My beta said she cried her eyes out when she read this. Well, I hope you do too. :)

Last chapter for a while. Hope you enjoy it.

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Chapter 9

Dinner was a loud boisterous affair. Everyone was pleasantly pleased and surprised that nothing had gone wrong with this delivery either. Jayne was still snuffling disgustingly, but he was doing better now that the puppies were gone. Mal had surprisingly said nothing about finding Kaylee in Simon’s lap in the lounge which kept Simon tense and on edge for the entire day.

But right in the middle of dinner, Mal turned stern eyes on Simon and in no uncertain terms asked the date of the wedding.

A horrified look passed across Simon’s face but Mal kept his face stoic and his eyes hard.

Simon swallowed hard. “Wedding?”

“Ya, you wanna bed my mechanic, you do it all legal like.”

“I don’t –“ Simon glanced from the shocked Kaylee back to Mal. He shook his head. No one was going to tell him when and how to propose marriage. As angry as he was at that moment, he didn’t even look at Kaylee – something he was about to regret – but instead leveled as hateful a gaze as anyone had ever seen at Mal. “No. I will not ask Kaylee to marry me simply because you have a problem with –”

“Truth comes out. No big surprise. You rich boys like to use ‘em and leave ‘em.”

“That is –“ Simon was distracted by Kaylee, who stood, eyes filling with tears. Simon’s eyes shifted from her to Mal and back again, unsure of where to direct his full attention. “Not – Kaylee –“ He reached for her but she stepped away from him.

“No big shock that you don’t want to marry her.”

“Not right now, no.” Simon stammered. His mind wasn’t working well with Mal’s unfair barrage and he knew instantly that he’d said the wrong thing.

Wash and Zoe’s pained looks gave him some form of comfort. They’d gone through a similar tirade before their marriage. It was no secret Mal hated shipboard relationships.

Simon reached out to Kaylee again, knowing he needed to exp