Mal with a gift for Inara.

[badinlatin]

He had wanted to do this in a different way. Any other way. Doing it like this made him feel like a coward.

Maybe that's what he is. At least with Inara.

Mal reaches the hatch to Inara's shuttle, reaches up to knock...and lets his arm fall again.

Leaving just a plain white box and a

"Inara--I don't need this anymore. Keep it for me. It's time my two idols were in one place."

In the box lays Mal's cross, and another piece of paper underneath.

"I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe. But who shall describe for us their families? and their ranks and relationships and distinguishing features and functions? What they do? where they live? The human mind has always circled around a knowledge of these things, never attaining it. I do not doubt, however, that it is sometimes beneficial to contemplate, in thought, as in a Picture, the image of a greater and better world; lest the intellect, habituated to the trivia of daily life, may contract itself too much, and wholly sink into trifles. But at the same time we must be vigilant for truth, and maintain proportion, that we may distinguish certain from uncertain, day from night."*

[ooc: quote is from the introduction to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.]
in the shape of an flower on top.