Mal stood in the common area, his arms crossed. “Well?” he prompted. “I figure you’ve got something more like the truth to tell us now.”

Indigo pushed his greying blond hair away from his face then ran his fingers down his moustache. “I told you. Sara’s my daughter.”

Inside the infirmary Simon was still working on the girl, Freya sitting on the opposite counter waiting her turn. Hank was lying on the medbed while Zoe leaned in the doorway, and all of them were listening to some degree or other to the conversation going on in the other room.

Mal glanced at Jayne standing brooding by the steps up to the cargo bay. “Did you know he had a kid?”

The big man shook his head. “Don’t recall it ever coming up in conversation.”

“She looks around fourteen maybe.”

“She’ll be fifteen next May,” Indigo put in. “And I don’t think I ever thought of mentioning it.”

“Where’s her mother?” Kaylee asked from where she was sitting on the old sofa with River next to her. “Isn’t she wondering where she is?”

“Polly ...” Indigo’s lips thinned for a moment. “I met her when I was on Bernadette for a spell, and we kinda liked each other. I was with her for near on a year, then she told me she was pregnant. I wanted her to marry me but she said no, that it wasn’t necessary.” He hitched his thumbs into his waistband. “She wouldn’t listen, so we never did get hitched, even when I had to leave.”

“You didn’t stay?” Kaylee always was interested in other people.

“There wasn’t the work, and what there was I wasn’t ... I went where the jobs were, but I always sent cash back, enough that Polly didn’t need to find employment – well, no more than she wanted. And I visited when I could, not as often as I’d’ve like or should, but ...” He stopped.

“What happened?” Mal asked.

“I was on my way back for a visit when I got word. Their town had been hit by slavers, Polly killed and Sara taken.”

“No,” Kaylee murmured, her hand flying to her mouth.

“I had to find her, get her safe, and it took most of t