Shadow

Hesh Davoy’s hands were wrapped so tightly around the steering column on the bridge that his knuckles were turning white. He could feel the Captain’s hand on his shoulder, put there as an attempt at comfort but now only serving as an ever present reminder that he had just lost the woman he loved. Forever. His heart thundered inside of his chest, and there were tears trying to force their way from his eyes; but he stayed calm, controlled, just like Elise had taught him.

Elise…

A single tear forced itself from his tightly closed eyes and wound it’s way down his cheek. Why? Why her? The last time they had spoken, it had led to yet another fight. He hadn’t even told her…hadn’t even…

God, I loved you so much!

Silence. The one thing Etris was good at was knowing when to talk and when to let things remain unspoken. So Hesh let the silence linger, until his brain was screaming out for answers.

“How did it happen?” Hesh finally asked, if only to silence the clamor of voices in his head.

Etris sighed, and when he spoke, Hesh could hear sadness in his voice. “She died saving Inara from a Reaver. She pushed Inara out of the way and took the bullet for her.”

Elise died…saving Inara?

If his heart hadn’t been trying to tear it’s way out of his chest, Hesh might have been more amazed at that statement from Etris. Elise gave her life for the woman that she had only thought of as a whore, nothing more. What had happened, then, to make her willing to sacrifice herself for Inara?

“So she died a hero, then.”

It was more of a statement from Hesh than a question.

“Yes,” was all Etris said in response.

* * *

“She hated me…then why did she have to die for me?” Inara cried as she knelt beside Elise’s dead body.

Jayne chuffed as he let loose another round of bullets into yet another approaching Reaver. “Ain’t no time for regrets now, ‘Nara,” the merc said, but the Companion’s question stuck in his mind as well. He hadn’t known Elise for very long, in fact he had only talked to