Mal saw her relief and swallowed hard; here's where it gets tricky, Mal thought, "'Nara, you ain't all wrong. Zoe n' me...I never seen her as a woman until Wash came on crew. Oh yeah I mean I know she's a stunner and she'd had men 'fore that, sure. Same as me, but all that pretty much was 'fore the war got done. Since then we've had each other's back; what we lived through, what was done to us left little room for anyone else or each other. Wash came in and messed that around. Wash made me look at Zoe as a woman. I felt the fool, havin' looked past her all this time. And selfish, too. Coulda been somethin' there. So when they said they was gettin' married I...."

Wonderful! You know all these thoughts ring true; the character I'm sure went through these emotions when Zoe informed him she and Wash would marry. And there's an episode where both Zoe and Mal 'play' Wash, that I thought was cute and revealing, but at the same time didn't 'really' get into how Mal really felt. It was left up to the audience to assume. But this is perfect. You capture the language so well. I love this! And I look forward to more ;)

Yay...a Firefly fic.  Great start, can't wait for the update.

Author's Response: I'm strugglin' to get some graphics to go with the story -- it looks naked next to everyone else's work. LOL!  I'll update soon, though.