A/N: We're coming down to the wire on this one. Things are going to start happening very, very fast. I hope that anyone still reading is having fun.

"All right," Mal said, looking around the bridge at what remained of his crew. Jayne looked grim; Kaylee looked scared. Wash still looked like somebody had beaten him with a stupid stick. Mal tried briefly to imagine a man who could look that dumb as somebody's dad. It seemed about as improbable to him as Zoe being somebody's mom. He wrenched himself away from things he wasn't yet ready to deal with, to the things he had no choice about dealing with. "New plan."

That drew their gaze and focused it -- Jayne, curious; Kaylee, hopeful; Wash confused.

Mal looked first at the pilot. "New course," he said. "We're going back after the cargo."

For once, the pilot moved to lay in the course change without a word. Thank Buddha for small mercies, Mal thought.

"But, Captain, what about --?" Kaylee began, and broke off, as if there were just too many questions to deal with. Which there were. For one thing, there was the matter of aiming straight at the cargo with Eusabian's scoutship and yacht shadowing them. For another, there was the matter of Serenity's own wounds, which they had been on their way to try to remedy. But Mal was too weary to explain. He just needed them to all do what he said.

"We got some backup on the way, and we need to take advantage of it," he told Kaylee. "First thing is to get rid of that cargo. We can do that, maybe some other avenues open up to us for fixing the ship." If we get paid. He didn't say that part aloud. But it was implied. Wasn't it always?

"What backup?" Jayne asked, clearly skeptical. "You make friends with Inara's rich pirate client or something?"

"Alliance battlecruiser," Mal said bluntly, and was rewarded by Jayne's bald surprise. "We're going to collect the cargo and finish the deal while they're in the area."

"Alliance is going to protect us?" Kaylee asked.