New: Knot For Our Heart , 23 and ending. (Firefly/Serenity)
Mal and River went dancing, the night Zoe had her baby. Even though very few things dented his innate pessimism, the birthing seemed to be easing it, for a while. Just like seeing that baby, back at the Heart of Gold; for a death, a birth. Now, here was Wash's baby, come to ease the heartache of Wash's widow.
He smiled at his poetical fancies, and River looked up, inquiringly.
"I've actually learned a couple of steps," Mal said. "Or, I can just stand here and let you dance around me," he told River. She just grinned, widely.
She was so excited, he was fearful that she would spontaneously combust---or, at the very least, that sparks would fly from the end of every strand of hair and all ten fingertips. Mal was touched that just dancing with her, made her so happy. He wished she could go to a proper party some time, but River didn't have the slightest interest in it.
Also, being out in the open square made her stop reading him and had her concentrating on everyone else, anything that would put him, or Serenity in danger.
"I'm surprised that Jayne and Kaylee aren't out here, dancing," he remarked, twirling River through a set.
"They're technically mad at each other, right now," River said. "Not really, though. They like fighting and making up."
"How long do you think it'll be before the baby comes?" Mal asked.
"I don't know---hours?" River spun on the ball of one foot, her skirts whirling. "Seems inefficient to me, when Simon could just rip the baby right out."
Mal felt a little nauseated at the sudden mental image. River's nose twitched, which told him she had done it on purpose. "You're an evil little woman, darlin'," he told her.
"I know," she said. "Let's go to a bar where we can do that slow dance where you just stand there and shuffle around together."
"We can completely do that," Mal agreed. He took her hand and spun her off the dance floor. They walked out of the dance hall and down the street. "You know, as much fun as we have with all the noble thievery and craftiness, and you kicking cigarettes out of bad guys' mouths---"
"He was dropping ashes onto the cargo floor," River said. "It was rude and Serenity didn't like it."
"Okay, you're doing the bit where you're speaking for the ship again," Mal said.
River gave him a joyous smile. "The baby's here," she said.
::
"You did wonderfully," Simon said to Zoe. He looked up, proudly, at the rest of the crew. "She did wonderfully."
"I can't believe that this person was inside you," Kaylee marveled. "I mean, I knew, but you know, this one. She's a person! She's making goofy faces just like Wash!"
Mal coughed, but Zoe was unoffended. "Yes, she does look like him," she said.
They all nodded solemnly, although Mal, for one, just saw the usual squashed red face with angry squinting eyes that he saw on any infant. He looked around, and saw Jayne looking dotingly at Kaylee, Inara kneeling beside Zoe, coaxing her to drink tea; Simon holding the infant as if he had sired it as well as delivered it, Kaylee with one hand on her own belly, her head tilted dreamily; and his girl...
His girl was right beside him, her wide dark gaze as bright as the 'verse, completely uninterested in the baby, or the rest of them. Let's go dancing some more, her eyes told him.
Yes, he thought back at her. Yes.