I don't own them.

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Wash rubbed his eyes as he awoke. Trying to remove the obvious illusion from his view.

"What the-"

"Ah...uh uh."

"What? He sat up on his elbows from what was apparently a bed and looked around. Confusion and then happiness took his features as he realized who'd just spoken.

"Sh...Shepherd....?" Wash's eyes rolled to the left as he passed out, falling to his side.

"Yes."

*********************

Wash woke again, this time with a small headache. He looked around again, and seeing no one, he rose out of his bed. He tested his legs, and finding them fine, he stood up. For reasons yet unknown, he rubbed his hand across the whole of his torso, worried about it's wholeness.

Seeing no one as he walked through the dwelling he was in, he walked outside, and heard metal fall against more. The sound reminded him of the weight bench just under the stairs in the cargo bay of Serenity. He walked towards the sound.

"Wait...where's Serenity?"

"She's not here. Won't be for a long while, thankfully."

The voice coming from a small clearing between a few houses, he went straight towards it.

His mouth fell straight open as he saw the man sitting on a bench.

"Shepherd...Shepherd Book?" He took a seat on an empty stool across from the Shepherd.

"So, I wasn't just dreaming..."

"No."

"So, uh, why are you here. I saw you..."

"You saw me, dead."

"Yea, or so I thought."

"No, don't doubt yourself. You saw what you saw."

"So, if you're dead, why are you here now? Oh....go se...why am I here now?!"

Wash reached again to his chest, finding nothing wrong, he looked to Book, confused.

"Shepherd?"

"I'm dead." Trying to find a way to put it to the pilot gently, Book decided to go with the simple truth. "And, so are you."

Suddenly, Wash's mind was filled with Images of Mr. Universe's planet. Of being pursued by a reaver ship, of crash landing in the bay...

Of dying, when a giant wooden spike ripped through his chest. He vaguely remembered the seconds there after, where Zoë had tried to wake him, to make him stand. Something the body he'd left couldn't do. He'd stood for almost a minute, watching ass the strongest person he'd ever known showed her weaker side.

When the second set of spikes pierced the bridge, he'd tried to intercept them himself, to stop them from hurting Zoë, but there was nothing more for him to do in that world. He exhaled deeply when Mal had been quick enough to get Zoë out of the way. He saw the look in her face the last time he saw her, when she left the bridge, her eyes revealing the pain she was trying to stuff away.

He'd tried to hang on, something had pulled him away, and he'd woken up here. Wherever here was.

"It's Haven. Before the whole conflict. I don't know how. I don't know why. But it's home.

"So I'm dead. That is just....damn. What about Zoë....can I see her? Can I talk to her?"

Uncharacteristically, Book shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure. I’ve been talking to Jayne. Trying to guide him as I did before. He’s the only one who sees me though.”

“So maybe I can talk to Zoë. How do you do it?”

“Book grabbed Wash by the arm closed his eyes for a short moment, squeezing Wash’s arm to tell him to do the same. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and squeezed wash’s arm again.

Wash breathed deep as he opened his eyes. “Home.”

They’d surfaced right in the middle of the cargo bay. They could both hear Jayne lifting slowly at his bench. Alone. They both walked in his direction.

Without looking their way, Jayne spoke.

“Hey there Shepherd.”

“Jayne...”

Jayne nearly dropped the bar on his head as he slipped from under it’s weight.

“Wash? Oh, Wash, you devil. I knew we’d see you again.”

Wash grinned slowly. “I’m very popular these days.”

“ya don’t say?”

All three men jumped back a few feet as a petite young woman fell to the deck between them.

She reached up to hug Wash. She seemed to be the only one able to touch Book too. She’d given him the same treatment when he’d first showed up on the ship, A spirit, untouchable by real solid matter. Or so he’d thought. But River was always a bit unpredictable.

“Ok, River, don’t smother him.”

“I had no intention of doing so. I’m just so excited to see him. I was beginning to wonder, when we’d see him again.”

“Him is standing right here.”

“How yell doin over there in....I don’t know....dead person’s land?”

