"Kaylee, I really can't say anything." Simon said. "I mean it. There's a thing called doctor-patient confidentiality, and I'd be breaking it if I told you."

Kaylee sighed. "Bad news, ain't it? It ain't fair, y'know. 'Nara an' the Cap'n wasted so much time not bein' together an' now they're gonna get cut short. Life just ain't fair."

Simon smiled. He loved how Kaylee managed to take everything so personally - it mattered just as much to her that Mal and Inara got their slice of happiness as it did that she and Simon got theirs. "It's been my experience that all things happen for a reason - and not everything is always as it seems." It was the best he could offer her, for now.

~*~

"What are these?"

Wash smiled at Kate. "Flowers. Y'know, pretty things, commonly sold in bouquets to suckers like me who've really screwed up?"

A smile spread across Kate's face. "Nobody's bought me flowers since... nobody's ever bought me flowers before, actually," she recalled. "What - what do I do? With them?"

"Putting them in water would be a place to start," Wash chuckled. "After that I would say putting them somewhere you can look at them would be a good second step."

"Where did you get them?"

Wash grinned. "I docked the ship, ran out to a vendor, bought them, and rushed back. I made the captain promise not to tell you we'd docked yet until I came back. So I was thinking then, after you put them someplace, you could follow that up by forgiving me, and possibly thanking me for the flowers."

Kate gave him a lopsided smile. "Don't push your luck. Flowers will only get you so far."

"But no one's ever given you flowers before, so it's up to me to figure out just how far that is."

~*~

"Ain't speakin' to ya," Mal said stubbornly. "You hurt me somethin' awful, an' I ain't ready to forgive ya."

Xue cocked her head. "Mrrow?" She asked.

"You made me bleed!" Mal insisted. "Look at my thumb. Ain't my fault you looked like a sock. I had soap in my eyes!"

Xue looked, and licked the tiny wound her cla