Chapter 14

Mal was not having a good day. It was still raining, his headache didn't seem to want to go, no matter what little pills or potions Simon saw fit to give him or inject him with, and now here he was, standing in a jail, facing his wife through the bars. The fact that it was normally the other way around, with him in the cell, didn't make him feel any better.

She got up slowly from the cot, still as trim as ever, no sign of any pregnancy ... except perhaps for a slight green tinge to her skin. He wasn't surprised - the air in the basement wasn't the freshest, and the men all packed into the other cell had made it a lot worse. Besides, Frey always had been prone to morning sickness.

"Mal."

"Frey."

She took hold of the bars. "Mal, I -"

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?"

"It was just a fight," Cat said, standing up.

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Tough. I was talking to you. It was a fight. That's it."

"You let my pregnant wife walk into a place like that -"

"I'm not sick, Mal," Freya interrupted.

This time he turned on her. "Don't you want this kid?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then how come half the gorram ship knows before I did?"

"That's an exaggeration -"

"Is it? You told Cat, River knows ... who the hell else did you go flapping your mouth at?"

"Mal, stop."

"No, Frey. Not this time. I know there's stuff you haven't told me, and I understand that, but ... you're pregnant. Don't you think I deserved to know?"

Her grip on the bars whitened her knuckles. "Damn it, will you let me finish!"

His eyebrows raised. "Fine. Go ahead."

"I was going to tell you. Then ... things happened."

Mal glanced at Cat. "I conjure I know what they were. But that doesn't give you a reason to keep something like this from me."

Cat leaned on the bars and sighed. "You're a prick."

"You're defending her?"

"She's your wife."

"And I shouldn't have had to hear about being a father again 'cause you were both in a f