Inara sat down, offering Zoe tea.  "This job seems to be creating a great deal of tension for you.  With Wash and the captain both."

Zoe shrugged, ignoring the tea.  "Nothing I can't handle."

"I never said you couldn't," Inara said, smiling slightly.  "But maybe you shouldn't have to."  She cocked her head slightly.  "Is there some reason that doing this job is so important to you?"

"You need my help.  We're not sendin' you in to do this trade all on your own.  You're crew, for now anyway, and you need someone with you."  Zoe shook her head.  "Mind, I haven't got the least idea how this is going to turn out.  Feminine wiles are...kinda new to me."

Inara laughed gently.  "Zoe, just looking at you, I would say that you're no stranger at all to feminine wiles, and I'm fairly certain that Wash would agree."

A small, secretive smile curved Zoe's full lips.  "Not for this kind of thing, though.  My way's...simpler.  Don't so much involve pouring tea and having fourteen different dresses at the ready."

"You can learn."  Inara moved closer to Zoe, forcing her to take a cup of tea from her hands.  "And the very first thing you'll need to learn is to relax.  Tension...it's something we're trained to look for, as Companions.  If you walk in there looking as uneasy as you do right now...well, it won't go unnoticed."

Zoe finally gave in and sipped the tea, sighing.  "Fine.  You got some special way of relaxing?"

"I do, though it's more...spiritual than professional," Inara said, smiling.  She rose and took a cushion from the sofa, sitting on the floor, neatly sitting on her heels.  She beckoned Zoe to join her.

Zoe, with a few misgivings, did.  "This wasn't developed for people who've been shot much, was it?"  She shifted, trying to put an aching hip into a more comfortable position.

"I don't suppose so," Inara replied.  "If you're more comfortable sitting on the sofa..."

"Just...show me," Zoe said, resigned to her fate.

Inara closed her eyes.  "Just focus on your breathing, to begin with.  Don't try to control it, but become aware of it..."  She continued to speak in a low, soothing voice, guiding Zoe through very basic meditation techniques.  This was basic, but it could be important.  Inara had the sense that around Bai Lin, they would both need all the focus and control they could get.

"Ohhh...."  Wash's eyes were closed, an expression of pure bliss on his face.  "Oh, this is...I gotta be the demonstration more often."

Inara smiled as she rubbed oil into his back.  "Don't get too used to this.  Now, Zoe, you see how I'm focusing on each individual muscle group, starting at the top and working down?"

"I see," Zoe said neutrally, arms crossed over her chest.

Inara held her hands up, sensing a little bit of jealousy.  "You try, then."

With a frown of concentration on her face, Zoe slicked up her palms and took over.  "Definitely don't get too used to this," she warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it, baby.  Also, ow.  Is it supposed to hurt?" Wash demanded.

"More lightly," Inara instructed.  "You're supposed to be bringing pleasure, not performing physiotherapy."

Zoe continued a little more gently.  "When precisely they gonna see me givin' somebody a rubdown?"

"We should be prepared for everything.  When I was a novice, I was sometimes summoned to assist the House Mistress in relaxation.  Don't worry so much.  There aren't any high-ranking males in the House—Bai Lin's assistant is probably the only one, in fact--and any touching will be purely platonic," Inara said calmly.

"But you can practice more on me," Wash said hopefully.  "In a non-platonic sense."

Zoe smiled as she followed the column of Wash's spine down.  They'd both been trying to work towards a cease-fire, at least, if not a truce.  "Might do, husband.  Might do."

River sat on Inara's bed, her nose wrinkled up under her.  "It's ugly."

Inara looked up from where she was pinning the folds of Zoe's sari to her skirt.  "It's beautiful.  Zoe's tall enough to really carry off a sari well."

"But the color."

"Gotta go with River on that one," Zoe said, looking down at the dull green of the fabric.  "You sure they won't notice how ugly it is?"

"They'll notice how fashionable it is," Inara said practically.  "This shade is very chic right now."

"It looks like decaying flesh.  Or an old bruise.  Or maybe infection," River supplied helpfully. 

"Fashionable infection."  Inara helped Zoe down from the footstool.  "Now take small steps, and don't trip on the..." 

