AN: I don't own the show Firefly and ignore the movie Serenity (because I don't want Wash dead ;_;)

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Lost and Found

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Mal held down the urge to wince as another stitch was made, the string tightening his torn skin together.

"Could you maybe do it a little gentler?" the captain asked up to Simon, whose eyes flicked up from his work on Mal's upper arm to his face for a second before realigning with the injury.

"If you could stop getting shot, stabbed or cut you wouldn't have to do this at all," he said in dry humor as he continued.

Groaning out at his obvious logic, Mal decided to keep his mouth shut. Feeling the painful prick in his skin again, he held down now a hiss and deemed he needed something to get his mind off of his mending. This proved to be an easy feat as he was distracted with curiosity at the first thing that was in his line of vision. It was Simon's chest, or, more specifically, the vest he was wearing today.

Cocking an eyebrow up, Mal asked the young doctor, "Why are you missing three buttons?"

This caused Simon to stop his meticulous sewing for a moment as his body stiffened before he relaxed and continued on and in both work and then speech. "They must have fallen off somewhere," he said loftily.

Before Mal could even begin to ask what he meant with such an overly vague explanation, Kaylee skipped into the room with one of her hands clenched at her side.

Her lips moved to bubble out, "Hello there Capt'n! How're you feelin?" as she waved with her free hand.

"After I was just shot? Never been better!" he said with clear facetiousness and an over-the-top grin.

"Alright, you're all set," Simon informed as he gave the final tie. "You're free to go."

Mal did just that as he rolled down the sleeve of his shirt and stood to go out, not forgetting to ruffle Kaylee's hair as he passed her at the doorframe. He was halfway down the hall when he realized he'd forgotten his still symbolic brown jacket. Arriving back at the small medical room, he had enough sense to stop and not open the door as he saw Kaylee lift her clenched hand and flip it over, moving her fingers to reveal two buttons.

Through the thin walls Mal heard Simon say, "I'm missing three."

"Yeah, well, I could only find two. And considerin' we were in the engine room, I'm surprised that I could find even these two."

"And considering that you were the one who got impatient and tore off my vest with such vigor in the first place, causing the buttons to get lost..." Simon's voice floated away as Mal had heard enough and had decided to stagger away.

When he reached the bridge, Wash turned to him and asked with concern, "Are you sick? Your face is a little green."

The response Mal gave was a deep scowl.

"You should go to the infirmary," the self-declared funny man said as he turned back to his navigations.

This caused Mal to now groan and slump against the nearest wall.