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"Why?" he pressed. Morgan usually wasn't one to do so unless it was work. Mainly, he didn't like it being done to him. Yet there was no end if he didn't now with Inara. He had to know. And he wouldn't say exactly what he questioned... Why she shouldn't have the things she wanted, why she chose to pretend he was someone other than who he was, why she could look at him that way but insist she didn't hate him?

He lifted his hands and cupped her face between them. Inara would have to physically extract herself from him. "Why, Inara?" There was more she wasn't saying. It didn't matter if 'love' never left her lips. More was underneath the surface that needed to be said.

She stared up at him and would have done anything she could have to distract him if she knew it would work. But she knew that distracting Derek wasn't going to work this time. Now was the time for actual answers instead of running away and that terrified her. She'd opened this line of questioning and she knew that he had the right to know, it just saddened her to know that he might actually look at her differently.

One of her hands came up and her slender fingers wrapped around his wrist as tears began to form in her eyes. "Because all I can ever offer anyone is now, I can't offer them a future even if I wished to," she said her voice just above a whisper. She closed her eyes for a moment as a tear escaped. "Even if we survive the fight.." She trailed off and opened her eyes and stared at him sadly. "I changed my incentive you know. My first incentive, it was for me but with what happened, I asked them to save someone else instead when they approached me the second time."

His hands remained steady but gentle. Her soft skin didn't need his rough palms pressing against her jawline. She couldn't look away. He wouldn't look away. A thumb reached swept away the tear that fell. Sympathy fell on his features but he held back any words. Derek hadn't asked for something specifically for himself as an incentive. He wanted to repair the damage his team had suffered. However, it sounded as if hers was life threatening.

"Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone. Eudio or not. What was your first incentive?" Derek asked with pleading eyes. She had reasons not to trust him, regardless of his intentions but he hoped Inara would try.

She didn't want him looking at her differently or even treating her differently but she knew he was smart enough to have pieced together what she was saying. The damage was already done and if he was going to do those things, there was little she could do to stop them.

"I--" she sighed and then drew in a deep breath. "I asked them to heal me. I'm sick, Derek... And the doctors in my world with all their advanced medicine, they can't do anything for me." And even knowing that, she still hadn't slept with anyone other than Derek to speed up her incentive. "But when I was sent home and Wash died... I knew that I couldn't ask for anything for myself when he meant so much to his wife."

His hands fell away from her face to allow Inara some room. Derek couldn't stand any notion of an innocent person feeling coerced. His hands fell to the outsides of her elbows in a supportive gesture, holding her as lightly as he had her face in case she did want to distance herself from him. "He had to mean a lot to you too. Or she does. Both. They're like family. I get it," he uttered supportively.

"We have more in common than you probably realize. And there's no one to blame for that but me." He lifted a hand to run his thumb over her cheek affectionately one last time then let go of Inara completely. "My incentive is to help the people I work with who I've grown to consider like family. They've each lost a lot more than the job was ever entitled to taking. So I understand. And I'm proud of you." Derek offered his first genuine smile to her in days.

He had spent a couple of weeks working on a Christmas gift for Inara but knew in that moment it wouldn't be enough. Neither would Derek tell her what he was planning on doing. If there was any use to the law degree he obtained from Northwestern, it would be that he could argue a case fairly well. The city would approach her and offer her healing as an oversight on their end for having accidentally sent her home before her time.

Eudio would have a nightmare on their hands if the administration dared to deny him his request. That much, he was certain.

"The crew, they're the only family I have left back home." Even if they survived, Inara wouldn't have anything left to go back to. She wouldn't be able to go back to being a Companion, not even at the training house. The Alliance would make sure her career was completely over. There was her father but he wouldn't let her stay with him, he wouldn't understand how she'd been part of something that undermined the Alliance. Serenity was truly all she had.

She managed a small smile. "Zoe would disagree with you. If she knew what I was doing, she'd tell me I was stupid for not taking care of myself first." But she'd also be thankful, Inara knew that. Zoe and Wash had something that Inara would never have and she was okay with that... They deserved to be happy and have a long life together and if Inara could help make sure that happened than she was more than happy to do it.

"Derek, I didn't tell you any of this to make you feel sorry for me. I don't want that. I just want you to understand..." And even then, she wasn't entirely sure she'd explained herself properly. She'd let him in farther than she'd ever let anyone and now he knew more about her than anyone did, even back home. "Please don't tell anyone, I don't want to be treated differently."

"Can't say I blame Zoe but it still doesn't mean I don't understand and respect your decision." If he only knew how Inara limited herself. That was something he would probably scold her about. The sky was the limit as far as he was concerned, especially if she gave up the companion business. --Something she had seemed to already do with him in Eudio. A part of him worried that maybe he ruined her somehow and she'd consider going back to it.

Had it been her illness which gave her pause with him or feelings of something more toward him? Inara asked him not to feel sorry for her or speak of her illness with anyone. She really didn't know him. Derek didn't get angry with Inara for what she asked. He could only be mad at himself. Maybe he hadn't tried being someone that he wasn't, but he hid who he really was from her and most of Eudio. "I get it. Your secret is safe with me."

He gave her a friendly smile then randomly dusted his hands off the side of his jeans. "So that cabinet. I took off the entire back. It was rotted with water damage. That's why I need to check the plumbing. Figured you'll be fine with an open back since it's against the wall." If she didn't want to be treated differently, he'd get right back to business so Inara could see he meant what he said. He'd soon call it a day and get down to the admin building.

Derek Morgan had some bargaining to do.

She truly hadn't been worried that he'd go around telling the whole of the city, it had just been a question that had slipped from her lips. Despite everything that had happened, she obviously trusted him enough to share her secret with. That should have told him a lot but maybe it didn't since he didn't know that no one back home knew about her illness outside of her doctors. She wasn't going to tell him that though, she didn't want him to feel pressured because of that knowledge.

Her smile faded only slightly when he flashed her the friendly smile. He was giving her what she'd verbally asked for and she was going to have to be fine with that. It was what she'd asked for even if it wasn't what she'd really wanted. But she nodded her head and flashed him a smile back, "I'm fine with whatever you think will work out best. Carpentry and plumbing have never been a strong suit of mine so I trust what you think should be done."

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment and then nodded her head before beginning to move around him to get back to her papers. "Derek, I--" she hesitated beside him, her gaze moving back to him. There were so many ways she could have continued with that sentence. I miss you, I was stupid, I'm sorry... But she had said enough truths that day so she chose to stick with something much more simple. "Thank you."

His eyes watched her tentatively, hopeful for a fleeting moment that Inara would have the conversation she should've tried days ago, only to be let down. Poker face immediately in place at her word of thanks. Derek kept a congenial gaze. "Don't mention it," he replied with a nod and a small but friendly smile. "This is what I do." He quickly averted his gaze and moved back to his toolbox.

"Need some other tools for the plumbing and I've gotta be somewhere by four. If you need me to get to the plumbing sooner than later, I'll come back when I'm done. Just let me know," he explained while packing up and redressing in his sweatshirt. His words were even but didn't lack at least a little warmth this time. Inara didn't have his pity but did have his sympathy. He'd been wrong to allow his anger to rise. She was just taking care of herself.

She had always been honest with him. Good to him. It was hard for Derek to understand how she spent a career being a high end escort but kept herself exclusive to him in Eudio. He was grateful to the city that they could have the time together that they had with no worry of anything communicable (and that included pregnancy). The city did its best to keep things uncomplicated. How did he manage to find himself in something quite the opposite?

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