TITLE: "RESPITE"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "FIREFLY"

PAIRING: No specific pairing.

RATING: PG-13.

STATUS: SEQUEL to "STRENGTH"

ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.

FEEDBACK: Welcomed.

EMAIL: AlisonMDobell@aol.com

WEBSITE: http://carlajane.50megs.com/Ali00.html

SUMMARY: "Having made her decision Inara needs to find

a way to live with it. Mal, Zoe and Jayne deliver the horses."

The usual disclaimers apply. The characters and 'Firefly'

are the property and gift of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

No infringement of copyright is intended.

"RESPITE"

A "Firefly" story

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

* * * * *

All the way from Eavesdown Docks to the Guild House Inara and the two Companions kept up a light meaningless babble of polite enquiry and small talk. Inara was glad, not sure she could have stood any kind of in depth discussion as to why she was leaving the life she had chosen for the one she had fled. True, she was not returning to House Madrassa but the significance was not lost on any of them. At least she was saved that trauma for now but she knew the respite would be all too brief. The House Mistress, Alena, would want nothing but the truth. How much or how little she should divulge was the crux of her dilemna. Sufficient to satisfy the head of the household but not enough to leave her vulnerable to the emotions currently wrecking devastation upon her psyche. Being a Companion meant she was an expert at reading people both through the verbal and non verbal signs that gave away a person's deepest thoughts and fears. But now she would be back among others of her kind, a place of unique danger to her fragile heart. A place where hiding would be as forlorn as lying. So she would give to all a grain of truth and hope to save herself the ignominy of complete revelation. For she had broken the Cardinal Rule.

It was something of a shock to stop walking. Her head lifting in surprise at