She had let him spoon her as they fell asleep that first night. Let him watch her back. Let him wake her with fluttering kisses to her shoulder and neck. Stretched herself out for him, long and lean and beautiful to see.

“Zoe,” he breathed. His eyes were all a question as she turned to meet his gaze.

“It’s time we got up,” she said instead of the million things that ran through her mind. He nodded and stroked her curls, then allowed her to get up and slip into her discarded robe. He watched her without a word as she tied the sash around her waist and hauled herself up the ladder and out of his bunk.

Breakfast was quieter than usual. Wash barely said a word, which was unusual, and neither did Zoe, which was not. Mal grimly noticed the lack of a grin on Wash’s face and mentioned it as he shoveled egg protein into his mouth.

“Bad night?” he asked the pilot.

Wash’s eyes darted to Zoe, and then back to his plate. “I wouldn’t say that,” he said, a hint of a smile dancing at the corner of his mouth.

Mal looked to Zoe, who shrugged, her expression implacable.

She honestly hadn’t known what to expect from Wash. He seemed surprisingly capable of keeping a confidence, even from Mal. She still didn’t know what to expect when he cornered her, alone in the corridor, after breakfast.

“Is this supposed to be a secret?” he asked her, his countenance openly questioning.

“Do you want it to be?” she asked, avoiding his gaze. He placed his hand on the wall next to her shoulder.

“Yes.” He moved in on her, kissed her on the mouth. With a lingering caress of his hand along her arm, he turned and made his way up to the bridge.

*****

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Simon and Kaylee were nuzzling over egg protein. Mal was still sulking over a problem with Serenity’s secondary converter, which Kaylee had informed him had to be replaced completely between mooning gazes at her doctor. It would be expensive to replace, and business had been slow since they’d made the stand over Miranda. Pushed to the far edges of the verse, at least until the Alliance cooled down, money and jobs were scarce to be had. Looking around the table, Zoe saw the effects the monotony had had on the crew, Simon and Kaylee excepted.

“I’m pregnant,” she said suddenly, almost without thinking.

Kaylee’s jaw was the first to drop. “But--”

“It’s his. Been nearly three months and I’d hardly noticed. Thought I was just sick because of...you know.”

Mal was next. “Zoe, are you sure...”

“Don’t even say it, Captain.”

“’Course. Just checking.” The captain backed down immediately. He’d been thinking of her well-being, naturally, but the truth was Zoe knew she had to have this baby. Wash had been scared of it. But she’d told him then what she told them now.

“I ain’t so afraid of losing something that I’m not gonna try to reach out and get it.”

“It’s a hard life we lead, Zoe,” Mal said.

“We’d been trying, you know,” she said matter-of-factly. “Since the Heart of Gold. I told him I wanted it. I could convince him of anything. I told him how I wanted to meet a baby of ours...”

Before she knew it Mal’s arms were around her and she was crying into his linen shirt. “Shhh...” he whispered into her hair, patting a comforting rhythm onto her shaking back. She felt Kaylee’s hand then, too, slip into hers, the little mechanic’s head rest on her knee.

“We’re here for you, Zoe,” said Kaylee, voice soft and tearful. “Don’t you ever think we ain’t. And he is too.”

*****

Wash ran his hand across her belly, kissed it once, twice.

They’d made love an hour before, then lingered in his bunk, touching and whispering. She hadn’t spent a single night in her own since the first time, and had fallen into mercifully dreamless sleep every night, in his arms. She was sure the crew knew, or Mal at least. He knew what happened on his ship, but also knew Zoe and didn’t dare make a crack about her and the pilot. She simply crossed over to Wash’s bunk every night and crossed back each morning before the crew wakened. Except for today.

He brought his head back up to hers, kissed her lips, his mustache tickling her into the smallest giggle.

He looked into her eyes, dead serious.

“Answer me a question, Zoe,” he said.

“Shoot.”

“What do I have to do to keep you here?”

“We already missed breakfast...” she smiled.

“Not that,” he said. “I mean in my bed. You and me. For good.”

She turned onto her side, breasts pressed together against his bare skin. She traced a finger down his jaw line and across the light hair on his chest. He inhaled quickly but didn’t break his gaze, didn’t drop the question like she’d half hoped he would.

“For good?” she repeated, stupidly. He didn’t back down.

“Well, for starters” she said, trying to be lighthearted. “I could never marry a man with a mustache.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t like it?”

She in turn raised one eyebrow back at him.

Before she knew it he was on his feet, had scrambled over her naked form and made his way to the sink. Filled it with hot water. Pulled out his razor.

“What in jian wen ban are you doing?”

He lathered his face and set in with the razor, wincing as he cut through tough stubble. “Becoming the kind of man you could marry, meimei.”