(Disclaimers with Part 1)

"Fateful Hours" Part 2

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Voices came at him from an echoing distance.

"Careful."

"Lay him down right there."

Seemed like he'd been in this situation before. Fuzzy-headed, hurting--the far-off voices slowly getting closer, the words clearer...waking up in the infirmary, after the salvagers had shot him....

No, that was past. This was now. This was different. Even with his eyes shut and his brain half locked down, Mal knew he wasn't on Serenity.

"I'll check the street, but I don't think you were seen."

"Zoe, are you all right, child?"

Two of the voices he knew. Two he didn't. Where was he?

"I'm fine, Preacher, it's just a bad bruising. We need to be looking after the captain."

"I'll fetch our med-kit."

Zoe--Zoe was hurt? It was his job to look after her. He tried to open his eyes--he had to see if she was all right, if they were safe.

"Careful, he's coming to." That was Book, concerned but calm as ever.

He felt hands on his leg, trying to be gentle, but they provoked a sharp wave of pain which jolted him into full awareness. His eyes flew open and he saw Zoe at his side, one hand on his shoulder. The Shepherd stood just behind her, smiling down in reassurance.

Someone else was tending to his injury. "Tamade diyu!" He tried to jerk his leg away, which only made it hurt worse.

"Oh! Please, hold him still," came a woman's shocked, worried voice.

"Captain..." Zoe sounded relieved and exasperated all at once as she squeezed his arm. "Just take it easy, sir."

Mal grasped her hand weakly. "Zoe--we gotta keep moving, they'll be after us..." He struggled to push himself up, but she held him firmly in place.

"Steady, Captain." Book leaned over him, shaking his head. "You're safe for the moment, but you won't be going anywhere for a while. Now just lie still."

He realized he was lying on a wide, high-backed sofa in what looked to be somebody's parlor. A plainly dressed middle-aged woman with