblin’, I’ll admit it. So all you have to do is just slip right into place and—“

But the pipe was not the one not slipping into place, but rather the wrench again, sending the wrench into his hand, the same he had just banged up off the wall. A string of curses spilled out of his mouth as he clutched his throbbing hand.

A small snicker slid into the bathroom. Mal instantly composed himself and whipped to the source of the voice.

“I guess the shower head isn’t the best listener, Mal,” Inara said with a grin.

“Oh, hey