Title : Verdict – Chapter Five

Characters/Pairings : Mal/Inara

Spoilers : Series, Big Damn Movie.

Summary : Inara’s in pain. Mal tries to help. Sometimes he even does it well.

Disclaimer : Not mine. Don’t sue. The usual.

Word Count : 2, 538

***

Inara’s shuttle was not what it had once been. When she first moved onboard Serenity, it had taken her days to set up the lavish red drapes and curtains. She’d conducted her work slowly, lovingly, with care to make others feel at ease. Her shuttle was to be a sanctuary.

Now there was a single trunk. Clothes hung out of it, unfolded and strewn about. The shuttle was colder, darker, much like it was when Mal first rented it to her.

In her empty shuttle, Inara rested on the bed, feeling her body ache.

She shifted, trying to find a comfortable position. No luck. She shifted again. Her eyes drifted over the ceiling. Her neck hurt. Her back hurt. Her muscles felt wound tight.

She had another hour to bear until her next round of meds.

She contended herself by remembering she’d been in worse positions than this. Clients whom she couldn’t stand—whom she had to spent the night lying beside, their hands on her skin, their chins on her shoulder. And she would smile and reassure them with her eyes. She could push her own feelings back into a corner of her mind until they became meaningless. Only small irrelevant parts.

She took a deep breath. She imagined the oxygen passing through her body, flowing through each important organ, to the tips of her toes and fingers. She pursed her lips and released the breath slowly.

There was a knock at the door and she sat up, wincing as pain shot up through her torso. She knew she had been waiting for that knock. Ever since Simon released her from the infirmary. Ever since Kaylee frowned and told her they’d be making a hasty departure from Persephone.

Things never seemed to go right, not when it came to Mal. It didn’t seem to matter who he was dealing with. The man was incapable