Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. Written for fun, not profit.

Thanks: To Philomel, for being the best beta reader in the 'verse.

Feedback: I would genuinely appreciate your comments and constructive criticism.

***

Consistent Resurrection

***

1.

Zoe remembers what it was like to not be vigilant.

They’re on their way to Ariel now, to drop off Inara. They’ve stopped and the shepherd is gone. But heading toward Ariel makes her more uncomfortable than she wishes to admit. She wants to tell her husband that you can never go home again, but she knows he would look at her strangely and she doesn’t want to have to go into it; doesn’t want to have to talk about what it was like to orbit that place.

Barring that, she wants him to take a gorram stroll for once in his life so she can reprogram the computer out from under him. He would figure it out soon enough. The man knows his stars. But by that time, Inara would have missed her appointment and they’ll have to take her to another planet—to Boros or Xinon and Zoe’s problem will be solved. As it stands though, she can only sit near him and stare at the black and try to remember to make approving or disapproving noises as he rambles through various schemes.

Zoe is never afraid of the black. At one point, Zoe had been afraid of the bright—afraid of the rawness that the bright created—but she got over it in short order. That was something that she’d always done well. To get over it. She was the most adaptable person she knew, even if she couldn’t have used a word like “adaptable” as a little girl. But she’d always known that even though she lived on a ship, could never even imagine what it was like not to live on a ship, not very many other people did. They lived on land—on big planets like Ariel, where she had been taught to say she was from if she was asked, because most people didn’t understand a set of coordinates and no one had ever heard of a planet called Argo .

“I’m scared, Wash,” she said and jerked hi