The ship was shaking slightly, but not to the point where it bothered Jayne. He was too absorbed in his thoughts. He kept flashing back to that moment when the doors had slid open, revealing a goddess instead of River. But the more he thought on it, the more he realized: River was a goddess, in her own sense. She felt what others couldn’t, and ever since that bank heist right before Miranda, he was afraid she would sense the innermost feelings that he had to struggle to cover up whenever he saw her tilting, inquisitive, but most of all, beautiful face. He was also the tiniest bit afraid about what the Cap’n might say about forementioned feelings. But most of all, he was afraid of River. He wasn’t afraid of what she might do to him, although he had no doubt she could hurt him, but he was mostly afraid of how she might feel. Why did everything have to be so gorramn complicated?

River felt his thoughts from across the ship and for the first time she felt lost. How could she go about this? How could anyone go about this? What could she say, “I know how you feel about me?” Great way to start a relationship, barging into people’s minds. “It is so, Inara, an’ you just won’t admit it,” Kaylee laughed gaily, swinging her legs far above the dull grey crates that had been loaded into the ship only two days ago. “Me an’ Simon heard you sneakin’ into his room last night, an’ you’d already been together twice that night.” At Inara’s look, she laughed again. “River senses a bit too much at times. Anyways, I figured you just wanted to be able to lie beside while you slept. It made you feel safe.” “Alright, fine, I’ll admit it. But how do you did know?” “’Cuz I feel the same way about Simon. An’ I know Simon feels the same, so I know the Cap’n feels the same, too,” Kaylee grinned. “Anyways, I think I oughta be getting back to my good doctor now. He winds up a mite lonely without me.” Inara watched Kaylee bounce off and wondered briefly if Mal got lonely without her. But that was why she had stayed, wasn’t it? Because even when he had told her, “But you fog things up. You always have. You spin me about. I wish like hell you were elsewhere.” She had known he hadn’t meant it, somewhere deep in her heart, because of the look deep in her eyes, that he had been lying through his teeth. But now he was finally done lying, to her and himself, a fact that made her immensely happy.

Zoe sat quietly in Wash’s chair, gazing at the dinosaurs. Sometimes she could almost hear them whispering to her, all the things Wash wanted to say to her before he died. Every few minutes she would catch an entire word, and then it would fade into a dull hum again. Zoe wondered briefly if she was crazy, but the thought was quickly banished from her mind. River heard the dinosaurs. Only River could make out what they were saying, and River had told Zoe that she wouldn’t tell what the dinosaurs were saying. Wash wanted Zoe to hear for herself. And so here Zoe sat, waiting to hear the dinosaurs.

Mal was sprawled on his bed, smiling slightly as he heard Inara approaching. He could tell her footsteps from everyone else’s, but he frowned when he heard a thump and a muffled growl. Now her footsteps were continuing, only another set, heavy and undisguised, were making their way down the hall. Whose footsteps could that be? He knew his crew. With that, the door slid open to reveal the impossible. “Qing wa cao de liu mang,” swore Mal. “Xi niu, Jubal Early.”