Title: Hit or Miss

Auther: Sarafina aka Gifted Spike

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss

Summary: How did Mal know about those pesky Reavers? The answer to a challenge issue on Firefly General Romance

Feedback: Please!!!

Notes: This has not been beta’d. beyond my spell checker in word.

We see our crew all gathered around the bar table. They are in various states of drunkenness. It seems they are celebrating an exceptionally large job they just pulled off.

Zoë has lined up her coin and tries to flip it into the glass. It glances off the side and hits the table top. A few explicatives are issued and then she squares her shoulders "Lay it on me." She stares defiantly at each person at the table.

"How did you and Wash meet?" Kaylee bounced in her chair.

Zoë sat back and assessed the girl. She then made eye contact with her husband who was almost passed out but had managed to make his coin shot every round.

"I had been separated from my unit due to an injury and needed to be re-united with my squad. Wash volunteered, and somehow" She pointed a glare in his direction "He was always my pilot from then on out."

"Well I liked what I saw and I went after it. I figured she’d eventually get sick of seeing me and tell me to get lost, for her part she just ignored me."

"I knew you were there. I just hoped you’d go away." In a rare show of affection she reached over and took his hand. "Thanks for not."

Jayne cleared his throat "Enough of that sappy crap, next question better involve more danger."

Wash leaned over to get a better look at Jayne "You think courting Zoë wasn’t dangerous?"

"Just no more love crap."

"We could ask about when you first met Vera, when you miss." Mal interjected as he readied his coin. He put just enough spin on it and it landed with a clink in the center of the glass. He raised his glass in a ‘so there' gesture.

"I guess that means it’s my turn again." Book flipped the coin in with ease.

The game continued a few more rounds without a single miss. Kaylee passed out, Doc and River retired to their rooms. The six that were left were too stubborn to leave. Zoë was absent mindedly playing with the back of Wash’s hair, Inara was playing with an earring she had taken out two hours ago, Jayne held no expression and was trying his hardest not to pass out. Only Mal seemed unfazed by his consumption of so much alcohol. He flipped the coin and watched it flip end over end and hit the lip and bounce to the table.

"You were robbed." Wash slurred.

He almost didn’t play for this very reason, it was only at Inara's insistence did he do so reluctantly. What were they going to ask him? He dreaded what Inara might ask. He knew she had been waiting all night to ask him something. But it was Jayne who broke the silence.

"Tell us about the first time you saw the Reavers."

Relief and a sickness poured through him at once. "I must shake the dew off the lily first, then I’ll be back." He got up and at once the room began to swim. "Or not." And he hit the floor face first.

END