After much cooing and persuasion, Matt finally accepted to take a nap while Mal helped Inara unpack and start setting her office in her former shuttle.

River was at the helm and piloting smoothly, Jayne was in the cargo hall preparing the first deliveries, Kaylee was dutifully watching the engine, Simon was cataloguing the test samples in the database for control for the medical supplies they were to deliver, and Zoë was giving Emma her daily lesson.

Once they were done with the shuttle, Mal and Inara went to see Matt from his nap and show him how to climb up and down the ladder of his bunk as safely as possible, then Mal gave him the promised tour of Serenity, Inara in tow giving fair warnings about this or that area.

"Your ship is huge!" Matt exclaimed, "I hope I don't get lost!"

"You'll get used to it, Matt. After a while, it's not so big anymore. But like your Mom said, there are areas that are forbidden to you. It's for your own safety. Emma could tell you she gave her own mother several scares, but she's also been severely punished as a result."

They had reached Inara's shuttle.

"… And that's my shuttle. There are rules here too, Matt. When that light is red," she pointed to the warning light above the airlock, "it means the shuttle is not docked so I'm not here and the airlock won't open. You can come in whenever it's opened, but if it's closed and the light is green, it means I'm working and not to be disturbed: I may be with a client, on a wave with Gerald or someone else." She looked at Mal, "that goes for you, too, Mal…"

He grinned sheepishly.

The rest of the tour included the infirmary where Simon also gave warnings about not touching equipment or not trying to open certain drawers and cabinets. Since the arrival of Emma, they had had to make some adjustments and secured access to those, but a verbal warning was never wasted.

Finally, they met with Kaylee at the door of the engine room.

"All right, big guy," she said while reaching for him and carrying him for the short tour. "You are not to come in here unaccompanied by a member of the crew. And don't even try to ask Jayne because he's forbidden to come here with Emma, it will be the same for you."

"Is this what makes Serenity fly?"

"Yep! That and other parts, but that's my baby, I'm the only one that's allowed to touch her. Me and your Dad."

"You can repair the engine, too?" he asked his Dad in wonder.

"Well there was that one time when your Dad stayed on his own, sacrificing himself for the sake of the ship…"

"Kaylee…!" Mal warned, but Kaylee continued.

"There was no air production because that one part over there was missing" she showed, "and them people who had given us the good part wanted to steal the ship. Your Dad singlehandedly repaired our girl and chased the bad guys away!" she summarized. "Big damn hero!"

Matt looked at Mal in awe.

"She's exaggerating…"

"Oh, I'm not, I reckon it was a stupid plan but in the end it worked!"

"… And it gave me quite a cold sweat!" Inara whispered in his ear.

Mal looked at her, wiggling his eyebrows. "'turned out okay in the end, didn't it?"

"Because you had a streak of insolent luck!" Inara chuckled.

Kaylee and Matt had finished their tour. She gave the boy back to his parents and they finished Serenity's tour with the galley where Matt had a hot chocolate.

They had reached Angel a couple of hours after leaving Aberdeen. They dropped the goods and in return, Simon got samples of infected crops to analyze.

The rest of the day and planet deliveries were not met with any incident and they eventually all gathered in the galley for dinner.

The atmosphere was boisterous, the crew sharing stories with Inara.

At first, Inara didn't really know how to behave, but she quickly relaxed and her fears that things might be a little awkward at the beginning disappeared. Soon, she was telling her own stories.

Sat next to his mother, Matt was very silent, and had stopped eating, his eyes drooping.

Kaylee was telling a story about Jayne and an overzealous elderly lady who had obviously had too much to drink, when the poor boy started slipping off his chair. Fortunately, Inara reacted at once and broke his fall.

Simon stood up in alarm as silence descended on the table.

"It's all right, Simon, he's just asleep," Inara reassured him as Mal crouched next to her. "The days' events are probably finally catching up with him, "he was already exhausted yesterday, and he hasn't had enough to sleep."

Mal slid his arms underneath his son's body and picked him up, cradling him.

"All right people, you go on if you want, we're gonna put this little guy to bed and I think we'll call it a night, too."

The three exited the galley and went up to the crew quarters. After a little maneuvering, they both managed to put Matt to bed, then went in the next bunk through the brand-new sliding door.

"Can we leave it a bit opened?" Inara asked, worry in her voice. "… If he wakes up, it's his first trip in space, he's bound to be a little disoriented…"

"Shh…" Mal interrupted her ramblings, "we'll leave the door half opened, okay?" he reassured her and put his arms around her, kissing the top of her head.

Inara closed her eyes and hugged him back. "It's good to be back," she said after a moment. "I hadn't realized how much I missed Serenity until now…"

"It's good to have you back, Inara… I…" come on, let's sit.

He unfolded the infamous double bed and they both sat on the edge.

"I don't promise a smooth ride, Inara. You know how I can get. But I reckon I've changed. When you left, I changed, when the Alliance crumbled, I changed… In those five years I changed a lot. I grew older, wiser… but the biggest change?... The biggest change is that four-year-old next door. Five days ago, I had absolutely no knowledge of this little guy and now? Now I feel like he's been there all my life…"

"Well, all your life I don't know, but you were in his all his life…"

"Yeah," he smiled, "and I thank you for that. I want to see where this takes us, 'Nara, but I want you to understand," he looked her in the eyes, "I reckon I can be an ass, but let's talk things out. Don't ever leave me again, especially hanging with no knowledge that I fathered a child. If we do this, you have to talk to me. However painful it may be. I promise I'll do the same."

"I promise," she sealed it with a kiss that was supposed to be a quick peck, but Mal's hand grabbed her neck and the kiss deepened.

It quickly escalated until she felt Mal's hand on the skin of her back.

"Mal, stop!"

"What? I've missed you!" he panted.

"Matt is right next door and he could hear us…."

Mal resumed kissing her neck and descended towards her collarbones "… we'll be quiet…"

"Mal…" she moaned.

He stood up swiftly, took a step back and quickly got rid of this shirt and pants, all the time watching a flushed Inara, then he took care of her own clothing as gently as he could muster, considering, all the while kissing her everywhere he could.

Despite Inara's initial reluctances, she had missed this, missed him. She sighed as Mal pushed her up higher on the bed.

They slowly reacquainted themselves to one another as they made love silently.

Mal took his time re-discovering her curves and remembering where she liked him. It soon became a dance of who pleased who as they often changed positions, until they were joined with one goal in mind, abandoning all coherent thought or finesse, rushing towards one final explosion.

They cuddled in the aftermath and Inara fell asleep almost immediately, leaving Mal to ponder over the series of events that had led to this moment.

He realized how much her absence had affected him, how much he had missed her body, the soft sounds she made, how much he had missed her heart, her deep and sensuous voice that had now taken on another quality, that of a mother,… Much as his crew filled some of the voids left by the horrors he had witnessed a long time ago, Inara Serra was the missing part of his soul. She completed him like nobody ever had and he had every intention of keeping her with him for good, now.

Who would have thought he would fall in love with a companion? Who would have thought they would eventually act on their feelings? Who would have thought their union would result in this wonderful little boy who was sleeping in the next room? who would have thought Malcolm Reynolds would one day start a family?

"Well, I reckon I'd never have…" he said aloud as sleep finally took him.

THE END