Mal hadn’t thought about it, he had only reacted.

No sooner then Dennly had fired the second shot, Mal had his own gun leveled at the man’s head. ‘Two shots,’ he thought, ‘He got off two shots. Gorram it.’ But he hadn’t looked. Hadn’t taken his eyes off of Dennly.

“Drop it.”

Dennly kind of laughed and turned towards him, his own gun still raised.

“Now Mr. Reynolds, I don’t think you want to do that.”

He felt Inara tugging frantically on the back of his coat.

“Mal,” she whispered harshly. He ignored her for the time being.

“Give me a reason not too,” Mal said, his voice oddly calm.

“Because, I’d hate to have to kill Mr. Warren.”

Mal allowed himself a quick look. Wash was definitely moving. The same could not be said for Lee.

Slowly Mal lowered his gun. Dennly did the same.

“You have fifteen minutes to be gone. Don’t try anything rash, just walk away. I won’t be expecting you back.”

No sooner then he’d said it, Dennly was gone.

Mal and Inara hurried over to help Wash up. No one spoke. Wash had been hit in the forearm, but wasn’t bleeding badly. Lee on the other hand had been hit straight between the eyes. Inara was carefully avoiding looking at the woman Mal noticed, but Wash on the other hand couldn’t seem to look anywhere else.

“Come on,” he said nudging the man along. He’d have probably stayed there if he hadn’t.

Mal grabbed up Wash’s trunk and the three of them headed back out into the corridor. An armed man was waiting for them to lead them back to Serenity. Jayne was waiting at the end of the ramp for them. He had Vera with him. As they approached Jayne hollered something up the ramp to either Kaylee or Zoë, Mal couldn’t be sure which, and then proceeded to help Mal with the trunk.

By this time Inara had to physically help Wash up the ramp. He looked bad but Mal didn’t think it was anything more serious then shock. Some people reacted differently to things like this. As far as Mal knew, Wash hadn’t ever seen some one killed. Inara either.