So here it is: Chapter 10, the last in the ‘New Prospects’ story. I've rated it NC17, since the second segment contains a bit of post-coital S/K, just for Leiasky!

10

Serenity fled silently through the infinite night, an amber glow scudding across deepest black.

Those of her crew that could sleep did so like the deceased. Sleep had been a scarce commodity in the forty-eight hours past, and fatigue could only be staved off for so long. So the internal lights were powered down, and a suitably serene hush had descended on the little Firefly, punctuated only by the quiet bumping noise and breathless gasping that emanated from the bunk with Kaylee’s Room painted above the door in swirly script.

Mal stuck his pillow over his head in a vain attempt to block it out. Some people, it seemed to him, needed to rest less than others. He contemplated thumping on the dividing wall, but Kaylee was already doing more than enough of that for both of them.

Jayne snored on, oblivious. In the morning he would wake to the usual patch of drool adhering his cheek to the pillow, but for now his sleeping face wore a contented smile. A score had been settled, and all was right with his world. Tomorrow, he might even tackle some laundry.

Zoe slept better than she had in weeks. She dreamed of her husband, as always, but he was different this time – the gaping hole in his chest was gone, and he was just Wash, her Wash, all tousled hair, twinkling blue eyes and cheesy grin. He came to her and held her close, and whispered in her ear the words that she had longed to hear.

Inara, dressed once more in her customary silken robes, had dozed off on the common area couch: head resting on her hands, body curled up with feline ease. River contemplated waking her, so that she could go to her shuttle and sleep in her bed, but thought better of it. She looked so peaceful, and her dreams were of her Sihnon home and her sistren at the Companion House, and it seemed a shame to break them for something so trivial as