Despite the bleeding wound in his groin, Mal stood tall and slowly eyed his crew, one by one. They shuffled nervously before him, avoiding his eyes. He loved them all, though most of them didn’t know it, and probably wouldn’t ever know it, not now. Mal tried to catch Zoe’s eye, but she stared stubbornly down at the floor by Wash’s feet.

It was as if… “Sarahetc?”

“God dammit!” muttered Sarahetc, and she quickly minimized her screen. But it was too late, he'd seen her.

“Sarahetc, what are you doing?” asked Mr. Carver. He stood close behind her. The air smelled suddenly sour. How long has he been standing there?

His voice carried loudly over the peaceful banjo music coming through her computer speakers.

“Aren’t you supposed to be monitoring the Fux Network customer service lines? Did I just see an Internet chat room window on your computer screen?”

Sarahetc gulped, and said nothing. She looked at her boss and managed a tight smile. She knew she was busted. “Gee, Mr. Carver, that wasn’t a chat room, it was, uh...Fireflyfans.net. Just one last time, I’m writing a fanfic and I guess I got carried away.”

Mr. Carver squinted fiercly beneath his bifocal lenses. His shiny forehead beamed with sweat despite the cold, drafty temperature of the office. He took a deep breath, and Sarahetc winced. She knew what was coming.

“God Dammit, Sarahetc!” Mr. Carver erupted, “How many times have we talked about this!” His face was purple with rage. “Firefly! God Dammit! Why do you keep writing stories about that stupid show!”

“It’s not stupid…” interrupted Sarahetc, but Mr. Carver overrode her.

“YOU’RE FIRED, Sarahetc! Pack your bags! Get moving! You can’t write that stuff around here! If you were just more normal, you would like Joe Millionaire and be happy and stop causing trouble—OOF!”

With a quick hand chop, Sarahetc silenced her troublesome boss. He fell with a crunch, twitching uncontrollably. The rubbing sound of his corduroy pants was so loud that several offi