http://www.fireflyfans.net/bluesun.aspx?bid=8643><<; Read Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Standing alone in Serenity’s cavernous, echoing cargo bay, Nathan tried to calm his pounding heart long enough to remember which button opened the hatch.

Landing on Tethys wasn’t as big an ordeal as he had expected, and the view from the bridge had been simply breathtaking. The sun had dropped over the horizon just as Wash expertly punched through the atmosphere, providing a glorious sunset that lit up the sky with streaks of pink and purple and red, and then they circled the globe, skimming over the landscape fast enough to catch up with an equally stunning sunrise. Just about worth all this madness and it had left him grinning from ear to ear, although he put on a properly dour expression before Wash could see.

But now they were on the dirt, and the Larkin brothers were undoubtedly on the other side of the airlock, and Nathan was about to go face them and their heavily armed goons all by his lonesome.

There were times when he wished Malcolm Reynolds wasn’t so much of a loner.

Sometimes it had been while filming an intimate scene with Morena. More than once Nathan had gotten personally fed up with Mal’s scripted stubbornness around the woman that everyone knew he was in love with, and he’d grab Morena and slobber on her neck or swing her around and do-si-do a few steps. Always broke up the crew, kept things merry, and hey, grabbing Morena was its own reward.

Sometimes it had been when he had to do a reaction scene with Mal staring off into the distance, weighted down by his choices and the horrific events of his life. Every wrong move Mal had ever made, he carried on his shoulders like a lead weight. Nathan didn’t, couldn’t live like that, and occasionally he got a powerful impulse to slap Mal around a few times and tell him to lighten the hell up. He didn’t, ‘cause it would hurt, and it wouldn’t have done a bit of good anyway, especially when Joss kept wanting him to go deeper and darker.