Firefly

What were some of the Firefly stories you never got to tell?

He hemmed and hawed, “Should I tell you this?... Oh well, what’s he going to do, fire me?” The original show was darker and this story was more in keeping with that tone.

It opens with Mal and Inara fighting (as they do). Mal tells her she pretends to be a lady and wants everyone to bow before her and kiss her hand but she’s just a whore. Then the Reavers attack and take Inara. While trying to get her back they learn that she had something that would make anyone who had sex with her die. When they finally track down and board the ship they find all of the Reavers dead and Inara shaking and traumatized. They take her back to the ship and Zoe guards her room. Mal tries to get in to see her and Zoe tells him he’s the last person Inara needs to see. He pushes past her, kneels before Inara and kisses her hand.

Of course someone asked, “Is that what the syringe [that Inara gets out when the Reavers approach in the pilot episode] was for?” To which he replied, “I don’t know. Next question.”

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Inara has yet another fight with Mal, in which he says something especially cruel like "I’m not going to get on my knees and kiss your hand like your a lady. You’re a whore."

Inara has a sort of chemical weapon in case of rape, so whomever attacks will die immediately after raping her. (I’m not saying this all as eloquently, I’m pre-coffee).

She’s kidnapped by reavers in an attack. Mal and crew go in to the reaver ship to save her.

What they find is the entire crew of reavers, all dead, and Inara huddled on the floor, beaten half to death.

Later, in Inara’s shuttle, it’s only Zoe there, guarding her silently. Mal tried to come in, and Zoe opens a can of whup ass and tells Mal no fucking way is anyone coming in.

Mal gets past Zoe (yeah, right) and walks over to Inara’s bed where she’s curled up and post-traumatic. Gets on his knees, and kisses her hand.

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He described it as a weapon, not a disease that she carried. He later said in another forum that it had nothing to do with the syringe.

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Given the context, I don’t see how it could be anything but the same syringe, but there you have it.