Kaylee greeted them right at the door, much as Mal had suspected she would.

“Well?” she blurted out before either of them could even get inside, “Was he there? Did you see him? What happened?”

”Nice to see you too Kaylee,” Mal answered, “Yes we would like to take a few minutes, unload our things, very good of you to offer.”

Zoë, who was in much better spirits having finally seen Wash after three days searching, actually laughed.

“Okay, sorry,” Kaylee replied but didn’t sound it, “I can’t help it. We’ve been dying of suspense up here.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jayne grumbled from behind her.

“So it’s good right,” she began again, “you’re both smiling so it must be good.”

Jayne, now shouldering a large portion of the load, leaned in close so only Mal could hear him.

“It’d better be good. She’s been driving me nuts. And if she starts crying again…”

“It’s mostly good,” Mal said cutting him off.

They all settled into the common room and Mal retold the past three days events.

“So what’s the plan?” Kaylee asked eagerly.

Mal looked to Zoë who now had real concern etched on her face.

“Well, we can’t very well just show up down there and demand him back,” Mal began, “Don’t think they’d take kindly to it and we don’t know just how many friends Dennly has.”

“’Sides,” Jayne added helpfully, “they’d just want money. Probably the kind we don’t got.”

Mal nodded his agreement.

“You know,” Zoë said reflectively, “he’s out working in that yard all day and there aren’t any fences. We could probably just pick him up without them noticing if we planned it right.”

Jayne let out a snort. “Not unless you want him back missing pieces.”

They all looked at him confused.

“Didn’t notice Wash sporting any shiny new jewelry did you?” he continued unfazed.

Zoë shook her head. She’d only been checking for his face.

“Yeah,” Mal nodded starting to get the gist of Jayne’s argument, “all the field workers had ‘em around their wrists.”

“Had what?” Kaylee asked. Zoë was afraid she