Zoe glared up at her from the floor.  "So it's the color the bruises'll be after a couple of days?"

Inara leaned down to help her up.  "Yes.  Precisely."

Zoe, arms folded over her chest, watched while Mal, Simon, River and Inara weaved in and out in the complex figures of the dance.  "Sir, there a reason you actually know how to do this?"

Mal bowed to River, who was his partner.  Simon had protested that arrangement at first, then caught the expression on Inara's face.  "Not one you're ever gonna find out," Mal grumbled.

"His mama thought it would make the girls like him better."  River glanced mischievously up at Mal.  "But it was hopeless."

Inara smothered a laugh.  "All right, Zoe, take my place with Simon.  I'll call out the steps.  Just watch River if you get confused.  Wash, start the music again?"  Inara watched them move critically.  "Forward, forward, join hands, curtsy, back, forward, hands joined and move under the—oh, dear."  It seemed that either Mal and River hadn't been holding their hands up high enough, or else Zoe had misjudged her height.  It was almost comical to watch them try and untangle from the heap on the floor.

They took a break, and Simon prescribed analgesics all around.

Zoe's hand shook as she poured out the tea.  Inara sighed.  "Zoe, one detail, one moment in which your touch isn't deft and sure, and you'll be given away completely."

Wash reached for the cup, and Inara slapped his hand away.  "Zoe, do it again."

Zoe smiled apologetically at Wash, and he patted her hand.  "Sweetcakes, it is such a good thing that I don't even like tea."

 "Yaegaki tsukuro...Sono yaegaki wo," Zoe said, haltingly.

 "It's the oldest poem in the Japanese language, Zoe.  Try just a little more care in your pronunciation," Inara chided.

 "There some reason I have to be able to spout poetry in a language no one on Santo even speaks?" Zoe sighed.

"Japanese culture is still tremendously influential in the Core.  It's a very important language.  Just knowing Mandarin isn't enough, for a companion.  You need to have something of a more cosmopolitan sense.  Besides, it's good to have something difficult up your sleeve in case poetry comes up.  Now try again," Inara prompted.

"Yakumo tatsu..."  Zoe looked over Inara's shoulder at River, who was mouthing the next line at her.  If River weren't wanted—and insane—Zoe would suggest sending the girl along instead.  With all her pretty airs and graces, River would surely manage much better.  Didn't matter, though.  She'd made the commitment, and so she'd do it right.  Distracted, she stopped.  "What's this poem mean again?"

"It's a wedding song, remember?  Eightfold rising clouds..."  Inara recited the verse flawlessly in English, then again in Japanese.

"Oh, splendid eight-fold headache," Zoe muttered, then tried again.

"Enough," Zoe said, after she'd walked across the room about fifty times, with increasingly more precarious things on her head.  She laid the eggshell-thin tea cup down on the table and collapsed onto the sofa.

"You're tired," Inara said soothingly.  "But you've done wonderfully.  In just this short time, you've mastered so much, and you look far more comfortable in the clothes than you did in the beginning."  She smiled.  "Let's take the afternoon off...and drink something other than tea."  Moving towards a cabinet, she pulled out a bottle of plum wine.  "I was saving this...but I can't think of any time when we'll need it more, can you?"

"Not hardly," Zoe laughed, and accepted a glass.  Taking a long draught, she sighed.  "You really think this is gonna work?"

Inara laid a gentle hand on her knee.  "I have faith in you, Zoe.  I'm sure it will."

"Sir, you reckon Kaylee'll be pleased having to fix the hole you're about to wear in the floor?" Zoe asked.

Mal stopped and sighed.  "Should know better than to let that feng le doc talk me into drinkin' coffee after dinner."

She shrugged.  "It's one of his things.  Like Inara and the tea.  That all that's keepin' you up?"

"Hell, Zoe, you know it ain't.  I...it ain't that I don't trust Inara, cause I do.  But the things she said about this Bai Lin make me more'n a mite uneasy.  And Wash..."

"My marriage is my private business, sir," Zoe replied, her tone final.

