Disclaimer: Characters do not belong to me. Until Joss's movie comes out, I'm just entertaining myself and others.

Not beta-ed, so if there are too many glaring typos let me know. All the shiny feedback jumpstarted the dialogue again, so I figured I should stop dangling the plot quite so much. 

Summary: Inara, Book, Wash, and Zoe have been taken captive by people upset with Book. Mal is being forced to allow Simon to treat one of the captors.

Chinese

Fei hua – crap talk

ai ren - sweetheart

nien ching duh – little girl

Ma shong – fast, on the double

Preacher's Prayer - Chapter 3

By Jebbypal

"I told you I can walk!"

"Mayli, please, the doc just fixed you. We'll take their mule."

"Fei hua, I'm fine."

Simon rolled his eyes from where he stood behind the infirmary table. "If you can walk to the ramp, then fine, I'll be more than happy to let you walk to wherever you're going," he finally interceded in the endless argument.

"We're waiting, nien ching duh," Nate said as walked to the infirmary's door. Leaning against it, he shook his head at her stubbornness as Mayli grimaced when she got off the table and stood for several seconds to recover. "Ma shong! At this rate the hundan will die before we hang him!" Nate nearly yelled in exasperation. Mayli just glared at the taller man before beginning to slowly limp towards the door. Nate remained in the doorway forcing her to shift her weight in order to get by. She yelped as she placed her balance on her injured leg and Nate grabbed her quickly before she could fall. Swinging the woman over his shoulder in one move, he proceeded to the cargo bay. "Right-o, girlie. The mule it is."

Simon almost chuckled at the sight until he remembered where they were taking the mule. Grabbing a prepared medkit, he quickly followed. Jayne and Mal were waiting in the cargo bay with the other member of their adversaries' group.