Hello All,

Well here's a new story. I thought of this story while listening to Christmas carols recently and decided to explore the whole idea of Wash and Zoe and the great "baby debate". This is not a sequel to my last story and it takes place at some point during the series. It is obviously pre-Serenity.

More to come on this one so please read and review and tell me what you think so far!

-Moki

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It was just a week before Christmas and most everyone aboard the Firefly was getting excited. The crew of Serenity had turned into quite a little family and there was a buzz in the air as people figured out gifts to buy when planet-side or ones to make for others.

Kaylee and River had even decided to decorate the mess hall and adjoining lounge area. With some suggestions from Inara they had constructed colored paper rings and strung them about the whole place giving it a festive feel. Shepherd Book had read that on Earth That Was people used to bring live coniferous trees into their homes and decorate them with small ornaments and lights. So the very next time they had landed Wash took it upon himself to secure an axe from the cargo hold and trudged out to find one. He came back with what could only be called a bush but the girls were delighted and he was hugged by both upon his triumphant return with it.

Mal usually didn't give a rat's rear about the holidays one way or the other but this year was different. He was pretty happy with his crew/family and as he watched the others get ready he found himself getting excited too. He told everyone that they were going to take a week off starting a couple days before Christmas and he wasn't going to plan any jobs during that time. He got more hugs with that announcement than Wash had gotten for the tree. Not that he was counting of course.

In fact they just had this last job to do and once they completed it in the next couple days they were done and the real festivities could begin. Inara and Simon had been planning the meal for weeks and had gotten everyone to scrape together the cashy-money for some real food. They were keeping it locked safely away until the big day as Jayne made it clear he wasn't all that shy about taking his share anytime he saw fit.

The morning of the last job before Christmas Mal sat in the co-pilot's seat watching the stars fly by as Wash flew them deftly to their next destination. He noticed the pilot was humming a little tune and Mal was pretty sure it was a Christmas carol. When he realized it, he smiled to himself.

They were heading to a newly derelict ship to harvest anything of use from it. Sometimes they did this if they just happened upon a wreck but this time it was actually legitimate work. Boats like his were sometimes hired out on the fringes of space to handle jobs like these when the owners of the ruined ships didn't have the manpower or vehicles to send any of their own people to deal with the problem.

This current job was pretty simple. A small transport ship had come into some trouble on its way to a moon with about five families aboard. Apparently there had been sickness and most had gotten away on shuttles to nearby hospitals. The rest, unfortunately, had succumbed to the illness and now the ship was limping helplessly in space. Mal and his crew were to collect the bodies of the dead (everyone aboard Serenity had already been inocc'd against the illness as a precaution) and gather anything they could for scrap. Ships like those weren't worth towing back as they were usually geared up for one trip anyway. But the owners who had bought it to ship out some new crews to a factory on the moon could make back some of their money by scraping anything they could from it. The families of those that perished were paying for funerals so this time the bodies needed to be collected as well. Many times on jobs like these Mal and his crew would simply do a small ceremony and send them out into the peace of space.

"We're here captain" Wash said and Mal looked up from his musings to see that they were closing fast on a small ship straight ahead.

"Tell the rest of the crew that we're here. Once you've got Serenity secured with their airlock come on down to the cargo bay" and Wash nodded an affirmative as he started the docking sequence. In the interest of getting this job done quickly so that they could be done with it sooner, the entire crew was going to help. Even Inara had volunteered to go aboard. After Mal gave the order to Wash he headed out of the cockpit. As he walked out of the door to the stairs he heard Wash make the announcement to the rest of the ship and heard movement below as the others assembled in the cargo bay.

"Alright people" he announced when everyone had arrived. Wash was trotting down from the helm so Mal waited a second so his pilot could hear what he had to say. "This is gonna be easy. Everyone knows what they're supposed to do so let's just go and do this quick. Let's go over it once again so that everyone knows exactly what they're doing" Having the whole crew help out was a little unusual for Mal so he was being extra careful to ensure that everyone knew their jobs. When he went out with just himself, Zoe and Jayne he didn't usually feel the need to go over things as much as those two could handle anything that came up.

"Jayne, Zoe, you two take Wash, Inara and River through the cargo hold and start loading up everything in the guest quarters and the galley" Zoe nodded in terse acknowledgement of the order and Jayne cocked his gun. Mal had told him he wouldn't need more than one or two weapons at the most. But the man didn't seem to be able to go much of anywhere without at least five so Mal had finally just let the matter drop.

