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[mademighty]

Ain't a thing in the verse makes sense anymore. Ain't a thing here that he recognises. River's here, but she's like a half-memory, different. He remembers her as a girl, awkward, growing but here she is, holding a baby that she swears is his. And that's a piece of knowledge that he hasn't quite figured his way around yet. Fact, isn't hard to

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[crazyspacegirl]

River was inside, quietly celebrating to herself the success of getting Zoe down for a nap, when she heard the clatter. She froze and waited for the sound of disturbed baby, but the aftermath was mercifully silent. She went to the bridge to peer out the window, and saw that Mal was still up there.

She hesitated for a bit before she climbed up through the hatch to join him. Simon Chicago would let her know if Zoe woke up, and she hadn't gone up there in a while; it just seemed to lonely when she was by herself.

"I think she's been through enough without you throwing tools at her," she said, finding her own perch. She'd gone too long without teasing the Captain, and she couldn't quite resist, no matter how unfamiliar it might be to him.

[mademighty]

"She can take it," he says, sure and certain of that, stroking the skin of the ship with the palm of his hand, still peering after his wrench. He shrugs. He'll retrieve it later.

"She's a good girl."

[crazyspacegirl]

"Just because she can, doesn't mean she should have to." River petted the ship, too, like she was a living thing that loved her back; she believed that she was. "She's the best girl."

At least they still had that in common, loving Serenity.

[mademighty]

"Present company excepted," he says, and gives her a smile that he regrets but a moment later when he remembers how complicated every gorram thing is now.

He clears his throat.

"How's the little one?"

[stormweathered]

Castle had foisted a hand into his mouth to stop from squealing like a happy little girl at the sight of the Captain atop his ship. It was like every single moment of his favorite show all over again and he had a front-row seat. He was practically ready to babble with glee, but he just barely managed to contain himself.

Still, he probably looked like an idiot standing on the beach gaping upwards.

[mademighty]

Well, that's just gorram weird. Straightening up, Mal studies the guy on the beach with both hands on his hips and both eyebrows raised.

"River warned me about this," he says, half to himself.

[stormweathered]

Castle perked up when he saw Mal's lips moving, waving like an overexcited neighbor. "Hi!" he called up, debating whether he should move and go closer or stay where he was because he remembered that gun. The clothes were even the same. He wondered if he could touch them, just once, to make sure his costume was as accurate as possible. "I'm Castle, Richard Castle!" he called up loudly.

[mademighty]

"So you are," calls Mal, walking to the edge of the ship and looking down. He tilts his head. It really is gorram uncanny.

"There you are."

[little_moons]

It's become habit not to approach her when I'm not specifically invited. Not that River would care, at this point, but I'm so used to Mal being jumpy about visitors traipsing through his ship, that I usually keep a distance.

But today, I just happen to be cutting across the stretch of beach she's parked on when I hear a loud clanging, a heavy wrench tumbling from atop the Bridge and landing in the sand with a thump. Shielding my eyes against the sun, I squint up at the shape of a man leaning over the edge and looking down, his face swimming into distant focus when my eyes adjust.

Jesus.

Bending to pick up the wrench, I look up at him with a smirk and say, "You lookin' for this, Captain?"

[mademighty]

"Not lookin' for it, exactly," says Mal, shading his eyes, looking down from the top of the ship with one hand resting on his hip. "Knowing as I do exactly where it is. Didn't hit you, did I?"

His smile says that he wouldn't exactly care.

[little_moons]

"Not a scratch," I say, then, with an arched brow and a wider grin, I say, "Were you tryin' to?"

I know he wasn't. Probably. He did point a gun in my face that one time, so who the fuck knows.

[mademighty]

"Son, if I was tryin', I'd have hit you," he says, with easy confidence. He ain't confident in a great many things these days, but he knows that he can trust his aim.