Simon had begun to wonder when they were going to leave.

Normally the captain would have been what Wash called 'land crazy' by now; itchy, tense and eager to head back into the Black and away from the civilization he so obviously shunned and despised. And yet this time he seemed to be in no hurry. He hadn't even looked for work, like he said he would, and even now when they, despite that fact, had filled up the treasury, there was no indication that an imminent departure was in the cards.

It was on one hand not that uncommon for Mal to give the crew some time off after a successful job, but those 'vacations' were usually cut short on account of his restlessness, and Simon couldn't help but keep pondering the question as to why that was not the case now.

And then he began to wonder why it bothered him.

The answer was quite obvious – and yet very hard to admit to: He was the one who wanted to leave. And aside from the fact that they had provoked the self-proclaimed lord of this backwater town and thus probably put themselves in some kind of danger, there really was no reason for wanting that.

This was a nice place. The Cobbs were good people, and a whole lot more normal than Simon had expected them to be. (Looking back, he wasn't really sure what he'd imagined they'd be like – more like Jayne perhaps? But, then again, were they really all that different from him? He didn't really want to think about it.)

The captain was happy here. Relaxed, and in exceptionally good mood. Simon had caught him humming and whistling merry tunes on several occasions since they'd landed, something that otherwise happened so rarely that it was actually a little bit unsettling when it did happen.

Jayne was with his family, and every man deserved to be now and then. The initial awkwardness had passed and he seemed to be enjoying particularly his sister Jo's company. Which meant there was less time for him to annoy Simon or be annoyed by River.

Though Zoë was stil