In the weeks that followed, Mal and Kaylee only shared company to give and receive progress reports on Serenity’s condition. They worked out an unspoken schedule of avoidance: when one arrived for a meal, the other left seconds before; when one tended to things in the cargo hold, the other was sure to be elsewhere. None of this went unnoticed by the rest of the crew. No one could work a smile out of Kaylee, and if Mal tried to bite one of their heads off one more time…well, Zoe and Jayne had a plan worked out that involved some time in forced solitary confinement.

A few hours after picking up cargo for a transport job to Santo, Zoe found Mal in the hold inspecting the contents of the crates. She leaned against the stairway railing and silently waited for him to finish. After a few moments, Mal straightened and called behind him, “You got something that needs sayin’?”

“What makes you say that, sir?” Zoe maintained an expert air of innocence. It always annoyed Mal; she was even better at hiding her emotions than he was.

“Never fix me with that stare of yours ‘less you’ve got something to say to me. Usually means I ain’t gonna like it, neither.” Mal knew she was baiting him. Since he was rather busy making sure things were in order for the drop, he took the bait willingly.

“Probably won’t. Came to tell you that you’re an idiot,” Zoe said.

“You know, you’re the second person to tell me that in less than a month and I’m starting to get a mite offended by it.” Mal replaced the lid of the crate he was examining with a thud and turned to face her.

“Think we don’t notice how you and Kaylee have been avoiding each other? That girl hasn’t smiled in weeks. Don’t know exactly why but I surely know it was your fault.” Zoe’s emotionless expression never wavered. It made arguing with her extremely irritating.

“It was not! You can’t go around accusing me of things you don’t know nothing about.” He tried his best anyway.

“Know that she tried to work things out first and had it all go wrong. She ain’t gon