A moment of silence was had as the news set in about Kaylee before Wash spoke up, not really believing what he had just heard.

“Wait wait wait, will you kindly repeat that for me? Because I could have sworn that you just said that Kaylee is missing?”

“You heard that because that’s what I said.” The mood was somber, that is until Mal started yelling.

“Tian xiz shou you de ren dou gai si!”

“Mal…?” Inara never got a chance to finish her sentence, because she was cut off by Mal, who had begun to take action. Nobody messed with Kaylee, this was one of the unspoken rules aboard Serenity , and Mal was not about to let someone hurt his younger sister and mechanic.

“Alright, Wash you stay on board the ship and make sure no one comes aboard. Inara you look after River with Shepard, Simon, I want you to stay aboard as well and set up the infirmary in case any medical issues come up. Zoe and Jayne? You two are coming with me and we’re going to find her.” Despite the urge to go with the Captain, Simon knew that Mal was right. Besides, he wasn’t going to be that much help in the search anyway, so he might as well do what he did best, medicine. He just hoped that he didn’t need to do any work in there that night.

Once Jayne, Mal and Zoe were off the ship, the three decided to split up to cover more ground in a shorter period of time, and would communicate with each other via communicators. This was how Mal ended up talking to Bester of all people.

“Captain Reynolds!” Hearing his name, Mal spun around and groaned inwardly.

“Bester…if you don’t…”

“I didn’t know you guys would be here. I thought I saw Kaylee going off with some guy, but I figured ‘nah, they wouldn’t be here’ but look! You are here!” Mal had been about to go off to continue his search until he heard his former mechanic mention Kaylee.

“Which way did she go?”

“Uh, down that alley. Some guy was hasslin’ her, but I figured it was just some whore or somethin’. It was good seein’ you again.” Mal nodded distractedly before running off in the