Work Text:
Unbreakable Bond
Unbreakable Bond
The Unbreakable Bond
He didn't know.Even after all these years and their shared adventures and narrow escapes,he had never suspected.Zoe decided that it was vitally important to keep it that way.She knew how Mal idolized his father and any revelation that would sully his memory would only cause pain.Besides it wouldn't change a gorram thing.What would she say?Her husband Wash had always half jealous,half jokingly commented upon the bond she and Mal had always shared.He alternately attributed it to the war experience they had in common or to some unresolved sexual tension.Zoe supposed that would a natural assumption to someone unfamiliar with the actual truth, which was more fundamental and not half as interesting as the theories.She thought about the old worn photograph of her mother and her father that she had hidden in her personal items.Her father or rather their father,point of fact.Her and Mal.The explanation for the time Mal's father had gone missing when the conflict was just starting with the Alliance.The war began as a few isolated skirmishes in the outlying planetary systems.Captain Melvin Reynolds had gotten separated from his unit and turned up on her mother's farm with a head injury and no memory of who he was.He had seemed to have a natural instinct for farming and so he had earned his keep.Delphi had been a nurse before the hostilities began and she nursed him back to health and after three years he had regained his memory and went home to his waiting family.However not before Zoe had been conceived.She had learned the full story upon her mother's deathbed and her loss left her with the knowledge of an older half brother named Malcolm on the other side of the planet and a photograph and some love letters between her mother and the great love of her life.She burned the letters but couldnt bring herself to destroy the only photograph where her mother had looked so happy.When the Alliance had seized their farm and the other property that had been the excuse she had needed to go and try to find the only family she had left in the world.Mal's family had a farm that was easily three times the size of the one where she had grown up on.Unsure how to explain her presence, she had posed as a cook looking for work.On a large concern such as this one she had easily found a paying situation that put her in contact with Malcom.Mal,her own big brother, although he was ignorant of the fact.Zoe had always been a bit of a tomboy and it delighted Mal to teach her boyish pursuits and pranks.Years later when he had joined the Browncoats it was a foregone conclusion that she would also join and after two and a half years found herself attached to his unit.She never left his side after that.Not even now,she thought with a wry smile.She was jerked from her reverie by Mal's voice.He had apparently been talking to her.She turned in his direction to see what he wanted and her eyes went wide in shock as she took in her photograph in his hand."Zoe,now that I have your attention could you tell me why you have a picture of my father in your personal gear,a picture I might add I have never seen before.And who is this woman?"This was shaping up to be a hell of a day.
Title: Unbreakable Bond
Author: Tex Johnson
Details: Standalone
| G
| gen
| 3k | 05/05/15
Characters: Malcolm, Zoe, Wash
- Zoe's mother Delphi,Mal's father Melvin
Summary: An explanation of the bond between Mal and Zoe