The wave that shocked the verse, the Miranda incident, the Reaver revelation, the broadcast that had been seen by nearly the entire verse was known by many names. To the crew of Serenity that broadcast and the events surrounding it would always simply be known as Miranda.

…..and Miranda had changed them all.

- 1 -

Captain Malcolm Reynolds lay awake staring up at the ceiling of his bunk, thinking. Thinking was something Mal had been doing a lot of since Miranda. It had been a little over two month since Serenity lifted off from the Alliance’s repair station. Just over four months since the events of Miranda itself. Mal had Serenity stay away from any real civilized place for weeks, unsure of the fallout that was certainly happening. That was until now. Mal knew that Serenity would only be a few hours away from landing at the Companion Training House, only a few hours from Inara leaving Serenity, and him again. Unless…..

Mal rolled out of bed and over to his sink. He splashed some water over his face. Look up from the sink he stared at the mirror, his reflection silently stared back at him.

Finally he broke from his own gaze and dresses. Climbing out of his bunk he headed to the bridge to make sure they were on course. He almost hoped something was wrong, something that would keep Inara on the ship.

On the bridge Mal saw the now familiar sight of River sitting in the pilot’s seat. Since Wash’s death River had been quickly taking over his role as Serenity’s pilot. Simon had been telling the truth about things coming naturally to the girl. She took to flying like a duck to water. Mal knew that part of it was the love for his ship.

“Well, my li’l albatross, how we doin’?”

“We should be landing in about 4 hours, Captain.” River said without removing her gaze from the black in front of her.

Moving next to her he checked the nav sat and groaned “Always good to be on time, aint it?”

River looked at Mal, “Not for you…”, then looked back into the black, “….or for her.”

“I would ask what you