Mal: I thought he made it pretty clear he has no regard for you.

Inara: You did manage to push him into saying something, yes. Made a nice justification for the punch.

Mal: Well, he insulted you. I hit him. Seemed like the thing to do. Why’d this get so complicated?

Inara: Well, it’s about to get simpler. There’s a back door. Desk clerk is on alert. He’ll let us out.

Mal: Whoa, whoa, I’m not running off. I don’t know what you got in your head, but I didn’t do this to prove some kind of point to you. I thought I was defending your honor. And I never back down from a fight.

Inara: Yes, you do! You do all the time!

Mal: Well, yeah… but, I’m not backing down from this one.

Firefly — Episode 4 — “Shindig”