Disclaimer: Not mine, just writing for fun.

A/N: This story has a life of it's own!!! It has run away and I have no control over it!! There is going to be at least another post and then an epilogue! Thanks to Leiasky for her inputs! Hope you guys like it and please comment!:D

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Simon hurried to catch up to the rest of the crew as they made their way through the docks. The port was all metal and piping, with dark hallways and lighting that barely worked, flickering off and on. It was a labyrinth that Simon didn’t want to get lost in, one turn looked as good as the next.

He darted around the dock workers and miners milling about the hallways and edged up to his sister just as Mal opened a side door marked Maintenance. The hallway was completely deserted, their footfalls thundered through the vacant space. Jayne took the rear, with Mal leading them down the corridor. Every door they passed all seemed the same, but Mal finally stopped as they rounded a corner. He pulled on the latch with some effort, the hinges squeaking as the door opened. Through the threshold they could see the little hallway was just as dark as the Black itself. The smell of stale alcohol and humanity at it’s worst filtered out, causing Simon to wrinkle his nose. Music and boisterous laughter drew Mal to the push aside the curtain at the end of the hallway, revealing a dingy, little dive filled with filthy miners and all the dregs of society a small outpost like the Whittier Spaceport could muster.

No one really noticed over the din of voices calling out to one another the five strangers that had wandered out of the back. Directly to their right was the bar and behind it, their contact, Reina Sellers.

Mal and company sidled up to the bar as Reina kept polishing the glassware in front of her.

“You must be chompin’ at the bit to get to this one, Malcolm Reynolds.”

She flashed him a pretty smile as she poured out five beers setting one in fron