"Shepherd Book and Simon go to the Infirmary and start securing the bodies. Once you have them in body bags just call out to the rest of us and those of us on body detail (which happened to be all the men) will come help. After that you two collect any medicines and doctoring equipment and head on back. Kaylee and I will go to the engine room and get anything we can and also see to it that the ship is ready for burial once we leave" "Burial" of a ship simply meant blowing it to smithereens but Mal liked the plebeian term better.

Once everyone was reminded of what they needed to do Wash popped the airlock and everyone went off in their separate directions.

Jayne took point and Zoe followed behind with Wash, Inara and River in the middle as they headed to the guest quarters. This amused Wash to no end as everyone knew that this was an abandoned ship and the chances of any danger were basically slim to none. But he admired his wife for her strength and training and it tickled him to watch her work like this. So often he was left behind on missions (which was for the best, he knew that without a doubt) which meant he got to miss her being her "warrior woman" self. He liked it and he liked it a lot. Zoe caught him grinning at her and briefly smiled back at her husband.

Soon they reached the guest's quarters and Wash keyed in the codes provided by them that did the hiring. The locks on all the doors turned green at once and everyone headed into the first one together. They started loading up what was to be saved and moved onto the next room with hardly a word. They worked well as a team and in no time they had gone through four of the rooms. Lugging a huge bag over his shoulder Jayne went first into the last room, the rest following close behind. In fact they were so close behind him that when the big man stopped suddenly it created a traffic jam as everyone ran right into each other.

"Gorramit Jayne" Wash said as he was smashed into the other man's back with Inara squashed behind him in the doorway. "Can you move already?"

But Jayne didn't budge and suddenly Zoe's voice was heard behind them all. "Everyone back!" she said and pushed her way forward. She had no idea what was stopping Jayne but she wasn't about to take any chances. Zoe reached the front of the line and slipped behind her husband to come up on Jayne's right side. She squeezed passed him and then she too stopped dead in her tracks. From behind them all came River's voice.

"Alone" River said "All alone. Tried to cry, tried to tell, but no one came, no one to hear"

"Is that what I think it is?" Jayne asked Zoe when she reached his side. Zoe mumbled something in reply that sounded like an affirmative.

Wash was beginning to get a little tired of this whole game. He didn't think that anything in that room could be dangerous because if there was a killer in there, they would have killed them already. With Inara and River following close behind he came up behind his wife and the mercenary and also stopped in his tracks. He felt rather than saw River and Inara do the same.

For there lying in a small cradle in the middle of the room before them was a baby. He was quiet but definitely alive as his eyes were wide open and watching them all closely. None of them spoke for what seemed like a full minute and then finally someone moved.

Surprisingly (considering there were two trained warriors in the room) it was Wash who recovered from the shock first and reached for the babe. Gathering the warm bundle tenderly in his arms, he adjusted the blankets to keep the infant from getting cold.

"Well, hello there young man" Wash said jovially, bouncing the little one up and down gently. Tiny blue eyes peered up at him and a little fist came out of the blanket and reached for his shirt.

"My name's Wash and it looks like your name is Caleb" he said, noting that a name was sewn into the blanket when he picked the baby up out of the cradle.

Everyone continued to stare in silence, including Zoe. She and Wash had discussed having children and he had always been adamant against it. That he would act this way with a child had never even occurred to her.

Wash looked up from the baby to find everyone staring at him and was puzzled.

"What?" he asked the group at large. "Hasn't anyone ever seen a baby before?"

"Well I seen one but I ain't never seen a man know how to care o'one as if'in he were a woman or something" Jayne replied.

Wash rolled his eyes and ignored him. He noted that Zoe was giving him the strangest look but as soon as she caught him watching her she quickly looked the other way. Deciding to ignore her for now Wash thought it was time to get moving once again. This was certainly a new development but nothing they couldn't handle, he was sure. Since they had been hired by the families for retrieval of the bodies, there was sure to be family for this little orphaned boy.

"Well I guess we should take this little guy to the doc and see what he's got to say" Wash started walking to the airlock to get back to Serenity and the Infirmary, the others finally deciding to move and trailing behind like goslings.

Zoe called over the 'com unit on her shoulder as they walked and informed the captain that they were finished in the guest's quarters. She then informed him that they would be needing the services of the doctor.

"What? Why? Did someone get hurt?" Mal asked and stopped what he was doing. Kaylee stopped too and looked at him questioningly as he waited for Zoe's reply.

"No sir" Zoe replied. "Looks like we found a survivor"