They all sat in the common room, each with varying displays of disbelief dancing behind their eyes. Mal had expected that it would take some convincing but he hadn’t been prepared for the steady silence that greeted him now.

“So, you think they what, they kidnapped him?” Kaylee asked the first to break the mood, her eyes still red from having been crying.

“It’s not unheard of this far out,” Inara added but still sounding doubtful.

“It’s not like he has any money or anything,” Jayne blurted out, “They didn’t ask for no ransom or nothing. Hell, not like we’d pay it to get him back anyway.”

The three women all shot him nasty looks not quite believing he’d said that. Even Mal didn’t look to kindly at him, so Jayne, being Jayne, rolled his eyes but figured it was time to keep his mouth shut.

“It wasn’t for money,” Mal answered after a beat, “couldn’t of been, they’d offered us money. Only thing I can think is that they must of needed a pilot. So they went and got themselves one. Ours.”

“But why Wash?” Kaylee asked. She was having the hardest time excepting it, “None of this makes sense. They could of taken anyone they’d run across. Or, they could of just done the normal thing and hire a hand. I just don’t…”

Kaylee let her words drift off. It had been a long week. With the fighting and the sickness and then the talks and it had all ended with death, but now that might not even be true. All of it was making her head spin.

“Lee.”

“I figured the same,” Mal agreed choosing to ignore the venom in Zoë’s voice.

“She knew Wash. She offered up the job. She set this up.”

“So,” Inara said a bit tentatively, “what are we going to do Mal?”

They all looked at him expectantly. Jayne seemed a bit dubious. Kaylee was scared. Inara just sat there as if it didn’t affect her either way. Zoë just looked anxious. And she was. She half expected Mal to say, ‘forget him,’ and press for Persephone, but the other half of her knew he wouldn’t. Mal had been angry at Wash, angrier then s