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“You don’t mind helping me, Zoë?” Kaylee asked in a tiny voice. “Only I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything or bring back bad memories that would make you sad. Oh, gose, I’m probably doing that already by asking, aren’t I…”
Her voice trailed off as Zoë put her arm around the younger woman’s shoulders.
“I don’t mind, Kaylee. It’s nice to think about the good times now and then. And besides, every girl’s nervous on her big day, wants to hear about someone else’s wedding to take their mind off the fretting. I don’t mind at all.”
“Were you nervous?”
“I was. And didn’t have anyone to reassure me, either. Just the sure knowledge that I wanted to marry Wash and nothing in the ‘verse was going to stop me.”
Kaylee sighed happily. “And you always knew you wanted to be with him, didn’t you? Like I did when I first laid eyes on Simon?”
“Can’t say as I did.”
“But you two adored each other!”
“Not at first. He… bothered me.” Zoë smiled wryly at her own thoughts.
Kaylee craned her head up and back to look at the older woman. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not even sure, to be honest. We met the day the Captain hired him and there was just something that left me feeling unsettled. Might have been that terrible moustache, come to think of it.”
“Wash had a moustache?!” Kaylee dropped the piece of jewelry she had been fiddling with and turned around to face Zoë squarely. “Do you have any pictures? I can’t imagine it!”
“No pictures. I’d have burned any photos of that monstrosity anyway. Hated it. He shaved it off not two days after we started sailing.”
“Why?”
Zoë chuckled. “I asked him that myself. Said he’d been told it was easier to get a job if a man had facial hair. Made it look like he could commit to something that took effort or some such nonsense. Never did understand why he thought he needed help getting work. When the Captain hired him, there was a line of other ships five miles longing hoping to get him. Anyway, he got rid of the moustache soon as we were far enough out that the Captain wouldn’t be able to fly her back in without risking his delivery deadline.”
“And without the moustache you fell for him, him being such a handsome fella and all?”
“No, he still bothered me. Especially after he got all those dinosaurs out and put them all over the cockpit. Grown man, bringing toys to work. I thought it was unprofessional.”
“Do you think my flowers are unprofessional?” The young woman’s voice was small and hesitant.
“No, honey.” Zoë patted her arm reassuringly. “Wash and I spent a long time talking about those dinosaurs during that first voyage. At first all he’d say was that they made him happy and didn’t interfere with his work, so as long as the Captain didn’t have a problem, he was going to keep them. I was so frustrated with him. We were trying to run a respectable business and all I could see was him jeopardizing it.”
She got up and paced around the room before continuing.
“The Captain and I… we had just left the war. We’d lost the war. At that point all I knew was soldiering and rules and discipline. Wash was the opposite of that. He was the very best at what he did, but he was relaxed about it. He took the important things seriously, and for him, enjoying life was as important as it got. I value that now. Just like I value your flowers.”
“So how did you end up together, if you were so different?”
“We had a bad run, couple years before you joined the crew. Wash had done everything right but a pilot’s only as good as the ship he’s flying, and without your touch Serenity couldn’t stretch the way she does now.”
“What happened?”
“Doesn’t much matter. Everybody lived, but Wash blamed himself for the damage that was caused. We landed on some no-name moon to make repairs and heal our hurts. I was in the marketplace and I saw someone selling little trees, toy ones, just the right size to go with his dinosaurs. So I bought them. Didn’t cost much, but when I gave them to Wash you’d have thought I’d given him enough credits to buy his own ship.” She smiled. “We talked more after that. Argued less. I started to figure out that he had a good handle on things.”
“And he figured out you aren’t always such a hard-ass?” Kaylee grinned a cheeky grin.
Zoë laughed long and loud at that. “No, I have to give him the credit there. He never thought as badly of me as I did of him. The night I finally apologized for misjudging him was the night he kissed me for the first time. He just said, ‘It took you long enough to realize.’ That was the day I knew I was going to marry him.”
“And you never regretted it?”
“Not for one solitary moment. Not even at the end.” Zoë brushed the tears off Kaylee’s face before wiping her own.
“Now, meimei. It’s your turn to marry your man and live your life with no regrets.”
“Are you happy for me?”
“So happy, Kaylee. And Wash would be, too.”