Zoe struggled to pry her daughter out of the Captains firm hold and failed. She stepped back with a huff, making a face at Emma to share her annoyance. The little girl smiled at the silly face her mother made but remained still and quiet like a good baby. Zoe glanced at the Captain's sleeping face and didn't bother to hold back a wry chuckle, this phenomenon of Mal’s was something the whole crew found much entertainment in.

How the man was able to be fully asleep while reclining and holding Emma to his chest with one large hand fanned out over her small back and the other cupping her bottom to hold her up in a unmovable grip was beyond them all. She remembered the first time they had caught the captain at it, Zoe had panicked and swooped to scoop her child out of, what she assumed to be, a feeble hold. It was an irrational fear because Zoe knew that Mal was able to sleep in the middle of a gunfight holding his rifle in a equally unbreakable grasp.

But a rifle was not her child so she had grabbed for her baby only to find that she could not pull Emma out of the Captain's arms. In her panic she tried to forcefully pull Emma into her arms... and Mal had followed. The man was stubborn even while asleep! Zoe ended up having to let go of Emma because her pulling only served to keep lifting Mal’s back off the back of the couch when he refused to let her daughter go.

The Captain was not the most graceful of men and all her pulling jerked Mal awake just as he fell back onto the couch with a grunt. Startled to find Zoe hovering far closer than he was comfortable with, apparently watching him sleep, he had flailed around comically for a bit, sputtering half coherent protests.

Little Emma had remained snuggled safely in his arms while he wriggled around the entire time.

The ruckus had drawn the rest of the crew to them and, to the captain's chagrin, it had quickly become their new favorite game: see who can pry a awake, but placid Emma, away from the sleeping Captains arms without waking him