"You comin' moonbrain?" Jayne's growl resonated on her eardrums.
"Always." River stepped down from the crates, feeling her dress whisp around her calves and the soft rasp of the leather on wood as her shoes dragged slightly on the crates.
"Good." The man stepped into the mule and River scrambled in after him.
She took the helm-she always took the helm now. Jayne was no match and there weren't no-one else.
Didn't even have Serenity no more. Had a smaller vessel, one easier to handle between two people. It had been a gorram heartbreak, saying goodbye to Serenity.
He remembered when they'd become what had to be the oddest gorram pairing of criminals ever. A moonbrained genius and a dumb used-up merc.
It'd been five months since that day. When they'd lost everything but their lives and serenity. And then they had voluntarily given up Serenity.
River called it orphanage day and Jayne had come to appreciate the term. He'd been 'River-sitting' as everyone called it on one of her moonbrain days while everyone else went out to get supplies. At some point, River's eyes had snapped into clarity and she had taken off running for the cockpit.
She'd gotten Serenity off the ground about half way through the atmo before 'it' had happened. Alliance missiles had scorched past Serenity, River just barely missing them and had gone tunnelling into the city they had been in on Jiangyin. The whole thing was aflame and pitted in crater holes.
Somehow, an alliance ship had gotten past The Guard. River had kept them in close orbit for almost half a day until she said the alliance ship had been 'silenced.'
When they'd finally touched down, they hadn't found more than a handful of people still alive. Most of those, Jayne'd had to put out of their misery. They hadn't never found their crew. After two days of combing the city and avoiding blackened skeletons, afraid they'd confirm the worst, they'd found what supplies they could and took off.
The two of them had stared at each other and grieved in silence. It'd been the second day on persephone when Jayne had packed all his stuff, prepared to take River to his Ma's place on Beaumonde, so she'd be safe. Simon woulda 'preciated that. Not that he liked the kid, but he was crew an' all..
In any case, River had met him in the galley, told him his plan wouldn't work and that they would become a-what was it?-sufficient criminal team so long as they had a smaller vessel to transport themselves in.
It'd taken a bit o' time, but she'd managed to convince him. And they had been profitable, as soon as they'd traded ships for something they could handle. A Talon-class they'd called Kaywinnet. It could run without someone in the engine room while it was being piloted. As Jayne had no skills in ship maintenance, this was perfect for them.
Their old contacts and many new ones had come calling-because they'd heard what happened on Jiangyin and all had wanted to see the two sole survivors. They'd done their jobs well enough to convince the contacts to give them others.
Today they were going on a job for a man named Dado on Celeste. He needed a certain bank safe box emptied and payment would come from whatever else they could find.
They'd worked with the man before and he was about as trustworthy as their contacts got. Most of his jobs went well, s'long as River planned them.
They came to a halt at the back of the bank. This would be a stealth mission-one of distraction.
Jayne, however odd it would've seemed to Mal 'n Zoe, was the one charged with the distractin.' River strapped her gun to her thigh and her breakin' an' enterin' tool belt to her waist. She made a sightly picture. He hid Maria in the small of his back and Ariana, his knife, up his sleeve.
Weren't no way he could go in unarmed and River'd made allowances for it. She always did. He stepped in the front door, immediately drawing attention to himself like he always did. Only now, dressed in a 'borrowed' suit 'n tie he looked dandified and flush with credits 'n cashy-money.
"Can I help you sir?" Greedy little suck-up of a man appeared at his side.
"Yeah, my wife and I are establishing a trade route on this hunk of rock and we'd like to have some cash and jewels available to us when we visit." He'd practiced sounding re-spectable enough at this point that the accent was acceptable.
"Well, I'm so glad you came in here. Our security is top notch, newest of the new from RAT." Jayne's back tingled. That weren't good. Specs had an older outdated system in place. He pressed the little button on his belt for just such emergencies, alerting River to something wrong with their plan, fall back on to Plan B.
