based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon

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Cat flexed her long legs, rubbing the cramps that seemed to plague them. She had been on the roof of the bunker for almost four hours now, guarding as the rest slept, well, almost all of them. With her alert ears, she could hear Zoe and Mal talking under the rough opening, its lamplight casting enough to allow her eyes to make out the shadows.

"You kissed her, Sir." Zoe's voice carried more than Mal's as if she wanted Cat to hear.

"Glad you noticed, Zoe." He didn't sounded agitated, but something in his voice made Cat a bit more alert.

"You're getting too close to someone we know very little about. I mean two weeks ago she told you herself her mission was to kill you." She could hear the warrior woman tighten her fingers around the tin cup, nails screeching across the thin metal.

"So saving you and our men is just a way for her to what? Get on our good side before she betrays us?" The smell of fresh camp coffee caused Cat's mouth to water, something before she had never drank.

"Ain't been the first time someone went to great lengths to gain one's trust only to bash it."

"I don't think that's what Cat's got in mind. Way she moves, well, girl could have walked all over us."

"That's 'cause she ain't human, Sir. You saw that bullet go in her. Ten minutes later and no one could tell she'd been struck. You tell me who or what can heal like that."

"As far as we know...Cat." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I don't know what she is, Zo. Could wake up one morning and watch as she rips us all apart, but as of right now, she's protecting us as if we are hers and hers alone. We'd be dead without her or at least captured in some war camp. So, you want to tell her to get the hell out of our lives or should I?"

"Ain't what I said, Sir. I'm worried about you getting too close to her and I'm not meaning as a superior." Cat's heart skipped a beat when Zoe said that, an emotion flooding her