Here's the epilogue. Eventually, there will be Simon throwing Kaylee's clothes on the bunk floor. Promise. *grin* By the way, the quote is different because I thought it fit this piece better. In case you cared. Or wondered.

You know the drill. Feedback at kaylee@kikiroxxorz.com is appreciated. Also, for timeline purposes, I am George Lucas. I worked backwards.

2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 if you're new to the series.

A happy ending. Weird? I think so.

Any problems can be directed to my dear and fluffy muse, Ryan Adams. He sings, I write.

"Where do you go when you're lonely

Where do you go when you're blue

Where do you go when you're lonely

I'll follow you

When the stars go blue"

~Ryan Adams, When The Stars Go Blue

***

I like to get up early and watch the Tempest rising. It’s like a ballet—it starts out slow, sleepy, deliberate, blinking and scrunching and curling with surprising feminity, the crescendo rising, up, up, stretch and fret, maybe even a little cry like a sudden and wholly shocking crash of thunder in the middle of the night, then all of the tension collapses, suddenly, a wild, toothless grin, big eyes emerging from a weirdly dense thatch of hair.

If you’re interested, two-year-olds dream of the beach, strawberry yogurt, what the ‘verse looks like from on their fathers’ shoulders and the day they were born.

***

At first, Mal wasn’t too keen on a baby on his boat. He still ain’t, he supposes, but Tempest is the exception to the rule. Mal adores her. He figures he’ll have her doing captainy things by two and a half, and in the cockpit as soon as she pays more attention to the controls and less attention to the gorram plastic dinosaurs.

Inara comes up behind him, blindsiding him with coffee. He’s always at his most peaceful when watching Tempest. “Mornin’,” he says around the mug.

Inara nods in Tempest’s direction. “What would you think of one of your own?” she asks, smiling up at him in a way that reminds him of Kaylee.

“Really?”

She nods, and he chok