Zoe was in pain. Great pain.

"C'mon Zoe, one more push!" said Kaylee. "I can see the head!"

"You can do this!" encouraged Inara.

"I...know...damn...well...I can do this!"

gasped Zoe. And with one more push, Hoban Theodore Washburne was born.

*************************************************

Mal and Jayne were playing cards in the kitchen.

Inara had insisted that no males other than Simon be present during the birth (after which Jayne quipped "We'll leave you ladies/ to it then"). Mal sighed.

"I'd 've never thought it," he said, "Kids on my boat!"

"Niether would I," Jayne chuckled. There was a brief silence.

"D'ya think it's a boy or a girl?"

"Boy." River sailed through the kitchen.

"Does this mean we can go down now?"

"Yes."

The two men half-ambled, half-rushed (while trying to hide it) down to the Infirmary to see the baby. Amused at their excitement, River continued on to the bridge.

She sat cross-legged on the almost painfully half-new pilot's chair, she pondered the newest soul on Serenity. For one brief moment, the child's brain had been entirely blank, a vast stretch of the black in a tiny head. It brought back painful memories, but the child's mind quickly filled up with wordless thoughts, sensations without names.

The com beeped. her thoughts interupted, River had nothing better to do than to answer.

"Badger."

"Well, if it isn't our little actress." Badger had long since found out about River's ruse. "I got a job for you."

"Don't you always," she whispered. "Circles upon circles. I'm almost getting dizzy. What do you have for us?"