Everyone was tired, but nobody wanted to go to bed quite yet, not until they’d seen what Jayne had brought back.

“’N’ that was hard enough,” the big man opined. “Opening a safe and not taking the tom was like having Vera and never firing her.”

At the end of the kitchen table Sam stirred. “Tom?” he asked Inara quietly out of the side of his mouth.

“Jewellery,” she responded, keeping her voice equally soft. “It’s rhyming slang from Earth-that-was. Tomfoolery – jewellery. I think.”

“How did you know that?”

She smiled. “I have my secrets.”

“Oh, I know that.” He put his hand on hers, and was warmed to see her pink just a little.

“That can wait,” Mal was saying. He hadn’t sat down, not intending to make this a long discussion. “We know Kaylee’s little maguffin worked fine, so if we decide to we can get into it again.”

“’N’ I left the rope handy,” Jayne added, a little indistinctly as he was munching on a thick sandwich that looked like half a cow between two slabs of bread. “In case.”

Mal nodded but went on, “Although I’m inclined not to steal from folks I know.”

“Even the Fosters?” Kaylee asked. “They ain’t exactly the nicest of people.”

“Well, we’ll see.” He looked down at his wife, in her usual seat, studying the papers. “Frey? You got anything so far?”

“It is land deeds.” Freya flicked through them, her eyebrows raising. “In fact, several deeds. And to some pretty high end property at that.”

“Who’s Winston Downey?” Mal asked, moving enough to look over her shoulder and reading the name of the owner.

“Badger.”

“What?”

“That’s his real name.” She looked up. “You didn’t think he was actually christened Badger , did you”

“I didn’t think he was christened at all. I kinda thought he oozed into the ‘verse.”

“You know he has a mother.”

“So he says,” Mal muttered darkly. “And how do you know? About his name?”

“I picked it up.” She shuddered slightly. “It was in that flash about the deeds.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“I did