Wash shook his head at Jayne’s constant blatancy.

“Oh! Gift for you, Wash.” River unfolded a section of her dress and pulled out dinosaur after dinosaur, handing them to Wash.

He smiled brightly. “Well, now that I’ve got what I came for...

Somehow, he was able to keep them. Realizing he had nothing to keep them in, Wash dropped them all in Book’s side bag.

“That’s not what you came for.” River pointed up towards the descending stairs. “That is.”

She lifted her finger to her lips, and made random conversation with Jayne.

Down the stairs came Zoë, and right behind, Mal. “It’ll be easy coin, Zoë. We finally have a contact we can trust. Moderately. The point is, it ain’t Badger. ‘N that’s good enough for me right now. Besides. Now ain’t no time to suggest no other route. We’ll hit atmo in less than 2 days.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That wasn’t very enthusiastic, Zoë.”

“Should it have been?”

“Yep.”

“Well then. Yes Sir!”

“Tha’s a bit better. Anyway, just in case, I’ll take River for the meet, just in case, ya know.”

Freezing up slightly at River’s name, she nodded. Yes sir. Halfway to the bottom, Mal went towards Inara’s shuttle.

Zoe, beautiful as ever, maybe more so, walked towards Jayne’s bench.

On reaching it, she walked through Wash. Jayne and River both noticed her shiver a slight bit, but said nothing. “We hit atmo in just under 2 days.”

Steeling her self before speaking again, she looked to River. “ River, you’ll be along too. Make sure deal goes down, way it was planned.”

Jayne spoke up. “Like that ever happens.”

“Another good reason to have River there.”

River nodded, and so did Jayne. As Zoe headed up the stairs, Wash followed, but Book stayed to talk to River and Jayne. River took a seat beside Jayne on the bench, legs crossed in a lotus.

“So. What have the two of you been doing? Wait. Don’t tell me.”

‘Simon can’t be happy.’

“He’s doesn’t know. Anything, really.”

Book shook his head, realizing River had just taken that thought from his mind. River was most definately special.

**********

“Zo, baby?” Wash followed as Zoe grabbed a bowl full of soup and walked to the loung, refusing to eat at the table.

He stepped in front of her, and as she walked through him, a shiver took her body again, and she almost dropped her bowl.

“Stop ignoring me.” He knew she could hear him.

“ZOE!!!”

She looked straight at him. “Leave, I’m trying to eat.”

“Is that how you treat you husband? Alive or not?”

“You’re not my husband. You’re not real.”

“Oh but I am. Good looks and all.” He smiled his amazing smile. She looked away.

“I asked Book to bring me. I wanted to see you. Thought you’d want to see me.” he sat beside her.

Book walked into the galley, seeing Wash speaking to Zoe.

“Wash, we have to go. We can only see them for a certain amount of time.”

Wash shook his head, grabbing Zoe’s hand. “She’s my wife, Shepherd, I can’t leave her.”

“That’s why we have to leave now, Wash. If we stay too long, we could influence the future of this ship. This mission they’re about to go on? They could all die, just because death spent too much time on this ship. I don’t know how I know, I don’t know why the rules are that way, but that’s how it works. I trust it’s the right thing. And we‘ve got to go. Now.”

Shepherd stepped forward and grabbed Wash’s arm, and before he could kiss her, or say anything more, Zoe dissapeared before him, followed by the galley, then the ship, then the black.

It was a giant shock, and he closed his eyes to shield them. When he opened them again, he was back on Haven, and Book stood before him, an apology in his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Can I go back again?”

“Not for a while. After the mission, maybe. Not before then.”

“I just wish...”

“She’ll be fine. She’s alive. And River’s there. And that girl’s capable of things I can’t even imagine.”

Wash nodded.

“She’ll be ok.”

*********************

Mal walked onto the bridge. It looked strange. Like something was missing. Something elemental to the ship. He looked around, trying determine what that was. As his eyes centered on the pilots seat and the area around it, he started to speak.

“I gave them back to Wash.” River walked up behind him, towards the pilot’s seat.

“You did what?”