Eye of the Beholder

By Cassandra E

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never were, never will be. Firefly and characters don’t belong to me. Although this story and any new characters are mine, mine. No profit is being made what so ever, if there was, which there isn’t…well, then that’s whole different story.

Rating: PG-13 to R- Domestic Abuse, at least in the first chapters.

A/Notes: I started this story prematurely, since my mind was still on Death Was a Pretty Girl. I had decided to write Eye of the Beholder afterwards, but I went forward with prologue. Since in DWAPG, I messed up Inara’s age, I fixed it, so it could concur with her age when the war started to when she met Mal. It makes sense that she would be very young. Companions are equivalent to Courtesans, who started very young before they got too old. I am using the Firefly timeline as my guide- http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/firefly.html. I been told it’s not canon, but then again neither is this story. As the story progresses, I explain what changes took place to what didn’t. Feedback most welcomed!

Summary: Alternate Universe/History: Instead of becoming a Companion, Inara was sold into slavery by her own mother. Heavily abused and mistreated by her wealthy slave owner, Joseph Harrows, she kills him in self-defense. Now on the run from his family and the Alliance, she finds Serenity…and a certain Captain.

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Prologue: Happily Ever After

All that glitters….

Sihnon

Her mother was beautiful…

But she was a whore.

Of course, Inara as a child never knew that. But what she did know was that her mother was beautiful. Olive skinned with long gloaming hair, honey brown bedroom eyes and full sensual lips, Yadhira Serra was a striking woman.

And Inara wanted to be just like her.

When she was a little girl, Inara would spend hours at her mother’s vanity. She would gently run her hands on the perfume bottles and silver rimmed brushes with such yearning that her Nana would scold her something fierce.

Back then Inara