A small story I was inspired to write while working on chapter eleven of "Over the Hills...". It's a standalone, set ten years post-Serenity. I'm thinking of rewriting it later to play with the style of it a bit, but... well, if it happens at all, it won't be 'til "Over the Hills..." is done, and that will be a while. I hope you enjoy it! ~ Arcadia

Tracing Scars

Mal idly traced the scars on Inara’s body with his fingers as they lay in bed after their lovemaking. When he first met her, imagining a scar on her immaculate body had been impossible. Now, the scars were as part of Inara as anything else. The scar on her shoulder was from a bullet hole she’d received when she and River were on the run after a job-gone-wrong seven years ago. It had been her first real injury. Mal had been out of his mind when she came back, bleeding profusely. Inara had handled things far more gracefully. She told Simon to give her a band aid with a half-smile and a nod towards Zoe, who nodded back, before letting the doctor do his work.

The jagged, three inch scar two inches inward from her left hipbone had caused far more trauma. That had been received five years ago now on a job on Athens. They’d been stealing some coin from a museum there. Fanty and Mingo had given them the job. They hadn’t mentioned that they’d given it to another crew of no-good lowlifes, too. The job had been a bust. Inara had been stabbed. Mal had carried her through the town, which was covered in thick snow, back to Serenity. The depth of the cut, the angle of the knife… the first thing Inara did when she woke up was cry over the fact that she couldn’t have any children. Simon told her that wasn’t true. She still had one ovary left. It would just be harder. But as things turned out, Inara’s tears were justified. Though she and Mal had tried for a while, Inara had never gotten pregnant. She told Mal that it was all right. She was content to look after Kaylee’s critters. But Mal knew that she was lying to him. He never quite knew what to say.

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