Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself and my ideas.
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It is never gonna happen again, Jayne thought desperately. The big man sitting at the kitchen table curled around a bottle of Kaylee's engine-wrought moonshine. There was a glass next to the elbow that propped up his body, it was untouched and full.
He stared sightlessly across the room into the shadows.
Mal, Kaylee, Wash, and Zoe watched him with wide eyes. They had never seen the merc so stressed that he couldn't, or wouldn't, drink away his sorrows. They weren't so comfortable themselves.
Mal had leaned up against the other end of the table, resting up from another block of pacing around the room, just in time; Zoe had been about to order him to stop and sit down because he was driving her crazy. The woman soldier and her pilot husband sat next to each other by the door so that they could listen for a call from the infirmary.
Their linked hands were tight with their worry.
Kaylee, true to her nature, was trying to comfort Jayne.
"No need to worry. Simon's the shiniest doc in the 'verse, we all know that, what with him patching up the captain as many times as he's gotten himself shot." Kaylee said consolingly, her hand barely resting on Jayne's shoulder.
While that got an indignant "Hey!" from the other end of the table, it didn't get any reaction from the man it was meant to affect.
"Kaylee's right," Wash said, more to fill up the silence than to comfort Jayne. In his opinion it was the man's own fault what was happening downstairs; it was right that he got to stew here when Simon had ordered everyone but Book and Inara out of the infirmary while they worked on River.
For hours the doctor had battled to help his mei mei, trying in vain to stave off some of the pain; eventually he couldn't bear the faces outside the window, most especially Jayne's, for he had been the man who had caused this catastrophe.
Jayne had looked like he wanted to rip Simon's face off with his bare hands, his blue eyes hard and coldly glittering. He had filled up the room with a force of thwarted power, ready to tear something apart, but he had backed down for some reason, and had turned to stalk angrily out the door. When the others had finally tracked him to the kitchen they had found him exactly as he was now: immobile and staring, a glass of liquid strong enough to degrease Serenity's engine at his elbow.
There didn't seem to be anything else to do but wait. So Mal paced, paused to think broodingly and glance at Jayne with his hand toying with the butt end of his gun, then pace again. Zoe and Wash sat together, not saying anything most of the time. Laylee tried to reassure everyone.
And Jayne sat quietly, not moving, and not drinking.
Soon even Kaylee fell silent.
So they waited, with nothing but the tension and their own thoughts to keep them company. They waited for word from Simon.
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It took another seven hours before they had word. Kaylee had fallen asleep in the corner, and Wash was not far behind, drooped on his wife's shoulder.
Mal had been told to sit down a total of four times and he had complied, only to get back up again and pace.
Inara had come in the doorway, gentle and serene. She had volunteered to go and fetch them for Simon, knowing full well the tension that so many hours of fearful waiting could do to a person.
Zoe noticed her first, followed quickly by Mal, who couldn't help but notice her whenever she was near. His face filled with worry for his Albatross, Mal sprang from his half-lounge against the table, causing it to shake and spill the liquor from Jayne's glass onto its scarred surface.
The mercenary looked up, his face unreadable in the dimmed light.
"Its time," Inara said, trying to reassure with her voice and body language. The others seemed to relax minutely, Kaylee and Wash were now awake and focused intently on the Companion.
Jane, it seemed, was having none of it and remained as taught as steel cable.
Jayne rose from the table without a whisper of sound to betray his motion. He moved with the latent grace of a predator, a man who was accustomed to fighting the whole 'verse just to survive in it, and she walked past everyone, even Inara, and walked out the door. His intent was obvious, he was going to the infirmary and River.
The others waited a little, to let Simon and Jayne have their say.
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Jayne paused at the infirmary door, uncertain. He felt unsure in that moment, fearful even…but Jayne Cobb was no man to back down from something he was afraid of, exceptin' Reavers naturally.
Book noticed him standing there before Simon did. He approached the big man with solemn eyes and gently patted him on the shoulder before walking past him and out to find the others, leaving Jayne alone to face Simon.
Simon stood inside, his face cool. There was a bit of heat in his eyes though, anger at the man who stood before him. He hadn't changed from the soiled doctor's smock that he had been wearing for all these terrible hours, and blood spattered the slick material in crimson splotches.
Jayne paled at the sight of them.
He could not see River, though, the patient's bed was in the center of the room, behind Siomon. Jayne had never thought the shorter man could fill up a room so much so that he couldn't see past him. He would have been impressed if he wasn't completely queasy in the pit of his stomach.
"Doc?"
"Why did you never tell me?" the dark-haired doctor accused, his voice hard as granite.
"What?" Jayne croaked, his heart beating fast and erratic, his breath constricted in his chest.
Simon turned slightly, revealing River laying pale and limp on the bed, asleep. Two blanketed bundles were tucked in on each side of her.
"Why did you never tell me that your family was pre-disposed towards twin births?"