"Inara knows. She's going to kill me later, but she knows. So does Bernard, just so's you're aware," Mal counters. "And I came because of my overdeveloped chivalry and general niceness, say xiexie."

To Elizabeth: "Will was the first person I set to find -- I don't know what happened. But he can't not show up."

Mal doesn't think the bar'd let him disappear like that completely.