"No, it's not!  It's not because I'm the captain and I give the orders, so if my orders make your marriage all ugly, then it's my business, isn't it?  Hell, I don't care about what you do or don't do.  Just care that you come back safe, and right now, I ain't so sure that's a guarantee," he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"There's never a guarantee.  What's this about?"

"Just...hell."  He dropped into a chair.  "I don't take kindly to having my people shot at, you know that?  Sent those two down there without much ceremony, and look what happened!"  Mal had been haunted since Whitefall with the specters of what might have been if they'd been just a little slower, if River hadn't guided him.  He'd damn near gotten two of his crew killed through sheer lack of caution.

"It's not the same, sir.  There's no one here with a grudge against us, and no reason to expect anything but a peaceful business transaction," Zoe said reasonably.

"Well, what we expect ain't exactly what generally happens, now is it?" he snapped.  "I just...don't like sendin' you in there, Zoe."

She sat down to face him.  "Then tell me not to go."  They stared at each other for a long moment.  "You order me off the job, and I'll stay right here.  Inara can look out for herself."

Mal was silent for a long time, staring at her and considering.  In some ways, it was tempting.  But the idea of letting Inara fend for herself, when she was helping the crew out on a job...it would just be one more sin to carry on his over-burdened soul.  Finally, he said, quietly, "Best get to bed.  Gotta get up early to put on your whorin' clothes."

A slow smile crossed Zoe's face.  "Yes, sir," she said, rising and moving towards the door.  "See you in the morning."

Inara looked up from the book she was pretending to read at the knock.  "Come in."

Zoe stepped in, dressed in the graceful dress Inara had loaned to her.  "Think we're about ready."

Inara looked up inquiringly.  "Are we?  Zoe, we haven't talked about this before...we've dealt with every single aspect of a companion's life except one..."

"And that's the one I don't intend on dealin' with," Zoe said firmly.  "Inara, that's your life, not mine."

"All I'm saying is that it could arise.  The women there, they'll be trained to note any kind of hesitation, any withdrawal.  If you're not completely committed to this, they'll spot it in a second."

Zoe pressed her lips together.  "I said my vows, and I do recall there was something in there about keeping to one man only.  I found that man, and there won't be any others."

"Zoe—"

"It ain't open for discussion.  Now come on—we're just waitin' for you to say your goodbyes."  Zoe stepped aside, gesturing for Inara to precede her.

Inara nodded finally.  Stepping out onto the catwalk, she found the entire crew waiting and smiled slightly.  "So I get a proper sendoff after all."

"'Course you do!"  Kaylee, always unrestrained in her affections, stepped forward to wrap her arms around Inara.  "Gonna miss you so much."

Inara embraced Kaylee tightly, then bestowed a sweet kiss on her cheek.  "You'll hear from me often.  It'll be all right, Kaylee, I promise."

Kaylee stepped back, wiping her cheeks, and River was facing Inara.  She looked at the companion with bright, curious eyes, then turned away slightly.  "Goodbye.  We liked you."  Her voice was thin and unhappy.

Inara caught her quickly, giving her the same hug she'd bestowed on Kaylee, and a kiss as well.  "You're growing up into a beautiful woman, River.  You make us all so proud of you."  Turning to Simon, she added, "You take such good care of her."

Simon kissed Inara's cheek formally, smiling faintly.  "Good luck."

"Hey, 'Nara, could you send us some captures from the trainin' house?  Nekkid pillow fights and such?" Jayne grinned, dodging the irate hand she raised to thwap him.

Wash stepped forward.  "Keep an eye on my wife, will you?"  He clasped Inara's hand rather self-consciously.

"Of course I will," Inara promised.

"And on yourself too," he smiled, then turned away.

And then there was only Mal left, and Inara stepped forward, trying to summon something to say.  "Mal, I—"

He turned away from her.  "Zoe, take her out.  You don't wanna miss your rendezvous with Quinn.  Then get yourself back quick as you can.  No sense in lingering."  His boots rang loudly on the grate beneath him as he walked away.

Her face a mask, hiding her emotions from the pitying gazes of all present, Inara turned and climbed into the shuttle.  Zoe gave Wash a quick kiss and a squeeze of the hand, then followed. 

Mal sat below, in the cargo bay, until he could hear the shuttle's burners firing.  

Continue to part three