"Tell me more."
"Well, of course," The little man smiled at him. "Won't you have a seat?" Jayne folded himself into the uncomfortable wooden chair and watched the man closely as he expounded upon the features of their deposit boxes and their accounts.
It was only moments until River walked in. But it weren't a River he'd seen ever before. Her hair was twisted up and she was dressed in fancified core clothes. Made her look like a legit-imate business man's wife.
"Rose," he stood, barely remembering in time to use the fake name she'd come up with for their plan b's. "This is Mr…" he paused realizing he'd never gotten the man's name.
"I'm Mr Allen," the little man seemed breathless like one of those little mutts so eager to please.
"Hello Mr Allen. Sorry I'm late, dear. The hair stylist was dragging on forever."
"River, this nice man was telling me all about how safe and secure this place is. They've gotten the newest security, supposedly impenetrable. Isn't that just great?" Jayne pasted a huge smile on his face and River kissed his cheek, causing him to blink briefly in shock. They almost never touched each other unless they had to.
"Oh, that's just grand, dear. I wouldn't feel safe leaving my baubles here if it weren't, would you, Mr Allen?" River smiled politely at the man.
"Of, of course not. Which is exactly why we've upgraded to RAT's best system."
"Still…" River trailed off and Jayne thanked the lord he didn't apepar to have to say anything. She seemed to have a plan an' all he had to do was keep quiet and follow a-long.
"If we could just see the safe deposit boxes and the security, I'd feel ever so much better." River looked coy now.
"Well," The man drew the word out to no end. Annoying. "It's not exactly kosher, but I guess I could make an exception for such a lovely young couple. Come with me." He stood, taking some electronic 'keys' from an enclosed office & walked off towards the back of the bank, where there was a doorway separating employee quarters and the vault from the front half. It took but a few moments to reach the vault. It was a giant steel thing, a throwback to Earth-that-was. Unfortunately for them, it had been updated with all the newest technology.
Retina scanning, fingerpad and comp access key; not to mention the old school tumbler locks.
"As you can see, no one can break in." The little man was so proud of the fact. Jayne rolled his eyes once he was sure the man wouldn't see.
"We'd love to take a look inside. If you don't mind," River smiled sweetly at the man and Jayne found it prudent to step in at this point.
"We'll make it worth your while, I guarantee that. The little lady just likes to see exactly where her baubles will be. I told her many a time that they'll be plenty safe. You know how it is, I'm sure…" Jayne exchanged a 'knowing' smile with the man and held out his hand to shake, a small bill 'hidden' and exchanged in the shake. No matter, he'd just take it back later.
"Of course, just one moment?" It barely took the man two minutes to open the gorram thing. He led them into the darkly lit room and showed them over to the lock boxes which had cursory locks on them.
Jayne stepped back, pretendin' to allow River to have a look. He caught River's eye and at her nod, hit the man in the head, hard enough for him to lose consciousness.
The little man crumpled to the floor and already, River was opening the box they'd come for, gesturing to Jayne to take several stacks of the cashy-money and hide them in his waist belt. He dumped more into the girl's purse.
When River had finished putting the box back and making look less like a robbery for reasons he couldn't unnerstand, she finally spoke.
"Carry me out. We'll tell them the man got sick and passed out. We didn't know what to do." River was still completely lucid sounding and Jayne dreaded when they got into space with a set trajectory. She'd likely revert for a little while under all the strain. Not usually the most comfortable time on the boat. He picked her up, keping her small, frail-seeming body close to his chest.
Once they reached an area where others could see them, he burst out running-well jogging-an' entered the main area. He found the closest bank adviser and let River do the acting.
"Please sir, our banker, he passed out in the vault. It made me feel weak, I couldn't stay. Please let him know we appreciate his help" She called this last part after him since Jayne'd already started heading for the door. As soon as they cleared the bank, he let River down so they could climb into their mule and made for their ship.