She woke early, like she always had.

But today was different than other days.

Before…she’d come onboard she’d woken to the sound of her mother singing in the kitchen.

It was her good morning song.

She’d never known what it meant.

Her mother was of Italian origin, and she’d always sung in Italian.

They’d taught her Chinese, everybody spoke it after all, but she’d never seen much point in learning Italian.

She wished she had now.

She could remember the song, word for word.

And every morning since….they’d died.

She forced herself to acknowledge it in her mind.

To make it real

Every morning since their deaths, she’d woken confused.

Not knowing where she was.

Not in her bed, not in her home.

No smell of coffee wafting up the stairs.

No sound of breakfast cooking.

No grousing from her father for being stupid enough to marry a morning person.

No singing echoing through the house.

But today was different.

Today when she woke she knew where she was.

She knew she was in her bed, in Serenity.

She heard the quiet hum of the engines.

So quiet a hum that it was more felt than heard.

Like a cat purring.

She heard the pilot…

No, River.

She heard River talking to herself, softly enough that she couldn’t pick out any words.

The distant pops and clangs Serenity made.

When she woke up this morning she knew that her parents were dead.

That the home she’d grown up in was gone.

The house was probably still standing.

But it wasn’t home anymore.

But Serenity wasn’t home either.

It could become home.

Someday.

Maybe.

But for now it wasn’t.

She wondered how long she’d been onboard.

She hadn’t counted; one day had been pretty much like any other.

Something to be endured.

To be got through as best as could be.

And what point in counting how many one had gotten through when there would only be another to survive tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next.

She got up, got dressed.

Today was different.

Instead of sitting on the bed until the first ma….Zoe, until Zoe came to get her for breakfast, she decided to go to the dinning room.

She’d avoided it before.

The compani….Inara would be there cooking breakfast.

And she’d always avoided the com…Inara.

The cowardly part of her wanted to continue doing that.

But no more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mal kept telling her that she didn’t have to cook.

Or buy the supplies.

Or wash the dishes.

She was his wife, she wasn’t their maid.

She felt like she wasn’t contributing.

Helping Simon was not enough.

She only had to work when someone got shot.

Usually Mal, the ben zhuo bai chi.

And all there really was to do was the cooking, dishes and shopping.

Well, the books, the mess that man had had them in…..

The cooking and shopping were self preservation.

She wanted to eat something good, not merely edible.

Besides she needed to keep busy.

She heard someone enter the room behind her, she didn’t look to see who it was.

She was busy trying to peel a potato, the problem was that she didn’t have a peeler, just a pairing knife; she tended to cut herself if she didn’t keep her mind on her work.

Besides, these potatoes were not particularly good ones, they hadn’t been that good to begin with and they hadn’t improved by sitting in the storage room for the last three weeks.

A good half, maybe even a third of most of the potatoes were rotten and had to be cut away from the little that was still sound.

She was aware that the person that had come in had moved to stand beside her, but she kept her eyes on what she was doing.

When she finally set the potato aside she was surprised when she looked up and met Eve’s eyes.

Eve looked down at the pile of peels and rotten potato, and at the smaller pile of good potato then back up at her, hesitantly she smiled and said

“I’ve some fresh potatoes. I was going to add them to my composter but I’ll put them up for breakfast and take those for the composter.”

Inara smiled at Eve encouragingly, the young woman had avoided her since her first week on board.

Avoiding someone onboard a ship as small as Serenity was nearly impossible.

Unless of course both parties worked at it.

She had behaved badly when the young woman had first come on board.

Had practically attached herself to her to try and help her deal with her grief.

Or so she’d thought.

She’d been so eager to have something that used her skills she hadn’t stopped to consider whether or not those skills should be used.

She’d thought of Eve as a thing, a challenge something to lighten her boredom.

And had alienated her as she never would have as a Companion.

She’d pushed too hard.

Too soon.

Hadn’t built a relationship, trust; or given Eve a reason to let her help.

Even now, if Zoe hadn’t said something to her she wondered if she would have kept pushing.

She thought she would have.

She’d been so ashamed of her behavior.

At her failure.

She’d been so eager to use her skills again that she had ignored all the rules and foundation those skills depended on.

So she’d backed off.

Let Eve heal with the help of Zoe, River and Kaylee.

So she smiled at Eve, and forced herself not to grasp at the olive branch she’d extended.

Though part of her wanted to very badly.

Mal wanted her to stay.

He’d been doing some research and had found out that Eve was a very well known plant geneticist.

What she did was worth quite a bit of money.

Enough that he only complained about the plants taking over his ship when in the privacy of their shuttle.

Kaylee liked her, said she knew a lot about machines, had been a real help with some of the engine work.

Zoe liked her, and since Eve came on board she’d been more herself than ever.

And for that alone Mal would have let her stay for as long as she liked.

He wouldn’t have kept quiet about the plants though.

Simon enjoyed talking to her, they got into very heated discussions, what everyone else called arguments, about things no one but him and her, and possibly River understood.

River loved her.

She’d latched onto Eve as soon as she’d come on board, when Inara had asked her about it she’d only said “She’s quiet, even grieving she’s quiet.”

The awe in River’s voice had unnerved her, even as she truly didn’t understand what she had meant.

Aside from Jayne, She was the only person that Eve did not interact with.

And that had really bothered her.

She was used to being liked.

Used to being popular.

Used to being able to make friends without effort.

And it had rankled that she had alienated her all by herself.

“Thank you. I’m afraid that these aren’t very far from being completely rotten. I’ll gladly trade.” She smiled at Eve “Though I must say you aren’t a very good bargainer. I am definitely getting the better end of this deal.”

Eve laughed and said “You think so do you? Well might I remind you that I was going to let these potatoes rot to add to my plant feed, which takes time. Taking these from you, which you have already cut up for me, and which have already begun to rot saves me work and cuts the time needed to become good compost. Besides, I would much rather eat the fresh potatoes!”

She laughed, glad that her small joke had been received well. Quickly she scraped the potatoes into a dish rag, and gave it to Eve.

She took the makeshift bag, and looked at Inara for what seemed like a long time.

She waited, not wanting to rush her, knowing that the young woman was coming to a decision.

“Want to come and pick out the potatoes? I have some other vegetables and spices you might be interested in.”

As an invitation it wasn’t much, but she’d take it.