Standard disclaimer: Joss owns everything and I merely frolic in his universe.

A/N: A big thanks goes to my beta 2x2. Xiè xie for all of your help.

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The ship was quiet.

It had been hours since Mal had set the auto-pilot to guide them through the black to the next planet they needed to visit. Since they were constantly on the move the concept of time on the ship was slightly useless. Whenever they landed a planet they went by the time zone they were in but that was the only instance where they bothered to follow something. On Serenity , the hour was whatever you wanted it to be.

At the moment, it was the figurative middle of the night. Everyone was asleep in their beds. The only sounds came from Serenity , the heart of her turning away in the engine room.

Zoe sat on the bridge, unable to sleep. She was seated in Wash’s old chair staring out at the field of stars. His plastic dinosaurs were still lined up around the console; the only time they ever moved was when the ship hit turbulence entering the atmosphere but that was happening less and less as River got the hang of the controls.

It had been almost a month since Miranda and Zoe still wasn’t used to the abrupt absence of her husband. She doubted she ever would get over it. Like with the war, the loss of Wash would always be with her, nagging at her like the pain of an old wound.

Tonight the memory of Wash had driven her to sit in his chair. At first she had seen signs of him everywhere on the ship but after awhile she had forced herself to stop seeing them. Wash had put much of himself into Serenity , spending so much time at her controls that his spirit seemed to linger, but Zoe didn’t want to have him haunting her. She wanted to remember how he had lived his life, not dwell on how violently he had left it. She had been at the point where she could stand being alone in their bunk when she had received yet another reminder of him.

It had been at their last stopover to the bazaar where their