"Good night Cap’n."

"’Nite Kaylee"

As she scrambled up the ladder and out of sight, Mal looked at the list, she’d left and sighed. He trusted her judgment that they needed the parts, but where would the money come from to buy them?

He’d been doing the books when she came in to tell him how badly they needed parts. Mal knew exactly how poor Serenity was at the moment. They could barely afford fuel and food at the next stop. Wouldn’t be able to if it wasn’t for the money Inara and Book paid. And now they needed parts, not just one or two, but a list two pages long. Serenity might die without those parts and then so would her crew and he couldn’t let that happen.

They’d never done really well, not runnin’ under the radar like they did. But since the Doc and River came along, the financial situation had gone from bad to worse. The Doc was crew; he had to pay him a share of the jobs they did. And River - well she was just an expense. He knew he should charge Simon for her keep, but it hadn’t been part of the original deal and he hated to start now. He should have planned better, but at the time he never thought they’d stay more than a month or two.

The job on Ariel had gone well and they should be flush, but Zoe spent it all getting Wash out. She even knew where he kept the ship funds and used them too. He couldn’t fault her for that, less money and she might not have freed either of them. Mal could see where she couldn’t take the chance and leave some of the profit for the ship operating expenses. And she and Wash both deserved his loyalty, too. Be damned if he was gonna bitch about that particular expense.

Still, it left him between a rock and a hard place. He hadn’t taken a share of any job for the last six months and still there wasn’t enough left to pay all of Serenity’s operating expenses. He’d had some saved that Zoe didn’t know about. But now he was at the end of that money too.

Well. He’d just have to face facts. He was gonna have to take some jobs that paid well and do it soon. And that mean transporting Alliance goods. And using Alliance travel lanes and sticking to a schedule. Just the thought made him cringe inside. But he always had been one to do the hard things and he could do this one, too. The crew depended on him and no way was he going to let them down.

At least running legitimate jobs on a regular schedule would allow them to get a loan to buy the parts they needed. He’d be back to business as usual, soon as he paid it off. The crew would probably like it too, not running out in the black with no one else around. Be good for Inara’s business; she’d be happy.

Mal started searching for the kinds of jobs he usually avoided on the Cortex. And searched for the best loan rates too. Gorram it, loan rates were up as well as fuel prices and none of the jobs seemed to pay well enough...except one.

Running manufactured parts from Ariel to Shadow and agricultural products back. He couldn’t do it; he had to do it. There were only two places in the ‘verse he never wanted to see again, Serenity Valley and Shadow. "It’s the only way." he told himself, "You got to protect the crew and they’re gonna die out in the black if you don’t." He didn’t much care if he died out there, but Kaylee and River were so young. And how could he condemn Inara to that? Everyone else had things to live for. He had to do it.

Tears running down his face, Mal sent the message asking for the job.